Complaint Review: Homecomings Financial - GMAC Loan Servicing Ripoff Fraud - Dallas Texas

I can understand the amount of people frustrated that their mortgage company will not work with them. They can't afford their loans once they reset and they cannot refinance because they owe too much. Look at it this way. Say you made every payment ontime for the 2 years of your ARM. Now, your interest rate has gone up, and you are still able to make and are making every payment ontime. You cannot refinance because of the current mortgage conditions, but you are adhering to the agreement you made. Now, you get to hear about all these people who think they should get, or are getting a break. Their mortgage companies are working with them, lowering their interest rate, lowering their payments, etc., just because they cannot afford the higher payments (this isn't really happening, but say it did). What about you, who is adhering to the terms of the original contract? Shouldn't you win too? With that scenario, the mortgage companies may as well throw away all the contracts. Why should they give the break to those who cannot afford it? Or, say you got lucky and were able to refinance. You had to pay the $8000 or so closing costs, maybe add a little cash to close due to market changes, and your new interest rate isn't quite as great as you had with the ARM. However, you think that's great because now you have a 30 year fixed. Then you start hearing about those who are getting into trouble and cannot afford the interest rate adjustment, so they get their original rate back. You, who followed everything to a tee get screwed while those who did not adhere to their contract get everything. The only bummer is those who cannot refinance solely because their homes are no longer worth their mortgage balance. If you financed from late 2004 through 2007, the banks should be required to refinance your loan balance if you meet the other terms. After all, the bank loaned you $350,000 two years ago, and you still owe $350,000, why can't they refinance your loan at $350,000 even though your home is only worth $300,000? When the mortgage companies first began tightening their reins, many people paid that pre-payment penalty just to be able to refinance when the rules were less strict.

Although I can understand your point about consumers getting pressured into loans that they can not afford by shady brokers or lenders, and not fully understanding what it is that they may be agreeing to, I feel that many know and accept the fact that they have had the wool pulled over their eyes. The problem seems to lie with companies like Homecomings that only continue the process by not being willing to help those that have been caught in these situations. It seems to me that after reviewing a customer account and seeing that they are trying to work with you to keep their home, then Homecomings, and other companies should be willing to work with them. Instead, companies like Homecomings continue the process of milking all the money they can from struggling homeowners simply because they agreed to a unfair deal. As you said, Homecomings did not write the loan, but however they did purchase it, and thus now own the loan and should be able to adjust the loan any way they seem fit to earn a profit and still help the homeowners to keep their homes. Stop looking for the biggest profit that you can make from an individual and try to understand that hardships happen, and that mistakes were made. If this was done by more lenders then they will find that we all can benefit from working together to achieve the same goal. ie, earning a profit and keeping homeowners in their homes.

You mentioned the plan put into effect to help people in your situation. I am not absolutely positive about the terms of the plan, but I think they are: 1. You must have made all your payments ontime, AND 2. You must have at least 3% equity in your home, AND 3. You do not meet the debt/income ratio for the higher payment (in other words, you do not make enough money to qualify for the higher payments). Unless you have met all 3 criteria, they do not have to help you under the plan that Bush put into effect.

I have been a customer of Homecomings for 2 years. I am in the process of refinancing. I have nothing bad or good to say about Homecomings. I had some medical bills that were about to go into collection. Homecomings was the only mortgage company that was willing to help. Every other lender slammed the door in my face. I had a high interest rate, in 3 years the ARM would readjust to a higher rate. I knew what I was getting into before signing the papers. And I knew within a few years I would be in a better situation to refinance. Nobody held a gun to my head and said I had to take the terms. It was my decision and only my decision. It was risky and spent some sleepless nights worrying about what would happen when my ARM resets. I never say I was ripped off by Homecomings. They were helpful repairing my credit and rescued me out of a bad situation. If you haven't.. Maybe you should try calling.. 1-800-995-HOPE. Or a Mortgage counselor to see if you can get someone to negotiate with your lender for lower mortgage payments.

Rob, I tend to agree with Sportluva. I work in the mortgage industry and see too many people signing mortgage agreements that they haven't thought out well. I work for GMAC and have read a lot of complaints in here about us. I am slowly working through them and am trying to help those that I can. However, I think you just set out to slander a company that you feel is to blame, when in actuality it is not. You are not looking for help from anyone. You should have filed the complaint about the original company. First of all, you cannot blame GMAC/Homecomings for the pre-payment penalty. That is something that you signed for when you first got the loan through the other company. When GMAC bought the loan, we paid for that as well, which means that we have to charge it. GMAC does not charge a prepayment penalty for loans that they originate, so you would have known about it from your other company, and they should have told you up front prior to signing the loan. Again, that is not the fault of Homecomings. As for the interest rate...that too is something that you agreed on when you signed for your mortgage. People should take into account all of this before getting the loan. They do not take into account many of life's tragedies that befall people, causing financial hardship. On top of that, they assume that they can refinance when the teaser rate is over, but they fail to think that over the years things change. Credit scores go up and down, as do home prices. Income drops off, marriages fail, and kids grow up and have different needs. Having the ability to refinance in a few years does not guarantee it, it just means that if you keep your credit in good shape, your house stays in good shape, the housing market doesn't slump, and you don't lose your job, that we might be able to refinance you. I want to help, but I am a little angered at this point. After blaming Homecomings for a prepayment penalty that you agreed upon, an ARM that you agreed upon, and a failing housing market that won't allow you to refinance, I think that maybe you are just looking to blame someone else for your problems. Maybe instead of doing so, you could stop for a moment and realize that you brought this upon yourself. You are basically saying that Homecomings Financial set you up to fail on purpose so that they could foreclose on your home. Do you realize how silly that sounds? Is that what mortgage companies do? Help people get homes so that they can rip them away again? Then we have to pay for legal fees, improvements (if needed), and resale. We have to insure the property and pay taxes. What good does it do us to foreclose? If we keep you in the house, we make much more in the long run, and don't have the hassle of dealing with the actual property. I want to help you, but I don't see how I can. If you signed up for the prepayment penalty with your old finance company, then there is nothing anyone at Homecomings/GMAC can do. When we bought the loan from your old company, we paid for that as well. If we were to simply drop it, we would lose that money. It's not fair, but that wouldn't be good business either. As for the interest rate, I can look into it, but we don't just randomly change interest rates to amuse ourselves. Thank you.

I work in the mortgage industry for a brokerage and see people all the time buying houses they can't afford. The inherent purpose of an ARM is to get low payments for the first couple of years, assuming your income will increase and you can afford a higher rate in the future. If you don't foresee being able to afford a home at the adjusted rate, then try spending within your means (30% or less of total income for housing costs). You can not blame the lender for buying a home you are obviously unable to afford with today's rates. You need to blame your broker- if you didn't have a broker, then blame yourself. I'm sick of everyone blaming the lenders when it was their decision to sign the contract to purchase the home.