B*gg*r bigger better bonded bubbles.
Notes:
1. Downeyed by Law: Small Print
Doesn't Matter--If You're Small
My mortgage fraud experience unusually damns the industry. The right blames borrowers for not reading small print, and for taking on loans beyond their means. But in refinancing my mortgage, I did read the small print, and attempted to rescind the refinancing immediately I received the first bill, since it was for $200 more than appeared in the mortgage agreement. As shown below, the mortgage owner, Downey (to whom the mortgage had been sold even before my first payment), insisted that I take the mortgage, telling me it did not matter that the agreement had contained mistakes, that I must pay up or be foreclosed. I was coerced into paying--and this is but one of a plethora of frauds endured in acquiring my first residence. Shortly after I began paying, the mortgage was resold, to Fanny Mae.
Downeyed by law by Clifford Johnson
2. A Mission Street Hair-Cut
In about 2009, I visited a barber on Mission Street, San
Francisco. The Hispanic
hair-dresser was talking with a collection agent on the phone when I entered,
and seemed distressed. I asked how
business was, given the economy. She said
very slow, so she was open ten hours a day, seven days week, and she had
been doing this for well over a year, ever since her mortgage rate had unexpectedly shot
up. 67 years old, she was at the end of her
savings, and didn't know where to turn.
She faced eviction, and did not know where would she and her crippled
son would end up.
Just a few years ago, there had been no problems on her horizon,
when a nice mortgage broker knocked on the house she had lived in since
1967. He told her she could obtain equity from her house, and couldn't lose on the deal. She had no interest at first, but he persuaded
her that she could afford to take out a big loan on her house,
and the monthly payments were so low she could afford them. What might she might want to do
if she had the money, wasn't there some big treat she deserved? Well, she had never been able to take a trip
back to her native country in Central America. And there was an expensive operation
that might cure her son. She had her doubts,
was he sure it was safe?
She did enjoy the vacation--I use poetic license to translate
this into "ten weeks in Rome." But the operation for her son was not
successful. Now, she spent every night
praying and crying.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
