Dear Chase, you *did* receive our last payment!
Have you just persevered through 12 months of trying to get a loan modification or short sale or ANYTHING at all to happen with Chase and still have nothing to show for it? I found this cute little story from this blog, which make a pretty good argument for strategically defaulting on your mortgage, if the circumstances are right.
Well, I know a homeowner who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona… lovely couple… wouldn’t want to embarrass them by using their real names, so I’ll just refer to them as the Campbell’s.
So, just the other evening Mr. Campbell calls me to say hello, and to tell me that he and his wife decided to strategically default on their mortgage. Have you heard about this… this strategic default thing that’s become so hip this past year?
It’s when a homeowner who could probably pay the mortgage payment, decides that watching any further incompetence on the part of the government and the banks, along with more home equity, is just more than he or she can bear. They called you guys at Chase about a hundred times to talk to you about modifying their loan, but you know how you guys are, so nothing went anywhere.
Then one day someone sent Mr. Campbell a link to an article on my blog, and I happened to be going on about the topic of strategic default. So… funny story… they had been thinking about strategically defaulting anyway and wouldn’t you know it… after reading my column, they decided to go ahead and commence defaulting strategically.
So, after about 30 years as a homeowner, and making plenty of money to handle the mortgage payment, he and his wife stop making their mortgage payment… they toast the decision with champagne.
You see, they owe $865,000 on their home, which was just appraised at $310,000, and interestingly enough, also from reading my column, they came to understand the fact that they hadn’t done anything to cause this situation, nothing at all. It was the banks that caused this mess, and now they were expecting homeowners like he and his wife, to pick up the tab. So, they finally said… no, no thank you.
Luckily, she’s not on the loan, so she already went out and bought their new place, right across the street from the old one, as it turns out, and they figure they’ve got at least a year to move, since they plan to do everything possible to delay you guys from foreclosing. They’re my heroes…
Okay, so here’s the message I promised I’d pass on to as many JPMorgan Chase people as possible… so, Mr. Campbell calls me one evening, and tells me he’s sorry to bother… knows I’m busy… I tell him it’s no problem and ask how he’s been holding up…
He says just fine, and he sounds truly happy… strategic defaulters are always happy, in fact they’re the only happy people that ever call me… everyone else is about to pop cyanide pills, or pop a cap in Jamie Dimon’s ass… one or the other… okay, sorry… I’m getting to my message…
He tells me, “Martin, we just wanted to tell you that we stopped making our payments, and couldn’t be happier. Like a giant burden has been lifted.”
I said, “Glad to hear it, you sound great!”
And he said, “I just wanted to call you because Chase called me this evening, and I wanted to know if you could pass a message along to them on your blog.”
I said, “Sure thing, what would you like me to tell them?”
He said, “Well, like I was saying, we stopped making our payments as of April…”
“Right…” I said.
“So, Chase called me this evening after dinner.”
“Yes…” I replied.
He went on… “The woman said: Mr. Campbell, we haven’t received your last payment. So, I said… OH YES YOU HAVE!”
Foreclosure, Loan modification | admin July 17, 2010
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By okie from muskogee, August 4, 2010 @ 11:22 am
I love it! Mr. Campbell, you’re my hero. I sure wish we were in your situation.
By Erin, August 27, 2010 @ 3:27 pm
Happened to us too!!
Told us to stop making payments though and we went through that whole nightmare. But now we really dont care!
We just started getting a bunch of letters from lawyers trying to “help us out of a foreclosure” so we’re assuming it’s officially foreclosed on.
Luckly I, like Ms. Campbell, am not on my husbands loan so they can have this house. Im already house shopping…kinda fun actually!