'Hope Now' Hot Line Frustrates Borrowers Needing Help Now

THERE NOT GOING TO HELP YOUR NOT BEAR STEARNS ALL YOU CAN DO IS WISH THEM ALL CANCER THEN LET GOD HAVE AT THE CROOKS BUSH WHAT DOSE HE CARE HE HAS A HOME

There are a lot of misconceptions about the Hope Hotline. First of all, it has been in existence for almost 8 years. President Bush did not start our service, but he is trying to bring more people to it for help. The service you are reaching when you call 888-995-Hope is a free housing counseling service to help people explore options and get connected to any available resources. No one in our organization is promising to get your loan modified. That is up to your mortgage company and we are here to help you with that push if that option seems like the best one for you. It is sad to say that there are a lot of people who just cant understand what they got themselves into and are also not realizing how mentally and physically sick they are making themselves fighting through a hopeless situation. We have the task of trying to help these people understand that they can recover and improve their quality of life. A lot of times that means getting out of the current situation into a new one. The bottom line is that we are here to help in any way possible.

I believe the Hope Now plan wil work, but only for a very few. I have a mortgage currently at 9.25% The rate is exorbitantly high and will adjust higher in two years. Hope now put me in contact with my servicer and they moved very quickly on my case. I actually thought they were going to help me, then they called and told me I made too much money. Well, I have been working very hard to afford my payments so , naturally I have made more money. The problem is that my home value is more than $100,000.00 less than the amount of the note. If I walk away, add $50,000 to that to forclose and the investors take a $150,000 hit. So why would they not want to cut my 9.25% rate to say 6 or 7%, eliminate the rate adjustment and get their payments on-time every month for the life of the loan? The problem with hopenow and every other "cooperative" effort to save homeowners is that the servicers and investors don't want to give up any profit, not one dime, in order to help strave off this crisis facing our entire country. Until they are willing to meet homeowners in the middle with a "win-win" attitude, the forclosure crisis will continue.

I recently called the "Hope Now" hot line in hope that they would actually have some kind of logical solution to our problem. We're in trouble because I lost my job, so we lost 1/2 our income. My husband still has his job but it doesn't pay enough even with him working 15+ hours of OT to live on here in MA. The people at Hope Now told me our best option was to try to sell our house before we lose it and move someplace less expensive to live. When I pointed out that my husband, who is a factory worker, still has a job here and that we could not afford to rent because local rents are more than our mortgage, I was told again that we should move someplace less expensive where both my husband and I might stand a better chance of finding new jobs. I mentioned that we were both over 50 and starting over in a new place where we wouldn't know anyone would be a hardship for us. Finally I was given the name and number of 2 agencies in MA, neither of which was in my local area, and told to call them to get help with re-homing. I did call both and even though neither could help us because they weren't in our area, through them, I did eventually get connected with the group in my city that should have been provided to me by Hope Now in the first place. Unfortunately they don't deal with re-homing people either, they try to help people work with their lender. They were able to provide me with some other contacts to try to help us sell our house before we lose everything. Regardless of if we manage to sell the house and walk away with some money or the bank takes it and we lose everything, we still have no place to go.

Very well put Hugh. That is my experience as well. The banks can't seem to step back from their business as usual perspectives to rationally deal with the situation that is now unfolding. And unfortunately, Hope Now doesn't seem to have either the authority or the influence to be of real value, and seems to be little more than a referral service designed to give the mortgage industry some appearance of credibility in their current public relations crisis....How did the writer put it " full of sound and fury; signifying nothing."

I work for a company that has an 800 phone number close to the Hope Now number, sometimes all 8 incoming lines are full of Hope Now callers. I know the volume of people out there seeking help.

I am friends with a person who has her own mortgage company, she use to do 2 to 3 loans a month, now 1 loan every 4 to 5 months. She receives probably 2 to 3 calls a day from people needing home loans, however, unless it is a new purchase, the home will not appraise for more than what is currently owed. People are given the false impression that housing values have dropped only 20% in value or so, that is just someone's fantasy.

My home was purchased for $208,000 (a distressed price) in 2000. After a new roof, new windows, new furnace, all new baths, all new doors, new kitchen and appliances, all new floors through out, it appraised for $280,000 in 2006, Today its valued at $170,000 in Troy, MI, an area supposedly only lightly effected by the price pull back, a 40% price drop! What can Hope Now do for people with this problem? Any Realtor or Appraiser will tell you Foreclosures are driving the market.

Point is, nearly everybody is upside down today and the value of homes are primarily being driven into the ground by Foreclosures. Many homeowners are either in Arms that are re-setting or were re-financed into fixed mortgages that had 5 yr. balloons. Now here in Michigan, unemployment is another major factor.

So what is a person to do...? You need a stronger credit score to qualify for a home loan today, your home will not appraise for its debit, you or your spouse or both are either working less hours or unemployed, your not getting raises, and your paying more for everything.

Just how is Hope Now going to help??? To quote Jim Creamer "They have no clue!"

The Banks can and will absorb these losses, and it appears they want to. They may cry a little, but in the long run, they are the only element in this equation that can do anything to cure the problem. They do not want to or they would have already done something. They would rather pay Trott & Trott piles of money to foreclose and then offer foreclosed properties for as little as $1.