By MITCH STACY
ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. (AP) - Kathy Lovelace lost her job and was about to lose her house, too. But then she made a seemingly simple request of the bank: Show me the original mortgage paperwork.
And just like that, the foreclosure proceedings came to a standstill.
Lovelace and other homeowners around the country are managing to stave off foreclosure by employing a strategy that goes to the heart of the whole nationwide mess.
During the real estate frenzy of the past decade, mortgages were sold and resold, bundled into securities and peddled to investors. In many cases, the original note signed by the homeowner was lost, stored away in a distant warehouse or destroyed.
Persuading a judge to compel production of hard-to-find or nonexistent documents can, at the very least, delay foreclosure, buying the homeowner some time and turning up the pressure on the lender to renegotiate the mortgage.
"I'm going to hang on for dear life until they can prove to me it belongs to them," said Lovelace, a 50-year-old divorced mother who owns a $200,000 home in Zephyrhills, near Tampa. "I'll try everything I can because it's all I have left."
In interviews with The Associated Press, lawyers, homeowners and advocates outlined the produce-the-note strategy. Exactly how many homeowners have employed it is unknown. Nor is it clear how successful it has been; some judges are more sympathetic than others.
More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year and millions more are in danger of losing their homes. On Wednesday, President Obama will unveil a plan to spend at least $50 billion to help homeowners fend off foreclosure.
Chris Hoyer, a Tampa lawyer whose Consumer Warning Network Web site offers the free court documents Lovelace used to file her request, has played a major role in promoting the produce-the-note strategy.
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These DEADBEATs are part of the problem and NEVER should of been loaned the money to buy a house they NEVER could afford. They are just one reason why the world economy is falling apart. These DEADBEATs should be kicked out and living in their cars or on the street. These DEADBEATs need to be punished for their financial crimes of stupidity. I feel no pity for those who lived above their means while many others lived below and worked hard while these FREELOADERS lived it up on BORROWED money without working for it.
ReplyDeleteThe DEADBEAT banks received FREE money in the form of a "click" of a computer button. The DEADBEAT banks never have to pay anything back to anyone because its not REAL MONEY! Why should the consumer have to pay anything back to CRIMINALS? Do you enjoy being the banks "BITCH" your entire LIFE? You DUMB HILLBILLY
ReplyDeleteThe DEADBEAT banks are not without fault as they to are CRIMINALs and should be locked up for financial crimes. The DEADBEATS who took the loans and can not pay back should be locked up as well. You cannot reward people who are now deadbeats. You can not reward thoses who were stupid enough to take loans they could NEVER pay back. You can not reward stupidity. Why should I work and pay my mortgage? Why should anyone?
ReplyDeleteThe Deadbeats had a job until the DEADBEAT BANK decided to corrupt society with their easy loan practices. So the deadbeats lose their job and gets rewarded with bad credit for 7 yrs. The DEADBEAT bank gets to write off the fake money and carry on with their criminal activities AT WILL for the next umpteen years.
ReplyDeleteIf any of us including myself had any f@@cking balls left, we would hang every person in Washington right now!
ReplyDeleteThis lady is trying to game the system. This is something deadbeats always try to do. She knows she has a loan, the loan was sold as part of a mortgage security. But, she will try to delay the eventual result -- foreclosure. In the mean time, she will live rent free for as long as possible. Yeah, dictator Obama this is the kind of person that "really" deserves a taxpayer funded, welfare check bailout.
ReplyDeleteConsumer banks are restricted to lending (investing) at 9x or 10x reserves. (That's DEBT.)
ReplyDeleteInvestment banks bet at 15x reserves.
B of A and Citigroup were betting at 32x to 47x reserves. AIG opened an office in London to evade reserve requirements. Reserves are rules put in place under FDR to prevent failures caused by wild speculation, like in the 20s.
All of it is using money they do not have, and now that they had no fathomable ability to repay, unless stocks and housing rocketed upwards forever, an impossibility.
That means EACH bad loan -- which THEY demanded relaxed rules in order to acquire risky and profitable loans -- failed 32 to 47 times. This includes corporate loans, even takeover loans used to loot companies and eliminate jobs, as well as housing loans.
(private) PROFITS of (private) banks were MULTIPLIED by LEVERAGE for over a decade.
Good for them!
(private) LOSSES were also MULTIPLIED by LEVERAGE -- inevitably -- as lending and payment peaks were reached, as the bubble could not be blown any bigger.
Bad for us.
For *us*?!!!!! Yeah.
(private) Losses (by private "gung ho capitalists") must now be transformed into public losses, with the ordinary 90% of us taking the hit, and the poor with the least cushion reduced to the harshest conditions. We have to help the 1% to 10% of the former big winners. (The ongoing salaries and bonuses are just the rub-your-face-in-it evidence about how little they care.)
This problem is at least 1000x bigger than subprime mortgages, and way bigger than the bailouts.
How do people still believe "this was all caused by irresponsible home buyers"? Too many people were sleeping in math class. That plus reactionary propaganda.
It's been reported, banks and investors lobbied for these deregulated no-peek "don't ask/don't tell" rules for banks and hedge funds. Phil Gramm's 226-page add-on to the 2000 Omnibus budget bill -- signed by Clinton -- was produced a few hours before the vote, and was written by Enron executives, who became Mrs. Gramm's new employer.
I think it was Morgan-Stanley who advised Enron on it's investment/looting strategy.
This issue is *certainly* not limited to one political party.
Anyhow, it's been about 30 years since the Judicial System bent us over and officially declared that MONEY is the same as "1st Amendment Free Speech". This is because corporations, which are considered human beings which have civil rights, do not have actual mouths and tongues, and can only speak with money -- or spokespersons. Therefore, restrictions on corporate lobbying must be eliminated to protect the 1st Amendment.
By these measures, it bribing the govt became legalized.
It should be no surprise that "our" elected representatives are NOT "ours" at all. Why are we surprised?
It's all a corporate puppet show. Look how much money is rolled in to campaign hoopla to obscure from the broad public the evidence of a corporate dictatorship and plutocracy that has replaced the republic under the false guise of "free market economics". They don't want us to figure out the bare facts.
Thanks for highlighting this. There's a good "How To" article on using a Produce the Note strategy at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ehow.com/how_4764181_produce-strategy-prevent-delay-foreclosure.html
Hope it helps.
Nice post. I live in Tampa and know one person he helped, and it actually worked. This site has all the videos they have done. Watch all the videos here:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/bozo2d
The banks have brought this mess on themselves because they had friends in high Gov' who would just give them a trillion dollars to bail them out of their own mess that they themselves created. Why should average American citizens be held accountable for this? The reality is that we are, so why should we not fraud the system and get some of the cash back? Another reality is that those sam friends of the banking system borrowed the money from the Chinese, and they want their money back plus interest! That is why the friends of the banking system has pinned the average person with the responsibility of paying this debt back. Expect the Chinese to get very pushy about getting their money back very soon, and expect our own Gov' to become Tyrants against the average US citizen. I see slave camps arising out of all of this fellows! Get ready for a gun fight to the death. I myself had much rather die than serve Tyrants!!! Any body with me?
ReplyDeleteI visit it first time but it was great time.
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