Our Story w/ Indymac SUCCESS!!

[colahhh08]

My wife and I purchased our home in Dec 2005 with a 3/1 ARM and an interest only 2nd to avoid PMI. And yes we were making the minimum payment only. What we did not know was that if the principal hit 110% of the original loan amount our loan would automatically convert to 30 yr fixed at the prevailing rate which is 8.75%!! So we now have a 1st mort payment of $4,200 and 2nd of $540. We had been trying to refi since summer 2007 but the banks kept on knocking the value of our home down from the appraisers value $80-100k. So no refi!!
Now we are sitting with a $590k mortgage between both and a property value of approx $575-$600k. Original loan amount was $609,900.00 and we have invested approx $50,000 into the house in the past 2 yrs, of course this was done through financing/credit cards so we have those payments also.

In Dec '05 my wife was not working and my gross annually was approx $85k, the problem was my score was in the 630's and my wifes in the 665-680 range. When the broker pulled our credit, employment showed my wife was still employed by a former employer from many years ago so they decided that my wife would be the primary borrower and myself the co-borrower and here we are. Knowing what we know now we feel totally violated!! Go figure my wife is the primary borrower and was not even employed at closing.

I aplogize if my story jumps around a bit but I am nervous, stressed and not thinking too clearly right now. Our first "new" payment is due in Feb and we figure that by June we will be tapped out of savings making these payments and probably screwed.

Thanksfor reading,
Craig

PS-if i remember any other details I will be sure to post.

[colahhh08]

Forgot to add that the 1st is with Indymac and 2nd with Specialized Loan Servicing.

[Mary Salzer]

Am I hearing properly - you wife did not work, however they submitted the loan request as if she was due to the fact that the credit report reflected an employer, albeit a former employer? Please tell me that the arrogant so and so's did that, please, tell me that the employment information for your wife is listed on the application (1003) submitted. Please, get out your closing documents and look for the final application (1003) and review it to determine if they reflected your wife working........that means that they did a fraudulent VVOE........oh boy how I hated those lying pieces of paper in the files.

Now excitement aside, who was your initial lender, broker, and all other culpable parties, appraisers, title companies, where there is smoke there is fire, and if one item as serious as that is misrepresented to compel the Lender to grant the loan request, others may have been too.

You need to a QWR and have these documents reviewed. Additionally, I am not able to see it on this screen - what state are you in.

[colahhh08]

Originally Posted by Poppy

Am I hearing properly - you wife did not work, however they submitted the loan request as if she was due to the fact that the credit report reflected an employer, albeit a former employer? Please tell me that the arrogant so and so's did that, please, tell me that the employment information for your wife is listed on the application (1003) submitted. Please, get out your closing documents and look for the final application (1003) and review it to determine if they reflected your wife working........that means that they did a fraudulent VVOE........oh boy how I hated those lying pieces of paper in the files.

Now excitement aside, who was your initial lender, broker, and all other culpable parties, appraisers, title companies, where there is smoke there is fire, and if one item as serious as that is misrepresented to compel the Lender to grant the loan request, others may have been too.

You need to a QWR and have these documents reviewed. Additionally, I am not able to see it on this screen - what state are you in.

hi Poppy,
I am actually retaining the services of Marshall Rosenbach as of 5 minutes ago!! I am in CA and we shall see what happens.
Thanks for the response.
I will keep you all updated.

Thanks-CRaig

[Mary Salzer]

Be proactive, be cautious, be calculated when you deal with this, try really hard, and I do know personally, how hard it is to address these difficult issues as unemotionally as possible. Make the best and most advantageous decisions that you can for your self and your family even if they are the toughest ones that you have ever faced.

I believe that you have chosen wisely, get the facts. Accurate data can be the best weapon in your defense.

[Moe]

Craig,

I have been dishing out free help online now for months and the best advice I have in a case like this when you know 100% that the loan officer, lender or broker did something shady, get legal help!!!!! Even if you had knowledge of this. You relied on this licensed person to guide you into the proper loan.

Instead this loan officer bended the rules to make the loan work. You should have never been placed in this loan. So, you should never be in this predicament. The loan should have been denied based on your financial situation.

I am sure that once you have these loan docs audited, you will find more "shady" and most likely "illegal? activity hidden on those papers and this can be the best defense to fight back.

I wish you the best and please let us know what happens with Marshall.

[colahhh08]

Originally Posted by Moe

Craig,

I have been dishing out free help online now for months and the best advice I have in a case like this when you know 100% that the loan officer, lender or broker did something shady, get legal help!!!!! Even if you had knowledge of this. You relied on this licensed person to guide you into the proper loan.

Instead this loan officer bended the rules to make the loan work. You should have never been placed in this loan. So, you should never be in this predicament. The loan should have been denied based on your financial situation.

I am sure that once you have these loan docs audited, you will find more "shady" and most likely "illegal? activity hidden on those papers and this can be the best defense to fight back.

I wish you the best and please let us know what happens with Marshall.

Thanks Moe! and Poppy

We qualified for other type of loans, albeit more monthly cash outlay, but we got from the broker what I am sure countless others heard. "this loan will give you a few years to build equity and become more fluid monthly, then you can refinance into a fixed loan, you will have higher FICO's, house will be worth more, etc." blah, blah, blah!

I have found out some interesting information about the broker we used that may or may not be relevant but shortly after we closed our loan, within 6 mos, there was a mass exodus from the firm. Not low level employees either, the manager of the firm, top level real estate agents, etc. The broker we used has, in addition to being a broker, a real estate division, a property management division, a builders division, etc.

Rumor has it that the employees who left had disagreements with management about how the business was being run!! I wonder if any of them would be willing to testify, if it gets that far.

Thank you for the advice and kind words. We will keep you up to date on developments. I am actually excited after speaking to Marshall and actually feel like we have a fighting chance of not losing our home. If we go down it WILL NOT be because we sat back and let them, we are fighting!!

Craig

PS - the one regret I have is that I did not take my parents advice and have an atty look over all the docs BEFORE we signed.
I was naive thinking the brokers were looking out for our best interests, oh boy!

[Mary Salzer]

What you qualified for and what you "got" rarely coincided, since the Broker did not make as much money from the vanilla product as he did from the exotic product. Pure and simple.....greed. People were sold on the smoke and mirrors products.

The reality here appears to be that we have both borrower fraud and real estate licensee fraud. Chances are you as the borrower will escape most of the ramifications relating to the fraud. The licensees should not (doesn't mean they will face the consequences however). Bottom line here is that I'd be talking to a lawyer. Hopefully the second wasn't refinanced as a result of the refi. That way it maintains its purchase money character and you will not be personally liable if the first forecloses and wipes it out (assuming the facts are as given and this is your personal residence located in California).

Daniel

[Mary Salzer]

Just checking in to make sure that you are digging up the "dirt". Let us know if we can add any assistance.

[colahhh08]

NOthing new to report. Marshall has all of our documents. It was interesting that when I went through everything before sending to him that I could not find a mortgage app in the packet and also none of our copies were signed, all we have is the copies we got at closing.

Our new payment of $4200 is due tomorrow and I dont know if we should pay it or continue paying the $1810 we have been paying and stash the rest away. Tapping into our savings we can make the payment for about 4-5 months but after that God forbid we need cash in an emergency we will be tapped!!
Any thoughts?

Craig

[mreedlaw]

You are entitled to signed copies of your documents if you want them - I would contact the settlement company that conducted our settlement and tell them that you need signed/notarized copies. Hope that the situation improves b/c it sounds like there is a large payment due that you had never planned on when getting this loan under highly suspect circumstances.

[Mary Salzer]

In my experience a partial payment is rarely accepted, so the decision is yours to make and determine if you want to wait and see if modification is the route or make the payment and bide you time on the issue of modification.

On the issue of the initial application....send a QWR (section 8 and just plain RESPA) to the Broker or their representative if they are out of business, the Secretary of State CA or Broker Licensing division should have that data on line in CA. They are supposed to keep your applications in a "safe" place for at least 3 years or in some places 7 years. Can't remember CA rules. Now that having been said the operative words are "supposed" and "safe", safe could have been the dumpster out back. Sorry to say that I kind of doubt that the shady characters hired a qualified archival system.

[colahhh08]

I was going to start a new thread to ask this question but didnt where to put it. Does anyone know if there is any way to withdraw all of a 401k while staying employed with your company. I have gotten the generic answers of,
1. You can take a hardship withdrawl, but you have to prove buying primary home, in default of current mortgage or medical hardship. We are in neither yet.
2. Quit my job(which would not be wise) and either withdraw all and get dinged with penalties or roll over to a type of IRA which I can withdraw money as needed and pay taxes on only what is used.
3. there is no 3,