Top 10 Riskiest Areas for Mortgage Loans

I am a HRC and Real Estate Broker in Florida and work with many borrowers in default who would be able to continue making payments if lenders would work with them before they become delinquent; many are business people of above average intelligence who have sent multiple letters & correspondence to lenders advising of potential problems such an impending job loss, etc. and offered solutions such as deferring interest, etc. No one is asking for a free ride! Lenders' Loss Mitigation Departments (usually manned by a bunch of "cubicle monkeys" making minimum wage and possessing minimal English language speaking abilities in Sri Lanka, India, etc.) however won't even communicate with a homeowner/borrower unless in default by three or four months? There is good business sense? What am I missing? By that time the homeowner's credit rating is a "poor" minus and homeowner by then has resigned himself to loosing an "asset" that's not worth anything anymore anyway! Why would anyone after being harassed by phone, struggling anyway at that point want to cooperate with a lender that by now has additionally threatened law suits, assessed fines and penalties and has now created a situation (previously manageable or resolvable) that is too overwhelming for most to handle? Most of the people with whom I work, are hard working middle and upper middle class Americans, who are literally stuck now! I also sell and manage REOs and with as many as 10,000 plus properties for sale in this area, it is beyond puzzling that lenders – let me rephrase, their assigned agents who are usually a bunch of middle men firms (also profiting) - are also rejecting cash offers and rather sit on /hold the assets. Those properties then end up being sold 3-6 months later (during which time the actual owner/lenders/investors have accrued additional holding & management costs) for far less than the initially offered cash purchase amounts. Maybe lenders need to quit outsourcing, keep jobs here and actually be responsible to their investors by starting to handle/manage their own assets! Cut out the middle man and put educated, informed decision makers in charge not subjects who never possess a last name, never know the names of their supervisory personnel, and definitely are not even entrusted their own phone extension.

Gundula Coleman, Broker-Associate

Gundula Coleman of FL 2:20PM September 05, 2008