Sub Primers in Charge of Mortgage Mods

Since the sub prime mortgage market has died the formers employees need to do something. So what better than starting mortgage mod companies to try to work out the loans that they sold a few years ago. Who knew the loans better, right? They already know the lenders that they sold the loans to as well. Plus they are making money in the process. So it must be a win-win situation, at least for the ex sub prime employees. For those that bought the loans a few years ago it sounds more like a lose-lose situation. They are paying the mods money to still lose their house anyways. And what are the new mod employees doing to help the poor folks facing foreclosure? Why laughing at them! That is what just happened in California according to this New York Times article titled Subprime Brokers Back as Dubious Loan Fixers. Let's take a look -

By Mr. Soussana’s own account, his customers fared less happily. He specialized in the exotic mortgages that have proved most prone to sliding into foreclosure, leaving many now scrambling to save their homes.

Yet the dangers assailing Mr. Soussana’s clients have yielded fresh business for him: Late last year, he and his team — ensconced in the same office where they used to broker mortgages — began working for a loan modification company. For fees reaching $3,495, with most of the money collected upfront, they promised to negotiate with lenders to lower payments on the now-delinquent mortgages they and their counterparts had sprinkled liberally across Southern California.

“We just changed the script and changed the product we were selling,” said Mr. Soussana, who ran the Los Angeles sales office of Federal Loan Modification Law Center. The new script: You got a raw deal, and “Now, we’re able to help you out because we understand your lender.”

Mr. Soussana’s partners at FedMod, as the company is known, were also products of the formerly lucrative world of high-risk lending. The managing partner, Nabile Anz, known as Bill, previously co-owned Mortgage Link, a California subprime lender, now defunct, that once sold $30 million worth of loans a month.

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FedMod is but one example of how many of the same people who dispensed risky mortgages during the real estate bubble have reconstituted themselves into a new industry focused on selling loan modifications.

And of course there is a Mozilo involved - Angelo Mozilo's nephew.

This company figured out how to work the system the best ways possible. Get a lawyer in charge so they could charge up front fees. Once they got the money they did little else - even pay their employees!

The article is long but it does a great job of portraying the build-up and downfall of the company. Definitely worth the read. And worth remembering not to pay someone, anyone, up front to modify your mortgage!