|
|
Review 3/11/2011
|
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY...
We hired Guidance Mortgage under the assumption that they knew what they were doing. After receiving an e-mail from Gary Martin of other loan modifications they had performed and the assurance they could help us get a permanent loan modification. We were told by Gary they “were one of the leading firms in the country who handle mortgage debt analysis and negotiations” (e-mail 7/14/09).On 7/16/09 Gary E-mailed us a list of client savings examples. On 7/22/09 I asked Gary “we were reading that we should never pay upfront that it is a scam” his response was he would like to address this issue in person. So he called us and told us usually upfront charges are for paperwork processing, attorney’s review to make sure we qualify, phone calls, etc and they work with many clients and get permanent results. According to the letter we received from Guidance “they seek the best solution...That ensures long term financial savings with our multiple years of legal & mortgage banking experience.” Ha… Ha…We paid via AMX On 8/25/09 Christie acknowledged that the pre-approval was that of Bank of America and it was before the package was even reviewed and we should accept the trial offer. “In her experience we should accept the trial-what did we pay them for anyway?” What happened to Guidance negotiating? What kind of experience did she have anyway? I would like to see just exactly what experience she had since she no longer works for the company. On 9/4/09 I explained to Christie cannot pay both Guidance & the mortgage – $2,500.00 was taken out of credit cards. 9/23/09 Christie said, “If you prefer to be late it will help your case.” What desperate person would not want to do everything to help their case especially when we are really in a bind now? According to Christie Schmidt we were in line for the MHA program & waiting to be assigned a negotiator it would take 30-45 days as of 9/23/09 Finally, after 5 months 12/2/09 we received a temporary trial period of $1,501.02 from $1,783.78
In February I began e-mailing Guidance again, what is going on? Our trial period is almost up. April 19th Amber Fraley said “We can certainly try to have your NET income taken into consideration; they normally base their numbers on Gross Income which 31% of your gross income. We did not meet the criteria for the MHA Obama program. June 2, 2010 we received a letter from Bank of America stating we did not qualify for the 31% because of our gross which was verified @ 5,738.62.
Why didn’t Guidance a leading firm that handles mortgage debt analysis and negotiations know this from the get? They got our W-2’s & one month of check stubs in July 09. On June 4th we received a notice to accelerate. What Mr. Rosenstein’s team did manage to do was increase our payment from our beginning monthly payment of 1,783.78 to 1,805.61 for the repayment plan of a 5.875%. Our credit rating went from over 800 to 640.
The saga continued with Amber telling us on 7/6/10 (11) that she contacted the bank and they agreed we should qualify and they granted the dispute and reopened the review but we continued to received phone calls and foreclosure letters. And Amber said “we are very positive about your qualifications.”
During that time we received threatening calls and letters from from Bank of America. There were over 90 e-mails back and forth to Guidance and that is not including the phone calls we made to them Bank of America and Credit Reporting agencies trying to fix our credit. The only reason they supposedly called Bank of America was due to our continued instance requesting information. We are not even sure they actually contacted Bank of America because when we called there was no note of their attempts on our account.
So, after waiting 1 year without any results but bad credit report, foreclosure notices, a refusal of bank of America to take our temporary payment in August, much frustration and less our $2,500.00 for nothing… we searched out other avenues. We found NID Housing. We met Lourdes @ NID on August 2nd. After meeting with NID we were informed we DID not qualify for the for the Obama (MHA) program because we did not meet the criteria, however they sent the paperwork requesting a traditional loan modification and that can range of different programs and let’s see what they offer. She gave us a number to call and told us to call once a week-make sure you are still in review and ask if they need anything else.
NID based it on our NET. We received notification from Bank of America that NID’s paperwork was received and we were in review. We were assigned a negotiator on 8/9/10 Kevin Harrell. On August 3 we sent a certified letter to Guidance requesting our money back because it was apparent they did not know what they were doing or desired to complete the work they were hired to do.
We received notification on September 30th that we will be receiving a traditional loan modification of $1,489.50 per month at 3.375% for the first 5 years and the remainder of the loan will be 4.375%. It took NID 60 days to accomplish this task……It all comes down to know what you are doing and applying the proper procedure which Guidance did not…..
I compare what happen to asking for a scholarship. If you have musical talents surely you would not ask for an athletic scholarship or if you had athletic abilities you would not ask for a musical scholarship. Common sense should enter the picture at some point. You first need to know what the criteria is, then, apply that to the correct application.
When we asked for our money back and quoted the law which prohibits collection of advance fees, he said “it was not in affect when we signed the agreement (in affect October 09) and they do not guarantee results” but I got off the internet they are still requiring a deposit of 695.00 (16 & 17). Along with the denial letter was a list of charges. So, why when Legal reviewed the file on 7/31/09 why did they not see we would not have qualified for the MHA Obama plan for what they were applying for? When my husband told Mr. Rosenstein that our credit was bad he said “he could refer us to a bankruptcy lawyer.” What the heck…the only bill we have ever had is our mortgage why would we file bankruptcy…
We filed a small claim against Mr. Rosenstein and had a heck of a time serving him, the certified mail was refused, so we had to hire a process server then, his secretary said she was going to throw the service away. He posted-poned the hearing date twice. We had to pay for court fees, certified mail & $35.98 for the process server. On 1/19/11 Mr. Rosenstein had called my husband to “negotiate.” He wanted us to settle by sending us his airfare money in lieu of our $2,500.00, court fees of $60.00 and process server money. We were shocked when our dispute in small claims came back at Defendant does not owe plaintiff....
Paula W. had the same results as we did 00000. There have been several lawyers that have lost their licenses due to in-scrupulous loan modification activities and over 1,800 are under active investigations which one of those will be Mr. Rosenstein. According to the Federal Trade Commission “avoid business, or organization that guarantee you a new mortgage or advise you to stop paying your mortgage. They are just out to make a fast buck. And cut off dealings if someone insists on a fee in advance. “ If we would have known this before we would never had paid one penny to Guidance.
We filed a complaint with the State Bar association but were rejected. Where is the justice. These lawyers stick together. I we had to do over again would never pay a lawyer nothing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|