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Guardian Settlement Services
Germaine LeBorveau-Smith
By
Rod Brandt |
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"…
the corporate world is still largely a man’s
place. The comment that I often got (was), ‘It’s
hard to believe somebody like you, being a female
and your size, would have your position in the bank.’”
Another
family was four months’ delinquent in its mortgage
payments. The family’s interest rate had jumped
to 11.75%. The bank had told the owners their only
solution was to pay the loan. Guardian intervened
and renegotiated the mortgage, and the family was
able to keep its home.
Almost every neighborhood has at least one. It’s
the house where the grass doesn’t get cut regularly,
the drapes are always pulled shut and you never see
anyone coming or going … chances are it’s
another foreclosure in the neighborhood.
The mortgage crisis has wreaked havoc in the housing
and credit industries, and Germaine LeBorveau-Smith
has had a front-row seat. As owner of Guardian Settlement
Services, she sees a steady stream of clients about
to lose their homes. “With what’s going
on in the credit market, that’s where I spend
about 90 percent of my day,” she said. “People
come in, they’re totally upside down in their
mortgage, they don’t know where they’re
going to go, and they’re facing foreclosure.
They’re being told they have to sell. They can’t
sell because they owe more than it’s worth.”
Around the country, more and more people are losing
their homes due to job losses, poor spending habits
and rising interest rates. According to foreclosure
data provider RealtyTrac, the national foreclosure
rate is up nearly 60% over last year’s. In Lucas
County alone there are some 2,000 foreclosures annually.
Perhaps, the saddest part of the problem is that most
could be avoided.
Germaine has extensive experience in the mortgage
industry, but after working for the banks for two
decades, she now finds herself on the opposite side
of the financing aisle. Her goal is to keep her clients
in their homes with a repayment plan they can afford.
“Really, it’s a matter of presenting to
the bank two different scenarios,” she said.
“This is what’s going to happen if you
do the loss mitigation piece with me, and, dollar-wise,
I’ll tell them how much they’re going
to lose. And this is what’s going to happen
if this house goes into foreclosure, and, dollar-wise,
this is how much you’re going to lose. Pick.”
If there is a bit of bravado in her talk, it’s
because she has learned to be a fighter. Germaine’s
rise in the banking industry–she was once executive
vice-president of a major lending institution–didn’t
come without a struggle. For starters, there was the
weight problem. “I was well over 350 pounds,”
she said. “And it’s difficult to succeed
in the business market, especially in a management-level
position, in a society where size and body image is
so heavily weighed upon.” On top of that, the
corporate world is still largely a man’s place.
“The comment that I often got,” said Germaine,
“(was) ‘It’s hard to believe somebody
like you, being a female and your size, would have
your position in the bank.’” Today she
is much trimmer, having shed most of the unwanted
pounds. “It’s been remarkable just to
see the difference in the way people treat you and
the way that you’re perceived,” said Germaine.
Germaine grew up in south Florida and has always worked
with money. At 16, she worked as a grocery store cashier.
At 18, she was offered a job in collections at a local
bank. “That’s where my background got
started,” she said. “I’ve done pretty
much everything in banking except janitorial.”
She moved to Toledo after meeting and marrying Jim
Smith, now her business partner. In 2007, Germaine
founded A MortgageSmith, Inc, a mortgage brokerage
firm. “It wasn’t a good time to start
a mortgage company in Toledo,” said Germaine.
“We found that we spent a lot of time trying
to help people fix their credit and get things straightened
out and get them out of some of these loans they were
put in that are predatory and had not been done in
their best interest. I found that I spent most of
my day fixing people’s problems and not closing
any loans, which is not going to keep the doors open.”
Germaine transitioned her company out of the mortgage
industry into exclusively loss mitigation and debt
settlement services, seeing a greater need and a promising
business opportunity. One of her first clients had
been denied a claim after his house burned. “The
insurance company declined payment because a member
of the family had set the fire,” said Germaine.
“Unfortunately, they didn’t know the whole
story. The member of the family had some mental issues,
had been in and out of the hospital. So it certainly
wasn’t done for financial gain, which is the
position the insurance company was taking. I got involved
and made sure that that claim got paid.”
Another family was four months delinquent in its mortgage
payments. The family’s interest rate had jumped
to 11.75%. The bank had told the owners their only
solution was to pay the loan. Guardian intervened
and renegotiated the mortgage. The family was able
to keep its home.
Guardian charges an hourly rate for foreclosure services,
while debt settlement services are calculated on a
percentage basis. Germaine says it’s not enough
to clean up the mess–the cause of the problem
needs to be addressed as well. “We take a holistic
approach,” said Germaine. “When somebody
comes in here, I could get their mortgage up to date
by putting some payments on the end of the loan and
sending them out the door, but they’ll be past
due again in two months because there is a reason
they went delinquent to start with. I have to get
to the reasons why they were delinquent and fix that.
We’re not just fixing the mortgage; we’re
setting them back on a path where they’re not
going to get delinquent at all.” To back up
this point, Germaine cites a USA Today report that
says, “Fewer than 7 out of 10 people who are
in foreclosure do not even open up their mail. They
stick their head in the sand and they want it to go
away,” she said.
According to the Motley Fool, each year more than
a million Americans file for bankruptcy. In the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court’s Toledo office, there were
more than 1,500 cases filed for the first quarter
of 2008. Germaine’s advice? Seek professional
guidance, whether it’s Guardian or one of several
free services available to consumers. In any event,
Germaine encourages those who are facing the potential
of foreclosure by offering some simple advice: “Get
help as soon as possible.”
GUARDIAN SETTLEMENT SERVICES
Germaine LeBourveau-Smith and James Smith
5150 S. Main Street, Suite E
Sylvania, Ohio 43560
Phone: 419-517-4081
Website: www.getguardian.com
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