Review: Author doesn't know what he is talking about
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 04 17, 2012
I've spent 30 years in the mortgage servicing industry. I was entirely dissappointed with this book. After the first few pages, I decided to read it for laughs. Kiel gets almost everything wrong. He clearly has no clue as to how the servicing and secondary market work. He touts that servicers make money on foreclosures. This is about as far from the truth as you can get. When a servicer forecloses on a property, they must write down the balance sheet asset (projected servicing fee income) taking it as a current period loss to the income statement. They not only take the loss to income and balance sheet, but they also lose the stream of future income generated by the servicing fee.His examples (basically one borrower) never give the entire story. In one section he tells us the borrower tried to give the servicer $5,000, but it was turned down. He fails to tell us the status of the foreclosure (if judgment had been entered, the debt is legally merged) or how far delinquent the borrower was at the time.We are suppose to feel sorry for the borrower that used the money, left to her by her mother, to pay cash for a house. She then repeatedly borrowered against the house (one time to take the family on vacation), until she spent the entire equity she once had. We are suppose to revile the servicer that only asked the borrower to abide by the terms of the loan agreement.Unless you're looking for fiction, don't waste your money on this book.