Want to know how the taxpayers are going to take a bigger hit? AHMSI's slow response time and staffing issues.
AHMSI, owned by WL Ross & Co. LLC just doesn't seem to care! I cannot believe that this company is backed by $5 Billion dollars of private equity when they can't even mitigate losses successfully.
My client has tried four times to modify her loan so she can keep her home. Guess the SmartBrief article entitled:
WL Ross & Co. LLC and American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. Announce Support of the Streamlined Mortgage Modification Plan
Was just lip service. I have three pages with notes in conversation logs dating back to 10/18/2008. It was shocking how much they just didn't seem to care about the value dropping.
We finally get a BPO done last week on an offer that is about to walk away. When I call the "assigned" loss mitigator, here's the voicemail greeting I get (apparently, he hasn't been back to work since December 29th???):
If this offer walks away due to their unresponsiveness, I will have to lower the price to match a new listing that came on $8,000 lower than my equivalent. How many employees could they hire for $8,000 that can check their messages? How many investors in WL Ross & Co. LLC will win in 2009?
Come on WL Ross & Co, if you need an accountant to help you with the math, I can refer you to one from this community. Help reduce the damage occurring in the market by trying to facilitate successful closings. At least for your investors' sake.
Anthony - We have to keep continual pressure on the not so good servicers to stop foreclosing and selling for less than the amount they would get through a bona fide short sale or loan modification.
Hey Mark... I feel your pain, man! And having been in the exact same position before, I can certainly appreciate your frustrrations and irritations. My entore life, I've considered myself to be an "eternal optimist," but in all honesty, I'm still waiting to see a single ounce of real empathy, sympathy or assistance from the so-called 'loss mitigators'. Great post!
I feel yours too! I made a commitment last year after playing nice with ASC, only to have them reject our $118,000 net to them offer, and the next day they set the minimum credit bid at $98,000. I think taxpayers and investors in these companies like WL Ross & Co.'s financial backers have a right to know how money is being squandered.
It has happened a couple of times in the Midwest as well as in Arizona. One was with Countrywide and the other a smaller company that I cannot even think of the name right now. It just does not make sense to fool around and then lower the price, does it?
Evelyn's correct about it happening in Arizona, Phoenix area particularly. And in my personal experience, Countrywide has been the most difficult to deal with. After going thru such a nightmare, or hearing enough stories like yours, Mark, I don't ahve a single client that is interested any more in Short Sale listings! And I simply won't take them any longer.
Evelyn - It is crazy and that's why we have to continue to apply pressure to the servicers to listen to reason and make public the losses that are passed on to the taxpayers.
Randy - Some companies aren't that bad if you get to a higher level with them. It's companies like WL Ross & Co's AHMSI that don't even give you a chance if the loss negotiator can't even show up to work.
Mark, some of these lenders just don't get it, do they! I guess that's why they're in this mess to begin with. I hope your homeowner knows that they have other options besides short sale. Contact me if you want details!
Join my NEW group for professionals who work from their home office at http://activerain.com/groups/virtualoffice
Regina P. Brown
Regina - It seems they want to make even more of a mess. Today, I was told that their 14 business day policy seems to have changed to 30-60 days. I wonder if investors at WL Ross & Co. know how much money they are losing.
Jim - Magically, his voicemail message changed the next day. They are wasting so much of their investors' money through their unresponsiveness. I feel sorry for those investors.
Do you know who holds the mortgage note? As noted in the article you referenced, 90% of the loans that AHMSI services are serviced under a Master Servicing Agreement with a mortgage-backed securities trust of some sort. AHMSI earns their money on those "securitized" loans in fees. They don't have any obligation to actually mitigate loss, and incur no losses for failing to avoid an avoidable foreclosure. Under many master servicing agreements they can't do much of anything unless they buy the loan from the trust.
Unless forced to in some way, AHMSI has no reason to do anything except make robo calls (and thus earn extra fees for "collection efforts") , give lip service to "mitigation," and wait for time to run out so they can turn the loan over to the trustee to foreclosure on and take losses against trust collateral. (And when trust collateral is gone, it is the people who own the securities issued by the trust who eat the losses.)
If your client's mortgage loan was pooled and securitized, you may want to take a shot at going directly to the trustee. They have the power to direct servicer actions. AHMSI should (but often won't) disclose the identity of the note holder. (Inexplicably, they routinely refuse to tell borrowers who they actually owe the money too. Of course AHMSI has the info. They must. They know who they send the loan payments to. The know who they bill.) If MERS is named as the mortgagee on the mortgage they don't record subsequent assignments in public land records, but they are supposed to track and provide the info in response to queries.
In the securitization process, the power to modify loans and duty to mitigate loss is pretty much eliminated by design. You may not get anywhere with the trustee either, but it may still be worthwhile if only to get the name of someone at AHMSI with real power.
The current state of affairs is insane. The entire mortgage industry is well aware that the barriers to loan modification that are built into "securitization" as currently practiced are devastating borrowers. I don't see much chance ofinjecting sanity unless borrowers start suing those who irresponsibly organize REITs that knowingly damage them. Buyers of mortgage-backed securities could probably sue the seller for failing to minimize losses, but the losses distributed across the investor pool can't compare to the financial devastation a borrower suffers when they are forced into a foreclosure that could easily have been avoided.
See my blog about Citibank, which is similar, http://activerain.com/blogsview/921762/Citi-using-Taxpayer-Bailout-Funds-to-deny-Loan-Mods-and-Foreclose-on-Cooperating-Homeowners
Hi Mark - This may be an obvious thing that you have already tried, but have you tried talking to someone else there just to ask them if the guy you are trying to reach is going to be away for some addiitonal time? And if so, who will be handling his duties? He might not even be coming back - who knows? Someone else who works there might. Is there another loss mitigator who could answer just that one question? And do they have supervisors? Clearly, calling that guy is not working. I'd be talking to everyone at the place if I had to in order to find out whether this fellow died and no one has taken over his files or ...? You might make them mad, but you can't be treated any worse than you already are.
Everyone - Here is the latest update. The guy finally got back to us: His message:
The offer of $90k is too low. We need to net around $104,400.00(after fees). Please send counter offer.
Whatever!!! There's a pending sale at $72,500 that doesn't reek of cat urine. There is one active at $110,000 that's a model match on the market for 107 days and two others much lower. Here's the link:
Guess they must be on a different planet at AHMSI. All this after a second appraisal. If you own a home with them and are thinking of short selling, read this post and thread carefully.
If you invested with WL ROSS and Co., watch the magic trick of your money disappearing here as I continue to update the post.
Just a few days after saying they needed to net $104,000, this home went to trustee's sale with a minimum required bid of less than $78,000. Maybe it should be UHMSI for their actions against taxpayers trying to do the right thing.
With regard to AHMSI. I received an approval letter. One of the conditions was for the purchaser to pay them a 1% short sale administration fee. The buyer will not agree to this. Aren't they getting paid anyway? Has anyone heard of this? What is the best way to handle it?
Chris - No loss mitigator and now they are changing their policies further. If I were a mortgagor with them, I would seriously consider speaking with a bankruptcy attorney to see about prolonging the foreclosure process out or go for "cash for keys". Just doesn't seem like they want to help out with the situation.
Donna - It's a joke over there to have them say they needed $110,000+ for it to make sense and then to dump it at auction for $78,000. Wonder if they have any financial backers left over there??
Thanks for the info. I will not even bother wasting my time trying a short sale then.
I will simply stop paying and then move out ina few months as soon as I find a new place.
Apparantly I earn too much for a modification, so my arm can't be fixed and I'm pushing 14% now on a home that has lost 45%+ in value.
Eff them.
My husband died and I submitted a hardship letter, along with a thoroughly complete modification package to AHMSI, which was then assigned to a "specialist". I was told to follow up within two weeks if I didn't hear from someone. Upon following up I was told (after more than two weeks) that the package was denied because it was a "jumbo" loan. Duhhhh!!! They could see that on day 1. They are just not interested in helping me stay in my home even as the value has decreased by over 30%. Now it's scheduled for sale and I'm desperate for options. Help, anyone!!!
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Hi Mark;
I am glad to see someone who is not afraid to wite about AHMSI, Good Job!