“According to findings based on a database that tracks
discharges from pediatric hospitals in major metropolitan areas, researchers
found that between 2000 and 2009, admissions for physical abuse at U.S.
pediatric hospitals peaked in 2008 - right about the time housing foreclosures
were taking off in many parts of the country.
Between 2000 and 2009, there were just over 11,800
admissions for physical abuse of children younger than six at 38 hospitals.
That accounted for 0.28 percent of the nearly 4.2 million admissions in those
hospitals overall. Over the years
that rate fluctuated, peaking at 0.3 percent in 2008.
Researchers then looked at each metropolitan area's
unemployment rates and housing woes. They found that for each percentage
increase in an area's foreclosure rate, admissions for physical abuse rose 6.5
percent the following year. There was a similar pattern with 90-day mortgage
delinquency rates.”
Sadly, these results are hardly surprising.
As someone who spends much of their day either on the phone,
overseeing calls or reading notes from calls to lenders, the treatment I
witness is enough to drive one to violence.
Bank behavior when it comes to loss mitigation is well
documented – loss mit reps are rude, regularly lose paperwork and keep people
on hold for hours, only to disconnect them, forcing them to start over.
Much has been written about this broken process, but until
you actually dip your toes in the short sale/loan modification waters, you
really have no idea how dysfunctional it actually is.
For starters, you can submit documents 4 or 5 times before
they can finally be confirmed received.
Since most lenders advise that it takes at least 48-72 hours for
submitted documents to scan in to their systems, it is a process to follow up
with them. If you have to wait 2-3
business days before you can confirm, then it can take weeks to confirm receipt
of one simple document, if you’re forced to re-submit it multiple times. Once the documents are finally uploaded
and reviewed, they are often deemed out of date and need to be updated,
starting the cycle over.
Another common frustration involves adhering to the
recommended follow up process exactly as provided by your negotiator, only to
be told you’ve been poorly advised and followed up incorrectly.
We had been assigned a negotiator on file recently, who
instructed us to follow up with him and him only. He left us a voice mail regarding a title issue and we
called back with the clarification he requested, later that afternoon.
Over a three-week period, we left 9 voice mails for him and
spoke with his manager, as well as various representatives in the loss
mitigation department. Each time
we were told the same – our negotiator is the only person we can speak with,
the notes show he’s still assigned to the file, please be patient and keep
leaving him voice mails.
When we finally did receive a voice mail back, it was from a
NEW negotiator who had just received the file, stating as much and advising:
“…it shows that there are no new notes on the file and you haven’t contacted us
to clarify the title issues, so we’re closing out the file…”. When we called back and advised not
only that we’d left 9 voice mails, but had also spoken with a manager, we were
told that we should have known the file was no longer with the original
negotiator.
The examples above are just a couple of the hundreds of
daily frustrations we encounter, when dealing with lender loss mitigation
departments. We’re a
business. We are able to remove
the emotional component of the process.
Imagine dealing with this, through your own personal housing
crisis.
Imagine going through the stress of fighting for your house
or trying to limit your financial losses, on the heals of a job loss, illness,
divorce or the numerous other hardships that drive people to seek assistance
from their lender, only to face this nightmarish system.
Sometimes the frustration becomes so overwhelming, you want
nothing more than to punch the person on the other end of the phone, but you
can’t, so the people closest to you end up suffering.
It’s a terrible situation and we’ve seen no indication that
lenders are doing anything to make the system better. I regularly advise people that there is no secret to
completing a short sale – it simply takes a lot of patience and even more
persistence. However, when
patience runs out and frustration gets in the way of persistence, people tend
to give up and that’s when the results of a study like this one surface.
If you’re facing a loss mitigation issue, call an office
like ours – we will navigate you through this messy process, while helping you
maintain your sanity.
You can read the full article here, at The Huffington Post…
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