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| Home Front Economy |
| Trouble Paying Mortgage? Try Eating Less! |
| 2008-07-13 |
| Incredible advice from someone in the mortgage business. From TFA: Behind on his payments and fearful of losing his home of 16 years — a 900-square-foot bungalow in Wilmington, N.C. — Mr. Bailey had spent the previous six months unsuccessfully lobbying Countrywide, at the time the nation’s largest home lender and loan servicer. Mr. Bailey, 41, promised in his e-mail message that he would pay every nickel he owed if Countrywide would modify his mortgage in a way that allowed him to keep his home. He sent the message to a grab bag of Countrywide e-mail addresses, which he had received from www.LoanSafe.org, an online forum for borrowers. Among the recipients of his e-mail was someone he had never heard of before: Angelo R. Mozilo, Countrywide’s co-founder and chief executive. Lo and behold, Mr. Mozilo replied — inadvertently, as it turned out. “This is unbelievable,” Mr. Mozilo said in his message. “Most of these letters now have the same wording. Obviously they are being counseled by some other person or by the Internet. Disgusting.” Within days, Mr. Mozilo’s e-mail was widely circulated on the Internet and in the news media, offering a rare instance when candid comments from a powerful C.E.O. entered the public realm. For Mr. Bailey, however, the disdain that Mr. Mozilo expressed was depressingly familiar. After all, Mr. Bailey had received little else from Countrywide after he began trying to renegotiate an adjustable-rate loan that he could no longer afford. Until then, he says, the only guidance the lender provided was a suggestion from an employee of Countrywide’s “home retention team” that he cut back on groceries to pay his mortgage. “I told her that I probably spend $10 a day on groceries,” Mr. Bailey recalls. “And she said ‘Maybe you can eat less.’ ” |
| Posted by:Flins Pheque3254 |
| #5 Hey, A little Tabasco sauce on those loan papers and you got a tasty lunch. Got to be at least 50 pages. Every thing taste better with Tabasco I know that it works with "C" rats and its under $10 |
| Posted by: Chief 2008-07-13 22:12 |
| #4 “This is unbelievable,” Mr. Mozilo said in his message. “Most of these letters now have the same wording. Obviously they are being counseled by some other person or by the Internet. Disgusting.” No Mr. Mozilo... HERE is "DISGUSTING." |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-07-13 20:55 |
| #3 I wonder if it has occurred to the Democrats that their jacking up of the price of oil over the years by denying areas to production has caused people to default on mortgages because they need the money to get to work. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-07-13 18:54 |
| #2 Make sure the loan is non-recourse and jingle mail the keys in. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-07-13 17:18 |
| #1 I wonder if they'd give similar advice to Senator Dodd? |
| Posted by: DMFD 2008-07-13 16:42 |