In Boston Massachusetts there’s a company called MassHousing, which appears to be a privately funded mortgage firm attempting to “help” would be foreclosure victims.

They claim to be helping people out of the possibility of foreclosure and I’m going to comment on some statements they are making on their site which are misleading.

I’ll put their comments in bold below then my response in italics. Get ready for some entertaining reading (that was my opinion of course).

They go on to say…

“Were you surprised by the terms of your loan after you closed your mortgage?”

Hello people!!! After you closed you got surprised! Why? Because you didn’t read the paperwork OR know anything about the mortgage loan process to begin with?

It’s time the average Stupid Home Owners starts getting educated. What about bookmarking a website like the one you are reading now and making sure you are informed the next time you do any mortgage financing.

“a smart home owner would signup to “Receive Most Recent Updates Via Email” section and make sure they stay informed. (you ARE smart aren’t you?)

Then they state…

“Home Saver is a counseling and loan program that helps borrowers who were victimized by unfair lending practices.”

Do unfair lending practices exist? YES! However the average home owner knows nothing about the lending choices they are presented, opening themselves up for trouble.

Do you really know what an adjustable rate mortgage is? Aside from that do you even know how to read the good faith estimate or what the numbers mean on the final closing document called the HUD1? Most don’t and it’s their own fault. Information like that is available at websites like this.

They also said…

“Who it’s not for
The Home Saver program is not available to home owners who
Were informed of their loan terms and knowingly accepted them,
Are already in foreclosure, or are more than 60 days delinquent
Own more than one property”

Home owners who “were informed…and knowingly accepted them” !!!! Your FREAKING KIDDING ME!

That’s called fine print ladies and gentleman. That’s the catch.

Basically they are saying, if you are already in foreclosure they can’t help (no kidding, really!) and that if you are late on your payments they can’t help either. Hmmmm, aren’t they just covering their ass by adding in the “oh, and if you WERE informed about your loan”, we can’t help you there either. How convenient for them.

Predatory Lending; is really just the concept of praying on borrowers who don’t know what the hell a mortgage is AND know nothing about the mortgage process.

So who CAN they help then? Good borrowers who are scared to death of foreclosure because they have an ARM loan.

Sounds like a normal refinance then - but really only praying on those who are scared by all the bad news (i.e Predatory Lending???).

They finally say that you are Eligible if you were “victimized by unfair lending practices” and…then meet all the regular things you’d have to meet to refinance. Duh!

Then they say you have to go through “mandatory counseling.”

I sure as hell hope so - which supports my point all along. Get educated people! You don’t need to know absolutely everything but you at least need to know the fundamentals.

You’ll find the Mortgage Fundamentals here at Stupid Home Owner so I better get some emails, comments or at least a bookmark to your favorites.