This week, “Stolen Property?”: A confused Berkeley homeowner who borrowed on his property, two former-pro-football-player brothers in the real estate business, a mortgage-collection company with numerous consumer complaints about “predatory servicing,” the house in question tagged by graffiti and surrounded by a chain-link fence, and irate neighbors who say what happened to the homeowner is a “blight on the neighborhood.” Put them all in a blender, push the “pulverize” button, and you’ve got a portrait of what could happen to you if you borrow against your home and the loan is then sold to the wrong servicer. In a sidebar, writer Jeremy Singer-Vine also takes us to an auction of foreclosed homes. Let the buyer beware.
.You Write Too Long — This Week’s Cover Story Bite-Sized
