Complaint Review: Mac-Clair Mortgage - Flint Michigan

I could go on for days about how this company ruined my life so I will try and keep it short and to the point.  I live in Michigan, the economy is harder than ever.  I make almost half of what I made several years ago.  However I was still making all of my payments on time, things were just very tight for me.  I was not looking for an answer other than possibly to make more money.  A friend from work told me about this company that was doing a mortgage rescue for him.  He said the guy would get his interest rate down less than a percent for 5 years, and then it would go up a point every year after that.  While this may all be true, the guy (James Martinez) guaranteed him that his credit would not be affected.  He said it had nothing to do with our credit, it was a government program to help out people who have had their income cut back.  He said banks get tons of incentives and wanted people get on the program.  It all seemed a little strange to me so I went and checked it out myself. 

I talked to the same guy, and he told me the exact same thing.  He convinced me it was a perfectly legit program without any drawbacks and I would be stupid not to do it.  I agreed, I mean, cutting a couple hundred dollars off of my bills would be great.  This was not something that was necessary, but definitely sounded fool-proof.  So me and my buddy (Mike Aiken) paid James a deposit of $800 each to start the restructure process.  He made us feel completely confident and relieved we didnt have to be so tight with our money anymore.  This process started for both of us on May 2009.  James and I kept in touch and I would bring in documents showing that I was struggling and that I had lost an enormous amount of money coming in with the recession.  I got a call to come in sometime in June, James said he had some great news for me.  I hurried and went to the office that is close to my house.  He said I was in the litigation process, I had an officer on it, and it shouldn't be long until my mortgage was fixed. 

I was so excited, I couldnt wait for some debt relief.  He then told me that I did not need to make anymore payments until after the litigation was over.  I was at first a little suspicious of this, but James was being extremely convincing that I didnt need to make payments and that it would have no affect on my credit what-so-ever because it was in litigation and nobody was expecting payments.  He assured me that I would have my new mortgage in a month or so and just take care of some debt with the money I had saved up for the up coming payment.  I got a call from my friend Mike, telling me he had said the exact same thing.  So we were both feeling great about the situation.  With the economy so tuff in Michigan, it seemed like Obama had stepped up and solved a huge problem we were dealing with.  We would get our payment down, our outstanding credit we had wouldnt be affected, and we could live some what comfortably again like we had a few years back.  

Now for the most sickening part of all this.  I am 26 now, was 23 when I bought the house.  I made almost 50,000 as a 23 year old kid with no diploma.  I had a credit score of almost 800 when I purchased my house.  I have never been late on a single payment, not even one day, in fact I pay them in advance.  I have had several loans, all paid off, and I have two credit cards that have low interest with almost 30,000 of credit available on them with some money on them with the tough economy but nothing I couldnt handle as a payment.  Mike owns three houses, rents out two, and was modifying his main house.  He is 30, and has an amazing credit score as well.  He has put blood, sweat, and tears into getting those houses so dont think he just has a lot of money.  He is trying to build an empire with what little he has.  A couple months go by and were both getting worried.  I go in to see James and ask if I should be making payments or what?  I ask how far are we into the process and is everything going ok. 

At this point I'm starting to get a little nervous because he said it would be a month or two and we are almost 6 months into this.  I continously bring him check stubs, bank statements, utility bills, credit card statements.  Finally around November I get the call, he tells me its all set just come down and sign.  Im estatic at this point.  I go down, sign the paper work, pay James another $400 with only $400 left to pay.  $1600 total is well worth at least 5 years of a couple hundred off my payment.  I am told I am in a trial period, make sure I make all my payments on time, and it will be finalized in 3 months.  Now, one might ask, wasnt the bank trying to get in contact with you and tell you, you were being delinquent if it was affecting your credit?  No, they weren't.  It worked out in the perfect scenario that completely ruined my credit without even knowing what was going on.  Mike never gets his restructure, he has to start making payments again and his bank is killing him with late fees.  His credit is destroyed, he cant get a loan and may lose everything.  I find out my credit card companys caught wind of this and froze my cards. 

Now, in our business we get lump sums of money and sometimes I have to live off my credit cards to survive.  Its never a problem because I just pay them off when I get my lump sum.  Well, they froze, I couldn't pay a lot of bills I normally just throw on the CC and my credit went from 750 to 650 after the restructure and now around 500.  I pleaded with my CC company, I had been with them for 10 years never late on a single payment.  They explained that if I payed off the balance they would unfreeze the card.  Amazingly my other CC did the exact same thing.  So while my mortgage was payable now, I wasnt able to pay other bills until I got my money from work.  I became so depressed and frustrated over this, I almost wanted to give up.  I went from struggling a little bit with the tough economy, to on top of the world with a new mortgage, to wanting to end my own life. 

Well the trial period started in November, my bank (National City) somehow sold the Mortgage to Green Tree who I have never heard of.  They arent even in my state.  Green Tree is now stalling the trial period that was supposed to take 3 months as long as I just made my payments.  Well its almost April and things arent looking good.  On top of all this, here is the completely shady part.  Mac-clair mortgage, renamed the building to MC modifications.  They claim James is no longer with the company, and I'd like to guess thats because he ruined several peoples lives.  The best part is, some new girl from MC modifications is harrassing me for $800 now!  She apparently doesnt know I've already made a payment of $400, says shes sorry about ruining my credit and my life.  She hopes she can get the modification to go through.  Are you FKING SERIOUS?   I will challenge anyone to a story that is more horrible than mine.  It was an insane chain of events that I feel the only explanation is God is punishing me. 

I went from doing great, to potentially homeless with a ton of freaking debt.    I tried calling Mac-Clair but they obviously know nothing about it.  They have no affiliation with MC modifications.  MC, Mac-Clair???  They must obviously realize Im stupid by now.  Find me a lawyer that will take this case and rip these assholes a new one.  I dont care if I dont get a penny, I just dont have a penny to give.  Me and Mike have several documents, check copies to both companies names, and conversations to prove that they blatently lied to get our business and ruined our lives.  James is no longer around for me to throw through a wall, so hopefully legal action can be taken.  It is so much more than this but I am tired of talking.  Most ridiculous thing Ive ever heard in my life.  That was as short as I could keep it with rage building up as I type.