Sunday, December 13, 2009

Financial Hole Becomes Bigger For Struggling Homeowner After Hiring Loan Modification Outfit That Pocketed $2.5K By Promising Help

In San Antonio, Texas, the San Antonio Express News reports:
  • When family medical bills soared, Norma Baker missed a mortgage payment. And when she decided to rectify that financial slip, she and her husband hired a San Antonio mortgage loan modification company to negotiate with Wells Fargo on their behalf. The firm, Xpert Loan Modifications, charged the Bakers $2,500 upfront for its services. But now the Bakers owe the bank around $9,000 and face foreclosure in January.

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  • Miguel Gonzalez of Xpert Loan Modifications said he has successfully guided many other families through loan modifications, and that his company provides a valuable service to people who don't have the expertise or time to call the banks themselves. “I didn't just pop up and say, ‘I'm going to scam people,'” said Gonzalez. “They are going to be in the house if she would just let us do our job.” The fee compensates Gonzalez for his work and will be used to hire an attorney,(1) if needed, to try to stop the Baker's foreclosure, he said.

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  • Baker said Wells Fargo recently told her there was no loan modification in the works for her property. She is concerned that her family could end up homeless next month.

For more, see Homeowners' woes unresolved.

(1) If the rules in Texas are anything like the rules in California, Florida, Ohio or other states, this character risks being accused of unlicensed practice of law for conduct as an intermediary in hiring out an attorney to represent the homeowner. An attorney taking a case on this basis also risks being slammed for aiding a non-lawyer in the unlicensed/unauthorized pratcice of law, among other things. See:

posted by Home Equity Theft Reporter at 4:04 AM