Scam! the HOPE Retention Center program is a Scam that uses the Legitimate cover of Making Homes Affordable Program for people who are behind on their mortgage payments. Because it is public record they will contact you via mail (First Red Flag in hindsight) Our initial point of contact was Randal Carter, [email protected]. He told us that he was part of the Obama program Making Homes Affordable and that we were victims of 'dual tracking' My husband had a work injury last July and it required surgery on October 10, 2013, which caused a loss of income for 10 weeks. We fell behind on our Mortgage and were in preforeclosure by April.
We had sent a fairly large payment to our mortgage company, Flagstar Bank, in March and it was rejected by the bank and they wouldnt talk to us. They referred us to their Lawyer who said we could come current if we paid the $3700 in filing fees along with our back payments. We only had enough to cover the back payments. Talking to Randal he said that it was common for banks to do that and his group would help us contact the bank and re modify. I googled the Making Homes Affordable and even did a reverse area code look up, the area code fit the bill for Washington DC.
I even checked out the Rip OFF report, however at the time nothing was posted in late April. We were then contacted by Melissa Page, [email protected], and she spoke with my husband about our reduction of income and created an analysis spreadsheet with our debt to income ratio. She emailed PDF docs, which included the Making Homes Affordable Program Logo, along with all the required docs, The Dodd- Frank Certification, the LOA and the RMA. Everything seemd on the up and up and Legit.
Chris Ward contacted us about 10-14 days after this whole thing started. He was well spoken, answered all our questions, He did advise us not to contact our Lender anymore because of a conflict of interest (Red Flag #2) and he returned all our calls on a timely manner. He informed us a few days later that he had spoken to our bank and "good news they have accepted the terms of the modification" however we needed to mail a 'good faith payment" and make the reduced payments of $1600 the first of every month for June, July and August. We mailed the cashiers check to their payment processing center at 644 N.
Fuller Ave Suite 505, Los Angeles, CA 90036. We did question why it was going to LA but Chris very smoothly quashed our concerns telling us multiple payment centers beside Troy, MI and since we were in default the payments were mailed to the loss mitigation payment center. Chris Ward was in contact with us all through May 2014 then all communication ceased, emails are bounced back and mailboxes are full for Melissa Page, Randal Carter and Chris Ward. We were scammed out of almost $7000.
Now to present day, We missed a court date because we thought we had a remodification in place and Chris Ward said he had spoken to the Lawyer and it was moot (they were going to report that we are in process of a remodificatio), There has been an auction date of November 18, 2014 set. We gave these crooks all of our money so was have NOTHING to offer our bank in terms of back payments.
When my husband found out we were scammed he had a panic attack work and they called an ambulance for medical assistance, since he had a hard time breathing. My only hope is that Flagstar Bank will take pity on us and now work with us directly for a remodification. Please Beware, desperate people do desperate things and these people not only took our money, which can be replaced eventually, but they took our hope at keeping our home. I have 3 childred under the age of 9... how am I going to explain this to them?
Home Retention Center, LLC Reviews
Scam! the HOPE Retention Center program is a Scam that uses the Legitimate cover of Making Homes Affordable Program for people who are behind on their mortgage payments. Because it is public record they will contact you via mail (First Red Flag in hindsight) Our initial point of contact was Randal Carter, [email protected]. He told us that he was part of the Obama program Making Homes Affordable and that we were victims of 'dual tracking' My husband had a work injury last July and it required surgery on October 10, 2013, which caused a loss of income for 10 weeks. We fell behind on our Mortgage and were in preforeclosure by April.
We had sent a fairly large payment to our mortgage company, Flagstar Bank, in March and it was rejected by the bank and they wouldnt talk to us. They referred us to their Lawyer who said we could come current if we paid the $3700 in filing fees along with our back payments. We only had enough to cover the back payments. Talking to Randal he said that it was common for banks to do that and his group would help us contact the bank and re modify. I googled the Making Homes Affordable and even did a reverse area code look up, the area code fit the bill for Washington DC.
I even checked out the Rip OFF report, however at the time nothing was posted in late April. We were then contacted by Melissa Page, [email protected], and she spoke with my husband about our reduction of income and created an analysis spreadsheet with our debt to income ratio. She emailed PDF docs, which included the Making Homes Affordable Program Logo, along with all the required docs, The Dodd- Frank Certification, the LOA and the RMA. Everything seemd on the up and up and Legit.
Chris Ward contacted us about 10-14 days after this whole thing started. He was well spoken, answered all our questions, He did advise us not to contact our Lender anymore because of a conflict of interest (Red Flag #2) and he returned all our calls on a timely manner. He informed us a few days later that he had spoken to our bank and "good news they have accepted the terms of the modification" however we needed to mail a 'good faith payment" and make the reduced payments of $1600 the first of every month for June, July and August. We mailed the cashiers check to their payment processing center at 644 N.
Fuller Ave Suite 505, Los Angeles, CA 90036. We did question why it was going to LA but Chris very smoothly quashed our concerns telling us multiple payment centers beside Troy, MI and since we were in default the payments were mailed to the loss mitigation payment center. Chris Ward was in contact with us all through May 2014 then all communication ceased, emails are bounced back and mailboxes are full for Melissa Page, Randal Carter and Chris Ward. We were scammed out of almost $7000.
Now to present day, We missed a court date because we thought we had a remodification in place and Chris Ward said he had spoken to the Lawyer and it was moot (they were going to report that we are in process of a remodificatio), There has been an auction date of November 18, 2014 set. We gave these crooks all of our money so was have NOTHING to offer our bank in terms of back payments.
When my husband found out we were scammed he had a panic attack work and they called an ambulance for medical assistance, since he had a hard time breathing. My only hope is that Flagstar Bank will take pity on us and now work with us directly for a remodification. Please Beware, desperate people do desperate things and these people not only took our money, which can be replaced eventually, but they took our hope at keeping our home. I have 3 childred under the age of 9... how am I going to explain this to them?