Big Bear Lake, CA

It was a very sad day today for our Market Center in Big Bear Lake because Stephanie Murphy lost her battle with cancer today.

I am sorry to say that I didn't know Stephanie very well. She got sick within months of me joining Keller Williams, but she was loved by all who knew her. When she started her treatments the whole company rallied, organizing drivers to take her to her treatments more than 50 miles away, while others cooked Stephanie's family dinner every night, purchasing the food, cooking it and delivering it to them by 5:30p so the family could have a home cooked meal when Stephanie was recovering from her treatments.

We were all so amazed to see her complete a 5K like the athlete she was soon after finishing what turned out to be her first round of treatments. And we were all so sad when she told us that those treatments didn't work. Through it all Stephanie was a pillar of strength and grace. Those close to her told me that in the last few weeks she was most concerned about helping those who loved her let her go.

Stephanie was beautiful and smart. She was a fiercely devoted Mom and a great Realtor. At 43 she leaves behind her husband Mark and their two teenaged sons. Her Keller Williams family will also miss her deeply.

I have multiple credit cards that I have used over the past ten or twenty years and have treated them responsibly. I chose them all because I could pay them on line and adjust the due dates to be convenient. When I bought a car last year I was told my credit score was quite high.

In mid December I made a large payment against my Citibank business credit card to free up the line. As I've grown my business I've contracted various services which bill the card monthly and I knew I was going to need at least half of the monies paid to meet my obligations. I am expecting a large influx of cash from the sale of a house soon, and at that time I was going to pay the line off, but wanted to wait until then.

The first hint of a problem was getting a notice from one of my creditors telling me my card was declined. When I went online to figure out why, I saw that 2 days after recieving a payment that was at least 6 times my minimum payment, they lowered my credit line to just above the balance owed on the card. When I called them to find out why, they told me they did a check on me, found an irregularity with another account and had the right to reduce my credit as they had done. It had to do with a dispute as to what I actually owed that completely different line, which currently has about a $150 total balance due. By the time the billing period was up, the interest payment pushed my account over the limit. So I was going to transfer some debt to other little used lines, but then that wasn't possible. When I went to check and make sure that these distractions hadn't kept me from scheduling the payments on all the lines I have balances on, I was locked out of one of my Citicards and was scheduling the payment on my BofA the day after the payment was due.

Fast forward to today when I went to schedule payments on all my cards again, and was still locked out of the citicard so now it is late, and when I tried to call the number on the internet I was told to call back during business hours. The Bank of America card that got a payment 4 times the minimum the day after it was due and a call from me to explain what had happened had lowered my credit line to 1/5th of what it had been, and only a few hundred dollars above my balance owed.

I know a bit about how credit works, and you don't get credit score points for overpaying your minimums the way you get dinged for being almost maxed out on your use of your available credit line. So you can be making very healthy payments on your credit lines, and the sheer act of them lowering that line at will can trash your credit score. I'll bet you that if your score goes down they have the right to up your interest rate too, so then all they have to do is lower your line to the balance due and then they can jump your interest rate too.

I pay my cards online because back in the 90's some credit card companies were playing games with mailed payments, forwarding them from one payment center to another until they were late. This feels like that. You pay 25% of the principal balance owed and they lower the line of credit to within a few hundred dollars of the new principal balance, don't give the cardholder notice and when new charges hit the card, as they've been planned based on the orignal line, now the card goes over limit. And should that not happen, well your score goes down because now you're using 95% of your available credit. Again all of this with no notice.

This feels like financial assault to me. I am sick of these financial institutions stacking the deck in their favor and pulling the rug out from under all of us so they can justify charging 30% interest. At this point I'm not comfortable making any plans that involve paying for anything with a credit card. There has got to be a more secure way to do business. I want to stop using these and thus stop paying them interest rates fit for a loan shark. Do any of you have any ideas about where one can turn?

I saw a great documentary called Thrive the other night that has definitely given me lots to think about. It confirmed a lot of what I've been saying about our current mortgage mess, but it goes even deeper and higher up the food chain than I usually go.

If you are suffering through a financial crisis, or a medical crisis, you owe it to yourself to check it out. You can find out more at www.thrivemovement.com.

My resolution after seeing it is to establish a better relationship with Big Bear's local bank to refer my clients for mortgage loans, and work on establishing a network of credit unions and smaller banks to work with.

If you represent a local bank that does mortgages, please contact me so I can learn more about your programs.

If you are talking to Bank of America about getting a mortgage, do not take one more move forward until you finish this.

I represented a seller of a lovely, well priced, well maintained home. Everything was moving along fine and we were right on schedule to close in 3 days when I got a call from escrow on the day that loan docs were suppose to be drawn. Bank of America had reviewed the termite report, which the buyers had received ten days earlier and noted no Section 1 work and some minor section 2 work. Now, in order to draw loan docs Bank of America needed the Section 2 work done and the 4 year old roof certified. REALLY?

So we schedule the Section 2 work, and since the seller’s husband, now deceased, hired the roofer and the seller didn’t know who that was, we had to find someone to certify the roof. While all of this was going on, the buyer’s agent tells me he hopes this can get done soon, as his buyers had a trip planned for outside of the country in a week.

After finishing the Section 2 work, I suggested that that the buyer see if the bank would move that condition to prior to funding instead of prior to loan docs so the buyers could sign and leave on their tip and all we needed was the roof cert, which we expected to get as soon as the roofer was available. It was my understanding Bank of America agreed to this change a week prior to the buyer’s trip. So now we’re waiting for loan docs to be generated and a roof cert.

On Friday morning, two days prior to the buyer’s trip, we produce the roof cert and I’m told that loan docs are expected. By 4 o’clock I’m told that there won’t be any loan docs that day, MAYBE Monday. So one of the buyers decided to wait until the home closes to join the rest of his family on their trip and gets a Power of Attorney from his wife. Escrow asks the loan officer at 1:28pm on Friday whether B of A wants a general power of attorney or a specific power of attorney. They offered no response, but the Title Insurance Officer said a general would suffice for their purposes.

At 9:53am on Monday morning, after the buyer who signed the POA has left the country, the loan officer emails escrow that Bank of America needs a “specific” power of attorney rather than a “general” one. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? So the buyer joins his family in Costa Rica days after they got there.

Once back another 3 weeks went by with excuse after excuse. Finally the buyers approached a lender who had closed some fast loans, and Nov 1^st we closed with the new lender. You know B of A even called about mid October asking for more documents, promising to close in a little while. Unbelieveable!

Steve Hirschler Market Specialist, Inventory Expert, Big Bear Real Estate Agent Coldwell Banker The Tim Wood Group 42153 Big Bear Blvd. P.O. BOX 6820 Big Bear Lake, CA 92315 DRE#01703081 stevehirschler@gmail.com 909 866-3481 EXT. 217 CELL 909 725-5889 Fax 909 866-3531