A Realtor friend of mine recently asked me about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: “Do they really do anything when somebody submits a complaint about their mortgage company? Can I tell clients that it’s not a waste of time to complain to the CFPB?”

Here’s what I said: The CFPB puts out numbers and reports on its complaint resolution activities — the latest annual report came out March 31 — detailing complaint volume, the names of the companies that are the subjects of complaints and the current status of each case.

I have only one direct, personal experience with a complaint to the CFPB, so my frame of reference is limited.

But the result was stunning. A little over a year ago, the son of a 91-year-old widow living in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., contacted me in a panic. His mom was about to be foreclosed upon — the date for the auction was set just weeks away, her entire life was tied up emotionally in that house and she was deathly afraid of being evicted. Her son wasn’t sure “how long she’ll last” if the foreclosure took away her home, he told me.“The whole thing is so unjust,” he said in a phone conversation.

“There’s no reason why this should be happening.”Years earlier, his father and mother had taken out an FHA-insured reverse mortgage. When they refinanced the original loan in 2007, the loan broker handling their application persuaded them that only the husband needed to sign the documents

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/04/22/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-taking-mortgage-complaints-seriously/?utm_source=20140422&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinespm#sthash.8BhxsVy6.dpuf