I would like to tell my “nightmare” story so someone else will not fall into the traps I’ve found myself in.  It all started with trying to get a loan that I really couldn’t afford.  I was pressured by a relative who had a broker she said was so wonderful, and that he could get you a loan no matter what.  So I proceeded to seek out purchasing a home.  In doing so, our area, as most areas in that time, were inundated with home buyers, and the market was going crazy.  If you wanted any kind of property you were sent into a first come, first serve basis, or a lottery for any kind of new home purchase.  I found myself in the lottery, and was able to qualify for a small home.  But due to not being on the job long enough, I found myself at a little bit higher fixed interest rate financed by the builder’s lender.  I was going to back out, but my sister and her broker talked me out of it by saying that I should finance with builder to get into the house.  After getting in the house, the broker friend of my relative would refinance me at a lower rate that I could afford.  I wound up going along with this scenario and now I am in a high interest rate of 9.975% Option ARM, that is going to do nothing but climb.  The broker lied about my income, he got an appraiser to inflate the value of my home for the refi , and he disguised his Yield Spread Premium.  So now I am in a situation where I have a climbing Option ARM, a prepayment penalty, and an upside house in its value.  The sad thing is… I wasn’t greedy.  All I was trying to do is secure a home for myself and my adult brother who has learning disabilities, who has slipped through the cracks of the system, and has struggled his whole life.  My brother is a guy that the governments does not recognize as disabled, due to not fitting into an exact slot in the system.  When in actuality, my brother is the type of person who the system should be set up to help.  So I am the one that needs to pick up the pieces.  We have an ailing 87 year old mother who did not know how to handle my brother’s emotional and learning disabilities, so that’s where I stepped in.  Oh well, that’s another story.  But that is part of how I got into this predatory lending situation.  I just needed a home for my brother and myself due to having only a 1-bedroom apartment where my brother had to sleep on the couch.

If this wasn’t bad enough, I sought out the help of a so called “consumer advocate group” called Nations Audit Group after I realized what I had gotten myself into.  They claim that they would help you out of the mess of being victimized by a predatory lender.  They claim to do this by auditing your loan documents and if they found violations, you would be able to get an attorney that would prosecute your case (along with getting a stay of payments for up to 18 months).  I can assure you... THIS ISN’T GOING TO HAPPEN.   Attorneys are not taking these cases, and they are victimizing the already victims of predatory lending out there.  What you get with this company is a “pat” report that lists violations in your contact, (which have no substantiation) and nothing more.  So you wind up paying these people $995.00 of your precious dollars just to try to get some help for your situation.  But what they are doing is taking advantage of people who are desperate to find some help, and they take their money and give them nothing to show for it.  I have been in touch with the Better Business Bureau, and have a case with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office to try to stop these people from victimizing any more innocent people.  The feedback I got from one of the attorney’s I contacted to try to take my “predatory lending” case said that they are getting volumes of people calling their office saying that  Nations Audit Group has referred them.  They said that Nations Audit Group gives these people the impression that this is one of the attorneys who will help them with their situation, and that is not true.  They are turning away more and more of the screaming, upset people that Nations Audit Group has referred to them.   Please do not do any business with these people. 

I have been trying to negotiate with my lender (CountryWide Mortgage).  But they turned me down due to the fact that I haven’t gone into default yet.  I pleaded with CountryWide telling them that I can’t make the high payments, and that working with me before, not after default, would be in both of our best interest.  But they are not willing to work that way.  Therefore, I see CountryWide Home Loans (and I talked to several attorneys about this) as being a major part of the predatory problem.  They do not want to work with the homeowners to see if they can salvage a bad situation.  Instead they would rather ruin your credit first and/or pay thousands to take you through the court system in foreclosure action.  Their CEO sends out e-mails saying that you are valued customers and they are willing to possible lower your interest rate and/or monthly payments.  But that is not true!

I can’t understand why our government is allowing this to happen to hard working Americans who have been severely victimized by all of these greed driven criminals.  I know I will see a lot more horror stories written here.  Because I know there are so many sad cases out there like mine!

Audrey

HealthConsc218@aol.com