An Open Letter To The Bank Employees

Dear People Who Are Employed By the Bank,

It appears you are a bit upset with us. That is understandable. We have an obligation to pay and we aren't doing it. That has happened to me, and it frustrates me beyond belief too. Though I am the first to admit this isn't our finest hour, I am astonished that you--bank employees--are taking this way too personally. After all, if it wasn't for your policies, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Granted, we only have one other foreclosure to compare this experience to. It wasn't exactly a walk in the park, but for the most part, everyone Marty and I willingly spoke with during that experience was professional and kept it business-like. Granted, the folks from the call center in India who called me three times a day weren't as professional, but I give them a pass for two reasons: 1) I was usually a bitch if they interrupted something I was doing or when they got to the part of the phone call where they insisted they wanted me to state my social security number and 2) they aren't asset managers, but instead are sitting in some crowded room somewhere trying to collect on a debt.

Now then, you, People at the Bank, are a bit different. You have always treated this transaction as if it were an assault on your handicapped child. It is almost like Marty and I have personally offended you by defaulting on this loan. I have been asked by you folks, "Why would you do this when you have money?" Check my bank account. I don't have the money.

Oh wait! You did check my bank accounts. Several times, may I add. As you may remember, you asked for my bank accounts records many times after you called this loan due in September of 2014. At the time, we asked you to reconsider and cheerfully provided you with every piece of documentation you asked for in a timely manner. We did this repeatedly. Because you asked repeatedly. And what did you do? You asked for more.

Then you asked for obscure items, like access to my daughter's bank account information. At that point, we said no. Other people than us have bank accounts. You aren't asking for their accounts. And by the way, my daughter doesn't have a stellar bank balance either. You would have been disappointed. By the way, the reason our bank balances aren't anything to write home about is that we truly spent everything we could keeping this business afloat.

Essentially, the way we see it is simply: we wouldn't be in this situation had you not called the loan due for no reason. And, more importantly if you had worked with us when we were willing to work with you this would never had happened. So, cooperation a year ago--when I had a paying tenant in place--would have been a true win-win.

But when this started, that wasn't the only example of your unprofessionalism. Some "committee" you have, rejected five full-price offers in a short sale. You may also remember we asked for a deed in lieu of foreclosure, making sure we could speed the process up, and one of you--bank employees--even wrote me back and said, "to be honest, I don't know how to do that."

When we finally got a letter from your company's attorney, we called that attorney and pled our case: the bank, your client, called the loan due, if they hadn't, nothing would have changed and we would have been paying on time. Since then our long-term tenant moved out and we saw no reason to put money into the home to make it rent-ready, when this time last year, we were being repeatedly told the likelihood of modification was minimal.

We also explained to the attorney, that some committee at the bank agreed to a short sale. Then reneged. They then refused to do a deed in lieu because they "don't know how." And now here we are. Your attorney was baffled when she heard this. She asked if we were "sure" we understood correctly. Yes we were sure. And she was even more baffled when she found out we weren't making it up.

And then, there was silence. Every month or so, Marty would call and ask what was going on with the foreclosure. We would be told "we will call you soon." And then there was no call. Again. Finally after we informed you, bank employees, that we did not have the money to pay the property taxes, you became motivated.

After all of that nonsense, there has been a significant amount of silence from you folks. Having nothing better to do, and realizing there might be a chance of vandalism, squatters and who-knows-what-else going on Marty called you this week. And when you spoke to Marty, for whatever reason, you bank employees, were angry--as if we did this to you, not your organization. You snarkly threatened Marty with wage garnishment. You threatened to tack a lien on to another one of our properties. You said a lot of things, I double-dog-dare you to put in writing so that I may show my attorney. You even told us if we just, "gave you the keys" you could "save us some money." Are you kidding? Let's face it, I don't think there is any "saving us some money" at this point. Besides, we have been offering to give you keys for the past 10 months.

What would be ideal is you just hurry up the foreclosure process. Nail our credit and send us ugly letters. I know this isn't over. I am weirdly at peace about this. But for some reason, Bank Employees, your underwear is in bunches over our default. Let it go. We are.