Reverse Mortgage Saves The Home of A 71 Year Old Tennessee Woman
In Alcoa, Tennessee a 71 year old woman was able to save her home from foreclosure and auction with a reverse mortgage loan. The original home mortgage loan was secured from Wells Fargo. The bank had to first write off $30,000 from her original mortgage balance.
According to her mortgage banker John Smaldone, mounted media and political pressure was part of the reasons that led Wells Fargo to assign a loss mitigation manager to negotiate the settlement and write off the $30,000. 71 year old Lorraine Zickefoose owed approximately $138,000 . The reverse mortgage loan which was funded by New Jersey based Village capital & Investment LLC was valued below her mortgage debt. The reverse mortgage loan value plus donations from the community was a little over $106,000.
Zickefoose’s home had been facing threats of foreclosure since November last year. Smaldone has been actively involved in trying to save the home since then. Back then he was a regional director with Village Capital. He was able to postpone the initial May 26th auction date and then mounted a media awareness campaign while trying to raise additional funds from the community. The revers mortgage value was still $42,500 short off paying her original mortgage debt.
Smaldone had been trying to negotiate a reduced payoff with Well Fargo for a while. After the postponement of the original auction date, Zickefoose had to undergo another loan counseling and her home had to be appraised again. The new appraisal was just changed the home value a little and Village Capital paid off the extra fees.
Finally Smaldone efforts did paid off. Village Capital provided the reverse mortgage loan and Wells Fargo agreed to write off some of the original mortgage debt and Lorraine Zickefoose’s home was saved.
Presently Smaldone is a senior vice president in the reverse mortgage division at AAXA Mortgage’s. AAXA was not involved in the transaction at all. According to Debora Blume, “Wells Fargo worked directly with Lorraine Zickefoose and her authorized third-party representative to resolve her matter.” She claimed confidentiality reasons and refused to discuss further any specifics of the transactions.
