I tried to look up the records of the people mentioned in today’s Herald story Foreclosures soar, hurting minorities to trace the trail of how the people mentioned got to their foreclosure. I found dead ends on most of the names except I did find one, the reporter said about her:That's the story of Cheryl Whitlow, who has lived in her home for 26 years. In July 2006, a nephew asked her to sign some papers. She did. Now he has borrowed $100,000 against her house, which is tied up in legal proceedings. She hopes to get it back and prevent foreclosure.
'They wouldn't give me my glasses,'' said Whitlow, 62. ``He said he came to help me, but all he wanted was the house.''
I looked up Cheryl Whitlow. She signed a quit claim deed to Lewis Judson July 6, 2006 (Her nephew). Then he got a loan for $100,000 on HIS house in November 2006. The rate was 8.79%.
So this is not about foreclosure. This is about theft if Cheryl is telling the truth. REPORTER: It isn’t her house. It is his home and it is his $100,000 mortgage. Cheryl is suing him it appears, to try to get the house back.
I did not see any foreclosure on his public records or hers but she couldn’t have any, because she does not own the house. However, Lawyer of Cheryl — Jeffrey Hearne --- I found something that might be illegal on the quit claim deed: The notary also signed as a witness. I believe that is not legal, at least it wasn’t when I was a notary many years ago.
So this is not about a foreclosure in a foreclosure story, it is about who owns the house, relatives possibly ripping off relatives. If she is living there in his house, he cannot take a homestead exemption or a widower’s exemption, which he is taking. That appears to be illegal too.
Apparently there are a lot of quit claim deeds in the neighborhood:
I found another down the block "House 2". After the new owner was added by quit claim deed November 2006, on the same day they got a second mortgage on "2": It is a home equity FHA conversion loan for $337,500 - adjustable rate 6.570% to 16.570%. The mortgage appears to be unusually high. I found a sale in 2005 for $135,000 down the block for a smaller home. Most of the recent sales in the area seem to be recorded as quit claims. Seems like some of the younger relatives had the same idea: let's get some equity out of grandma's house.
The appraiser market value in 2006 for " House 2" (which is always lower) is $179,711. Something doesn't add up on this one because they are not that much lower. I see this one as a foreclosure of the future.
7 comments:
In recent years, homeowners found ways to use their homes as piggy-banks in order to support a standard of living.
Of course, each homeowner's standard of living varies depending on income level.
It is very likely that one of the coping strategies for low-income homeowners, in addressing inflation that the government denies exists, was to use home equity--one way or another--to keep pace on the premise that home values would always go up.
You will be reading a lot of stories, like this in the next few years.
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Interesting meaning!
I had a senior, disabled person come to me for help on a very similar issue. She called me about being 5000.oo behind in her mortgage asking what she do. Then she called me and said never mind, he brother was going to help her with the money. And she called me and asked me to type up a Quit Claim Deed on my computer. I refused and told her that eventhough I wasn't a lawyer, I knew that wasn't the proper paperwork to use as an IOU for 5000 dollars.
She then signed one brought to her by her brother and the "lawyer". In the end, the brother kicked her and her family out of the house. Moved his family in. He kept her furniture and belongings. Then, he let the house go into foreclosure, all the while she was making "payments" to him on the amount she owned him. Her family were living where ever other family would allow them to stay.
I referred her to the bar association who provided an attorney through their non-profit program. It took over a year of legal fights and a bankruptcy filing to get her back into the house. The brother has never had criminal charges brought up against him, and the lady still doesn't understand that it was fraud. She can't imagine that her brother would be so mean to her. (It musta been a mistake.) Duh. AND no one else in her family of cousins intervened in her behalf.
PS:
What I discovered when I was dealing with the lady was the MORTGAGE was still in her name. The Quit Claim Deed doesn't affect the ownership of the mortgage. Her brother had the ownership of the property on paper, but the mortgage was in her name, she signed the mortgage note, so the mortgage bills were hers. Nice? She basically gave him the house, while she was agreeing to pay for it. It goes without saying, the mortgage company was going after her, not him, eventhough he defrauded her and directly clouded the company's interest in the property.
Anonymous said...
Last two Anon's:
These are the stories that make me despair. What if this is really going on to a large scale? These older people who worked hard all their life and just have their homes to show for it, are being bilked out of them. Yours was a very sad story indeed. Look at her signed quit claim deed. I have now found two so far with one of the witnesses also being the notary.
Relatives ripping off relatives?? It's not a new story. This is one of the sad fact in life where loved ones becomes the victims and worst, the culprits are the relatives. What has happened to the "golden rule"? Thanks for sharing!
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