Living in Limbo: The Beginning of the End

By Gini Graham Scott

It combines a personal story and stories of middle income people with underwater homes and mortgages they can’t pay. It describes the author’s experiences with real estate agents, bankruptcy lawyers, activist groups fighting foreclosures, and others. It concludes with what the author learned in navigating the system, selling her home, renting in San Francisco, and becoming successful again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gini Graham Scott
• Release date: Aug 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476488851

Gini Graham Scott

Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D., CEO of Changemakers Publishing and Writing, is an internationally known writer, speaker, and workshop leader. She has published over 50 books with major publishers on various topics and has written over 3 dozen children's books. Her published children's books include Katy's Bow, Scratches, The Crazy Critters First Visit, and Where's the Avocado? published by Black Rose Writing. She has published 8 children's books through her company Changemakers Kids and is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She does workshops on self-publishing and creativity. She also helps clients write books as a ghostwriter and self-publish or find publishers and agents. Her websites are www.changemakerspublishgandwriting.com and www.ginigrahamscott.com.

Book preview

Living in Limbo

The Beginning of the End

How I Survived and Thrived

After the Mortgage Meltdown

And What I Learned Along the Way

By Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D.

Changemakers Publishing and Writing

750 La Playa, #952 . San Francisco, CA 94121

http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com

Living in Limbo: The Beginning of the End

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 by Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ENDORSEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

PART I: LOSING IT

CHAPTER 1: BEGINNINGS

The Big Drop

Exploring Options

Trying to Sell the House

Advice from an Unlikely Source

Changing Banks

Garage Sales

Creating a Trust

Looking for Another Place to Live

CHAPTER 2: GROUND ZERO

Beginning the Countdown

Playing the Bank Phone Game

Getting Offers of Help and Hearing Others’ Stories

No Sale

CHAPTER 3: FIGHTING BACK AND DISCOVERING ALTERNATIVES

Enter the Bankruptcy Attorney

We Can Help

PART II: TAKING ACTION

CHAPTER 4: ORGANIZING TO STOP FORECLOSURES

Discovering Organizations Ready to Help

Some Plans to Take Action

The Spreading Crisis

CHAPTER 5: HELPING HOMEOWNERS SAVE THEIR HOMES

Getting It Together for a Foreclosure Prevention Event

Attending a Foreclosure Prevention Day

Meeting the Foreclosure Prevention Counselors

Meeting the Bank Reps

Learning About Government and Non-Profit Programs

CHAPTER 6: FORECLOSURE PREVENTION POWER

How We Got to Where We Are Today

The First Stages from Default to Foreclosure to Eviction

Getting a Notice of Default

When and How to Intervene

PART III: EPILOGUE

CHAPTER 7: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER– HOW I LEARNED TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE AFTER A NEAR FINANCIAL COLLAPSE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ENDORSEMENTS

I am now beginning to obtain endorsements for the book by sending out the manuscript to those concerned about the foreclosure crisis in some way. Here’s the first two of these:

This book is so important. We have an invisible class of people who have been exploited by the banks and corporations, and if these people can get together and organize, it will change the corporations, society, and politics, and prevent this situation from happening again. These people are in limbo and are silent, since they stand apart. They must be brought together and organization, so their voices are heard, and this is why this book is so important.

-William Parks, Bankruptcy Attorney, Sunnyvale, California

Gini Graham Scott is the perfect author to represent the many diverse people who are facing issues of foreclosure, survival through rough bank negotiations, and dealing with the aftermath of foreclosure including homelessness, health issues, and caring for the children of the homeless. Her personal experience combined with the many families she has interviewed for her Middle Class Homeless video project has placed her in the optimum position to give voice to so many who have been struggling through this confusing real estate 'bubble'. She has comprehensive experience to offer and tips for everyone challenged by our harsh economy. I recommend this important and timely book of Gini Graham Scott with full appreciation for the work she does.

Stephanie Slade, M.A.ED, President, Slade Digital, United Media Productions

"Empowerment comes from the People, by the People and for the People.  When Wall Street and other financial institutions fail the People, creating its own financial gain at the expense of the People, change can only occur by People stepping up, educating and empowering themselves.  Gini Graham Scott has authored a book to help those in need by sharing her personal experience, knowledge and what others can do.  Her personal experience enlightens others facing credit crisis, foreclosure and potential homelessness.  A must read for those wanting to make a difference.  A must read for those facing similar situations.

-Sharon Collins, CEO Collins Management Company, Active ACCE Member (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment), Board Member - Strive for Change Foundation (www.striveforchangefoundation.org)

INTRODUCTION

The numbers are daunting. Over 12 million homes are in foreclosure or underwater, the vast majority owned by middle class homeowners, commonly due to loss of jobs or business. These defaults have triggered short-sales and bankruptcies, with most homeowners remaining in their homes for 6 months to two years, since the banks are so overwhelmed by the crisis and their efforts to avoid the losses from selling an underwater home. Still, about 5 million homeowners have lost their homes in the last four years.

In California, the hardest hit of the states with one in every five foreclosures in the U.S., there have been 1.2 million foreclosures since 2008. The number is expected to nearly double to over 2 million by the end of 2012. A key reason for so many foreclosures is that about 2 million homes – about 30% of all mortgages -- are underwater. In my former hometown of Oakland where I owned and sold a house, homeowners have lost $12.3 billion of home values due to the foreclosure crisis, and about 27,000 or 1/3 of all homeowners are underwater (from The Wall Street Wrecking Ball: What Foreclosures Are Costing Oakland Neighborhoods, a report by ACCE, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Sept. 2011).

Aside from the collapse of the housing bubble, some key reasons for this crisis are the loss of jobs, business declines and failures, and the tightening of credit, since the banks have reduced credit or are not extending it. Meanwhile, many government and local programs have sprouted to help the homeowners deal with the crisis and perhaps get a loan modification, home transition assistance, or other support – and armies of bank representatives are now going around the country meeting with homeowners and getting documents to possibly provide help.

For homeowners caught up in this upheaval, as they wait for the final verdict that they have to move after a trustee sale, it’s like living in limbo. One doesn’t know how long one can stay in one’s house, whether one can increase one’s income enough to stay, where to go, and what to do next.

I first began to be affected by this crisis in March 2008, when one of my publishers AMACOM downsized just before releasing my new book – ironically entitled: Want It, See It, Get It! Despite an initial shock, I thought everything would be smooth sailing after I sold my business, which connected writers and others to publishers and agents, the film industry, the media, and other industries, in September 2008. The sale closed in October and suddenly I felt flush with money. I even invested half of my sale proceeds in the production of one of my scripts so I would become a produced writer which, I thought, would open up doors to scriptwriting in Hollywood, while I wrote my own books and books for clients.

But then the big 2008 crash began, and in November 2010, my own business of writing began to dry up and by 2011 became a disaster. However, while I earned less than half what I did in the two previous years, at least I had accumulated a lot of credit to tide me over – or so I thought.

Before these experiences, I hadn’t thought much about the housing and foreclosure crisis. It was something that happened to other people who I occasionally read or heard about in the news. But around November 2011, everything began to change. As I looked at my own dwindling credit line, I began wondering what someone would do if they were situation where they had run out of money and might lose their home and everything they held dear.

The result was Suicide Party, a script about a middle-class guy who has been a very successful salesman, can’t find work, and is facing an eviction in 30 days if he can’t come up with the money. So with the help of a friend, he decides to have a suicide party, and if he raises enough money he’ll live; if not, he’s got pills to end his life. Once he announces the party, it unleashes the response of people with different agendas, creates a media frenzy, and ends with a dramatic twist after the party.

While Suicide Party is a dramatic entertaining film, it raises issues about what is happening in contemporary life and deals with attitudes towards suicide, the housing crisis, inequality, celebrity culture, the media, and more. The script has gotten rave reviews, is now a semi-finalist in the Screenplayfest competition, and led to a video trailer and first episode, which are featured in a cloudfunding campaign to produce a feature film. Also, the script led to a documentary video series on middle class people losing their homes: Middle Class Homeless: Families in Trouble; Middle Class Homeless: The Crisis; and a trailer for the series, which is being pitched for a full length feature.

These documentaries feature eight families telling their stories and discussing ways to help those in this situation, and in one documentary, a financial adviser discusses the effects of the crisis and what to do. You can see these documentaries on YouTube at the following links:

Middle Class Homeless: The Crisis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2cTACN-iNA

Middle Class Homeless – Families in Trouble

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBi-PC0xg-k

Middle Class Homeless – Introducing a Series of Documentaries

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaKS_qSQVRs

The eight families feature a variety of family types, including white, African-American, and Hispanic families with kids, a single father and son, a single mother and her kids, an empty nest older couple, and a single older woman.

Hispanic Middle Class Family

African-American Middle Class Family

White Middle Class Family

Single Mom with Her Kids

Single Father with His Son

Empty Nest Older Couple

Single Older Woman

But in developing these projects, I was still just an interested outsider with a problem that might occur sometime in the future.

Then, a few days after we shot the Middle Class Homeless videos – on January 25, 2012 – a day I’ll never forget, reality hit, when Wells Fargo reduced my credit line by $5000, from $20,000 to $15,000, so I had no more credit left with Wells Fargo.

Still, I felt everything would be okay when I called the Bank of America the following day, since I had an untapped corporate credit line for $25,000. Then, when I asked for a new plastic card, thinking I didn’t have one, the rep suggested I could use a balance transfer for only 13% interest. It seemed like a great deal, since it was so much less than paying about 25% interest, plus a 6% merchant account processing fee, when I used my card to supplement my reduced income with a few thousand in credit each month until my business revived.

So why not do it? I thought. I only needed $1000 now. And you can always call for a transfer again, the clerk helpfully assured me, sealing the deal. Now she just had to get the transfer approved by a credit specialist.

Big mistake! I should have stopped her in her tracks because the credit specialist had to review my credit profile in order to approve the