Here is my take on Obama's housing plan...Once the dust settles and the President's plan is sorted out I really do believe that it is far too little for the number of homeowners that need help and it is not set up to succeed. 

Problem #1: The intention is good, so don't get me wrong I'm all for a solution to help struggling homeowners but the amount of money proposed in this plan by Obama is not even enough money to help 1 million homeowners let alone 4-5 million or more.  I personally believe that it is not enough money to even help 500,000 homeowners.

Problem #2: This plan lacks a system.  There is no infrastructure currently at any bank to handle this type of incredible demand and the number of inquiries that will be brought on by it's borrowers.  There is no way the banks can handle an influx of 9 million homeowners calling in for help. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE.  I deal with a lot of short sales and contacting the banks now is hard enough to get a response with the hundreds of thousands of short sales going on let alone 9 million homeowners that believe that they will get help from Obama's plan.  This is going to be an extremely frustrating time for those homeowners in need. 

A Zen solution...Here's an idea that could create jobs immediately and at give homeowners a chance to actually speak with someone that want s to try and help them.  The government could contract out for an experienced call center company based in THE USA, use some of the vacant government buildings available and have a private company set up call centers in different regions of the country (creating hundreds of jobs immediately).  Then the banks would need to all sit at one table together and create ONE systemized application and ONE computerized process that will be the same for all the banks.  Part of the problem now is that all the banks each have their own funky system and this doesn't work when you have millions of people needing help and they have two or three loans with different banks.  It has to be systemized for many reasons.  Right now the borrower has to complete different packages for each bank in order to get help.   

Once you have a system, you can have these call centers gather all the information uniformly from the homeowners that is necessary.  Then the call centers can submit the borrowers file electronically to the banks without the banks having to handle the initial inquiry or phone calls.  The call centers would screen the applications for the banks, collect all the information and then the only thing the banks would have to do is have their people work on the terms of the loan modifications.  Once reviewed by the bank, the file would go back to these call centers and the trained representatives from the call centers would discuss the new terms of the loan with the borrowers or at least be able to explain why the homeowner did not qualify for help under the modification's guidelines. 

Why Zen's plan or something like it?  Because the banks will never be able to pull this off by themselves.  They don't have the resources, staff or systems to help millions of people.  The current outcome will be overloaded phone lines, hours of waiting on hold and angry homeowners.  I know because I personally experienced this when we first started working with short sales several years ago and tried reaching the banks to help struggling homeowners.  First, creating call centers with people that are trained to help the consumer/homeowner/borrower and do not work for the bank would be the first step in trying to let the American people know that someone does care about their situation and wants to help.  Second, would be creating a system to make it work.  Thirdly, we will need a lot more money pledged by the government to pull this off and help those in need.  The sad part is at this time we don't have any of the pieces needed to make this gigantic undertaking happen for the struggling homeowners. 

Your thoughts and feedback on this topic are greatly appreciated. Please feel free to post your comments.

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