From the NY Daily News:
Carol David was sure her dream of home ownership was about to come true when she answered an ad offer to move into a house 30 days after making a $10,000 down payment.
“But it was the beginning of a nightmare,” David told a panel of state Senate and Assembly Democrats who gathered on Monday to address the growing problem of foreclosures.
David said her attorney did not attend the closing on the three-family, $699,000 house in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
“The paperwork wasn’t explained. It was just ‘sign here, sign there,'” she said. “When I went home and went through it, I realized I had been tricked.”
David was expecting her mortgage would be $1,776 a month. In reviewing the paperwork, she discovered two interest rates, and when her first house note came due, she discovered she was to pay $6,069 a month. David, a city employee, has taken the matter to court.
State Sen. Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx) estimates that more than 50,000 New Yorkers stand to lose their homes to foreclosures from loans they took out in 2005 and 2006, due in part to increases in subprime loans and predatory lending practices.
…
Several state lawmakers have proposed bills to better protect homeowners from unscrupulous lenders. And a group of Democrats is now traveling the state to hear from homeowners and advocates. Bedford-Stuyvesant was the lawmakers’ first stop.Since 2002, that community has had the highest rate of foreclosure notices in New York, according to state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (D-Brooklyn).
Sara Ludwig, executive director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, said there also has been a concentration of foreclosures in Flatbush, East New York, Canarsie, Bushwick and Ocean Hill in Brooklyn.
In Queens, the concentration is in Rochdale, Jamaica and St. Albans, Ludwig said.
Also remember the lawyer charge you too much for the little advice or protecting of you; do your own homework/be informed and ask questions no matter how stupid you think you may sound. It is better to be wise or play stupid like columbo now; and be better off and smarter later. So it may be better talk with a title company representative for usually free to not only search title and to see if the title is clean or clear but to initiate and execute contracts/offer/hold escrow deposits/etc. And they do a great job at explaining the process and do not charge by the hour but by bringing your escrow or purchase to a successful Close. They make you sure you understand and sign all the documents required to close.
It drives me nuts that people sign stuff without reading it, and that you’re expected to sign without reading the document. I refuse to do so. If you want it signed, you can shut up and let me read it. I can always walk away. More people need to realize the importance of reading all of what you’re signing.
“The paperwork wasn’t explained. It was just ‘sign here, sign there,'” she said. “When I went home and went through it, I realized I had been tricked.”
David was expecting her mortgage would be $1,776 a month.”
The only nightmare in this story is she is employed by the City and is paid by taxpayers. If she is this careless with her own life, can you imagine how careless she is at her place of employment.
Sorry..Miss David, you should have taken a basic skills math class before buying a home.