“You have reached The Mortgage Relief Hotline.”
You’ve probably seen the commercials on your TV lately too. “STOP FORECLOSURE” they scream at you. “GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS HELP YOU!”
One of these caught my eye tonight because it never mentioned the name of the company that was offering the help. I thought that was scary so I called to find out what it’s all about.
These are the notes from my brief conversation this evening with the clerk who answered the phone.
Discount Mortgage Relief.com, 1-888-336-5967
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They’re doing loan modifications based on “the federal bailout program”
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They work with the client’s existing mortgage lender, try to get them brought current, trying to get the client lower interest rates
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They’re also working with “the Obama plan doing balance reductions”
Where located? Scottsdale
What information needed from homeowners? “We run them thru a prequalification process before talking with their lenders.” That includes the homeowner’s ”monthly budget, taxes & insurance, income, etc.” Once the homeowner is prequalified with Discount Mortgage Relief.com, the company starts talking with the homeowner’s lender(s).
What happens after the homeowner gets prequalified by DMR.com? The homeowner must send DMR.com the following
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mortgage statement
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1 month pay stubs
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2 months bank statements
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2 years of taxes (the entire return)
What fees? It varies, starting at $995 to cover the processors and negotiators, and for multiple loans or high balance loans, fees can go up to $3,000
What if Lender Doesn’t Modify the Loan?
The clerk I spoke with said “There’s a part in our contract called ‘nonperformance’ which is a 100% refund if savings isn’t at least 15 times the loan modification fee [charged by DMR.com].
More Information to Follow Tomorrow
I’ll call DMR.com again tomorrow morning, during business hours, to find out a bit more, including:
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how long in business?
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local, regional, national?
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success rates?
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number of employees?
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when exactly is the fee due? before the prequal process or after?
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what are the qualifications of the people who handle these modifications? are they lawyers? paralegals? trained or certified?
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how is that 15% savings rate calculated?
Check back tomorrow for more! Please comment if you have questions you’d like me to ask DMR.com, or if you’ve used a loan modification company yourself.
Disclaimer
The call center clerk I spoke with tonight was was pleasant and helpful, and very mindful of the fact that I was taking notes. I didn’t hide who I was, and told him upfront that I’d be writing about DMR.com on this blog.
I’m not endorsing Discount Mortgage Relief.com (DMR.com) in any way. They didn’t ask me to write this story and I’m not getting anything for writing it. OTOH, I’m not here to bash them either. I just thought it would be helpful for The Phoenix Agents readers to see behind the curtain on one loan modification organization.
Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more than someone her size ought to be able, and is a runner as a consequence. Her TiVo's full of spy thrillers, police procedurals and Whedonesque sci-fi.
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Boy you picked the wrong company to show “The Phoenix Agents readers to see behind the curtain on one loan modification organization”. This company is the biggest loan modification scam artists of all time! They took money from thousands of people including me, and are currently being prosecuted for lies, deceit, upfront fees, promises they could not make, and violating their own contracts. They also had employees they did not pay, pushed their employees to lie and deceive, collect fees ranging from $900 – $4000 they do NOT refund, etc. The list goes on! They were raided in April 2010, prosecuted in July 2010. Just google their name! You can’t get in touch with them as they have been shut down and are going through court proceedings. John Common, Bruce Spurlock and the rest of the employees (Tiffany Patton, Helaine Cohen, etc.) that STAYED even AFTER they knew of their unethical and fraudulent business practices, and continued to lie and deceive people, should and hopefully will all be INDICTED! This will probably be the next ENRON or Bernie Madoff story. And great, I’m just soooooo happy to be a part of it…
By the way: If for the next person that tells me to check the BBB before going with this company – I did! I was the one who opened the case with the BBB against them. There WAS NO information on them before I opened the investigation. And since then there have been well over 100 complaints shortly after. I went back with forth the the BBB fighting with Ms. Helaine Cohen on several accounts. All the BBB did is eventually close my case stating that “the company provided reasonable means to resolve the issue”. This was the ultimate slap in the face, even after all the evidence. Shows ya how much the BBB rating is worth…
Hello, this is Heather, one of the 2 Realtors who run this website, ThePhoenixAgents. This post is getting a lot of angry comments, so I’m writing to clarify our role. We are Realtors in metro Phoenix, Arizona. We run this website.
However, ThePhoenixAgents are not and never were affiliated with the BBB. We are not and never were affiliated with Discount Mortgage Relief. We are not able to assess the accuracy of the complaints made about Discount Mortgage Relief by Jim and other people who commented on this blog post.
We can verify — via a review of the Maricopa County Superior Court docket online — that the State of Arizona DID file a lawsuit against Discount Mortgage Relief and it’s owners, in Summer of 2009. Court records show that the last activity in the case was December of 2010.
If our readers would like to research this case, they can do so on the Superior Court website at http://www.superiorcourt.maricopa.gov/docket/. The case number we’re aware of is CV2010-016840. You can see the original Complaint filed by the State Attorney General, here: http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/06/07/AzvInqb8.pdf
If discount mortgage is so great then why have they refused to refund my $1300.00 for well over a year. Even if DMR refuse to pay the BBB membership fee that has noting to do with them taking peoples money causing them to lose their homes because they trusted DMR.
I do believe with all my heart DMR will be punished in a court of law, I am praying this happens!
I’ve seen companies who were not BBB Accredited that had an A rating, so not all have C- ratings. The report for them says they have an F rating because:
Based on BBB files, this business has a BBB Rating of F on a scale from A+ to F. Reasons for this F rating include:
BBB concerns with the industry in which this business operates
Length of time business has been operating
56 complaints filed against business
1 complaint filed against business that were not resolved
2 serious complaints filed against business
I think BBB is a non-profit..you can call them and find out for sure though.
But you can also call HUD for assistance with these issues, they can usually help too..
I’ve had family going through these problems, and thats what they did. They looked at this company, but decided not to use them after they google’d for info and looked on BBB. Be cautious!!
update 12/21/09. Comment Deleted – did not comply with this site’s Legal or Comment policies.
Our dealings with Discount Mortgage Relief has been a disaster. Our mortgage company foreclosed on our home all the while DMR was saying they were working on our loan modification & there was no foreclosure date.. They will not return phone calls or Emails. Please, Please, investigate before you do business with Mortgage Relief. It is too late for us.
Oh, and I agree with previous comments made, it is much easier and cheaper to work directly with your mortage provide, especially if it one of the bigger ones.
If you are thinking of using this company don’t once they get your money you will not hear from them again. Despite their claims that if they are not able to help you, you will get your money back this just is not the case.
I gave all the information they asked for and they promised they could get a rate reduction to 4.2 %.
I contacted my lender and they stated they have no record of Discount Mortage ever sending anything to them.
I have called and emailed this company over 89 times in the last four months and have recieved no communication back from them.
I opened a complaint with the BBB to no avail.
Please do not make the same $2100 mistake I made.
I was mistaken about Al Capone. I did not verify the information. A QWR is not a silver bullet, but it does notify the lender of your intentions.
As far as people attempting a modification on their own, by the numbers, an individual has a 5% chance of completion. Also, the terms will likely not be in the individual’s best interest. Think about it this way–going to your lender to try to get your mortgage payment reduced is like going to your bartender to help you get sober. The lender wants you on the hook. They are more likely to offer a small reduction in interest that may or may not be permanent. The danger in going directly to the lender is that homeowners can only modify their loan once per calendar year. If they accept a low-ball modification from the bank, they’re stuck for a year until they can modify again.
Again, Alex, I was not involved in your case and I apologize if we dropped the ball. We’re good but we’re not perfect.
Comment Deleted – did not comply with this site’s Legal or Comment policies.
In response to Mr.Hammang claim that the BBB was founded by Al Capone, please take a minute of you time and fact check that info and you will see that statement can be easily dismissed as false information. I gave DMR more than enough time to achieve promised goals, months to be exact. One hard learned reality I would like to share to readers is please don’t believe that a ‘QWR “qualified written request” will save you from making payments and not damage you credit. I once believed that lie until I found out my credit was adverse and was not being corrected by my lender. I was up to date on all my payments until I fell into this web you weaved so well. All of these things promised by companies that do these services are pipe dreams. I learned my lesson the hard way.I hope anyone interested will think long and hard before going down the same road I traveled.I also hope you never have to go thru what I did and a good portion of America is facing at this moment in time. Please consider my sacrifice your new found knowledge. Do some homework and google the record of the company and ownership and feel 100% comfortable giving the remaining few dollars you have in the bank to someone you think will help you. Consider a non for profit organization before you roll the dice. I never used to gamble with my money but I felt desperate and saw no light at the end of the tunnel. There are ways out of this but my decision to hire DMR was an incorrect one.Think twice!!
Amber, I highly recommend you try to do the process by yourself. ( http://www.FHA.com/Hope )is a non for profit agency that can help you find alternatives instead of paying someone and risk having the experience I was faced with. I hope everyone who is need is not prayed upon by predator company’s that are wolves in sheep clothing. I hope you find resolution and all turns out well. Please do your home work and look for a BBB approved company with a good rating…after all, you are paying a lot of money!!
Our policy states that we provide a 100% money back guarantee if we cannot successfully modify the client’s loan. That being the case, we have to be allotted sufficient time. The process involves dealing with all the bureaucracy and red tape intrinsic in a large bank and can take up to 6 months.
The process begins with us filing an Authorization to Represent with the client’s lender. The lender has 20 days to acknowledge it and another 60 days to make a formal response. That’s 3 months right there. Negotiations can take another several months past that. We make this time-line clear upon taking the case and we do not issue refunds for our clients being impatient.
If a client cancels before the final decision has been made, we expect to be compensated for our time. We also guarantee overall savings of at least 15 times the fee–i.e. if a client’s fee is $2,000, we will save them at least $30,000 across the term of the loan. It is typically much higher than that. The most we have ever saved a client is $987,000.
I am not personally familiar with Alex’s case, but I have been involved with clients who did receive refunds when appropriate.
Don’t hire this company!!!!It’s a ripoff!! I am one of many who made the mistake of believing them and they failed me miserably! I was taken for almost $2800. They never return your phone calls and leave you to fend for yourself at the end of the process. I called religiously once a week to find out what was happening and all they would say that my case was in process. I finally tried to cancel services only to speak to John Common (The Owner) who was rude unprofessional and flat out a d!##. He told me I was not getting my money back and refused to discuss the matter any further,and hung up the phone laughing.Don’t make the mistake I made. Avoid this cancer at all meens.PLease Please don’t be fooled by them.
Author’s note:
Justin Hammang is partially right. The BBB appears to charge to become a member. Their website says members must “complete the required application and pay all monetary obligations to BBB in a timely manner”. However, we cannot find independent confirmation they refuse to assign better than a C- rating to non-members.
It does appear that the various BBBs around the country are for-profit companies, not government entities, although their website doesn’t explicitly say, one way or the other.
The first BBB office was founded in 1912. Al Capone was 13 years old at the time.
References:
http://www.bbb.org/us/bbb-accreditation-standards/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_capone
http://www.bbb.org/us/BBB-Structure/
I am an agent for DMR. I would like to make it clear that the only reason we have a C- rating with the BBB is because we have made a conscious choice not to pay their fee to become members. The BBB operates in a misleading manner–they are not a government agency or even a non-profit organization; they are a paid referral service founded by none other than Al Capone. As such, they automatically rate any non-member at C-. The important thing is that we have no complaints with them or any other public reporting agency.
Thank you,
Justin Hammang
My Husband called this phone number today to get information on what they are offering. I am a skeptic so I am trying to research the company. I can’t wait to see who else posts hopefully someone that has done business with them. Looking forward to your next post on this topic.
P.S. I did search the BBB and they have a C- rating. Mosting because they do not have much information on the company. ~ No complaints:)
you can also check with the BBB to see if there are complaints
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