Mortgage Crisis May Spread
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pennsylvania - Michelle Weaver’s phone started ringing a few days after 800 families learned their finances had been fried by the collapse of mortgage broker Wesley A. Snyder.
It hasn’t stopped.
Weaver, of Manheim Township, isn’t a therapist, a financial expert or an attorney. She’s simply one of hundreds who bought an OPFM low-rate “paper” mortgage, unaware that Snyder’s office was holding a larger, higher-rate mortgage in her name.
But in the past few days she’s become a popular choice by many to share the rage, fear and despondency they feel after being victimized by Snyder’s OPFM Inc. mortgage scheme, which caused some of their mortgage payments to nearly double and add up to as much as $100,000 in new liability.
“It’s terrible, I’ve spoken to desperate single parents who are literally alone; they’re scared and don’t know what to do,” Weaver said.
Snyder’s customers learned Wednesday that they are responsible for the bigger mortgages. Snyder filed bankruptcy protection for OPFM, which operated as Personal Financial Management Inc. and Image Masters, 1672 Manheim Pike.
Weaver said she received phone calls from people who worry that the funds they paid in escrow to Snyder might not have been used to pay their property taxes and others who found that only half of their double mortgage payments had been applied to their principal.
“I spoke to a woman who can’t stop throwing up,” Weaver said. “She can’t sleep and has not been able to go to work.”
A Berks county man who believed he had owned his home after paying off an OPFM paper mortgage in 2004 learned last week that he is responsible for tens of thousands of dollars on the mortgage that Snyder’s firm failed to satisfy.
Weaver decided to hold a meeting for victims caught in financial crisis due to the unusual practices of the mortgage broker. It’s scheduled for 7 p.m Wednesday at Mountville Library, 2 College Ave., Mountville.
“There are so many questions. I’m not sure this will resolve anything. I just think we need to pull together, be calm and discuss,” Weaver said.
Bankruptcy attorney Mitchell Sommers of Lancaster said not much is known about the status of Snyder’s businesses, which is based in Exeter, just outside Reading.
Because Snyder filed a bare-bones bankruptcy on Sept. 18, Sommers said, all that’s known is that his six companies had amassed assets of $60 million and debts of $100 million.
Sommers said Snyder has 15 days to do a full Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing in federal court and provide details in a statement of financial affairs that should explain how much money is left and how it was invested.
“When that is filed, we’ll know who the creditors are … and the assets of the company, if there are any,” Sommers said.
Snyder could seek an extension before the Oct. 3 deadline to delay the filing by another 15 days, Sommers said.
Sommers said Snyder also is required to attend what is called a 341 meeting or meeting of creditors, at which OPFM customers will have a “limited right” to ask him questions.
The state Attorney General’s office, which is investigating Snyder’s business, said that as of Monday it had received more than 700 calls about OPFM Inc.