It seems “Prophet CAR” hit the nail on the head … down to the last detail every time she posted!
However, no one really knew the depth and breadth of the “free money” that would later be “given away” to FB’s!
Here’s the latest. Hopefully these “offer letters” will NOT be sent to the FB’s who took cash out of their properties :=0
The first batch of Bank of America’s (BofA’s) principal reduction offers was sent out to 60,000 qualified borrowers in the U.S. this May. Borrowers at least 60 days behind on their mortgage payments were offered an average $150,000 cramdown. BofA is expected to make a total of 200,000 principal reduction offers by August.
These cramdown offers are part of BofA’s efforts to meet the terms of February’s $25 billion national industry settlement resulting from the epidemic of fraudulent home loan originations and subsequent foreclosures. BofA has remained closed-lipped as to the precise criteria for electing which lucky borrowers are given the offer.
It seems that 200,000 floundering homeowners are in store for an unexpected windfall. However, the response from borrowers so far has been nothing short of uncanny: eerie silence.
Over half of the qualified borrowers solicited have not responded to BofA’s cramdown offer, even though a cramdown is an economically viable option in light of foreboding foreclosures.
Many are speculating about the lack of enthusiasm from BofA’s borrowers. Theories range from previous unpleasant customer service experiences with BofA, to a simple case of borrower fatigue. Many homeowners behind on mortgage payments whose previous calls for assistance went unanswered may be fed up with the taxing process of seeking help, believing BofA’s offer is among a large list of other modification offers which never come to fruition, or shortsale strategies that are just too good to be true.
BofA also has a somewhat notorious reputation for losing paperwork and poor administration, leading to a sense of mistrust among their disgruntled borrowers…
My take is that the low response rate, ESP in CA (where most of the letters were likely mailed to, due to higher overall values and a “captive audience”), is due to being able to “squat” ad infinitum. An “average” of $150K “cramdown” to sign a modification and begin paying on the modified mortgage is not that alluring to an FB who has been squatting for years. These borrowers’ credit is already shot and they simply feel they’ll make out better by calling B of A’s bluff and continuing to squat until another (bogus) offer comes along or they are evicted after foreclosure with perhaps some “walking money” ($3K?).
These offers also do nothing for the borrower who owes well over $150K more than their property is worth.
