New Haven Independent

Romano joined a local couple, a teenager going home from synagogue, and the mailman Saturday morning at a foreclosure auction at 1378 Ella T Grasso Boulevard. No one placed a bid on the house, a three-family, 108-year-old Victorian valued at $435,000. So it went back to the bank.

Romano, a self-described “pre-foreclosure specialist,” later described his four-year-old business of buying houses that are in danger of being foreclosed on. He wouldn’t talk on the record about his interest in the house at 1378 Ella T Grasso.

The Auction

Wearing a yellow polo shirt that matched the house, Romano was the first to arrive at the auction, after the attorneys overseeing the sale.

Next was the mailman, pausing on his route with an armful of envelopes. “I’m just here to watch,” he said.

Shortly before the start of the 11 a.m. auction, a car pulled up. Marshay Nicholson and Darrell Hardy got out. The couple lives down the street and owns a rental property in the area.

Noah Roffman, 17 years old and wearing a clear plastic raincoat and a tie decorated with pictures of motorcycles, paused on his way home from synagogue. “I’ve lived here 17 years,” he said.

“To us they’ve always been shut-ins,” Roffman said, when asked if he knew the occupants of 1378. “They’ve been very quiet.”

At 11 a.m. presiding attorney Ronald Bender announced the bank’s bid: $295,000.

“Maybe we should’ve bid,” said Nicholson.

“Two ninety five is low,” she added.

“It needs to be worked on,” said Hardy (at right in picture, with Bender, Nicholson, and attorney Kristie Leff), who works for Keller Williams Real Estate. “There’s a lot of deferred maintenance.”

Hardy took the bank’s contact information from Bender. He said that he might try to call the bank and work out a deal. “It’s worth a shot,” he said.

Romano had already taken the bank’s contact info and driven off.

“He’s gonna try to pick up the phone and get a deal from the bank,” Bender predicted.

The Office

Bender’s prediction may or may not have been accurate. Romano wouldn’t speak on the record about it.

Later that afternoon, Romano was in his office downtown, on the 16th floor of 100 York St. He handed his business card: 20/20 Real Estate Services, Michael Romano, GRI, CRS, ABR, FAS.

For four years, Romano has been running a business that he said is designed to prevent people from experiencing bankruptcy or foreclosure.

“I would buy the house from you, lease it back for what I bought it for and all I would collect is a fee, he said.” The fee is 6 percent of the new mortgage.

“Our interest is to save your property,” he said. Romano said that he was a one-time victim of foreclosure himself.

Sitting in a cushioned wicker chair with a remote control in his hand, Romano presented three short DVDs that he had made about his business. Over the inspirational sounds of synthesized horns and flutes, grateful clients extolled the virtues of Romano’s system.

A man named Clifton appeared on the screen. He said he had been in danger of losing his house.

“This is unscripted,” said Romano from his chair, “and I wasn’t in the room when it was filmed.”

“After 15 months of meeting with him,” Clifton said onscreen, “I’m pleased and proud to say I’m in my home thanks to Michael Romano.”

The camera panned over a wall of framed documents certifying Romano’s real estate credentials. “Those certificates are all right there on the wall,” he said, pointing to the wall across the room, which was indeed covered with certificates. “They weren’t props.”

After the DVD screening, Romano moved to sit at a table by the window. Going through a pile of headlines detailing the foreclosure crisis, he explained his system in more detail.

“The only criteria is equity,” he said. Romano said that he starts by sitting in court and finding out about homeowners in danger of foreclosure who still have equity in their homes. He then meets with them, tells them about his program and gets a look at the house. He does a title search to see if there are any liens on the house. “I don’t want any surprises,” he said.

If there’s equity and the property has a clear title, Romano finds a way to buy the house from the owner. He said that sometimes the funding comes from a private investor; sometimes he finds people with good credit to take out a mortgage in their name and he shares the fee with them.

Once Romano owns the house, he leases it to the former owner. He estimated that, working with him, “150 people over four years successfully rebought their homes.”

Romano said that only once has a client defaulted. “But in many cases we’ve had to resell,” he said. “The income they anticipated didn’t happen.” In these cases, Romano explained, “I sell it and whatever equity’s left goes to them.”

Romano said that he had tried to work with the owner of 1378 Ella T Grasso Blvd. “I’ve been in that house eight times,” he said. “Her head is in the sand.” The owner didn’t want to work with him, Romano said, and now it was too late in the foreclosure process for his program to work.

Romano refused to talk on the record about his interest in that morning’s foreclosure sale. He said that he only wanted people to be aware of “the fact that there are legitimate foreclosure cures.”

“I’m not looking for publicity. I’ve got more people than I can help right now,” he said.

Asked if he was really not looking for publicity, Romano said, “I mean, I’ll take it. But for what I’ve done, not for the future.”

Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:

• In Foreclosures, Judge’s Hands Tied
• Home Saved From Foreclosure. Cycle, Too
• A House For Precious?
• Deutsche Bank Grabs Dixwell Condo
• Reluctant Bidder Snags F. Haven Bargain
• Well, There’s Always Powerball
• Neighbors Retrieve Home From Bank
• Somebody Has Plans For Bassett Street
• Foreclosed, the Khennavongs Leave the Santanas
• Foreclosure Steal May Be Too Good
• 2nd Foreclosure in 3 Months Dims Bright St.
• After Foreclosure, W’ville Owner Still Hopes To Sell
• He’s Not Buying, Yet
• Quiet Foreclosure on Porter Street
• 3 Minutes Too Late
• Historic Gambardella Property Foreclosed
•2 Homes Lost, 1 Gained
• “Everybody’s Got To Eat”
• More Foreclosures, More Signs
• Foreclosure Sale Benefits Archie Moore’s
• Rescue Squad Swings Into Action
• A Bidder Shows Up
• Bank Beats Tanya’s Bid
• Westville Auction Draws A Crowd
• DeStefano: Foreclosure Plan Ready
• Can They Help?
• “We Should Over-Regulate These Bastards”
• Rosa Hears of Rescues
• WPCA Grilled on Foreclosures
• WPCA’s Targets Struggle To Dig Out
• Sue The Subprimers?
• WPCA Hearing Delayed
• Megna’s “Blood Boils” at WPCA Tactics
• Goldfield Wants WPCA Answers
• 2 Days, 8 Foreclosure Suits
• WPCA Goes On Foreclosure Binge
• A Guru Weighs In
• WPCA Targets Church
• Subprime Mess Targeted
• Renters Caught In Foreclosure King’s Fall
• She’s One Of 1,150 In The Foreclosure Mill
• Foreclosures Threaten Perrotti’s Empire
•“I’m Not Going To Lay Down And Let Them Take My House”
• Struggling Couple Sues Over “Scam”

The following links are to various materials and brochures designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

How to prepare a complaint to the Department of Banking; Department of Banking Online Assistance Form; Connecticut Department of Banking, Avoiding Foreclosure; FDIC Consumer News; Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, Inc; Connecticut Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service.

For lawyer referral services in New Haven, call 562-5750 or visit this website. For the Department of Social Services (DSS) Eviction Foreclosure Prevention Program (EFPP), call 211 to see which community-based organization in the state serves your town.

Click here for information on foreclosure prevention efforts from Empower New Haven.