The Successful Landlord Blog

I am writing this post for 3 reasons:

1. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage sucks and they just don’t care. Their goal, it seems, is providing bad customer service along with mortgage financing. You can read more about their bad behavior in this post and this post. After I wrote the first post, I was contacted by Wells Fargo corporate as detailed in the second post. Then, I received a letter saying basically we’re allowed to behave like this as specified in the mortgage documents you signed and we’re going to continue on like this and you’re going to like it.
2. In this humble little blog, the first post (above) has been a freaking magnet for disgruntled Wells Fargo Home Mortgage customers. Every week since I made that post I get at least 2 comments and they’re all bad experiences from other home owners. Any more and I may set up a separate web site for this. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, here’s a follow-up post about this post I wrote about my experience with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

It’s been over a week since I was first contacted by a couple of “reputation management” people from Wells Fargo corporate. Roughly four days after the post was published, I was contacted by someone via the “contact me” link on the blog asking me to contact him at my convenience about how Wells Fargo could improve my experience with them.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of our properties is mortgaged with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Now, I should mention that there is nothing special about this loan. It’s not an ARM or a second mortgage or even sub-prime, it’s just an investment property.

Read the rest of this entry »

From a story in The Los Angeles Times on January 9th, 2007: Reporter Charles Piller broke the story today revealing that The Gates Foundation which is the largest philanthropic organization in the world and is chaired by Bill & Melinda Gates of Microsoft Corp fame, profits from companies which run counter to the foundation’s aims.

In January 2006, mortgage company Ameriquest Mortgage, a subsidiary of ACC CapitalHoldings Corp., settled a class-action lawsuit with 49 states and the District of Columbia where it was sued for predatory lending practices between 1999 and 2005.

The LA Times investigation also revealed that, in the Niger Delta, where the Gates Foundation funds programs to fight polio and measles – the Foundation has also invested more than $400 million dollars in companies including Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp, and Chevron. These oil firms have been responsible for much of the pollution that many blame for respiratory problems and other illnesses among the local population.

The Gates Foundation also holds investments in sixty-nine of the worst polluting companies in the US and Canada, including Dow Chemical. It owns stock in pharmaceutical companies whose drugs cost far more than what most AIDS patients around the world can afford. Other companies in the Foundation’s portfolio have been accused of transgressions including forcing thousands of people to lose their homes.

Overall, the LA Times says nearly $9 billion in Gates Foundation money is tied up in companies whose practices run counter to the foundation’s charitable goals and social mission.

Nice Bill. Run your Foundation like Microsoft why don’t ya!

(link to audio and video report on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman)