There often seems no rhyme or reason as to who gets a mortgage “bailout“ these days and who doesn’t. But I read this story and someone had to help me off the floor.
It’s wonderful that this homeowner got relief, but how do you rationalize this level of help against the people that get zilch? Hint: The bank wrote down $405,000 on a balance of $490,000. What a bailout! Sure, the guy was retired and he had an “exotic” mortgage. But when it comes to someone’s home, such details should not be a primary factor in whether the borrower gets assistance. And once this type of help is offered, what type of precedent does it set for ALL the other people like Mr. Garcia – who have loans with Bank of America? All is completely unfair in mortgage bailouts.
Read the Wall Street Journal story here.
Tip for borrowers: Note in the article, it says Bank of America gave in after being contacted by a Legal Hotline group. There are many situations where lenders agreed to assist after a “bonafied” third party intervened. Put that in your back pocket. If you’re reading this and it doesn’t impact you, pass the info on to someone who does need help.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
that is wild. lucky, lucky guy. unfair that some get a platinum deal while others get foreclosed
Yeah go figure. This pisses me off. My retired parents lost their home. Life always was & always will be unfair. The powers that be in America, especially the banks could care less about fair.
omg
Sure looks like Garcia hit the jackpot. He goes from $2600 payment to zero payment. I have to add here that as a former mortgage person, it is no more difficult for an elderly person to misunderstand exotic mortgages as it is for a 30 year old. People working in the business and marketing the product didn’t understand it. So why would laypeople understand? Once banks start giving $400,000 free passes just because of age, it can (and should) open up a can of worms. Every borrower at Bank of Amer should start beating down the doors with a copy of the WSJ article in their hands. It is almost obscene to stretch this far for one man & then shut out so many other people.
Bad move for Bank of Amer unless every similar person gets this kind of pass. Can’t wait to see what kind of bad PR this gets.
Yeah, that’s crazy. What’s just as irrational is the Obama and his team claim they want people to save their homes yet they have made no modification to the rules allowing people to use money in their 401k without penalty or payback to save their properties. I’m thinking most people would prefer to keep a roof over their heads rather than a chunk of money sitting somewhere for a possible future. When people opted to place money in retirement plans, they were not losing their homes when they made the decision.
Instead of toying around with all those programs, why not let people use their own money to save their homes? Obama spoke about it once as part of his stimulus and then all talk vanished. I can surmise that the money grabbers on Wall Street and the lobbyists threatened Obama’s life if he allowed people to grab money from these plans.
Obama is just a smarter, gentler Bush. He’s firmly on the side of the rich. It’s all a joke.