Hundreds of desperate homeowners line up for mortgage help
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – March 1, 2010 – The extent of the nation’s housing crisis was tangible Thursday morning. It stretched the length of one side of Palm Beach County’s Convention Center as hundreds of homeowners, wrapped in blankets and travel-weary after flying from as far away as California, waited for the salvation of a mortgage modification.
Welcome to the “Save-a-Thon” – five days of around-the-clock loan woe turnarounds sponsored by the Boston-based Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, or NACA.
The non-profit group is offering free help with lowering monthly payments through federal programs and agreements it has with many of the nation’s major lenders.
It brought an army of bank representatives – at least 100 from Bank of America alone – and NACA counselors who meet face-to-face with troubled borrowers.
And while the event seemed at times like a church revival as homeowners with success stories were brought to a microphone to testify, there were sincere solutions occurring on the convention center floor.
Teresa Holston, a registered nurse who traveled from Los Angeles for the event, started crying when she spoke of her new 2 percent interest rate, a reduction from 9 percent.
“It’s like a new lease on life,” said Holton, who got in trouble when she refinanced her home and broke up with a boyfriend who was paying part of the mortgage. “I am just so grateful.”
For many homeowners, NACA’s event was the last attempt in a months-long struggle to work with their banks through the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable Program.
The program offers incentives to banks to lower monthly payments by reducing – sometimes temporarily – interest rates and principal amounts, or offering a principal forbearance, which cuts the principal balance on the front end, but tacks it onto the end of the life of the loan.
NACA founder and CEO Bruce Marks pushes for even better terms. He asks lenders to permanently reduce interest rates. If there is a principal forbearance, he asks that a mandatory repayment be made only if there is a profit made on the sale of the home.
He doesn’t always get his way. Many of the loans modified Thursday had reduced interest rates that will adjust at the end of five years. Still, the reduction helps the borrower now with making monthly payments.
“Frankly, it makes business sense for them to be working with us now,” Marks said about lenders. “These servicers have very good machinery to foreclose on people, but not to modify a loan.”
Marks has been criticized for his guerilla-style tactics, which include rallying outside bank executives’ homes. His operation is paid for partly with federal grants, having received $25 million last year, Marks said. Detractors complain he is not forthcoming with his success rates and should be more transparent since he is getting taxpayer dollars. He says about 30 percent of clients receive a same-day modification. Up to 80 percent eventually get their payments reduced, Marks said.
Bully or not, Marks has persuaded many major lenders to send representatives to his unconventional “Save the Dream” workshops.
Thursday’s event began with pep rally-style cheers from NACA counselors.
“We are NACA,” a man screamed into a microphone.
“We are NACA,” more than 200 counselors echoed.
“Mighty, mighty NACA.”
“Mighty, mighty NACA.”
But not everyone walked away satisfied. An L-shaped table in the corner of the room had signs posted that read “No Solution.”
That’s where Martine and Daillant Edouard, from Brooklyn, N.Y., found themselves. A private investor owns their loan serviced by Bank of America, and they needed more information about the terms the investor allows for modifications.
“What are you going to do?” Martine Edouard said, her eyes starting to tear. “You have to try and keep your composure.”
NACA will remain open 24-hours-a-day until midnight Monday.
It’s the first time the group will pull all-nighters.
“We’re going to do 100 hours straight,” Marks said. “Why? Because it’s the right thing to do.”
LINK: http://bit.ly/9BvIbw
"Talk To Ted" is a cynic. I think Marks will, one way or another, make a ton on this. Smells like a scam.
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