Bank of America is at it again

[flyguy]

Just heard on a radio program today that a reporter tracked down a group of LLC's that are buying up county tax liens on people's homes. Really well hidden but turns out they are run/owned by B of A. This is being done on the Internet, like a machine, by the thousands. B of A did everything they could to hide their identity.

They are buying up these tax liens where the people owe maybe $500 to $1000 in taxes and then they start adding compound interest, and court costs and anything else they can think of, and when they get high enough that the people really can't afford to pay it, they file a court claim to take the house.

Got so bad that one state, Florida I think, stopped having auctions and is doing an investigation.

Not bad enough that they are reporting how great they are doing by considering that all the foreclosed houses they own are still worth the pre-crash prices, they now stoop to this behavior to dump more people on the street.

These guys would have been right at home at Auschwitz, harvesting gold teeth.

DC

[N74DV]

Re: Bank of America is at it again

It seems this only works if the home is valued higher than what is owed. Otherwise foreclosing on a home that is upside down only partially satisfies the primary note. Second mortgages or liens are paid in that order after the primary and in an upside down home seconds and liens get squat.

For those whose homes are still in the black it seems as though this tactic would work. But, those home owners could have a shot at getting a HELOC and then use those funds to pay the tax debt.

I'm sure there's a method to BofA's madness but I'm not quite understanding the real benefit.

[flyguy]

Re: Bank of America is at it again

A man who knows the processes, obviously.

Yes, from the discussion they seemed to be talking about houses that are payed off and the people were down on their financial luck or just neglected to pay the taxes for some reason.

Some part of it was running up the charges and interest and then the bank would do well if the owner did pay it all off, or if they didn't.

Rather like the bank was creating a GROUP of income generating derivatives and buying them, as opposed to selling them as usual.

[Carrieve]

Re: Bank of America is at it again

I heard the same news story and all I could think of "Here we go again". When this fiasco collapses do we bail them out again?

[jim cooper]

Re: Bank of America is at it again

The book is called, "All the Devils are Here." By Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera. Its been out for approx 4 months. It gives a vivid description of the lack of regulation which was slowly depleated for the last 30 years, causing Wall Steet to turn into a casino for the very few. (None of them have gone to jail, Country wide, Goldman, Wachovia, etc.) Subprime was looked upon in Canada as a fools journey so they did not participate. Consequently their banks are flush with money and their econonmy is doing very well. Reregulation is not on the horizon, so.....it will happen again, and you will pay for it again. Important to point out that Fanny Mae, Freddy, etc were not the major players in this fiasco. It was WALL STREET. It was the idiocey of Allen Greenspan who said "Markets will regulate themselves," then admitted to congress last year that "I was wrong". They ARE ALL "at it again!" jc

[flyguy]

Re: Bank of America is at it again

I've seen reviews of that book Jim. You might be interested in "The Shock Doctrine," by Naomi Klein. It is about what the Chicago Free Market gang (Friedman and crew) did to South America and central America, et al. I have it; really interesting reading.

Anyway I just saw an interview with the CEO of Honeywell and he actually said that we were going to have to RAISE taxes if we are ever to recover from the deficit. Nearly fell off my chair. Sure didn't expect to hear that from a CEO. Guy sounded pretty rational to me. He was in that conference with the Prez today.

I know they passed some new regulations, but I wish they would just say to banks, "If you want to gamble with your profits you have to do it with a separate company. Banks can only do bank stuff period." Didn't sound like the new regs said that.