Klein, Committee Examine Solutions for Mortgage Crisis
Washington, D.C. - December 8, 2009 - (RealEstateRama) — Congressman Ron Klein (FL-22) today participated in a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee seeking solutions to the current mortgage crisis. Klein described the serious problems in the South Florida housing market for the Committee and witnesses, and said that it “is essential for banks and the federal government to implement effective programs to increase loan modifications and prevent foreclosures. It is simply not acceptable to watch responsible families in our community lose the homes they have worked so hard for.”
To view a video of Congressman Klein’s statement to the committee, please click here. The full text, as prepared for delivery, follows.
Statement of Congressman Ron Klein
Hearing of the House Financial Services Committee
The Private Sector and Government Response to the Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis
December 8, 2009
As prepared for delivery
Thank you, Chairman Frank, for holding this important hearing. In South Florida, we still face serious problems with the housing market, and it is essential for banks and the federal government to implement effective programs to increase loan modifications and prevent foreclosures. It is simply not acceptable to watch responsible families in our community lose the homes they have worked so hard for.
I am pleased to see the increased focus on foreclosure prevention from the Obama Administration, and they have taken positive steps in the right direction. But there are still important issues that must be addressed. A house is not solely an investment, it is a home, and too many South Florida families have lost the homes they love.
One of the problems with the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and other Administration initiatives is incomplete paperwork. Mortgage servicers testify that many borrowers do not provide complete information when applying for a loan modification under the HAMP program, and it is important to educate borrowers on both the availability of the program and the required documentation to obtain a loan modification.
However, I constantly hear from my constituents that they send in requested forms two, three, or four times – with the mortgage service companies repeatedly misplacing paperwork. I understand that the increased volume of loan modifications causes strains on mortgage servicers, but the Treasury Department must ensure that banks have the necessary quantity and quality of personnel, as well as procedures in place to adequately handle the caseload and required paperwork. It is particularly unacceptable for banks that have received taxpayer assistance to delay or deny mortgage relief through lost paperwork and inadequate staffing.
Further, while many of the major mortgage servicers have ramped up trial modifications under the HAMP program, only a small percentage have been converted to full loan modifications. We must do a better job. Ocwen Financial Corporation, based in my district, has been very successful converting trial loan modifications to permanent modifications – with an over 70% conversion rate – well above the national industry average. The Treasury Department might want to look at their program and others like it to see if these programs can be used by other mortgage servicers.
I am also concerned about the current situation regarding the processing of short sales. My constituents, in large numbers, as well as realtors, continually tell me about the complex and time consuming process that they must go through with banks to complete a short sale. Sellers and potential buyers are forced to wait months before the bank signs off on a short sale deal, and many potential buyers walk away during the delay. It appears that in many cases banks aren’t making a serious or concerted effort to facilitate short sales.
I appreciate the recently published Treasury guidelines on increasing the closings on short sales, and I think they are a positive step forward. Yet I have concerns that they don’t go far enough to address some of the issues complicating the execution of short sales, particularly regarding secondary liens and investor interests. We must require banks to process short sales in a consistent and timely manner, and we must ensure that we have the right incentives in place to encourage short sales. If mortgage services and investors are holding up the process and unduly denying short sales, they must be held accountable.
Another issue is the changing nature of mortgage default. Initially there was a significant problem with subprime loans and borrowers in mortgage products that were clearly not affordable for them. We are now increasingly seeing a situation where job loss and income decline is the major cause of mortgage defaults. It is essential for banks to remain flexible and adapt programs to the changing environment.
Appraisals are another issue. Residential properties were certainly overvalued in many areas of the country, and the market must be allowed to adjust to the current economic environment. But we must ensure that appraisers are familiar with the local real estate market, and that fire-sale pricing due to foreclosures aren’t bringing appraised values below the true market value of residential properties. This will only deepen the problem and prolong the recovery.
Further, to the extent justified foreclosure proceedings are filed, they should be processed in a way that brings closure and does not harm neighboring property values. When banks drag their feet, neighbors who pull their weight are unfairly and negatively affected. Individuals who are not making their mortgage payments are also likely not current on their taxes, and are not paying their condo fees or homeowners’ association dues, which directly impacts their neighbors. Where they are unavoidable, foreclosure proceedings that are completed in reasonable time frames are the best case scenario for property values in the community.
I understand the difficulty in developing effective programs to increase loan modifications and stem foreclosures, yet many South Florida families face the real possibility of losing their homes. My staff and I stand ready to assist the Administration in any way we can. I look forward to the testimony today.
Comments
What a great article…. My mother was so fed up with her lender who seemed to always lose her paperwork when she submitted her loan modification. After that she was scammed out of 4500.00 from some company in FL. She finally paid a private company in Glendale, AZ called Mortgage Assistance Group and they helped her by discounting her mortgage by over $500 a month. They have an “A” rating with the BBB.
Barry Silber Jim Marks predatory lenders??? There are many ways to take homes and equity from the elderly and destroy families, pleas read the following and share with others.
Help expose these men.
Here is a comment worthy of note which I found trolling the comments on my blog:
Remember if you are dealing with an unscrupulous licensed professional (attorney, mortgage broker, etc.) you can file a grievance with the licensing agency who will investigate, prosecute if necessary, and possibly require restitution.
Comment:
[Editor’s Note: If con men looked like crooks they wouldn’t get anywhere. They always ingratiate themselves and seem like good people interested in helping. They intentionally do not appear to be much different from legitimate lawyers, auditors, debt counseling etc. Livinglies does not vouch for the accuracy of any statement contained in the article below]
A Warning to others having Mortgage problems: Re: A family of predatory lenders…
Our family was having some problems with our first mortgage we got behind and were facing a potential foreclosure.
We got a lot of the typical rescue mailers telling us that we had plenty of equity and not to worry. We knew this and we only needed 20 to 30 thousand dollars to bring the loan current. Plus we knew we could sell another property that would pay off part of our loan at any time. That seemed simple enough,.
Now let the nightmare begin…
We were approached by a broker / lender named Jim Marks out of Tampa Florida who said he could rescue us and the rates would be very low because we had so much equity in our waterfront home. He said he could find us plenty of money. We were very clear to him that we did not have the income to do any major loan an we only needed a small amount.
Fast forward… He befriended our family, had lunch many time in our home and other places , went snorkeling and diving on our boat with his family, he also wanted to see all the waterfront and residential properties my family had invested in, he also brought out investors to see what we had, later we found out that the investors were his own relatives (Barry Silber the lawyer / hard money lender with Linear capital of Tampa ).
They wanted to know if any friends had good deals on waterfront properties, I fell for all of it like a sucker and provide what they needed, Marks assisted by Silber structured a deal putting everything into the [deal?] that we already owned, they created a corporation for our family, as a JV partner Marks took 50% and gave us 50%, but took complete control of everything, he sold land we had, used the money for other purchases, took out loans without approval from our family.
As we were about to sell three of our waterfront lots and an investment home, he said don’t do it put it in the JV and we would do much better later with him in control. So we trusted him with everything including the check book.
We thought he was our friend and would managed and protect us but boy were we wrong.
We had no idea that it was all a set up from the very beginning to get control of everything we had. It is clear now that we had a big target on our backs called equity. We were steered by Mr Marks right into what I now believe was nothing more than family of Predatory Lenders.
They got me and my family by saying that they could rescue us but all we got was high interest rates etc etc. They eventually forced us into a foreclosure, but always stood by with additional high cost loans in order to get them to stop their foreclosures. We were trapped.
We were forced to meet after hours at their offices to sign more rushed document that we did not really understand. (e.s.) Jim Marks would say don’t worry I got your back and would never let you sign anything that would hurt you or your family. Papers were shuffled around for hours by the lawyer/lender Barry Silber and their title company that they all owned and controlled.
We did not want to sign anything but we were up against the wall and the mortgages that they gave us were all due again. They took a years worth of payments up front that night and paid themselves many fees. Now we had a new giant mortgage on our home that was due in one year it also had a rider that would take away all our rights to the JV that controlled all our Families properties if we didn’t pay them back within that one year.
We told Marks that we can’t pay this loan back and he said don’t worry we will sell something in the JV to pay this off or refinance you again. The lawyer involved was Mr Mark’s relative, Barry Silber was also part of the company that gave us one or more of the mortgages. Before that year was up his cousin Barry Silber started foreclosure on everything and than said they could not lend any more money. What is astounding is that our Mortgage on our home was now over $ 1 million dollars. How did this happen in just 3 years?
How did we allow someone to take all our families properties? First we trusted Jim Marks as a friend and business partner. But he was clearly working his way into our family and eventually found out every aspect of our assets and liabilities. Second: We were not very smart with our finances. Third: We don’t have much of an education and trusted him because he said he could handle everything properly.
Now we see that they were all very smart and we were conned over and over again into trusting a family of hard money lenders who had one motivation and that was to milk us of all our equity by what ever means possible. We all feel very bad because we let this happen to our families holdings. We believe that state and federal laws have been broken AND WE HAVE BEEN IN CONTACT WITH EVERY AGENCY POSSIBLE SEEKING JUSTICE. FROM LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT TO THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. WE ARE ALSO FILING COMPLANTES WITH THE FLA BAR AND OTHER AGENCYS THAT CONTROL THE LIC OF THESE MEN IN THE HOPE THAT JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED. Law enforcement and media take notice…We would like others to give their advise or their own story if they have one about these people or like kind cases. So Don’t ever fall for someone trying to rescue you with a hand of friendship.
I can tell all of you that this web site has helped in several ways. Keep it going
Barry Silber, Jim Marks update:
America’s Mortgage Broker’s Llc
324 North Dale Mabry Hwy
Tampa Florida 333609
United States of America
Phone: 813-289-0154
Web Address:
COMPLAINT FILED IN HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA CIVIL DIVISION CASE # 09 13757
PART OF COUNT II & COUNT III
CRIMINAL USURY,
CIVIL CONSPIRACY,
ILLEGAL LOANS, MISAPPROPRIATED ASSETS, ETC ETC.
UNATHORIZED REAL ESTATE PURCHASES AND SALES,
ESTIMATES BY CONSPRIATORS IS 4.5 MILLION.
WAITING FOR RESPONCE FROM SEVERAL
STATE AND FEDERAL LAW ENFORCMENT AGENCYS
NEW COMPAINTS COMING AGAINST MORE PARTIES INVOLVED.
Predatory lenders or Rescue Scamers?
Barry Silber, Jim Marks, Suzanne Marks.
Was Amanda Sigler Realty involved?
Other Parties:
Linear Capital, America’s Mortgage Brokers LLC.
Affordable Home Funding, The Title Team
Dale Group of Tampa Fl
Amanda Sigler Realty, Dunnellon Fl
324 N. Dale Mabry Hwy
Tampa Florida 33609
United States of America
Phone: 813 514 6200
Web Address:
Category: Was this ORGANIZED CRIME?
NEWS MEDIA TAKE NOTICE… HELP US EXPOSE HOW WE WERE CONNED BY A FAMILY OF PREDATORY LENDERS OUT OF TAMPA FLORIDA
To Whom it may concern,
It is our hope that one of you will investigate and expose these people and their companies. We have filed a lawsuit ( case # 09 13757 division H ) in circuit court Hillsborogh County, Florida. against some of them for Criminal Usury, Civil Conspiracy and other issues. My attorney thinks they might have violated some RICO statutes if they got more then 45% interest. I think its could be as high as 300% but dont know for sure. Please read or story and help us stop them from ever doing this again.
Category: Predatory Lending, Bait-and-Switch, Equity Stripping, Flipping, Rescue Scamers?
Why Should you Read this story and avoid these PEOPLE and their people and their companies?
Re: Barry Silber, Jim Marks, Suzanne Marks, Amanda Sigler
Here is a comment worthy of note which I found trolling the comments on my blog: Remember if you are dealing with an unscrupulous licensed professional (attorney, mortgage broker, etc.) you can file a grievance with the licensing agency who will investigate, prosecute if necessary, and possibly require restitution.
Comment: [Editor’s Note: If con men looked like crooks they wouldn’t’ get anywhere. They always ingratiate themselves and seem like good people interested in helping. They intentionally do not appear to be much different from legitimate lawyers, auditors, debt counseling etc.
A Warning to others having Mortgage problems:
Our Story: Our family was having some problems with our mortgage, we got behind and were facing a potential foreclosure. We got a lot of the typical rescue mailers telling us that we had the plenty of equity and not to worry. We knew this and we only needed 20 to 50 thousand dollars to bring the loan current. Plus we knew that our family would loan us the money if we needed it, they would sell just one property that would pay off part of our loan at any time. That seemed simple enough,
NOW LET THE BARRY SILBER, JIM MARKS NIGHTMARE BEGIN…
We were approached by a kind broker / lender named Jim Marks out of Tampa Florida who said he could rescue us from a foreclosure and the rates would be very low because we had so much equity in our waterfront home. He said he could find us plenty of money. We were very clear to him that we did not have the income to do any major loan an we only needed a small amount.
THE SCAM: Seeing that we had a lot of equity, Marks gained our trust via some acts of kindness and eventually befriends our family, He showed great concern for our financial problem and found various ways to come to our home. He had lunch many times in our home and invited me out to lunch as his guest many times. He also worked his way into using our boats and waterfront property. He went snorkeling and diving on our boat with his family and we felt that he had a nice family and was sincere. After a while I shared some of our families information regarding investments that had been made. Jim Marks was very interested and wanted to see all the waterfront and residential properties my family had invested in, he also brought out investors to see what we had, later we found out that the investors were his own relatives (Barry Silber the lawyer / hard money lender with LINEAR CAPITIAL of Tampa ). Was Silber directing Marks? Was Marks the front man for either Silber or Linear?
The investor Barry Silber came to our home invited by Marks and talk about a long term Joint Venture and wanted to know if any of my friends had good deals on waterfront properties, I fell for all of it like a sucker and provide what they needed, Silber disappears for a long time but some how comes back as the hard money lender but we did not know that he was Marks relative. Marks is now telling us that we can get any loan from anyone except Silber. I think this is against the law because marks was steering us right into the hands of his relative, Did marks get kickbacks or other profits? Marks got 50% of the corp and many fees after flipping our loans. We shall See about that later during discovery.
I believe that Marks only assisted Barry Silber as a front man who looked for the elderly who had good equity but had problems with a foreclosure. Did Marks and Silber work as a team and structured a deal putting everything into the [deal?] that we already owned, We now believe that everything in the scam was planned from day one Marks even created a corporation for our family. We had no idea what Marks was doing with the company and can only guess that as a JV partner Marks took 50% and gave us 50%, Marks took complete control of everything, sold many lots we had, used the money for other purchases, took out loans without approval from our family. Were Marks and Silber having regular meeting on how to extract more from our family?
Our family was about to sell three of our waterfront lots and an investment home, that would have brought in aprox $300.000.00. Jim Marks said don’t do it, put it in the JV and we will do much better later with him in control. So we trusted Marks with everything including the check book. We thought he was our friend and would managed and protect us but boy were we dead wrong.
WAS AMANDA SIGLER INVOLVED? Was Amanda Sigler (a local real estate agent) feeding Jim Marks our personal information as she to befriended our family? Did she assist in taking personal property from an investment property without due process. The plan may have been set up from the very beginning to get control of everything we had. How much did Amanda gain? It is clear now that because we were elderly and easily conned and we had a big target on our backs called equity. We were steered by Mr Marks right into what I now believe was nothing more than family of Predatory Lenders.
They tricked me and my family by saying that they could rescue us from a foreclosure but all we got was more flipped loans, prepayment penalties, fees, and high interest rates. All designed to extract equity and get control of our lives. They eventually forced us into a foreclosures, but always stood by with another big loan with additional high cost in order to get them to stop their foreclosures. I think Barry had clauses in the loan agreement that took huge attorney fees if he had to foreclose. He foreclosed and we paid him, stripping more equity from our land. We were trapped.
SETTING THE TRAP: We were forced to meet after hours at their LINEAR CAPITIAL offices in TAMPA to sign more rushed document that we did not really understand. Was this a typical BAIT AND SWITCH? or was the intent to just beat us down? I am very sure that they did not want others to see what they were doing so they had to get us in after hours. (e.s.) We had many questions as documents are being brought to us for signing but Jim Marks was always standing right by our side saying don’t worry I got your back and would never let you sign anything that would hurt you or your family. Document were changed for hours by the lawyer/ lender Barry Silber as he re-did document, was this the bait and switch? We were taken out of the room several times and were brought back in when new doc were ready for us to sign. Please note that these two men owned one or more of the Title Company, The Real Estate Company, The Mortgage company and we thought they were the attorneys for everything including the corporation that was created for us.
We did not want to sign anything but we were up against the wall and the mortgages that they gave us were all due again. They took a years worth of payments up front that night and paid themselves many fees. Now we had a new giant mortgage on our home that was due in one year it also had a rider that would take away all our rights to the JV that controlled all our Families properties if we didn’t’ pay them back over $500.000.00 within that one year.
We told Marks that we can’t pay this loan back and he said don’t worry we will sell something in the JV to pay this off or refinance you or the corporation at better rates. We believed that the lawyer Silber would protect our family but we were dead wrong about that too. We now know that the lawyer involved was Mr Mark’s distant relative by marriage who stood to gain a great deal of money if we failed. I believe that this man Barry Silber should be disbarred and put in jail. We were set up to fail because after many months of Jim Marks infiltration into our family, they knew everything about us and our family and knew we had good equity to take.
SILBERS ETHICAL DUTY: It was Silber duty to not let this kind of thing to happen to anyone but was he after our land and equity as was Mr Marks from the very beginning? Barry Silber was also part of the company that gave us one or more of the mortgages. Before that year was up Barry Silber started foreclosure on our home and then said that they could not lend any more money. They got control of the land and the corporation (RSI LLC) via the attached default to our mortgage and started to sell everything. All our future income was now in their hands. What is astounding is that our Mortgage on our home is now over $ 1 million dollars. They sold several of our residential properties and took most of the cash without our permission. How did this happen and when will they be prosecuted?
THE SUCKERS: How did we allow some one to take all our families properties? First: We allowed Jim Marks in because he had all the answers to many problems we had and he was saving us from a foreclosure. We eventually trusted Jim Marks completely as a friend and business partner. But now we see that he was clearly working his way into our family and eventually found out every aspect of our assets and liabilities so that he could make his move and set the trap. Second: We were not very smart with our finances. Third: We were not smart enough to see the scam because we were blinded by his promises and trusted him because he said he could handle everything properly.
Now we see that they were all very smart men and we were conned over and over again into trusting a family of hard money predatory lenders who had one motivation and that was to milk us of all our equity by what ever means possible. We all feel very bad because we let this happen to our families holdings. We believe that state and federal laws have been broken AND WE HAVE BEEN IN CONTACT WITH EVERY AGENCY POSSIBLE Including our Governor SEEKING JUSTICE. FROM LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT TO THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. WE ARE ALSO FILING COMPLANTES WITH THE FLA BAR AND OTHER AGENCYS THAT CONTROL THE LIC OF THESE MEN IN THE HOPE THAT JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED. Law enforcement and media take notice…We would like others to give their own story about these people or like kind cases.
The KILL SHOT: This was the last statement from Mr Marks, He strongly advised us that we should quick claim our home to his wife’s relatives to avoid another foreclosure. So Don’t ever fall for someone trying to rescue you with a hand of friendship. Report Predatory lenders and Mortgage fraud abuse to everyone. Expose these people when found.
Put them in jail if crimes have been committed I can tell all of you that this web site has helped in several ways. Keep it going
Click Here to read other Ripoff Reports on America s
In a message dated 2009-12-19 11:52 Eastern Standard Time, nelson.kirkland (at) theledger (dot) com writes:
The News Chief & http://www.newschief.com
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Winter Haven, Fla. 33881
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