"We, the People, are fully aware of how Congress allowed us to be defrauded."
The Department of Justice posted an invitation regarding Morgage Fraud and Foreclosures:
BJA would like to hear from local and state officials who have developed strategies and successful operations for addressing the growth of problem vacant properties or mortgage fraud. Likewise, we want to hear from jurisdictions that are developing their strategies and would like more information.
Ok, maybe we little people haven't been invited but why not share all the research we have accumulated and our personal-fighting-for-our-homes horror stories? (There's anonomous anymore anyway)
My letter to DJA/DOJ Mortgage Fraud Advisors:
Paul Steiner, Senior Policy Advisor
Paul.Steiner@usdoj.gov
Preeti Menon, Policy Advisor
Preeti.Menon@usdoj.gov
Cornelia Sorensen Sigworth, Policy Advisor
Cornelia.Sigworth@usdoj.gov
Mortgage/Appraisal Fraud: Two Years of research For Your Information
Thank you for pursuing mortgage fraud.
I have been researching and writing about this since the fall of 2008.
I wanted to let you know that the people are fully aware of the facts of rampant fraud perpetrated by real estate professionals and the banks. Their anger is increasing because the media and the leaders in Washington continue to smoke screen the facts people are fully aware of.
The President, Congress, and the media are losing all credibility because none are addressing what the people know to be true.
I am sending this, with links to research information, with hopes that you will pass this along to inspire leaders and the media to just tell the truth.
The investors know the truth, too. And I fear a global currency war that could devastate the United States now and far into the future. Like the people, their anger is rising. A little honesty and contrition right now could avert that disaster.
Most importantly, the people and investors understand that, because of widespread appraisal fraud in collusion with the other real estate professionals and banks involved with the sale/closing of homes, that they were often
Underwater the minute they signed their mortgage/loan and the investors were hoodwinked
And people know full well that Congress and the FBI were fully aware of this danger, but did not warn the public sufficiently.
Here's the research fyi regarding appraisal fraud and the Congressional shackling of the FBI charged with, but unfunded to protect citizens:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Also, a criminal investigation on "Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS)" is warranted. Without the advent of MERS, the electronic highway created by the Mortgage Bankers Association, Fannie, Freddie, National Title Companies, and almost all of the big banks/investment firms, we would not have had a housing bubble, and the fraud perpetrated on homeowners and investors.
You can go to this link to read the on-going research I have done and the reports I have written and broadcast on MERS beginning in September, 2008. It is shameful that it took Congress and the Media exactly 2 years to broadcast their knowledge of MERS. My dKos moniker is War on Error, btw.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
If I can be of further service, please let me know.
Thank you.
The DJA/DOJ stated concern posted at their website is about blighted neighborhoods whose property values will go down and which, if houses are left empty, could also increase crime.
From the DJA/DOJ's opening paragraph:
As recent news reports have indicated and justice and community representatives have reported, the number of vacant and abandoned properties in communities across the U.S. has increased, and mortgage fraud and foreclosures are reported to play a key role in the issue.
One estimate gives a conservative figure of $218 billion in losses in 2007 as a direct result of mortgage fraud on subprime loans.
Vacant and abandoned properties often become
unsightly,
diminish the property values of surrounding homes and communities, and
invite disorder and criminal activity into these communities.
Mitigating the effects of these problems, reducing the frequency of these occurrences, and restoring these properties to productive use can play a significant role in reducing and preventing neighborhood crime.
I apologize for the DJA/DOJ's seeming lack of sympathy, empathy, and compassion for those hoodwinked out of their homes and the investors. It's not their present focus in their recent posting.
Perhaps in the Short Term Gain Minds running this place, once losses are declared it becomes a simple matter of moving on, looking towards the sunrise as those whose homes were lost and the investors that lost fade into the sunset, metaphorically speaking, to be forgotten.
But wait a minute here! The houses still stand. They are not lost. And most of the people are still alive. They are not lost.
And neither is the opportunity for the losses to be recovered IF the people are reunited with their homes, especially the empty ones.
Save your moral hazard ire for just a moment, if you are experiencing it.
I have some solutions:
FILL THE HOMES WITH PEOPLE
It's time to stop this agonizing game of Musical Homes now.
It's time to disappear the humungous cosmic show, Fear of Foreclosure, so people's nerves can relax whilee we figure out solutions that will both mitigate the perceived losses, fill up the homes, and move the economy forward. It's time to
STOP THE MUSIC - Fill the homes
- Whoever is in a home needs to stay there until the history of each home is cleared up. That is finally being done, or so the air waves report. A clear title must be accomplished for each and every property.
If through mismanagement no one can produce a note/title, State laws can allow a Title of Record to be produced as free and clear of liens.
Than allow HUD or FHA to provide a mortgage agreement as most Americans are now making much lower wages than ever. But, the mortgage must be contingent on true appraisal based on the house facts (not on other properties because that is how we got into this mess to begin with. Housing costs have to have a relationship with prevailing wages within a 1 hour drive radius). Include clauses to provide for bouts of unemployment by enabling payments to defer to the end of the mortgage life, up to a max of 50 years. Recommend including taxes and an upkeep fund be included in the monthly payments.
- People need to return to and occupy empty homes as well. Empty homes are not helping anyone, including the investors. Same workout as #1 above.
- And then reset the median home value by area, not nationally, based on the facts on the ground: The Median Income for the area.
The homes are there.
- Put aside the issue of moral hazard. That horse won't fly after the lack of regard and lack of moral hazard that enabled the fraudulently riddled housing boom.
Furthermore, where's the ire over the lack of regard for moral hazard allowing the very same people, most of whom were enriched fraudulently, now sweeping the country like blood thirsty vultures ready to use their ill begotten gains to buy the homes back for $.10 on the $1.00?
Why enable these people to churn the same bubble again? That is much more immoral than allowing people who were hoodwinked to stay in and/or return to their only home.
The Federal/private partnership for the housing industry just showed its hand again: It is ripe for fraud and always has been. End it. This has been the S&L disaster on steroids.
- Once people are in homes, and empty homes have residents, the money clawed back from the people who made billions illicitly can be used to compensate people for the harm done to them. The money can be used to reduce the principle, fix up the property if it was damaged, and go into a 'rainy day fund' in case of a bout of sickness or unemployment. No money need change hands to refinance the homes because the MBS are owned by the US taxpayers. The banks were TARP'd and are profitable again, according to the news. The taxpayers already paid that off. There is no payout necessary for any loans sold on the secondary market because no one holds a note. Just have the resident home owner pay a reasonable mortgage payment as outlined in #1 above. This way, the MBS could be made whole over time, neighborhoods could hold value, and crime will be averted.
- And if HUD can sell foreclosed homes to towns and faith-based initiatives AND
give, not loan, up to $40,000 to fix up homes for$1.00 then surely HUD can afford to help newly low-income people stay and get back into their homes. Not for a dollar, but for l a set percentage of their wage.
Why filter this through towns and 501C(3)s? Haven't people proven that, when it comes to money to be made, fraud will step in?
As you will learn if you read this diary, because of widespread appraisal fraud, many people went underwater on the their homes the minute they signed their mortgage/loan.
APPRAISAL FRAUD: This is the BIG story that no one is talking about.
Most people bought homes that were really worth far less than what they paid for them.
And Congress and the FBI knew it. Read the link for the shocking story of how Congress knew about the fraud and chose to shackle the FBI's white collar crime division during the entire housing boom.
So, perhaps we should all write to the DJA/DOJ. They did invite input. Share your research with them, AND DEFINITELY share your home horror story if you have one.
If we don't fight back now, how will these kids ever own a home: