(no subject)

[ostarella]

Well, my home town is slowly closing its doors - or at least it feels that way. The Ford dealership is closing - the owner's retiring - and the Chrysler dealership will no longer be Chrysler; whether they'll stay in business after they run through their inventory I don't know.

And in other news - more American businesses are shipping their jobs overseas.

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Comments

[beckyblack]

I saw some local news report the other day about a place I used to live before the house I live at now. It used to have a load of small shops, clustered together, all thriving. They've nearly all closed. It was so sad.

I worry about the international firms with big sites here, since they've got no real loyalty to this country. If it suits them to close a plant here and take it to India, or somewhere cheaper, they'll do it without a second thought. There's a big Nissan plant that's an important part of our local economy in this region and yet that could go tomorrow if it suited Nissan.

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I think we're on our way back to a more "subsistence-based" economy - small mom and pop businesses that deal with the immediate area, people looking for other ways to earn an income besides working for massive companies, vegetable gardens in the backyard... it could have a bright side to it, I guess. Force people to give up their big gas-guzzling cars and trucks, quit living in massive houses that eat up energy and greenspace, people just learning to live more simply all together. Of course, that only applies to the people who have money now. The ones who don't - well, as always, they're just shit out of luck, period. The rich get poorer and the poor get lost in the shuffle...

[beckyblack]

It's all the rage here now with the middle class to start talking about growing their own veg and keeping chickens and the like. We have these things called "allotments" in UK cities. Patches of land owned by local councils that people can rent and that you can grow vegetables or whatever on. Suddenly, eveyrone wants an allotment again. Especially men of course, because they they can build a shed on it, and men love a nice shed to hide in to drink tea or beer, and listening to footy on the radio while pretending to do Important Gardening Work.

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah - community gardens they call them around here. Well, in the bigger cities. Small towns, almost everyone has room for it in their yards ;-) I used to have a small veggie garden when I lived in the city, in the side yard. Had it all set up with a gravity irrigation systems (big garbage can up on a platform to catch the rainwater) and I double-planted everything so I could fit more stuff in. I remember when we were kids, we had a huge garden alongside the railroad tracks just outside town. We were out there one time and this huge doe went racing across, in between us! LOL

Yeah, those were the days...

[beckyblack]

Cool. They're talking about "new age of auterity" here and that things will be like they were during the way and in the early post war years. Can't see it myself! Just be nice to see people buying real food instead of expensive, over-packaged processed junk frankly.

[mlpsunflower.livejournal.com]

--- the poor get lost in the shuffle...

Unfortunately, you are right. All day, now up to seven days a week, my four person team and I try to keep peoples head above water financially. I have active over 190 files on a bookshelf behind my desk that have to be gone through, analyzed, the party contacted, etc. There is truly not enough time to complete them within the time frame the government has implicated. The ones who actually contact us back are the ones that get priority. The ones that don’t call back end up being referred on to the attorney.

They keep on talking about a third wave of foreclosures. I haven’t even seen the end of the first wave to be honest.

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

What I've never understood about foreclosures is why (unless the people are total deadbeats) the banks don't just renegotiate the mortgage and not have that property sitting on their hands, the expense of all the legal work, and a family out on the street. Just doesn't make sense to me. Sure, the bank loses a lot of (inflated) interest, but still...

[mlpsunflower.livejournal.com]

That the usual comment I get from other people. But most people do not realize it but 90 percent of the homes in this country are backed by the US government, regardless of which lender you choose, Freddie, Fannnie, HUD etc. There is a set of guidelines about renegotiating the mortgage. Get this; the default has to be cured before the mortgage company can do a loan modification. If they could cure the loan, they wouldn’t need my help to begin with!

I do a lot of what we call special forbearances that are either a reduced payment on the loan or accelerated, if their financial situation has changed where they can now afford more. If they keep making those payments for a prearranged specified time, usually 12 to 24 months, the remainder of the default balance gets added back into the loan and then they resume there normal monthly payments. I can also do Deed in Lieu’s if they don’t’ want to keep the property, Pre-foreclosure sales. There are a number of options. People just have to pick up the phone, provide the income information and let us work with them. I have to say out of the 190 files I have, we are only actively working on 50 because people won’t call us back or provide the income documentation that we have requested.

I agree, I would say about 80 percent of my job deals with deadbeats, people who rather make payments on a bass boat in their driveway than making a mortgage payment. They don’t’ want to sacrifice their lifestyle to keep their home.

It cost’s us, depending on how long the entire process takes, $10,000 to $20,000 per case to foreclose a property. That’s why I try so hard to keep them out of foreclosure, in the end I’m saving the company money every time I help someone. It’s a win win situation for both sides.

[mlpsunflower.livejournal.com]

Let me add to this, becuase my company isn't a typical mortgage company. We are what you call a mortgage servicer company for HUD, Freddie etc. We don't make new loans. We buy loans from other mortgage companies. Mainly mortgage companies that are either going out of business or trying to get rid of some of their inventory. Similar to how credit card companies send you over to a collection agency. So you get quite an assortment of loans, some that haven't ever made the first payment.