Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleWells Fargo hosting workshop for struggling homeowners
Mona Shield Payne/Special to the Sun
Ethan Legaspi asks questions of Wells Fargo home retention specialist Guy Lunda, right, while seeking mortgage assistance at the Wells Fargo free Homeownership Preservation Workshop Friday, July 9, at the Hilton Convention Center.
Friday, July 9, 2010 | 7:27 p.m.
Map of LVH - Las Vegas Hotel
LVH - Las Vegas Hotel
3000 Paradise Road., Las Vegas
Hundreds of Las Vegas residents may be getting some relief on their mortgage payments this week.
Wells Fargo is hosting a workshop Saturday and Sunday at the Las Vegas Hilton to help its customers through their financial hardships and avoid home foreclosures.
Wells Fargo sent out more than 5,000 letters to customers who have been delinquent for at least 60 days or who have requested help. The bank has asked them to meet face to face with its staff to find a solution to their inability to pay.
More than 500 appointments were set up this weekend, and other Wells Fargo customers, including those who didn’t get letters but need help, can attend the workshop without registering.
The workshop is one of 11 Wells Fargo has held across the country in markets like Las Vegas where customers have been hurt by reduced incomes and their mortgage payments rising with adjustable-rate loans.
Typically, half of the people receive a decision at their meeting or shortly thereafter.
About two-thirds of those who attend the workshop receive some kind of workout option, with about 80 percent of those modifications in their mortgage payments, said Tom Goyda, vice president of government and industry relations for Wells Fargo.
Wells Fargo has been using a loan-modifications program offered by the federal government and its own programs.
The programs reduce interest rates, extend the terms of loans and, in some cases, set aside principal payments or even forgive some principal, Goyda said. One of the programs attempts to get mortgage payments down to 31 percent of monthly income.
Most of those attending the workshops need help because they or someone in their household has lost their job or their income has been reduced, Goyda said.
Not all loans can be modified, because 90 percent of those mortgages serviced by Wells Fargo are owed by other investors, including private investors, Goyda said. Some may not want to modify loans as homeowners have requested, he said.
The banking specialists meet with homeowners for about an hour, going through their financial statements and other documents they are asked to bring to the meeting.
“The face-to-face meetings help us find options and allow them to ask questions and get a quick response,” Goyda said.
The meetings can even help facilitate short sales — the sales of homes for homeowners who owe more on their mortgage than it is worth.
The workshop helped one Las Vegas couple temporarily reduce their mortgage payment from $1,600 to $1,000 a month.
Griselda, who did not want to use her last name, said it’s been difficult to afford their mortgage because her husband is an unemployed mechanic and her work schedule has been cut to three or four days a week as a housekeeper at a Strip hotel.
Griselda said she appreciates the help but wishes more could be done long term, because the value of her home has fallen to $90,000 when the original loan was for $273,000.
“The help I am getting is medicine for now, but what about one year or two years?” she said. “They will reduce the interest but not the principal. We need some more programs.”
The workshop runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Las Vegas Hilton, 3000 Paradise Road. Customers can call 800-405-8067 for more information.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- Superstar Whitney Houston dies at 48
- Two dead after accident in downtown Las Vegas
- Instant Analysis: Debating whether UNLV should continue series with San Diego State
- Police looking for man in white Ford Explorer
- Dining Guide: 2012 Valentine’s Day options in Las Vegas
- Color from the scene at Thomas & Mack Center: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
- Four people injured in car accident
- Blog: Justin Hawkins’ steal seals UNLV’s thrilling 65-63 victory against San Diego State
- After Nevada and Florida wins, Mitt Romney trying to prove he’s ‘severely conservative’ to CPAC base
- UNLV makes key plays down stretch to hold off San Diego State 65-63
Blogs
The Kats Report
Color from scene at Thomas & Mack: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped': 'I'll give it an 8' (4 Comments)
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
Yeah the wolf is hosting a open house at the hen house....I trust Wells Fargo or their home loan servicing company SLS aka Specialized Loan Servicing LLC as far as I can throw a 2 story house....
The banks don't want all their loans to go belly up, because it would destroy the banking industry. They caused all of this, but they're not liable right. The government will let them come after you for not paying, but the government won't punish the banks for all the loans they knew were going to go bad or shouldn't of given! "Excuse me do you have a name, social, and income then you qualify!" Isn't that what they said. Well the banking industry can sit on it and rotate! Maybe we should not make our mortgage payments for a year and watch them sweat while they get that pucker feeling.
Wells Fargo Is the worst bank in America.
I have said it all.
Get away from Wells Fargo and never look back you'll be better off.
Figure this out. I had a checking account with a zero balance and I did not write any checks. The account is now $840 in the negative for services and fees. I just laugh at them. They say that they can't close the account because I have a negative balance. Stupid asses, that's Wells Fargo for you.
This is what you do!
And don't be cowards.
Don't listen to the bull from TV and banks
You go to a bankruptcy lawyer and the lawyer and the judge reduce the amount of the mortgage and the payment dramatically.
You have saved your home, if you really want it, and screwed Wells Fargo.
They lose; you win!
Otherwise get ready to move unless you have the full principal amount!
Because Wells Fargo will be demanding that from you very soon.
Good luck suckers!
"We need some more programs."
No, Einstein, what you need is to realize a mechanic and a housekeeper should have never taken out a $272,000.00 loan in the first place.
Wells Fargo is by far one of the worst banks out there.
Her house went from being valued at $273K to 90K. The house was never worth $273K to start with. It was only worth what some idiot would pay, which was this lady, when in reality the house was only worth 90K all along. I wonder if this lady had sold this house for $373K, which the probably figured they could in a year, would have shared the profit with Wells Fargo. The mantra of the Right seems to be privatize profits and socialize losses.
"Yeah the wolf is hosting a open house at the hen house"
MR906 -- you called this one right.
"You go to a bankruptcy lawyer and the lawyer and the judge reduce the amount of the mortgage and the payment dramatically."
coytoeman50 -- what fantasy world do you live in? That was hotly debated in Congress early last year. The same banks we bailed out paid something like a dozen lobbyists PER CONGRESSPERSON to kill that bill. The result is judges don't have that kind of power.
What they do have the power to do is examine the banks' and their parasites' claims to the property. It's not uncommon is for them to not be able to prove any legal right to the properties, thanks to brave jurists like Vegas' own Honorable Linda Reigle. Check that out @ http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/oct...
"If you're going to take my house away from me, you better own the note." -- Joe Lents (who hasn't made a payment on his $1.5 million mortgage since 2002) in Bloomberg's 2/22/08 "Banks Lose to Deadbeat Homeowners as Loans Sold in Bonds Vanish"
This is all a numbers game. The banks can't foreclose on everyone so they work with a selected percentage to keep afloat for awhile and foreclose on the rest. They need to pace out the foreclosures so they don't choke on them all at once. The end result will be the same but they want to help...right! And leeches want to help your circulation!
I still fail to understand how all of this is the banks fault. Who bought the house? Who said they would pay the bank back for the house? Who bought more house than they could afford? Who bought the line that you had to buy now before the prices kept going up? Whoever thought that the bourgeoisie cared about the proletariat except to exploit them? Marx was right but so many of you bought into the bourgeosie's scam to make you think that you had it better off than you did. Sure they let you buy their goods and services from them while they kept you enslaved to them through CREDIT! Now they want their money back and you cry about the big bad bourgeosie taking advantage of you. Sorry to tell you this but they always have. Just in the past you were to blind to see that you were being taken advantage of through your 52" plasma TV.
hermit -- your post showed you are ignorant of this topic. Few understand the true nature of the underlying obligation, the Note. Normal creditor/debtor law doesn't apply. The entire debt is the actual, physical, original Note the Borrower signed. Period. This is supported by the centuries-old law of negotiable instruments which survives today largely as UCC 3/NRS 104. Most foreclosures are performed on the mortgage (deed of trust) only, which is a nullity -- it cannot operate separate from the Note.
Class dismissed.
P.S.=if relevant, I don't have a TV.
Well it's the banks fault, when they first gave loans out people who couldn't afford them, knowing they would default! That knowing it would happen!!! Also doing all those BS loans to people who could afford a normal 30 year fixed. Please don't back up the banks at all on this. I understand people knew they couldn't afford it, but the banks didn't need to tell them that could afford it! Screw the banks, the system, foreclosures, short sells, thanks alot Bin Laden!!!
KillerB you always spout off on this and if you were right then why are there still so many foreclosures? It sounds like you tried this arguement in court and lost. Where exactly in UCC 3/NRS 104 does your arguemnt come from and what law school did you attend?
I would guess all of you that blame the banks are:
A-Underwater big time because they got suckered and need someone to blame for their own stupidity.
B-They have already lost their home.
C=They fail to understand what the term adjustable means.
D-They have not figure out with a monthly income of #3,000 they can not afford a $2,000 monthly payment (insert it is the banks fault for saying I could).
E-So even if the bank gave loans to people that could not afford them big deal for the banks. They get the property which is the collateral for the loan.
Now tell me again how it is the banks fault that you are an idiot?
hermit -- you have only continued to prove your profound ignorance on this issue.
On your "UCC/NRS 104" question -- the silver bullet for homeowners going into foreclosure is UCC 3-501/NRS 104.3501.
Who needs law school when most of it is on the internet? Law doesn't come from schools it comes from We the People through our legislatures.
"You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free." -- Clarence Darrow, Address to the Court, The Communist Trial (1920)
"Person entitled to enforce" an instrument means (i) the holder of the instrument, (ii) a nonholder in possession of the instrument who has the rights of a holder, or (iii) a person not in possession of the instrument who is entitled to enforce the instrument pursuant to Section 3-309 or 3-418(d). A person may be a person entitled to enforce the instrument even though the person is not the owner of the instrument or is in wrongful possession of the instrument.
Source:http://www.law.cornell.edu
Now explain to me how this makes your case. It appears to me that it debunks your arguement, not makes your arguement.
It is nice to know KillerB is smarter than a million homeowners and unknown number of lawyers, though he is a sidewalk laywer which is the equivalint of a jailhouse lawyer. The are jailhouse lawyers because they are stupid people who are in jail.
"Now explain to me how this makes your case."
hermit -- exactly how does that bit from you pasted from Cornell's UCC 3-301 "debunk" anything?
To be relevant here you should have instead pasted from http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-104.h...
UCC 3-301 = NRS 104.3301, UCC 3-501 = NRS 107.3501, etc.
The relevance is found on every Note for every home in the first clause: "1. BORROWER'S PROMISE TO PAY" -- 90% of everything any homeowner needs to know is in that clause. Used with NRS 104.3501 it's quite potent as a foreclosure defense.
But then you wouldn't know that at all, since you're more interested in mocking than anything resembling a Discussion between mature, reasonable adults. Because you decided to get childish with me, you're now going to be treated like a child -- totally irrelevant. Expect to be disrespected and ignored.
What Wells Fargo and Bank of America STILL fail to realize is that this is public news...HELLO?!?!? How is this endearing anybody to patronize your business? I tell everybody within earshot to AVOID Wells and BOA at all and any cost. Please listen to me, people!!! Go to Chase, a credit union, anywhere but these two banks. Their executives have taken vow of the seven deadly sins from which there is no return. Only a higher power (depending on your belief) can save their already broken, greedy souls. Granted we should have been more careful; hindsight is 20/20. However, now that you know, at least try to work with your customers. My family history with BOA goes back 100 years. My parents will actually close their accounts with BoA. My parents have been banking with them for over 50 years!!!! Check out all the banks that have had to close over the past two years. I predict the same future for you two within the next 10 years. I'll wait...
How does a Mechanic and a Housekeeper get a $273,000 loan in the first place. Insane that this couple thought they could afford the payments.
denver21 and everyone else who is disparaging this couple -
I'm sure they were talked into this loan by someone who convinced them they could afford this house. They believed them, because well, they are the professional, and why would a bank lend people money they wouldn't be able to pay back???
I saw some of these scumbags at work- talking people into something they had no business buying because they would make the commission on the loan, so why care about the homeowner? The banks are at fault. These people probably honestly believe they could afford the mortgage after they were told by a mortgage "professional" (aka, con artist) that they could.
Jenlv - you are truly one ignorant person.
KillerB, It is the same thing as the link you posted. Explain what I am not seeing.
"How does a Mechanic and a Housekeeper get a $273,000 loan in the first place."
denver21 -- that's an easy one. Used to be a Note with a deed of trust could be turned into cash anywhere in the world. In the now-famous In re Foreclosure Cases out of an Ohio federal district court, Defendant Carol Moore discovered DoucheBank had traded her Note 660 times in less than a year.
It's nicely explained by "The Subprime Primer" @ http://www.businesspundit.com/sub-prime/...
hermit -- no. I'm through with you.
"The paper bubble is then burst ... there will be a general revolution of property in this state." -- Thomas Jefferson by letter to John Adams, 1819, from "The Works of Thomas Jefferson" Vol. 12
Is this Wells Fargo's idea of 'helping people' (you know, with the bail-out money that they were supposed to be using to help people avoid foreclosures).... what a joke.
wells fargo, B of A, chase....all the same. just big banks that do not care about their customers. boycott them all! start using local banks.
Thanks NeedleGuy I guess that makes you truly an @sshole -
NeedleGuy, unfortunately, there are evil mortgage people that were looking out for their own interests and convince people they can afford that loan on their dream house. Although in the back of their mind, they knew they couldn't afford it, but it was their dream. Yes, it makes all mortgage bankers look bad but don't name call because of a couple of bad apples.
The banks CAN help these people...they CHOOSE not to.
What no one knows here is what the income of the mechanic and his wife were...I know a number of mechanics that do VERY well, and a $275k motrgage is about what rental apartments were going for, so don't be pissed at them..WHAT IS OF NOTE is that her husband is UNEMPLOYED!! I don't care what "save your house package" you get or martgage reduction or whatever...if you are working, there is no loan in the world - even a $100 per month, that you can afford to pay when YOU HAVE NO MONEY COMING IN!!! Until the unemployemnt changes WORLDWIDE, this type of thing wil lcontinue with people loosing their homes, cars, etc...AND FORGET about teveryone's credit scores..those suck now for everyone with the way the rules have been re-written...if you are late 1 day on a bill, it drops your score 25 points..Hence no turn around in the economy is foreseen for another few years...Banks aren't loaning money, even to small businesses which drives the market. They are sitting on $1.7 TRILLION dollars - basically interest free from Uncle Sam and even if they earn a crummy 3%,they don't have to loan anything out and worry about if you are going to repay them or not..Bottom line, until REAL jobs come back (not construction or gambling), the economy will be in the tank..