VERY BAD NEWS for Homeowners with BANK OF AMERICA (BAC) LOANS facing FORECLOSURE

Dear Readers:

Today, Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America announced that the moratorium on foreclosures by Bank of America is at an end.  She stated that in the month of December Bank of America intends to foreclose on 16,000 homes within the next ten days.  However, they will observe a "holiday suspension" of sales and evictions from Dec. 20 to Jan. 2.

My friends if your are scheduled for a foreclosure sale within the next 10 days or in the early part of January, I URGE you to meet with a BANKRUPTCY attorney, who can help you come up with a plan in which to either save your home from foreclosure, or alternatively recommend short-sale or eviction defense proceedings to help you maximize the amount of time you have left in your home. 

If you know that there is no way to save your house from foreclosure, then the economic goal should be to stay in your home as long as legally possible.  The longer you can stay in your home without making a mortgage payment is the more money you save to move out.

Many people with whom I have consulted tell me that their children are able to buy new family homes using the money they save.  Then they are able to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 and eliminate the balance of their debt and achieve a fresh start.

I cannot tell you how important it is to PLEASE CONSULT AN ATTORNEY IN YOUR COMMUNITY immediately so that you can develop a strategy that will improve your financial future.  For many of my clients that strategy does not include a bankruptcy.  So if you are afraid or embarrassed about bankruptcy, you owe it to yourself and to your family to consult with an attorney.  THE CONSULTATION at the Law Offices of R. Grace Rodriguez are always free!

Remember if you have a Bank of America loan and you are facing foreclosure, the MORATORIUM IS OVER!!!  Get HELP NOW while you can!

Bank of America headed for Trouble ... or are they???

Dear Readers:  

 

       I have a client who works at Bank of America who saw a memo posted around the loan modification department that while loan modifications continue to be processed, they will no longer be continuing foreclosure sales in California.  Now it is uncertain if that applies to all of Bank of America or not but take a look at this downward spiral that Bank of America is facing:

 

Oct. 19, 2010 - Because of the Credit Card and Debit Card rules sponsored by Senator Durbin, Bank of America Corp. reported today a loss of $7.6 billion in the third quarter, as it took a writedown of more than $10 billion to prepare for new legislation that it says could virtually wipe out its debit card revenue. 
Bank of America currently makes about $2.9 billion annually in debit-card revenue, and says it expects to have to shed up to 80 percent, or about $2.3 billion. The $10.4 billion writedown is an accounting charge that reduces the goodwill value of the card services unit. BUT keep in mind, the Merchant's Payments Coalition pointed the finger at BofA stating that it was only trying to divert attention away from its foreclosure problems.  Interestingly, the mortgage unit lost $344 million this year, as opposed to the $1.6 BILLION that it lost last year. 

But what's putting some pressure here at home to not provide loan modifications in my opinion is the new capital requirements that banks are having to meet wherein they must maintain higher liquidity and capital levels under the Basel III international regulations.  So in order to meet those requirements. . . FORECLOSURE FORECLOSURE FORECOSURE!  Makes more capital available and increased liquidity!

But tell me something readers. . . .  Bloomberg Business Week writers Dawn Kopecki and Michael J. Moore writing on October 28, 2010 that it's going to be the worst decade for banks since the Great Depression....

YET:  On November 5, 2010, David Frank from Forex said that Bank of America's stocks are UP almost 2 percentage points since the Federal Reserve Board announced that the banks could increase dividend payments. 

HOW is it possible that Bank of America on one hand is posting devastating losses and on the brink of needing bail out funds from the federal government. . . yet there is a plan to pay dividends to its investors.  Someone had to lobby for that change with the Federal Reserve Board. 

If I were a betting lawyer, I would say that with the foreclosures that Bank of America have been snatching up in a race to beat congress from taking action to stop their foreclosure frenzy.  The properties they seize for themselves end up building a portfolio that when sold create liquidity for the bank.  But if you ever have attended a foreclosure auction, there are plenty of cash rich investors coming in and creating bidding wars.  They are not getting "DEALS" on these homes as much as you would expect.

My advice, if you have money, hold on to it.  The roller coaster ride is not over yet, we have not hit bottom.  From an investment point of view, Bank of America attracts more investors as it gets troubled assets off the books.  The losses posted in the mortgage department that I referenced in this article, reflect, that Bank of America took its losses up front.  Took it's tax deductions for the losses up front.  Now that they show fewer losses this year, sadly wealthy investors will flock to Bank of America seeing the dramatic drop in losses.

Like my good friend Melody always says. . . I'm just saying. . . .

HAMP Program Is a Dismal Failure - Bank of America one of the worst in providing loan modifications to its customers. BOYCOTT BofA NOW!

Alan White recently reported "Million homeowners have been lured into temporary payment plans with false promises of permanent loan restructuring.  After 11 months, only one in ten has had their mortgage permanently modified.  More disturbing is the fact that these one million homeowners in trial mods, i.e. short-term payment plans, were given a deadine of January 31 to convert to a permanent mod. Treasury reports that about 33% of those who have been in trial payments for three months or more have missed payments.  The other two-thirds are making their payments.  That means that more than 500,000 homeowners are in trial modifications, making payments on time, but about to be kicked out of the program, presumably because of missing paperwork."

If you are going to save your house bankruptcy is about the only way to make it affordable.  Look at the numbers.   Bank of America has only completed 3200 loan modifications since the inception of the HAMP program.  This statistic is frightening in light of the fact that they took over most of the Countrywide Loans.  Many of the Countrywide loans were predatory and so declared by California's state attorney general in a lawsuit instituted in 2009.

There is just no way around us.  President Obama has abandoned bankruptcy reform that would allow you to reduce your mortgages to the fair market value of your home.  If you intend to keep your home and you can afford to make the mortgage payments on the first mortgage IF we can eliminate your credit card debit, refinance your motor vehicle to a better interest rate and reduce the amount owed to the present value of the vehicle then file your bankruptcy before its too late.  In Chapter 13 Bankruptcy you have to pay back all of the money you are behind on your first mortgage.  However you get five years to do it.    

Stop wasting time asking the bank for something they just aren't too likely to give you.  See any reputable bankruptcy attorney in your community immediately.