They often call with questions about the Obama administration's plan to help borrowers modify their mortgages, but many simply don't qualify. They make too much money, or too little. They have too much debt. They don't actually live in the home.
"I do get attached at times," Edwards said during a momentary break in the office where she and about 350 colleagues sit under flat-screen displays showing how long callers have been kept on hold. "But at the same time ... we have to go by the procedures."
Since February, when President Barack Obama announced a lofty goal of limiting foreclosures by modifying up to 4 million loans over three years, the administration's program has been riddled with problems.
Banks couldn't hire and train employees fast enough to keep up with the crush of people who wanted to take advantage of the help. Documents were lost. The government kept changing the rules.
For the industry, the transformation has been tremendous.
Before the housing crisis, mortgage servicing companies had collections departments that mainly tried to wring payments from tardy borrowers. Now the same departments, augmented with thousands of new employees, are engaged in the far more complex task of figuring out whether millions of borrowers qualify for help.
Bank of America, which collects payments on more loans than any other mortgage company, has lagged its competitors in the percentage of troubled borrowers it has signed up.
The steady rise in unemployment has made the problem even worse. Bank of America is now getting about 100,000 calls a day from troubled homeowners, up from about 60,000 at the start of the year.
Government officials insist the program is on track. "We're reaching borrowers at a scale that has not been done by any other modification program," said Michael Barr, an assistant treasury secretary.
(2 of 4)Investor Report: Fannie Mae’s PRPBank errors often cause mortgage aid rejections
