Tammy Becker, Reading PA

In 2000, we moved into a lovely 3 br., 2 bath home in my old neighborhood. We were going to rent with the option to buy. The rent was a little bit on the high end but the end result was the ability to have some money stocked towards the purchase price. So, it was an acceptable situation.
In 2005, we began looking to purchase the home. We did some minor research and contacted some companies regarding a mortgage. Then out of the blue (or so we thought) HOME 123 contacted us via telephone. We spoke with a gentleman that we felt confident with and began the process. We were approved for a 30 yr fixed rate mortgage at 7.25% interest. We followed the process all the way up to the appraisal. That’s when our lives began flipping all over the place.
All the homes in our area were going for well over $100,000 so it wasn’t too farfetched that we’d appraise for that. We were purchasing for $80,000. We rolled the closing cost in, given we had the extra equity. We were advised to do it as a refinance since that would allow us to use the LTV instead of the asking price. The appraisal came back $5000 less than expected. I couldn’t understand, given the appraiser was only at the home for 15 minutes and was never even inside the home.
We were advised that our interest rate would need to go up since the LTV was not what we expected. The payments would have to go up almost $100.00 a month. Since we weren’t escrowing our taxes and insurances that would be really hard to do. He advised us to go with a 2/28 ARM to keep the payments roughly the same and “just refinance in about a year or two”. His logic was that the housing market is going up “you should appraise for $100,000 within a year or so”.
We were never advised that the payments would change every six months and that we could max out at 15.45%. He simply left that part out because “you won’t be in the mortgage by then”.
Our mortgage originated with New Century Mortgage. One month after closing, our mortgage was transferred to Saxon Mortgage Services.
A year after we purchased, my husband got hit with an 18 month layoff. He was making really good money so we figured that he’d ride out the layoff. The potential for earning that somewhere else was slim. Plus, this particular company had been around for at least 100 years. It wasn’t like they were going to close.
We applied for a HEMAP loan through the Pennsylvania Federal Housing Authority. The HEMAP loan program would offset our mortgage payments for a total of 24 months.
July 2008 was the 24^th month of the HEMAP program. Employment rates were extremely high and the potential for employment was low. He hadn’t received a call back from his previous company, so he was looking for another job.
Over the next 2 years, we had tried to work with our mortgage company. We had applied for 5 modifications, in total. Our first modification was approved but we weren’t going to sign it because it contained false information and wrong calculations. No one was able to answer our questions. Thus, they say our modification was denied by them due to not returning documents.
We were told to re-apply for a modification. The second, third and forth were turned down for “insufficient funds to support regular payments”. If, by regular payments they mean the current payment, then that explains why we were requesting a modification.
The fifth mod request was closed so that they could refer us to HAMP.
We were denied modification then approved just two days later.
Documents were repeatedly faxed, sent via certified mail and also emailed, only to be lost, shredded or requested again. At one point, the documents that were there previously had gone missing and the ones that weren’t there before had miraculously appeared. I made it a point to print our entire name, loan number and sign every single document to avoid this possible error.
Our trial period began July 1, 2009. Our trial period payment was set for $1033.59 for the duration of the trial period. We had our trial period extended 1 during the process.
I had submitted a written request for our note. The note was sent to us along with documents for 4 other Saxon customers, including but not limited to legal documents for 2 separate law offices representing Saxon customers. I reported this action to the FBI.
Saxon repeatedly delayed notifying the Court house of our participation in the HAMP program and the stay as it pertains to our home. Our local court house was not notified until the day of the sale on two separate occasions.
In November 2009, our case was expedited and we had been officially modified by January 2010. The final modification payment was set at $868.84 for 30 yr.

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Comments

#14 One Year After the Nightmare... Where are we now? — Tammy Becker 2011-04-05 08:18

Update to my personal story: It's been 1 yr. since our HAMP modification. We survived most of the year. Our unemployment rate settled around 9% for our area, so many people are for the most part are 'just holding on'. Around September 2010, my husband's UC benefits ran out and we were left to struggle on one income. We kept afloat until the new year and filed our Taxes as fast as possible. We normally get a refund but this time, our ENTIRE refund went right to Saxon. A full $5000 was paid to bring our account near current. In January, we were blessed with yet another blow from Saxon. Apparently, our escrow account is short by a good 2800.00 a year. That's nearly 1 yr. of taxes. This in turn increases the total escrow needed monthly... thus our mortgage payment went up from $868.84 to $1029.00/mo. + any late fees. We are now, well over the standard HAMP %. This payment is nearly half of my total monthly income. The irritating phone calls still continue. I've decided - I refuse to deal with incompetent people. I simply tell them I don't discuss financial business over the phone, please contact me using the USPS, and I hang up. We are now only 1 mo. behind but with our local budget crisis, our property taxes will be going up. The only good side I see in all this is more businesses are hiring again. Life won't be as hard with two full time incomes. I was able to keep my Home - But the cost was staggering - Around $25,000 more. Good Luck

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#13 opiniion — Tammy Becker 2010-06-25 09:08

If they can't seem to manage paperwork, how on earth can we expect them to manage our accounts. Borrowers are expected to pay consistently but the only consistency you get with them is Constant Incompetence.

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#12 owner — Brenda 2010-06-24 20:55

I also have had problems with Saxon I have had to spend numerous hours on the phone with them and have had to send them several copies of the modification and have had to have them notorized as well. End of may received a letter from them that we didn't qualifiy for the hope program. In April of 2008 I lost my job and it was only my husbands income my house payments were at 1856 a month including my taxes. Found a job in August but with a 5.00 an hour pay cut, we called to see if they could help us and they said no. But then in Oct they told us that we would qualify for the Hope program and that is when the nightmare has began one person says yes they have everyhting, the next time no we need your taxes, then another time no we need your taxes I have sent triples of my taxes and then they request a form that I never heard of called tax places and they said they never heard of it. Just so angry with them they I have to pay such High payment and then cant pay other bills .

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#11 Would like to get in touch with you — Angie Burke 2010-06-16 08:31

Hi Tammy... you and I are in the same area. I admire all your hard work and tenacity and would like to get in touch. I am a member on beingmiddleclas s.org (a homeowner forum). I'd love for you to join the group and contribute as well as connect on a local level. Please drop by and I could private message you from there.

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#10 sheryl mccool — Sheryl McCool 2010-05-30 20:53

Tammy I to have had the saxon nightmare. Hang in there and watch them I have had to hire a lawyer to retain my home. I was flat out lied to and also delt with rude saxon reps.

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#9 Thanks Tammy, lost the note i wrote down after speaking to you — kim b. 2010-05-19 16:34

Tammy, my head is spinning...after we spoke last week, you know what i have been personally dealing with. besides saxon, deutsche bank & morgan stanley...all under investigation & saxon for scamming...i can go online & get just the deed for saxon or for where it first originated from...or all...lol..i know i wrote down what you told me to do, but, there is paperwork all over my office..i get so overwhelmed i close the door...i may have to call you this weekend...geez girl, you're all over the place and i can't keep up with you..but thanks so much for updating via e-mail every day...i may put you up for the weekend to help me here...lol..lata, kim

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#8 I'm honored.. — Tammy B 2010-04-30 14:34

Mike,

I am honored that you'd take the time to read my story. You've hit the nail on the head. I know we are victims of predatory lending and now mortgage servicing fraud. It's time that these companies realize we, the unhappy customers out number them.

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#7 We CAN win this, Tammy — Mike Dillon 2010-04-30 12:32

It just takes some education, tenacity and maybe a decent attorney. I've been fighting a fraudulent foreclosure on my home for almost 10 years now. The only reason that it's gone on this long is because when I started my fight, back in 2001, attorneys (and more importantly I) had little to no idea what was going on with mortgage servicers. Then Fairbanks hit me and we were off and running.

You may be surprised what a homeowner can do with just the basic knowledge. I just commented earlier that literally every FC that I've looked at this week - upwards of 30 of them - potentially have some serious flaw in the documents. The biggest decision a homeowner needs to make is whether they are willing to fight or not. Once that decisions is made, the education can begin should they decide that they want to fight back.

If your county registry of deeds is on line I can take a quick look at http://shamethebanks.org/#what's on file there if you like. Drop me a line anytime.

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#6 Wow..How can it get worse? — lynnesm 2010-04-30 11:33

Tammy B- Just read the article on rismedia.com..It makes sense in a (sick) way..Shame, Shame, Shame

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#5 kim b. — kim buttgereit 2010-04-30 10:19

Tammy, thanks for sending me this link..we along with all of our other new friend's have been fighting Saxon Mtg. Company wayyyyyyyy too long with no results, no return phone calls, rude comments by their reps & the constant loss of paperwork (our personal information) I am still in the fight & will not give up, especially after telling someone in the loan mod dept. one day & was hysterical on the phone when I told her that my son's were both just deployed 48 hours previous one in Afghan & the other in Iraq...she told me that it happens every day and to get over it...I did not get her name, but wish I did, because she would have paid some really big consequences..

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