Members of the Occupy Minnesota (Occupy MN) movement are hoping to mimic a “successful” foreclosure protest further out west when they take on a Minnesota Wells Fargo this Friday. Earlier this month, a woman marched on the Fannie Mae headquarters in California in order to garner attention to her foreclosure. She was arrested, but also got her loan modification. Now, Occupy MN is hoping to get similar results for a couple who fell behind on their mortgage in 2010 and have struggled unsuccessfully to get a modification to their mortgage – both are now employed, albeit their income is reduced – since that time[1].
Perhaps more importantly, it looks like Wells Fargo is already preparing to cave; they issued a statement yesterday morning stating that they had worked “since 2010” with the homeowner to “try and find an option that will enable him to remain in his home” without reaching a viable solution. Interestingly, the emailed statement notes that “sometimes a customer’s circumstances change at the last minute enabling him or her to qualify for an appropriate resolution.” Like many homeowners, this Minnesota couple reports filing duplicate paperwork multiple times, never reaching a real Wells Fargo representative and the lender refusing the accept checks when they attempted to make payments to catch up on the balance of the loan.
Occupy MN is currently on day 7 of its lifespan and has already marched on the downtown Minneapolis Wells Fargo and Twin Cities Financial[2]. The group surrounded the buildings and pointed giant red foam fingers at the lenders in order to indicate that they hold the banks responsible for the state of the economy[3]. Minnesota’s Occupy movement has been much clearer about its demands that its fellows around the country. The group handed out fliers demanding that Congress reduce the federal budget deficit by “raising revenue via taxes on corporations and banks rather than cutting programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security,” and now will be supporting a direct plea by a homeowner to stop his foreclosure.
Do you think that this is a good way to get lenders’ attention? Should Wells Fargo give this homeowner a modification?
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[1]http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2011/10/malcolm_lefever_cheryl_downey_occupy_mn_wells_fargo_protest.php
[2] http://kaaltv.com/article/stories/S2324445.shtml?cat=10151
[3] http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_5017
I am a real estate broker. I saw this whole mess coming. Why don’t the banks simply come in, appraise the property and issue a new loan to the homeowner at todays interest rates??????? Much less hassel, time and expense than running everyone crazy with a loan modification (where you still owe more than it is worth) they would save thousands of dollars by not having to foreclose and try to resell the property. The end result would be much faster and easier on everyone.
What a bunch of crap!
My previous place sold for $900,000. cash We couls have paid cash for this foreclosed place but we trusted the banks and needed cash to continue homeschool our three kids in Avaition mechanics for tuition, twin egine airplane etc. we kept
some on hand but then GMAC lacking fiducary training came along and lied on our application and about my retirement, etc so we were evicted, the house sold to HSBC and IndyMac foreclosed and now OneWest guided our eviction. Help
The Banks get away with things that none of us would get away with like forging legal court documents. They lower people’s credit scores by reducing their credit limits on revolving debt which causes their debt to credit ratios to go up. They raise peoples interest rates on those debts because of lower credit scores that they caused. They turn down loan mods and will not do refinances because the people are upside down on the house which makes no sense. Sure the new loan would still be risky but it would be less risky than the loan they currently have because the homeowner would be more able to make the payments.
If you owed me $100,000 and I was charging you 6% interest which was tough for you to come up with. Why on earth would I think it was too risky to lower that interest rate to 4% so you can afford the payment? Obviously it would be easier for you to make the new payment and all other factors are still the same.
This is still all about one thing, GREED! GREED! GREED! The banks will sell this country down the river for a few extra bucks! We need to stand up to them and organize and demonstrate and pull our money out of their clutches and send a clear message to them that we are not going to put up with them treating people the way we have been.
Helping out a few distressed homeowners is not what the “Occupy Wall Street” movement is about, though I’m sure they will gladly be willing to try to influence banking policy to help some folks, as it makes for good press. This movement, those behind it, those financing things (Soros, big unions, etc.) have been working to bring this about for a long time now. Follow the money. Listen to their own words. This, odd sounding as it may seem to many, is in fact about fomenting violent revolution…their words, not mine. This is just the beginning.
In response to the first comment: The banks would then have to post a LOSS on a home value, which would lower their assets on their balance sheet. The banks would rather LIE on their financial statments so their stock price don’t plummet and cause them further losses beacuse BANKS ARE GREEDY SCUM OF THE EARTH THAT WILL ROT IN HELL.
Frank Werner is right. That is the only solution, but that requires banks to suddenly reveal their true losses. Better to keep the bluff up.
Been in this business 25 years. The game runs against us all.
I agree with Mr. Werner.That being said there is a greater problem in this country and that is the fact that somehow in many people’s eyes it is illegal or immoral for banks to make money. That is the whole purpose of why businesses are started in capitalist countries. These immature, ill-informed protestors who are demanding that corporations pay more taxes, fail to realize that there are men and women who make up the corporation, who go to work each day and try to make the best possible life for themselves and their families. One of the culprits behind this is the government. Banks could not do what they do without the approval of Congress who write the laws. Does anyone remember how this all got started? You had congress members force banks to give mortgages to people who couldn’t afford to buy a house. If you want a culprit look at Congress. The most inefficient body ever established in this country
the author’s view, especially as expressed in his email newsletter, is EXTREMELY offensive, abominably clueless and militantly IGNORANT.
Unsubscribing from your little “publication” immediately.
We’d be interested to hear what facts you believe to be wrong. Obviously, we don’t publish inaccurate information and we welcome additional facts and figures, as long as they are *accurate* ~BEREL
I agree with the majority of the comments above, as to faults of the Banks & in what ways they can improve the issue.
As far as the movement goes, whether right or wrong, this is an alarm of disgruntled people getting organized & coming with plans when the system has failed them. Such movements come into place when due to certain regulations or over regulating the system, the oppurtuities available in the past, will not be avaialbe present day. Everyday there will be more & more people joining them. They will become more aggresive in their activities & plans, and if no results by peaceful demonstrations, then….. When a system fails to acknowledge & come up with ways to help the sizable number of population, thats when civil disobedients & revolutions start. The logo of the movement, certain languages, etc, are all simillar to initial movements of revolutions in middle east, Europe & other parts of the world. Maybe to the experienced / savy / educated person, the movement is wrong, but to the commen men in the street it makes sense. Hopefully the banks will modify their policies to ease up the disgruntlement.
@hugh goodman
You are right. People are protesting the immorality of bank profits. But that is not misguided. Just because the system is capitalist doesn’t make it morally right for people to profit from the suffering of others. Capitalism is just a system, it doesn’t define right and wrong.
And your other point about government being to blame- you are right there too. Except that you are separating the responsibility of government and corporations. The people at Occupy Wall St. are protesting the influence corporate entities have in the government and how that is corrupting the political system.
I am starting this with 3 quote from thomas Jefferson that seem as if they were written today. I am a real estate broker in California. I am in my 60′s and I have seen many changes in our country. More after the third quote.
1. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not
2. I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
3. “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property – until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
Does anyone remember that is was Barny Frank and his boy’s that made the bank’s give loans to people that should never have had them and never stood a chance of paying them back?
I know that we may have had some problems in this country, but I also know that my real estate practice started going downhill ever since this current administration came into power and put in place their policies. I also know that many of my fellows, experienced full time realtors have thrown up their hands and said enough, I quit.
Is this not still a free country. Free to NOT use any company (banks) that they do not like. Move you accounts to another bank, or a credit union or put your money under your mattress. You do not have to use any business you do not like. Banks are in business to make money and if you do not like how they do so, like I said, change your business partners.
The best thing we could do right now is get rid of all the old school politicians and start fresh.
Are we all this silly?? Why wouldn’t these homeowners march on the banks and demand loan modifications?? Didn’t the banks just demand our money for their own financial irresponsibility?? Wake up America!! I personally know people who signed for loans and were told- this is not a variable rate mortgage- and suddenly 10 years in- their mortgages have jumped 500/700 per month. Banks/ lenders sold loans in the 90′s like used car dealers!! We all know it’s true!! I have no desire to be cattle any longer to the banking system- it’s a joke- terms change, fee schedules change- and on the whim of the banking institution. What we Americans forget- this is OUR money running these institutions- and we let them direct our lives?? I’ll march on wall street myself- the whole bail out has been so insulting to the American taxpayer- why in the world defend these mega- corps when they have displayed such irresponsible behavior and flagrant disregard for the consumers who support their marketplace??
Re-appraise the property
Enter into a new lending agreement
Do not let one more hard working tax payer Lise his home as a result of the economic crisis CREATED by the lenders foreclosing on their homes.
Really people- think for yourself- letting others think for us is how we got here.
To Mr. Goodman, technically, congress passes the banking laws, but it is a known fact it is the banks that write them, same as the insurance industry. Do you really think the corrupted lunkheads people send to Washington to represent us have the intelligence, or time, to write these convoluted laws?
Also, we do not have to be told over and over again that banks are in the business of making money (duh). We understand that. But making such obscene profits and being able to buy influence with all that money is the complaint. Capitalism by nature is predatory and must be closely regulated, if not, it will eat you alive. Our present predicament did not come from over-regulation as the Tea Partiers (financed by billionaires and corporations) would have us think. No, it came from de-regulation — ideas that were spawned in the cigar smoke filled back rooms of the banks.
The story is written in the high number of unemployed and the growing class of poor, fueled by a downward spiraling middle class that is falling, not by choice and not by laziness as some drones have commented upon on this page and elsewhere, but by the actions of those that control the economy, which is not you or I.
Yet, despite all the crimes committed by the banks and investors, their paid lackeys have been able to convince people the problem is with unions and hard working every day people trying to keep their heads above water. It is amazing how many people are contributing to their own demise by failing to recognize the real enemy.
The Wall Street Occupiers have a profound message. It demonstrates the fact there are people who are awake and not placed into an angry stupor by the fascist/capitalist propaganda clouding their thinking. The propaganda pundits dare call it “socialism.” What a joke! Socialism spreads the money, it does not concentrate capital in the hands of a few. No, our problems are caused by pure unadulterated predatory capitalism.
There is a video circulating by an investment broker in which he states, the rich will make money in a good or bad economy, they do not care which it is, and he sees a poor economy as a grand opportunity to make a lot of money. Does this sound like someone who wants or cares to fix it. It is a fact more wealth is concentrated upward in bad times than good.
With the current crop of Republican apologist presidential candidates and the Obama administration riddled with Wall Street insiders and ex-bankers, we are in store for much of the same.
The real question is, will ALL Americans ever wake up and unite to fix their country. Judging by some of the inane comments on this page and the deep divisions that exist elsewhere, we are going to continue our descent into the abyss of poverty.
Is it class warfare? You bet it is, and it has been waged by the wealthy for hundreds of years – and they are winning. And, no, the people of this country will not take up arms against their own government, we only seem to vent our collective anger on other countries.
Why stand around waiting for the the same people (banks) who created the mess to get their act together and fix the problem they created??? The banks are in no hurry to change anything. Why would they be?? They have the money and the power. No reason to fix what, from their point of view, ISNT BROKE.
RE investors need to take back the Market BY FORCE using Subject-To, the mortgage “hostile take-over”
There are plenty of mortgages out there, why not use them to our advantage? Standing around pointing giant foam fingers doesn’t really change anything. Eff the banks.
Occupy Wallstreet (and MN,etc) are a bunch of broke idiots. Socialists really. They call themselves the “99%’ers.” They’re the reason I call myself a 1%’er and increase my thoughts of softly considering moving out of this country. Do they not know this is AMERICA? Lets act like it (ie, hard work, determination, self-sustinance, and FREEDOM). If we should all be equal, regardless of work ethic, financial venture(s), and job title that is the definition of a Socialist country!! Think Russia 1980s, people!!!!