Foreclosed: "You Wanted To Cry"

By: Armen Keteyian
Topics: Field Notes

(CBS)

Armen Keteyian is the chief investigative correspondent for CBS News.

They could have been your brother or sister, aunt or uncle. Instead they saw themselves as victims. Ordinary folks who found themselves under extraordinary financial pressure, so desperate they made their way to the Metropolitan Money Store (MMS) in Maryland. Only to be scammed, they said, by the very people who promised to help.

In a suburban Maryland hotel I sat around a banquet table with Karen, David, George, Angel and Maureen and listened to their tales of financial woe. How in their time of need they turned to a fellow African-American from the community, Joy Jackson, and the people at the MMS to solve their credit problems and save their homes from foreclosure, only to see Jackson, they charge, steal their homes and bury them deeper into debt.

You wanted to cry. Some did. I wondered how Jackson could sleep at night knowing full well the number of lives she had ruined. I was looking at five.

Unfortunately, they're hardly alone. Foreclosure rates are hitting record highs and right along with them so are hundreds of scams perpetrated by con artists masquerading as mortgage brokers or financial consultants offering "foreclosure rescue."

More often than not these days there's no rescue here, folks, only the opportunity for some unscrupulous operators to strip the equity out of your house and leave you crying by the side of the road. So a word to the wise: if you find yourself in desperate straits, in danger of losing your home, don't compound your problems by buying into these scams. Experts says the best advice is to call your lender and try to negotiate a payment schedule you can afford, or seek out the consultation of a reputable financial advisor or lawyer.

Joy Jackson made a living, a real good living singing a "don't worry, we're here to help you, trust us, we'll take care of it" tune. Now the Metropolitan Money Store is out of business, the company is under investigation by the state, and is the subject of a huge class action lawsuit charging "the single largest mortgage scam in Maryland history."

Jackson and her husband Kurt Fordham, also implicated in the scheme, are nowhere to be found. What's left are everyday people like Karen, David, George, Angel and Maureen, brothers and sisters who trusted far too much, and so far have received nothing but heartache in return.

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by bennyblack1 July 14, 2007 11:18 PM EDT: Feel Free;
Hey, now that's an idea. Let's all go Amish! Let's create a community in which everyone is expected help everyone else. Let's build each other's houses, grow our own food, sell our own crops, jellies, and fuel, feed ourselves, and use cash money to pay for anything else that is needed. It's better than Paul stealing from Peter, who stole from Mary, who borrowed it from Joe!; Reply to this comment


by bennyblack1 July 14, 2007 11:14 PM EDT: Simply put, self-discipline and control is a far better solution. Being proactive rather than reactive is a better alternative. Living well within your means instead of selling your soul to the creditors is worth more than getting a loan at 5 1/2 % interest. Then you become a slave to the creditors. Then when you go to your creditors for a job, they won't give you one. So, keep your money straight to begin with, and you won't have to worry about it.; Reply to this comment


by bennyblack1 July 14, 2007 11:10 PM EDT: Well, again, I believe that buying the back payments with the equity to help someone is a good business practice. I do believe, however, that there are shady operators who will not do with the money they collect while the owner is still living in the home. In other words, they don't make the payments as promised. These people SHOULD be put out of business. But, in most cases, when people have been helped in saving their homes and their credit, the people did not change their spending habits. They didn't have their priorities straight. I say this because I'm STILL trying to get my financial priorities straight, and I owned up to the fact that I didn't always do the right thing with the money. I was forced into bankruptcy 4 years ago. I realized after that bankruptcy (it took 2 1/2 years) that I was living far above my ability to pay for it. Since then, I have been cutting this, cutting that, ignoring this want and that need I could do without. I'm better, but I had to do it. No one could do it for me. I'm still kind of screwed up, but I'm making progress.; Reply to this comment


by mike_dillon1 July 14, 2007 1:38 PM EDT: It's bad enough when individuals running foreclosure rescue scams destroy lives. Imagine a mortgage servicer fraudulently creating defaults against homeowners by holding monthly payments, made on time, until they are past due and forcing the homeowner into foreclosure.

I%u2019ve been fighting an illegal foreclosure on my home for six years. And I'm not alone.
I am one of 280,000+ victims of Fairbanks Capital Corp n/k/a Select Portfolio Servicing Inc. certified by the Federal Trade Commission in USA/Curry v. Fairbanks.

This nightmare goes right to the heart of Wall St. This happens because of the wording of Pooling & Servicing Agreements between the mortgage servicers and the trusts into which loans are securitized. Servicers are allowed to keep various fees - assumption fees, modification fees, forbearance fees, LATE PAYMENTS - as "additional servicing compensation". That removes any incentive for a servicer to keep a homeowner current in their loan. To do so cuts the servicer%u2019s profit margin disastrously.

This can happen to literally anyone with a mortgage. Homeowners have zero control as to who services their loans. Servicing rights are sold as separate commodities. A homeowner refinancing to escape a servicer can end right back with the same servicer or one equally as abusive as the one they attempted to escape.

Visit my site for more info on my situation. After all, all you have to lose - is your home.

Mike Dillon
Manchester, NH
www.getdshirtz.com; Reply to this comment


by r-morris1981 July 14, 2007 12:25 AM EDT: For links to other stories of foreclosure rescue around the country, go to The Home equity theft Reporter, at

http://HomeEquityTheft.blogspot.com

and click link for Foreclosure Rescue Posts; Reply to this comment


by babygal1976 July 13, 2007 11:11 PM EDT: My mother was also a victim of one of these scams in Michigan. She started off with two homes and now she is homeless. There has to be something that can be done so that these swindlers cannot keep profiting off someone else's misfortune and grief. To take advantage of someone who is down on their luck and out of options is just terrible. Every state should have a law against this and no matter how long it take I will get justice for my mother.; Reply to this comment


by feelfree1 July 13, 2007 10:06 PM EDT: The housing situation is far more grave than we are being led to believe, and it is poised to get mch, much worse.

Related-

July 12 (Bloomberg) %u2014 Mortgage foreclosures in the U.S. jumped to a record in the first half as rising interest rates and falling home prices battered homeowners.

Almost 926,000 foreclosure notices were filed, 56 percent more than a year earlier and the most since Irvine, California- based RealtyTrac started tracking the data in 2005. Foreclosures were the highest last month in California and Florida, where some home prices have fallen as much as 25 percent, and Ohio and Michigan, where the automotive industry fired more than 50,000 people in the past 10 years.

The jump in 30-year mortgage rates by more than a half a percentage point since May is putting a crimp on borrowers with the best credit just as a crackdown in subprime lending standards limits the pool of qualified buyers. Foreclosures also are increasing as the supply of unsold homes hit a record 4.43 million in May, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Worsening Slump

Homeowners are losing their property as the National Association of Realtors is forecasting the housing slump will persist into next year as builders curtail production. The group yesterday reduced its sales forecast for the seventh consecutive month and said existing home sales will fall 5.6 percent.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afjq9WCz.Zy8&refer=home; Reply to this comment