Hope Now Alliance – Mortgage Industry Spin Machine
The Hope Now Alliance, pushed down our throats as saviors to foreclosure victims by President Bush, is nothing more than a mortgage industry propagandist making sure we all know the big mortgage players are not at fault and doing all they can to help.
Hope Now Industry Partners
Hope Now numbers of foreclosure victims helped are consistently overstated or hide otherwise less than optimum results for mortgage borrowers, but I’ll get to the way they spin the story below. Before delving into that, let’s take a look at the Hope Now Alliance members since it was these folks who set the guidelines to help troubled borrowers in the first place.
They are some of the biggest mortgage originators and servicer in the country. Companies like Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup, Inc., Countrywide Financial Corporation, EMC Mortgage Corporation, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GMAC ResCap, First Franklin Loan Services, HomEq Servicing, HSBC Finance, Indymac Bank, LoanCare Servicing Center, Litton Loan Servicing, MERS, Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC., Option One Mortgage Corporation, Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc., Washington Mutual, Inc., Wells Fargo & Company.
They tossed in a few government paid loan counselors to get some “store bought” credibility to the idea they are “here to help”.
Having these companies set the guidelines for loan modifications is like hiring Roman Polanski to babysit your 14 year old daughter.
Come on…people, we’ve got the fox watching the hen house hear, so was it any surprise when President Bush promoted Hope Now to the public making outrageous claims about how much they could do. All of which turned out to be false, by the way. You can read my post called, “Bush Caught Lying About Rate Freeze” I wrote back in January when Hope Now was just getting their propaganda machine rolling.
Hope Now Spins The Numbers
Every time the Hope Now Alliance issues a press release touting the numbers of “foreclosures avoided” the mainstream media eats it up without question. They did it again today publishing a new release titled, “Over 2 Million Foreclosures Prevented In Past Year By Hope Now Alliance Members”….hogwash!
The press release states,
“In July 2008, HOPE NOW mortgage servicers helped homeowners avoid foreclosure by completing more than 192,000 mortgage workouts. Workouts include both modifications to the terms of existing mortgages and repayment plans. All workouts are intended to be permanent changes that, barring a life event such as a job loss, death, or illness, will enable the homeowner to stay in the home as long as he or she wishes to do so.”
Hope Now has zero transparency in their reporting of these numbers and lumping in loan modification and repayment plans like they are the same thing is a clear case for propaganda not reporting.
A repayment plan is simply a way to pay the bank everything it was owed under the terms of the original mortgage. Repayment plans are temporary fixes that are likely to go bad again. If they could not afford the loan before a repayment plan it is unlikely they will after. This is not a permanent solution no matter how many times Hope Now Alliance wants to repeat it. It is a collection mechanism, not foreclosure prevention.
A modification is a permanent material change in the terms of the original mortgage….like the rate freeze Bush lied about when announcing the Hope Now program back in January. Hope Now lumps repayment plans and modifications together to muddy the water and make their “helping”, which is really just another collection method, look more altruistic.
According to the Originatortimes.com reported last month,
“HOPE NOW servicers have been at this for a year now. Clearly they have failed. Delinquencies and foreclosures keep going up, and tens of thousands of loans “fixed” voluntarily by industry have already gone bad again. A survey of mortgage servicers by the California Department of Corporations, also released today, shows foreclosures continue to outpace modifications in that state. And a report released last month by a major federal banking regulator, the Comptroller of the Currency, provides more evidence that the nation’s lenders are unable to keep up with, let alone get ahead of, mortgages delinquencies.”
I thought you should know the truth about Hope Now Alliance and their spin machine.
Good Luck!
Author: The Mortgage Insider
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Tagged with: Banking Regulator • Foreclosure Victims • Hope Now • Mortgage Industry • Mortgage Servicers • Mortgage Servicing
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Just got off the phone with HOPE and felt more “doomed” than anything else. The “counselor” basically said that I had a great rate (6.625), and that I didn’t make enough money by myself to carry the loan…..DUH! Then I decided to GOOGLE them to see how others recieved them. I feel so much better now. But still need assistance. Oh, my counselor also gave me some good news “Since you live in GA, it can take 6 months before they can start forclosure”???? YEH, THANKS HOPE! I am going to try talking with the bank (Suntrust) directly. Got nothing but hope;)
Please keep posting any tips. At this point I need all the help I can get.
We are in a loan modification with EMC and are still almost three months behind on payment due to both of us losing our jobs within weeks of each other. will this stimulas be able to help us? we are told from EMC that they cannot revise a modification until after an entire year has passed. i thought the stimulas plan was for people in such situations.
I went through hell with Hope Now and it didn’t change anything for me. They just put my payments at the end of my loan although the late fees were forgiven. I approached an attorney about this and he referred me to another attorney that specialized in this and he was able to get a lower rate for me. My hours were cut back and we got behind in a hurry. I went from 6.75 down to 3% for 3 years and took me from a $1620 payment down to just over $1000, my property is still upside down but the payment is manageable and hopefully I can find some extra work in the future. That extra $600 a month is making all the difference in the world right now. I paid $1950 for that and it saved my home and protected my credit from further demolition. I borrowed the $1950 from my folks and can pay them back when I catch up.
I would say find a good attorney that knows what they are doing and see if they provide a return policy as well.
Is there “hope Now.” Example: Mortgage is $112,000; income at origination = $3,250 mo Disability Comp only; CC debt at origination = $325 per mo; required other debt = $525 per mo (mobile home space… can’t rent under age 55…mhome to old to place in any other park). Home MTG is other side of country. Age of MTG is 8 payments. Credit debt is up 300%, savings is down… after bill payment for necessaries = $250 for food, car ins, personal supplies, clothing, gasoline…etc. Permanently disabled due to head trauma & Skeletal injuries. Bankrate.com calculator indicates can afford a home from $19k to $50k … This is a VA Home Loan granted by Bank of America. Est time to forclosure and bankruptcy = mid 2010.
My house has flipped in value–$418k on mortgage-and the value is now low $300s; I have never been late, but lost my job to downsizing; I am now making 50% of previous salary- I have no debt but my house. I have been using 401k to make some of the payments. I got a letter to do a loan remodification, but they wanted $2500 up front. I am leery of that. I will pay them if they get it remodified in terms of principle or interest reduction. Are there reliable groups out there who can help reduce the principle? I do not want to be taken for a ride! Thanks;
Joe Mike,
Never…Never…NEVER! Pay anyone an upfront fee for negotiating a loan modification!
Read this Foreclosure Assistance Probably A Scam Warns HUD
You can negotiate with them on your own better than anyone else…you just need to know what to say and how to say it…
Read how click here
Good Luck!
Rob –
You’re absolutely right about HopeNow…but what choice do I have? I’m about to call them in a few minutes. If nothing else, it can help me delay the foreclosure and maybe I can get back in a better position to pay my mortgage.
To me, that’s all HopeNow is – a delaying tactic.
Glenn,
It’s not a delay tactic though…the lender/servicer is still going to follow all the dates and deadlines for rate adjustments and foreclosure filings.
Talking to a Hope Now counselor doesn’t change any of that. Counselors will be the first to admit they have no power over the lenders or the servicers.
Now filing bankruptcy….that certainly could…if only for a little while…but not the best idea.
If you have equity…refinance. If you don’t…negotiate a loan mod.
Read our ebook, Stop Your Foreclosure Now!…to learn how.
Good Luck!