HAMP Loan Modification Offer Received After A Year!

Good news! Last Thursday I received a Priority Mail package from IndyMac/OneWest. In it was a HAMP trial mod offer which would lower our payments to an affordable level, and if it is approved in the end, will result in saving my home.

 

Emotions are running amok inside me right now. I am happy to finally have the offer and I am also scared that it will end up being ultimately rejected either become somehow I have too much income or not enough income I can verify.

 

Being self-employed makes things a little harder than if I had a job with paystubs and the like, but it I can document what I earn. Whether they will accept that documentation is something I’ll have to find out.

 

I know if I get this mod, it will be a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. This past year has not been easy and has definitely taken a toll on my health and my sanity. It has also been difficult for my husband who is always calm, cool and collected. Even his temper is running remarkably short these days, no doubt due to too much stress.

 

When I think of the bankers and investors on Wall Street who created this mess and basically wrecked the economy to the point that we’re pretty much in another Great Depression, I get really angry. Most especially in light of the lack of humility and remorse among that crowd.

 

There is plenty of evidence that at the very least, these people were negligent. These guys are not unsophisticated folks who got taken for a ride. At all levels, it was known that the quality of the mortgages were not good and that their very design made them doomed to eventually fail.

 

I hope that the government takes a closer look at this and the Wall Street people are held to some degree accountable for what they’ve done. Given the climate in Washington and the amount of access to our Congressmen, Senators, and even our President that the bank lobby has, I doubt that anything will happen to them.

 

For myself, if I am able to get a permanent loan modification, I will be able to save my home. I will be happy with that and I will hope that other families will be able to do the same.

Obama Doesn’t Get It

I don’t know what happened to the man I elected to be president in 2008. That man is nowhere to be found…you know the one who was talking about “change” and how business as usual wasn’t going to cut in his White House.

 

Well, apparently, he is ok with JP Morgan/Chase’s CEO, Janie Dimon, and Goldman Sucks, excuse me, Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s  outrageous salaries and bonuses even though both of them basically ran their companies into the ground, and if they hadn’t been bailed out by the taxpayer last year, wouldn’t have made anything.  Obama does not begrudge them their success because “that’s what the free market is about.”

 

Free market, excuse me? I thought the free market was about allowing the weaker companies whose leadership made poor decisions fail while allowing smaller companies with smarter leaders take their place. I thought it was about competition.

 

I guess I was wrong. I guess competition and things like moral hazard only apply when you’re the middle class family who has fallen into poverty and is faced with foreclosure…because I hear all sorts of talk of moral hazard when it comes to the government helping a family like this save their home.

 

My disappointment in Obama can’t be described in words. We needed an FDR and we got a Herbert Hoover.

January 4th 2010: National Shame On IndyMac/OneWest Bank Day

It is clear that IndyMac/OneWest has no intentions of granting anyone a permanent modification. It is clear that IndyMac/OneWest will make more money EVERY time it forecloses, thanks to a sweetheart deal with the FDIC. It is clear that our government is owned by the banks and is unresponsive to the will of the people.

We don't have to sit here and take this crap any longer. We need to stand up and demand that our voices be heard, and the first step to doing that is to attend the protest outside of IndyMac/OneWest's offices in Pasadena, CA. on January 4th 2010. More info on the protest here.

But protesting outside of IndyMac/OneWest is not enough. We need to let our government know that we don't approve of the way they've handled the foreclosure crisis and that we don't approve of all of the breaks the banks are getting while homeowners are getting thrown out of their homes.

In order to do that, I propose a massive homeowner protest all across America. On the day of the protest, every distressed homeowner needs to protest outside of their local government offices. If you live in the capital of your state, protest outside the state capital buildings. If you live in Washington, protest outside of the halls of Congress.

Under the face of such a massive public outcry, our government will have to respond. The Wall Street fat cats who were the architects of the current disaster are counting on the American people to be apathetic, to care more about who Tiger Woods is sleeping with than the provisions that are being sneaked into legislation passing through Congress. Prove them wrong. Raise your voices and be heard.