Reading and listening to the news has been giving me a lousy feeling in my gut. At this point everybody knows that the banks have been behaving less than honorably. At the same time, there are people that got in way over their heads when they bought their home, unaware of what was waiting up the road. Now these people are being labeled as shysters and deadbeats. I need to explain how I got into this situation with the foreclosure and also sitting on shaky financial ground.

When my accident occurred, a lawsuit ensued. Naturally, it seems to be the American way but without it my last 20 years probably would have been six years in a wonderful nursing home or such a facility that probably wouldn’t have cable TV. The results of this suit were built upon a very complicated case but one in which I did prevail. I could now afford care at home and rehabilitation locally to help me strengthen whatever facility I had left. It was a blessing. No, it was a miracle. But somehow, my miracle was a double edged thingy. With proper care, the love and support of my family and then marrying my guardian angel Jayne, I have outlived the estimated life expectancy for someone with a level of injury like mine. On the other hand, all those funds set aside and invested to support me started to dry up. Finally, with the downfall of the market, whatever was left was gone. Almost overnight it seemed.

We were still pushing along until we hit our next little rough patch. Jayne had to close her shop because of skyhigh rent and the slowdown of money being spent around here. Here we go. I started talking with our lender regarding our mortgage. After explaining our difficulties and the serious need to refinance or modify our loan they suggested, (urged, would actually be a better word, that I enter a forbearance program that would cut our monthly payment in half for a six month period, while we begin the loan modification process. This gem of a program had one major caveat that twisted my guts; a balloon payment due after the six months to pay back the balance of the discounted months. Ouch. “Will this program be able to be extended if our circumstances remain the same?” “At that time we’ll revisit your financial situation and if need be, roll that payment into the balance of the loan.” Balance of the loan my ass. However, every payment was made right up until the aforementioned balloon payment was due.

Needless to say, our financial situation did not improve. Some medical vendors (one heavy hitter in particular) started to ratchet up their efforts on the balances for equipment we had been paying off. So the discussions began regarding the extension of the forbearance program while we were still jumping through hoops and setting ourselves on fire to get our loan modified. These discussions kind of went like this- ‘Mr. Caputo, the $15,000 payment that you owe must be paid before we can discuss another forbearance program.’ Another forbearance program. What happened to the extension of the one I was in? What happened to rolling the balloon payment into the balance of my loan and modifying the terms of my mortgage?

I don’t keep $15,000 sitting around here anymore. I continued to make payments as I had been, negotiating and pleading for some kind of amiable solution to what was going on. Then in May, I received an unusual phone call from an attorney who wanted to represent me in my foreclosure case. Shock? I wasn’t shocked, I lost my fucking shit! It was at this point that I contacted a lawyer here in Hobe sound to help with our modification and hopefully ease our frustration. After another couple of months, still making payments mind you, we do discover that the foreclosure machine was coming after us! It turns out, you do not have to be physically served papers by any manner of a process server (like the good old days), this whole thing can be set in motion and the only way you are going to know is if you sit and read the legal notices in the classifieds of your local newspaper. I mean what the fuck!

So, we had a lengthy meeting with our attorney, who is now retained to help us fight our foreclosure and not just to aid with our loan mod (which, if you can believe it, is still being reviewed according to Citibank). It was during this meeting that we found out about Mr. Stern. No not Howard Stern, I wish that were the case, Mr. David Stern, who is a fucking slimeball just like Howard but this guy sits on his yacht and sips rum punch while my wife and I eat cat food (just kidding).

So, that is all I have to say about that.