Apparently a Bank of America contractor who mistakenly thought a house was empty when the owner was away, padlocked the home and cut off the utilities.

Angela Iannelli, who lives near Pittsburgh, says the worker also stole her pet parrot, Luke, causing her emotional distress during the week she couldn’t find him, according to the Wall Street Journal. She said she was prescribed medication for the anxiety.

Iannelli has filed a suit against the bank, which says it thought the home was vacant. Bank of America sent to contractor there even though she was not in default on her mortgage and the house was not vacant.

Iannelli’s lawsuit charges that the contractor cut water and electrical lines, damaged  flooring and furnishings, and poured antifreeze into sinks and toilets.

She says when she called the bank to complain no one would tell her where the bird was at first, but later she was told to go to the contractor’s office. The Bank has apologized to Iannelli, but she is seeking $50,000 in damages in the suit.

This is a bizarre story on several accounts. First, why was the contractor sent to the home in the first place if the homeowner wasn’t even in default on the mortgage loan? Had they called her about being late with a mortgage payment? Second, if the contractor did in actually damage her home and cut utility lines,  what was the reason for doing so?  

It’s pretty common knowledge that homes that end up in foreclosure sometimes are damaged or need a lot of repairs. The assumption is usually that any damage in foreclosed properties was inflicted by homeowners angry at being put out of their homes. It’s disturbing to think that a contractor hired by a bank to secure a property could actually be the one trashing the place.

Getting a mortgage doesn’t have to be difficult… well, okay – maybe it is not as easy as it was a few years ago to get a loan. But there are still things that you can do to make it as easy as possible.

Here are some simple things that you can do to make it easier to get financing:

Communicate

Be sure to speak often with your loan officer when getting a mortgage. It is important to tell your loan officer everything about your financial picture — don’t make him guess about where you are financially. Don’t lie about anything either – it will only hurt your chances of getting approved when it comes up (and it will).

Get Homeowners Insurance

When buying a home, one of the leading causes of delays has nothing to do with the mortgage process — it is getting home insurance. Be sure that you have your home insurance taken care of ahead of time.

Don’t Change Jobs

During the loan process, don’t change jobs unless you have to. Having a stable job history is one of the most important things when it comes to getting qualified for a loan as well.

Don’t Get New Debt

It may sound simple – but don’t go out and buy a new car while you are trying to get a mortgage. Acquiring new debt during the loan process is only setting you up for potential problems.

Don’t Make Moving Plans The Day of Closing

If you are supposed to close on a Friday, don’t set up the moving van until the day after closing — and on Friday maybe not until Tuesday. In an ideal world, allow a 5 day window between closing your loan and moving.

These simple steps won’t ensure that you will avoid all of the problems when getting a loan, but following them will help you along the way.

Still looking for help with your mortgage loan? The government has extended its Home Affordable Refinance Program for another year. The refinance program was set to expire in June, but the Obama administration hopes that a larger chunk of distressed homeowners can be helped.

Originally the government had hoped that about 5 million homeowners would be helped by the program. So far about 200,000 have gotten help with troubled mortgage loans.

Who knows if the new timetable will result in more people being able to stay in their homes. Some homeowners who thought they qualified for the program were unable to refinance because they were too underwater on their mortgages. Others gave up efforts to get help after getting little assistance from mortgage loan servicers that scrambled to keep up with the demand.

Hopefully mortgage lenders and loan servicers can make more progress with the extra time. They’ve had ample time to work out snags such as updating computer systems, adding more workers, and getting guidance on how to deal with second liens and other complications.

Homeowners who have been discouraged about getting help might want to make another attempt to contact their mortgage loan servicer to discuss their options.

I live in Arizona and pretty much every home within a 2 square mile radius of my home has dropped 50-60% in value since 2006.

Which means terms like loan modification, short sales and foreclosure pretty much dominate every neighborhood bar b q party at the local park.

Recently, I was at a neighborhood gathering and someone was telling their story of trying to get their loan modified but the lender wouldn’t budge, so they tried to short sell it but got denied and were about to have their house sold at auction in the near future.

I couldn’t help but wonder “I wonder if the lender really wants to foreclose” or if they just didn’t have the right help.

And I didn’t think too much more about it.

Until I saw that same person who had been told “no, no, no” again yesterday.

I was expecting him to tell me how his pending-foreclosure date was impacting his mental health but instead he had a smile on his face and opened our conversation with” you will never believe what happened – my lender approved my short sale!”

And then he told me how the lender that had told him “no, no, no” suddenly had a change of heart because his Real Estate Agent had gotten on the phone with the right person at the lender and made them understand that they had bad information and needed to re-evaluate.

Which was just a simple reminder:

When hiring people to help you with your loan modification, short sale or foreclosure – there can be a world of difference between the knowledge, skills and experience of each “expert”.

And when some just hear “no, no, no” and give up… some actually get to “yes” because they don’t give up.

And there can be a fine line between “no” and “yes” and that fine line can make all the difference.

It wasn’t all that long ago that a busboy could walk into a mortgage lender, say he made $100,000 per year and get a home loan based on that number.

The loan programs that were available had all different kinds of names, but they all pretty much did the same thing — allow people to get qualified for a mortgage without proof that they could qualify.

Fast forward to today’s mortgage market. Guidelines are tighter than they have been in years, loans are tougher to get and people are generally less apt to go out on a limb when financing their home.

And stated income loans are virtually non existent.

Who is hurt by the fact that stated income loan options do not exist?

Generally speaking, I would say that the small business person is hurt by not having stated income loans available. And what is even worse – now that virtually every lender requires that you allow them to verify your tax returns with the IRS, I suspect that there isn’t a stated income loan program anywhere on the immediate time horizon.

So if you are a small business owner and you have an accountant who helps make sure that you are minimizing your tax liability to the IRS, if you didn’t already know that this was impacting your ability to get a home loan — now you know.

One of the unexpected victims of the elimination of the stated income loan program appears who they were designed for in the first place:

The small business owner.