Brandy, the Paranoid Mortgage Customer

[Ghel]

I just looked through my posts to see if I'd posted about this customer before, but it doesn't look like I have. I'm a little surprised, since I have a lot of stories about her.

Let's start with the current situation. "Brandy" has been out of work since before the stay-at-home order was issued. She called to request a deferral on her mortgage loan at the beginning of April. We explained to her that it would only save her about $50, since the bank is requesting that accrued interest and escrow be paid, even if we defer a payment. She said to forget it, she would just pay the whole payment.

Well, she didn't pay. Now she's past due for her April and May payments. I tried to call and got an automated message that the number wasn't available.* We sent letters.

Brandy finally called yesterday. Initially, she asked if she could make a year's worth of payments so she wouldn't have to make payments until next year. I explained that while she could do that, at the end of the year she'd have a large pool of accrued interest sitting there, and her next few payments would go only to interest.

I suggested she open a savings account, deposit the year's worth of payments, and then set up automatic payments out of the savings. She liked that idea. I asked how much she wanted to deposit - was it her monthly payment times 12? "No, I don't have that much." :facepalm: Ok, how much, then? She doesn't know. She'll have to figure that out and call me back.

I typed up the savings account documents and the automatic payment form, and I waited for her to call back. She hasn't. And she didn't answer her phone when I tried to call her this morning. Hopefully she'll check her voicemail. But she's claimed in the past that she hasn't received the voicemails I've left her. Maybe with a new phone it will be easier to find? I won't hold my breath.


*The phone thing is an ongoing thing with Brandy. Every 2-3 months, it seems, she gets a new phone and neglects to give us her new phone number.

[EricKei]

"No, I don't have that much."

Wait...How was she planning to prepay for a year, exactly???

[Ghel]

Wait...How was she planning to prepay for a year, exactly???

I don't know. I doubt she planned that far ahead. She was going to bring the money in Friday, so maybe she's getting paid then. But from what, I don't know, since I think she's still out of work. Right now, we'd be happy just to get the 2 payments she's past due.

Here's a bit more about Brandy:

Brandy has been my customer for several years. She was originally Ted's customer, but after he moved to the main branch, I had to deal with her. Brandy's a needy customer, and her thought processes and speech patterns are... how do I put this... disjointed? She'll start saying something (usually mumbling), then stop and restart her sentence going in a different direction. I end up interpreting what she's saying and asking her if that's what she meant, more often than not.

I've gotten a glimpse into her mindset while discussing her loans and such.

There's the thing with her stalker. Or stalkers. It started with an ex-boyfriend who would walk down her sidewalk and stare in her window. Then another ex-boyfriend was stalking her? I think? Then a neighbor told her that there were tunnels into her basement that people would use to transport drugs. On that one, I told her it should be really easy to check for, but she said she'd have to pull down the paneling to check. But if there's paneling up, and it hasn't been disturbed, how could anybody be using tunnels behind it? Also, the basements in town are only about 6 feet below ground, so how do they keep the tunnel from collapsing? Then she was sure someone had been breaking into her house and stealing things out of her fridge. But there wasn't any sign of a break-in. She hadn't changed the lock on her garage since she moved in, and she thought someone might have the key (an ex-boyfriend, probably). Why didn't she change the lock? She didn't have a good answer for that. Then her stalker caused her truck not to start. And messed with her motorcycle, I guess? And she's been having noise complaints made against her because she left her barking dog outside all day. She's sure it's someone out to get her because all the neighbors' dogs are barking all the time, too.

Lately, she's been saying that her stalker is friends with the local police chief, which is why the police haven't been taking her seriously when she calls. Yes, I'm sure it's that and not that her complaints are cookoobananas.

[Ghel]

Oh, I haven't mentioned yet, I'm pretty sure Brandy is a meth user. She's super scrawny. Her face is gaunt and sometimes has the sort of sores you see in those "here's what meth does to you" pictures. She's nearly always twitchy and agitated when she comes in to see me. She can't sit still. She'll check her phone to verify something, then gets up and walk to the door (in part because we have crappy cell coverage inside the building) then comes back and sit down multiple times per visit. It probably contributes to her paranoia, too.

It may also be why she's not working, too. Brandy's a seasonal construction worker, so it wasn't surprising that she was on unemployment for a few months. But then that ran out. In February, she applied for a loan so she could fly to the east coast for training, in the hopes that she could get work in a related field. I had to turn her down since she didn't have any current income.

She tried to give me info on a retirement fund she was cashing in, but there were issues with that, too. First was that she couldn't tell me when she would get the funds or how much she was getting. She had the people who manage the retirement fund contact me. They were able to give me a balance in the fund, but not when the withdrawal would be processed. So I wasn't able to use that as a basis for Brandy's loan. About two weeks after I turned Brandy down, I got an email from the retirement fund people that the withdrawal had been processed. One of the things it said was that they were allowing the withdrawal because Brandy hadn't worked in their industry for at least a year. That means when I did the cash-out refinance of her mortgage loan in September, she lied to me about her employment and income.

But she cashed in her retirement fund. In February. Even if half of it went to taxes, she should have at least $25,000. She should be able to use that to catch up on her loan payments, right? Well, no, she's spent it all already. The biggest single item, she says, is she had to buy a new car because her truck won't start. Because, as I mentioned previously, her stalker messed with her truck. And she bought two years worth of shelf-stable food for herself and her dog.

But now she's wanting to make a year's worth of payments? I'll believe that when I see it.

[Seanette]

*The phone thing is an ongoing thing with Brandy. Every 2-3 months, it seems, she gets a new phone and neglects to give us her new phone number.

Neglects or "neglects" on purpose?

[Ghel]

Neglects or "neglects" on purpose?

It's hard to say. She keeps saying her phone gets hacked or her stalker gets hold of her number or something. And she's always willing to give us the new number when we ask for it. So I'm leaning towards scatterbrained. Or maybe drug-addled brain.

[earl colby pottinger]

Boyfriends

I bet if they are in the area they are looking for her, they are looking to make sure they AVOID her. They are not stalking her, they are anti-stalking her.

Because of work or family they have to be in the area, but the last thing they want is to interact with this unstable woman.

[Buzzard]

Meth does strange things to the mind. Paranoia is really freaking common, especially when one has been awake for far longer than humans are meant to be. The flighty patterns are something else that I've seen plenty of.

If one isn't a fellow dru... connoisseur of chemical recreation, then it's quite likely that her 'stalkers' are indeed anti-stalkers... or want to collect money that she owes.

The truck not running... one of the pastimes of the spun out tweaker is to look at things and try to figure them out and... forget how they go back together. Sometimes they'll completely rewire something that worked just fine, with random lengths and quality of wire they've found elsewhere and spliced. I'm not sure that I'd want to try to figure out what was done to the poor truck, for fear of what I'd find (and the risk of tearing out what hair I have left)

I've heard that a great way to keep one of those in the manic high... busy/out of trouble/out of your hair, is to give them a box of jumbled extension cords. The more tangled, the better. They won't actually get them untangled, but they'll be so busy screwing with the cords that they'll forget about the world around them. (Anecdotal reference from a guy I know, who has way too much knowledge on the subject)

[taxguykarl]

Meth does strange things to the mind. Paranoia is really freaking common, especially when one has been awake for far longer than humans are meant to be.

This could explain the payment issues--drugs in general are not cheap vices. They change priorities to feeding their vices with breathing a distant second. Every two nickels they gain to rub together get spent on their dope.

If one isn't a fellow dru... connoisseur of chemical recreation, then it's quite likely that her 'stalkers' are indeed anti-stalkers... or want to collect money that she owes.

If her stalkers are drug creditors, I would be paranoid

[Ghel]

Unsurprisingly, Brandy did not show up on Friday. Nor did she return my voicemails.

ETA: I managed to get hold of Brandy today, Thursday. She seemed manic when I spoke to her. Claimed she'd been out of state. She saw that she had voicemails, but didn't know how to listen to them because she's never had an iphone before. I have an iphone, and I know how easy it is to check your voicemail. Silly me, I tried to explain to her that you just tap on the phone icon with the red number in the corner of it. She said I'll have to show her when she comes in tomorrow.

Brandy definitely told me she'd be in last Friday, but now she's saying she'll come in tomorrow Friday. After she meets with a financial advisor. Which she definitely needs.

She's once again talking about buying a different house (this is about the 3rd time in 2 years) and renting out her current house. Or selling it. She asked for my advice on this. I said it depends on the whole situation - whether the rent will cover both mortgages, insurance, and property taxes. Also, the insurance will be more expensive on the rental property. I told her it's something she should discuss with the financial advisor, since she's already got an appointment with them.

This is actually something that Brandy tries to do every few months - buy another house to move into in the hopes she can rent out her current house. Or sell her current house, depending on her mood, I guess. A few months back, she put a bid in on the house across the street from her, which was a foreclosure property. She didn't get the bid, and then told me another of her conspiracy theories (which I'd forgotten about until this morning). She claimed that her stalker and another guy had harassed the neighbor until they couldn't stand it any more and moved out. Since the neighbor couldn't afford to pay two mortgages, the house got foreclosed. And the harassers were in cahoots with a local realtor, who got the contract to sell the foreclosed house. And a friend of the realtor's won the bid on the house to "flip" it. They were all in on it together, you see.

In the meantime, she's decided not to open the savings account with us. She's going to hold onto the funds until she decides whether she needs them for a down payment on the new house she wants to buy. She assured me she will be in tomorrow to make her 2 past due payments. She seemed to think that because the house is in the county, she wouldn't have to make a down payment, but I disabused her of that notion. Minimum 10% down plus closing costs. Which, again, if she's got enough for that, she should be able to pay her current mortgage.

She also asked if we'd be able to finance the purchase of a new house for her. Although internally I was saying "no effing way," I asked her if she had any late payments besides her mortgage with us. Yes, practically all her bills. And any income? She's supposed to get her unemployment extended. Well, it will be difficult, but we can look at it. (We can't legally turn someone down for a loan without actually taking an application.)

[Kittish]

In the meantime, she's decided not to open the savings account with us. She's going to hold onto the funds until she decides whether she needs them for a down payment on the new house she wants to buy.

Translation: She's broke. Again. Probably spent it all on drugs. Again.

[Ghel]

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. She made a couple of payments, but now she's past due again. Her phone isn't accepting calls. No surprise there. She probably got another burner phone and "forgot" to tell us about it again.

My boss and I were discussing whether to visit her house since she isn't responding to letters, either.

[taxguykarl]

My boss and I were discussing whether to visit her house since she isn't responding to letters, either.

You'll probably find the place in the same shape as the squatter's digs

[Ghel]

Yeah, probably true.

[Ghel]

Pretty much a non-update update. Brandy left me a voicemail on the 6th saying that she would be in that Tuesday or Wednesday to make at least 2 payments (which would have covered her July and August payments). She started to leave me her phone number, but since she changed it again, she couldn't remember what it was. She said she'd call back with the number, but unsurprisingly she never did. And she didn't show up to make the payments.

Today I managed to get hold of Brandy's mom (my googlefu is strong), who gave me Brandy's new number. Which Brandy actually answered! She made some excuse about having an emergency (she didn't actually say what it was, but I suspect drugs). Now she says she'll bring in one payment tomorrow and another next week. We'll see if that materializes.

She is now planning to either rent out her house or sell it contract for deed. We don't really care much as long as the loan is current and there's insurance on the place. I asked her where she would be living if she does this, since we'll need a current address. She doesn't know.

I'm still not sure where she's getting money. She didn't say anything about being back to work. She was mumbling and slurring her words. More than usual.