This is the time of year when strange and wonderful things happen. A time for magic and miracles, when the extraordinary becomes the ordinary.
Over the last few months we have been trying desperately to find some way to save our home. While finishing the last of the college courses for my Associates Degree, I’ve been applying for jobs. We’ve got a group of Attorneys working on a law suit and trying to get the title to the house back. I even set up a web site to try to collect enough money to buy the house back from the people trying to sell it out from under us. Unfortunately, as the holidays hurtle towards us, we still have no answers. Getting through school has taken way to long, jobs are still way to scarce, the law works way too slowly and I couldn’t even find 1,000 people willing to donate a dollar each to us, never mind the 165,000 we needed to buy the house back. Christmas is just days away; people are rushing around shopping, going to parties, saying Happy Holidays. My husband and I haven’t had a happy holiday since 2002, when I had a job.
To the hand full of people who stepped up to help us by donating money, thank you so much. You have no Idea how much it means.
To the two media sources, TV 38 and WCCA TV 13, who saw fit to publicize our plight, thank you, for having the integrity to report news, not script it.
To the media sources, celebrities, corporations, government officials and individuals I appealed to over those months, who chose to ignore us and our plight, I sincerely hope that you, your friends, families and loved ones never find themselves in the same kind of untenable situation. Or, if any of you do, that you find more sympathetic and generous people than we did. (If you read any of the letters or information I sent and posted you will know that we aren’t just losing our home in an ordinary foreclosure.)
Our house, our home, is set to be auctioned off on January 9th 2008.
Partly because of those same holidays, I just don’t see any way out of this dilemma, there isn’t enough time. The Attorneys would have to get the title to the house back, I’d have to get a good paying job and we’d have to work something out with the bank in just over ten business days. Things just don’t happen that quickly in our modern, fast paced world. Sadly, fifty or so years ago you could have…things were less complicated,
So, unless someone out there has a miracle in their pocket, we’re out of time, out of luck and out of hope.
Oh, regardless of everything we’ve been through, and are going through,
Happy Holidays.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Disappointed
I really don’t know which is more disappointing. Loosing the house on October 30 or not being able to find 165,000 people willing to donate $1.00 to a fellow human being. I’ve contacted TV stations, radio stations, news papers, corporations, politicians, even people on the street. I’ve sent out hundreds of emails and I have to say the return has been really pathetic.
The estimated population of Massachusetts in 2006 was 6,437,193. If only 1 out of every 40 people in my own state donated $1.00 I would have enough money to save the house.
The estimated population for the entire US in 2006 was 299,398,484. That amounts to one person out of every 1814.
Donations that I’ve received from countries outside the United States have accounted for almost 1/3 of all the donations I’ve gotten to date. Have we as a nation become so stingy that we can spend $1.00 in gas to drive to our favorite coffee shop for a cup of coffee but we can’t make a charitable gesture to our fellow man?
Our house has become more than just a home to us; it’s become a symbol of our being able to triumph over a fraudulent monster that’s preying on ordinary people. People like us, people like you. How can you not care? How many of you out there are saying, there but for the grace of God go I? That’s happening to me now, that happened to me and I wish someone had stood up then or I know someone who’s in that situation. When someone stands up and says ‘Enough! I’m not going to let these people get away with taking advantage of me or anyone else like me any more.” We should rally around that person and show some support. I’ve seen very little support. I’ve gotten sympathy, thank you very much but I don’t need your sympathy. I have asked over and over, if you can’t or won’t donate a dollar, please give us some publicity, Talk about us, create a link to us from your web site, contact your local news paper or TV station and suggest they do a story about us. I’ve also asked that any media that covers us asks the people listening or watching to contact us if they’re being victimized by a foreclosure rescue scam. We will do what we can to help you.
When did an obtuse 19 year old woman with a blinking circuit board and a wad of clay become more news worthy than an average citizen taking on modern day gangsters who are bilking thousands of people out of millions of dollars?
The estimated population of Massachusetts in 2006 was 6,437,193. If only 1 out of every 40 people in my own state donated $1.00 I would have enough money to save the house.
The estimated population for the entire US in 2006 was 299,398,484. That amounts to one person out of every 1814.
Donations that I’ve received from countries outside the United States have accounted for almost 1/3 of all the donations I’ve gotten to date. Have we as a nation become so stingy that we can spend $1.00 in gas to drive to our favorite coffee shop for a cup of coffee but we can’t make a charitable gesture to our fellow man?
Our house has become more than just a home to us; it’s become a symbol of our being able to triumph over a fraudulent monster that’s preying on ordinary people. People like us, people like you. How can you not care? How many of you out there are saying, there but for the grace of God go I? That’s happening to me now, that happened to me and I wish someone had stood up then or I know someone who’s in that situation. When someone stands up and says ‘Enough! I’m not going to let these people get away with taking advantage of me or anyone else like me any more.” We should rally around that person and show some support. I’ve seen very little support. I’ve gotten sympathy, thank you very much but I don’t need your sympathy. I have asked over and over, if you can’t or won’t donate a dollar, please give us some publicity, Talk about us, create a link to us from your web site, contact your local news paper or TV station and suggest they do a story about us. I’ve also asked that any media that covers us asks the people listening or watching to contact us if they’re being victimized by a foreclosure rescue scam. We will do what we can to help you.
When did an obtuse 19 year old woman with a blinking circuit board and a wad of clay become more news worthy than an average citizen taking on modern day gangsters who are bilking thousands of people out of millions of dollars?
Monday, September 17, 2007
Creative = Deceptive?
When did the word 'Creative' become synonymous with deception? In some cases it isn't even as subtle as deception it's outright illegal. I looked up Creative and found it was equal to words like Imaginative, Resourceful, Inventive, Productive and Inspired. These words all seem to imply positive helpful and constructive qualities. Deception, on the other hand relates to Scam, Scheme, Con, Swindle, Racket, Cheat and Fraud. That last group of words doesn’t sound very inspiring does it?
Lately we’ve been bombarded with a plethora of ‘Creative’ services and ventures. Creative marketing, Creative financing, Creative investing…Granted most of the questionable ideas revolve around the Real Estate scene. But ultimately doesn’t it really all come down to money and how to make ones self wealthy?
I guess the ‘Creative’ part comes in when some imaginative, resourceful and inventive individual discovers a loophole, flaw or inconsistency in an existing law.
By carefully manipulating or interpreting the wording of the law they manage to pervert the intent of that law to suit their own purposes. Unfortunately for the people they victimize it may take quite some time before justice catches up with these ‘Creative’ thinkers. As some one who has been on the victim side of one of these schemes I can tell you it isn’t very pleasant to learn your trust has been abused by someone who not only wants to profit from your misfortune but wants to take it all and leave you with less than you started out with.
There is a fine line between what’s legitimate and what’s questionable from not only a legal but possibly more importantly a moral standpoint.
Most of us want to make money and live a comfortable life. When you get involved in any kind of money making venture make sure to ask your self what the real cost will be.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Clarification
OK I feel the need to clarify a few things for people out there that are interested but hesitant to help out. This is a very complicated situation and it’s difficult for me to know what I should post and what I shouldn’t. I know I won’t be able to answer everyone’s questions but I’m going to try to hit the most important ones. I think the easiest way to do this is to create a sort of time line so you can get an idea of what happened. I’m going to try NOT to go into the intimate details of every little thing so I know there will still be some people with questions. All I can say is, don’t hesitate to contact me if you need to know more.
2000 February 29, Leap Day. We signed all the papers buying the house we paid
(with closing and other costs) $72,000
2003 April The company I work for goes bankrupt.
June I file Ch 13 myself in an effort to try to control mounting bills and lack of income.
2005 My unemployment exhausted and no indication of any kind of a job forthcoming, we are again feeling a financial pinch. I begin searching for some way to keep our house and come in contact with a group called ‘Trust Program”. In May we sign papers with them putting our house (actually the title to it) into a real estate trust.
August, Ray injures his back and is out of work for 3 months.
September, I return to college to get my degree in Graphic Design.
2006-7 We make numerous attempts to re-finance our house so we can pay off the trust and get the title to our home back. No one has told us that we won’t be able to re-finance because now we actually don’t own our house due to the title being in the name of the trust.
2007 January, We have to have our truck repaired to pass inspection. Due to the fact we have been putting off a number of repairs we end up paying over $2500 to get everything done. We are now behind on the payments to the trust. We get a letter dated January 11th indicating we need to make our monthly payment of $978.61 plus additional late and unspecified charges for a grand total of $3481.00. We can not raise enough money to satisfy this. Until we can pay this and additional monies which are now accumulating monthly our mortgage will not be paid.
May 6, the trust has come to term and is officially terminated. After the failure of our last attempt to re-finance we resign ourselves to having to sell the house. Without our knowledge or approval the attorney for the trust signs a real estate agreement with a real estate agent we had been talking to about selling the house. We were NOT given the opportunity to read the agreement or sign it ourselves and were NOT allowed to set the sale price of the house.
September 11th we are named as the plaintiffs in a class action suit against all of the parties involved in the trust transaction. (Yes we finally found an Attorney)
As of this writing our home is still listed for sale.
Our mortgage is in foreclosure and headed for a foreclosure sale.
We can’t stop the foreclosure by doing a work out of our back mortgage payments with our mortgage company because the trust still holds the title and we would need to get the trustees permission to work directly with our mortgage company.
The trust isn’t about to cooperate because:
1. We have filed a law suit against them.
2. According to the terms of the trust the only way we can regain title to the house is by paying the trust the amount originally invested plus any and all fees they deem reasonable.
3. Where the trust has now expired we are now required to purchase our house from the trust for the agreed upon fair market value.
The attorneys are trying to get the trust rescinded so we can work with our mortgage company, but that could take months and by then the bank will have foreclosed on the house.
We aren’t looking for a hand out and we don’t just want people to pay for our house for us because we’re too lazy to do anything for ourselves, we are trying.
Ray is a wire platter; he makes $11.40 an hour and works overtime when it’s available. Living on one income in Massachusetts is tough to do when you’re on salary, when you work by the hour if you don’t work, you don’t get paid.I still have 2 years of school left to get my degree and still haven’t been able to find work. Aside from lacking a college degree I’m permanently partially disabled. While ineligible for disability or SSI I am limited as to what I can do. (In case you’re wondering I’m an honor student with a GPA of 3.92.)
We're also trying to help other people like us who have been victimized by unscrupulous 'investors' taking advantage of people in a difficult situation. That's why we're involved in the law suit.
So, that’s the story behind the 165,000 dollar question. (so far)
2000 February 29, Leap Day. We signed all the papers buying the house we paid
(with closing and other costs) $72,000
2003 April The company I work for goes bankrupt.
June I file Ch 13 myself in an effort to try to control mounting bills and lack of income.
2005 My unemployment exhausted and no indication of any kind of a job forthcoming, we are again feeling a financial pinch. I begin searching for some way to keep our house and come in contact with a group called ‘Trust Program”. In May we sign papers with them putting our house (actually the title to it) into a real estate trust.
August, Ray injures his back and is out of work for 3 months.
September, I return to college to get my degree in Graphic Design.
2006-7 We make numerous attempts to re-finance our house so we can pay off the trust and get the title to our home back. No one has told us that we won’t be able to re-finance because now we actually don’t own our house due to the title being in the name of the trust.
2007 January, We have to have our truck repaired to pass inspection. Due to the fact we have been putting off a number of repairs we end up paying over $2500 to get everything done. We are now behind on the payments to the trust. We get a letter dated January 11th indicating we need to make our monthly payment of $978.61 plus additional late and unspecified charges for a grand total of $3481.00. We can not raise enough money to satisfy this. Until we can pay this and additional monies which are now accumulating monthly our mortgage will not be paid.
May 6, the trust has come to term and is officially terminated. After the failure of our last attempt to re-finance we resign ourselves to having to sell the house. Without our knowledge or approval the attorney for the trust signs a real estate agreement with a real estate agent we had been talking to about selling the house. We were NOT given the opportunity to read the agreement or sign it ourselves and were NOT allowed to set the sale price of the house.
September 11th we are named as the plaintiffs in a class action suit against all of the parties involved in the trust transaction. (Yes we finally found an Attorney)
As of this writing our home is still listed for sale.
Our mortgage is in foreclosure and headed for a foreclosure sale.
We can’t stop the foreclosure by doing a work out of our back mortgage payments with our mortgage company because the trust still holds the title and we would need to get the trustees permission to work directly with our mortgage company.
The trust isn’t about to cooperate because:
1. We have filed a law suit against them.
2. According to the terms of the trust the only way we can regain title to the house is by paying the trust the amount originally invested plus any and all fees they deem reasonable.
3. Where the trust has now expired we are now required to purchase our house from the trust for the agreed upon fair market value.
The attorneys are trying to get the trust rescinded so we can work with our mortgage company, but that could take months and by then the bank will have foreclosed on the house.
We aren’t looking for a hand out and we don’t just want people to pay for our house for us because we’re too lazy to do anything for ourselves, we are trying.
Ray is a wire platter; he makes $11.40 an hour and works overtime when it’s available. Living on one income in Massachusetts is tough to do when you’re on salary, when you work by the hour if you don’t work, you don’t get paid.I still have 2 years of school left to get my degree and still haven’t been able to find work. Aside from lacking a college degree I’m permanently partially disabled. While ineligible for disability or SSI I am limited as to what I can do. (In case you’re wondering I’m an honor student with a GPA of 3.92.)
We're also trying to help other people like us who have been victimized by unscrupulous 'investors' taking advantage of people in a difficult situation. That's why we're involved in the law suit.
So, that’s the story behind the 165,000 dollar question. (so far)
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
My own 911
As I was reflecting on the 911 tragedy of six years ago, remembering where I was and how I and every other American felt that we had been violated by this attack on our home. That got me thinking about my own home and the people who, under the guise of 'helping' me save my home during a difficult time, have also made me feel violated. I am in no way trying to down play what happened to our nation as a whole. Just point out that a nation is the sum total of its individual citizens. Many of us, most of us in fact were not personally impacted by the actual events six years ago, but as citizens, as Americans, every single one of us was affected. It made us realize that at any given time any one of us could be a target. How sad is it that we not only have to worry about threats from foreign venues but from people who are fellow Americans, who live on our native soil, often in our own state, our home town. Historically in every war, every disaster or tragedy, there are those who loose out and those who benefit. The people who benefit are the ones with vision who see how to turn misfortune into a fortune. The difference between an entrepreneur and a fraud is that one makes his money by providing people with a beneficial product or service and the other gets rich taking advantage of people by creating the illusion of benefit, when in fact he never intends anyone to profit but himself. While there are swindlers everywhere, my focus here is on the robber barons of real estate. The Gurus who teach other people to ignore or twist existing laws to suit their purpose. They rely on the inability of their victims to pursue them and the complexity of our legal systems to cover their indiscretions. Their targets are carefully chosen from people with financial difficulties and homes that have a reasonable amount of equity. In our case the value of our home had almost doubled from the purchase price. Through the guru’s “interpretation” of various laws and statutes they believe they can ‘legally’ acquire people’s homes which they either sell for a substantial profit or rent for continued income. The results are that a lot of hard working cash poor families become displaced in a very cruel and devastating way.
I may be cash poor, but I am first last and always an American and I refuse to give in to any kind of injustice regardless of where it comes from. As part of my personal 911 I again want to encourage anyone else out there who has been victimized in a real estate trust scam to contact me. If we share our information we CAN bring these people down.
Six years ago, each of us said with one voice, I am an American, I won’t tolerate someone threatening my home and I won’t give up without a fight. Will you join me today as I, an American, stand against this resident threat to our homes?
I won’t give up without a fight! Will you?
I may be cash poor, but I am first last and always an American and I refuse to give in to any kind of injustice regardless of where it comes from. As part of my personal 911 I again want to encourage anyone else out there who has been victimized in a real estate trust scam to contact me. If we share our information we CAN bring these people down.
Six years ago, each of us said with one voice, I am an American, I won’t tolerate someone threatening my home and I won’t give up without a fight. Will you join me today as I, an American, stand against this resident threat to our homes?
I won’t give up without a fight! Will you?
Monday, September 10, 2007
Finally, It shows up on Google
After months of promoting, submitting, resetting and getting people to visit the site. It finally shows up when you do a Google search for Save My House. And it shows up in the top ten!
I still wish that I could get some media coverage. If not national at least something local so that I could get other people in Massachusetts to contact me. I just feel that if a bunch of people who were victimized got together we might be able to do something to help one another.
I still wish that I could get some media coverage. If not national at least something local so that I could get other people in Massachusetts to contact me. I just feel that if a bunch of people who were victimized got together we might be able to do something to help one another.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
940 CMR 25.00 It's a LAW !
Thanks to both public and political interest, I am pleased to anounce that 940 CMR 25.00 has been made into a permenant law here in Massachusetts. This is a link to the Attorney Generals Site with information about the anouncment. It's a Law ! Now we just need to urge the federal government and the rest of the states to pass similar laws.
15 Minutes of Fame
Finally! I was Interviewed for a segment on the WBZ TV 38 news at 9 PM on Tuesday September 4, 2007. The segment was on Foreclosure Rescue Scams and the people they victimize. They even mentioned my Save My House web site. I wish it was the 6 PM network news but I was thrilled to get exposure for this information in any venue. So Thank You TV 38 for taking the initiative and running a story with me in it!!!
Monday, September 3, 2007
Welcome
This Blog was created on September 3, 2007 as a companion site to our Save My House site.
That site was created on June 26, 2007 in an effort to right a wrong.This link will take you to that site where you can learn more about why I decided to post a whole lot of information about the situation my husband and I have found ourselves in Save My House. I often speak about the house and our situation in the first person, that's only because while my husband is out trying to earn a living, I take care of the paperwork. Please don't get the idea that I'm alone in this by the way I present the information.
Another goal of this site is to warn people before they end up in similar circumstances in a desperate attempt to try to keep their home. Please DO link to this site. Tell people about it. Talk about it at work.Recommend this as a story to your local news papers and TV stations. We can sure use the publicity to help spread the word not only about us, but about getting permanent laws passed to protect other home owners.
That site was created on June 26, 2007 in an effort to right a wrong.This link will take you to that site where you can learn more about why I decided to post a whole lot of information about the situation my husband and I have found ourselves in Save My House. I often speak about the house and our situation in the first person, that's only because while my husband is out trying to earn a living, I take care of the paperwork. Please don't get the idea that I'm alone in this by the way I present the information.
Another goal of this site is to warn people before they end up in similar circumstances in a desperate attempt to try to keep their home. Please DO link to this site. Tell people about it. Talk about it at work.Recommend this as a story to your local news papers and TV stations. We can sure use the publicity to help spread the word not only about us, but about getting permanent laws passed to protect other home owners.
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