Mr. & Mrs. George Mandell
135 Jones Street
West Haven, Ct. 06516
(203) 934-4232
April 10, 2008
Hon. U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd
30 Lewis Street
Suite 101
Hartford, Ct. 06103
Dear Senator Dodd,
My wife, Ronni, and I have just missed our March 1st payment on our mortgage to Countrywide Home Loans, which is now $1,832.71 per month with very little possibility of making the payment this month either as our funds are dangerously low. We, since December of last year, have been attempting a re-finance through a broker in Glastonbury. The firm name is Advisor One Mortgage-agent Dana Malia. He submitted it to 3 separate lenders, we were approved on one day, the next day, either the program was dropped or their 90% financing was lowered to 85% and therefore, the loan did not go through. All the while in March, Countrywide was calling daily, morning, noon and night-sometimes 7 times a day and since the loan is in my wife's name, I did not bother answering and when she was home and I wasn't she wouldn't answer.
Last week, we received a list from Senator Lieberman, by email, of places to contact and we selected Money Management International and spoke to a lovely gal by the name of Lauren Messick at (866) 490-5378 ext. 5074 and she interviewed the two of us for at least an hour and a half, wrote up a list of our bills, food, gasoline and other expenses and she faxed it to Countrywide. We followed this up with a letter to Countrywide listing Lauren and Dana Malia as 3rd parties that can speak on our behalf.
We've also listed Debra Bogstie as a 3rd party on our behalf as she has been wonderful in the past since my wife's mother died directly from a bed sore contracted during a nightmarish 30 day stay in the hospital two years ago.
We called Countrywide's Loss Mitigation department and spoke to someone named Felipe/Phillipe and all we got out of him was repeated statements about foreclosure and when can you pay. My wife authorized me to speak to him and I explained that I have a contractors network, where I provide solid leads, sales and customer support and follow up-coupled with free advertising at my expense and I also indicated to him that we also do repairs and renovations to foreclosure properties for several realtors-but he didn't listen and just kept saying the same thing over and over. It was not a warm conversation, rather cold, to say the least, and it led nowhere-even when I asked for options. This is where we stand now and later today, we will be calling Lauren to see if they received the present budget numbers of which they supposedly didn't receive or they are perhaps going to say that we've made no attempts of communication-who knows.
Our lives started going downhill gradually since August of 2003, when I was working as an office manager for a truck repair company (Kennedy-Eastern) in West Haven. The owner became addicted to a controlled substance and within 6 months prior to August, he managed to destroy a 3 million dollar business and he lost his $400,000 home. During the next several years I sent out of 1,500 resumes, which I prepared under the guidance of the veteran advisor at the Connecticut employment service. I received a total of 2 in-person interviews where I was told at the young age of 53 going on 54 that I was too old and they are seeking someone younger even though I had the experience that they wanted. I then secured a part time position for a period of 2 years until I was laid off from that, re-financed the mortgage several times to make up the difference and then I started my creative juices flowing and in September of 2005, I started an LLC and started selling a private label selection of dog treats and after that an excellent dog food line called "Back to Basics" which was all natural ingredients and no wheat gluten. Nevertheless, at the time I was hustling dog food the wheat gluten made dog and cat owners shaky and they listened to veterinarians that their food was the best as most veterinarians sell IAMS and EUKANUBA, which incidentally contained the dangerous wheat gluten.
In May of 2007, I started a Connecticut Contractor Hotline under my LLC name of Anything You Want LLC and it's been growing, ever since, haven't showed a profit yet due to a trial and error elimination of contractors that were less than honest, didn't pay me, didn't keep appointments with customers and also took money for work not done in one instance and the customer and I are still looking for Mr. Higgins. Sooner or later we will find him. This year, however, promises to be better as there are numerous jobs and quotes that all the contractors have been sent out on, a few jobs cleared, were finished and with that money February's mortgage was paid. There are some big jobs already under contract that will provide us with monies 3-4 months down the road and many more jobs coming in every day after a very slow winter, which I had explained to Mr. Edward Mann in your Hartford office. I am going to close for now, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Michael McKiernan in your Washington office and Mr. Edward Mann in your Hartford office for taking the time to listen and try to help us in every way that they could. If there is anything at all that you can do, it would be greatly appreciated as we know now that our credit is less than favorable and that the credit card companies including Washington Mutual and Capital One will now increase their interest rates and most likely their minimum monthly payments will double-therefore, crushing us completely and making sure that we are kicked to the gutter. I am enclosing my contractor network's modest web page for your review and approval. We are not lying down and playing dead, we are trying to generate an income in a country that has become a consumer country with manufacturing being done in other countries and cheaper laborers coming over borders and arriving by ships and airliners.
Countrywide Home Loans Account Number # ==========
Last Principal Balance $201,043.18
Loss Mitigation number 800-669-6650
Borrower: Mrs. Ronni D. Mandell on a 30 yr. Fixed Jumbo
w/5 year pre-payment penalty & $155.00 month PMI included.
My wife and I hope that this explanation is clear and understandable and that it's length is not too tedious for you to read but if you need further assistance or information, please feel free to call us at any time.
Anything You Want LLC web page: http://nethinguwant.googlepages.com/home
On behalf of my wife and I thank you very much for your time and efforts.
Sincerely,
George J. Mandell
