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Making Home Affordable Mortgage Refinance & Modification Program
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I’ve been hearing a lot about the government’s Making Home Affordable mortgage refinance program. Having looked at refinancing our mortgage a few months ago, but not pulling the trigger, I was interested to see if we could benefit from this program (we can’t, but that’s not a bad thing). It’s designed to help people get more favorable loan terms in scenarios where their home has lost value. A lot of lenders won’t refinance a loan if the value of your home is less than the loan amount, it’s simply a matter of math; this program looks to help alleviate some of that.
This program, introduced by the Obama Administration as part of the Financial Stability Plan, is estimated to help 7 to 9 million people. They estimate the Home Affordable Refinance Program will help 4 to 5 million and the Home Affordable Modification Program will help 3 – 4 million. What this means is that you should act quickly if you want your application processed quickly. The longer you wait to apply, the larger the backlog will grow, so let’s get to the program!
What is the Making Home Affordable Program?
There are two parts to the program. The first is Home Affordable Refinancing, which helps borrowers refinance a loan backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. It’s designed for people who are current on their mortgages and are unable to refinance because the value of their home has fallen by too much. The second part of the program is Home Affordable Modification, which assists in the modification of a loan, rather than a refinance. It’s designed for people who are “struggling to make their monthly mortgage payments.”
Making Home Affordable Eligibility
Home Affordable Refinancing: The first rule is that your loan has to be backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which you can confirm on their websites (Fannie Mae Loan Lookup, Freddie Mac Loan Lookup). If you’re uncomfortable looking it up online, you can call Fannie Mae at 1-800-7FANNIE and Freddie Mac at 1-800-FREDDIE, 8AM to 8PM Eastern Standard Time).
Next, use the government’s website to determine your eligibility by answering this 4-question qualification form. I can save you some time, if you answer NO to any of the four questions, you’re not eligible for Home Affordable Refinance.
Home Affordable Modification: You aren’t required to have your loan backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac for Home Affordable Modification, so you can skip that step and go straight to the 5-question qualification form. Again I can save you some time, if you answer NO to any of the five questions, you don’t qualify.
I Qualify, Now What?
Call the bank or mortgage lender that owns your mortgage and ask them for the Home Mortgage Refinance or Modification program application. You’ll need the following (I’d call for the application and then start collecting this information):
- Information about your mortgage, such as your monthly mortgage statement and
- Information about the monthly gross (before tax) income of your household, including recent pay stubs if you receive them or documentation of income you receive from other sources.
- Your most recent income tax return.
- Information about any second mortgage or home equity line of credit on the house.
- Account balances and minimum monthly payments due on all of your credit cards.
- Account balances and monthly payments on all your other debts such as student loans and car loans.
Are you looking to take advantage of this program?
(Photo: orvaratli)
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Arizona and Nevada both sue Bank of America
Accused of misleading customers on modifications
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/business/18mortgage.html
We have provided EVERY DOCUMENT that “Chase” has has required for 4 months, and they do not believe we live in our home in Sacramento. We have provided utility bills,faxed documents from the Pip printing with Elk Grove across the fax paper,to Chase immediately when they ask for various documentation and faxed my husband’s medical paperwork about his condition and his dr’s appts in Calif and explained why I had to take a job in Hawaii with the state of Hi so I could get medical insurance to pay for my husband’s medical treatments, and my husband has to live in Calif to work at our day care business because he is 60 years old and one will hire him and our health care insurance would cost us 1,500.00 per month because I am 65 and he is 60 with a life threatening med condition. What is the most powerful administration agency we can write to immediately to register a complaint to stop the forclosure to occur 10/26? Please help
Penny,
I’ve been going through mod hell for over one year. Not approved for HAMP or in-house mod. Registered a complaint on-line with the OCC (Comptroller of Currency) and received a call from the Presidential Office of Wells Fargo and they are sending out yet another package for a mod through HAMP. The OCC has initiated a review of many of the biggest lenders actions in regard to their handling of these situations and will ultimately reward the borrower for injury. File your complaint with the OCC!
I am about to write to them to i have been trying to get a loan mod for 2 years and i get the run around i dont know what to write to the occ i dont want it to be a drawn out letter could you give me an idea of what u wrote thanks
I am about to write to them to i have been trying to get a loan mod for 2 years and i get the run around i dont know what to write to the occ i dont want it to be a drawn out letter could you give me an idea of what u wrote thanks
Penny, I hope you have found some answers to your questions with Chase. I have fought with Chase since 2009. I have over 150 pages of communications documents with them. No success with them to this day. I had contacted an attorney who investigated it and said Chase has found multiple loop holes that have made it almost impossible at this time to do anything, until they make the move to decline us. We are blessed to still be in our home, but now we are way behind on payments. Extremely frustrated with them and would never recommend them to anyone. This is our dream home and thanks to the promises they failed to follow through with, we are in jeopardy of losing it and our almost perfect credit score has been ruined. If anyone has found success with this company I would love to hear how it was achieved.
When will the government force my landlord to lower my rent? (seems unfair to help people who bought houses but not those who rent)
maybe when they prove that your landlord was not being truthful to you, especially when they hire people to inflate house value so you would have to pay more in rent.
Is anyone still applying for HAMP?
after 18 months the fight is over, after meeting with a lawyer their recommendation is to just quit fighting. she said that we will never have any equity since we are so upside down in our house, approximately $80K. We have done everything BOA has asked for and they have consistantly screwed up. They have $2700 worth of payments they havent posted, never closed the partial claim, they wouldnt let us get a reduced interest rate until the partial claim was closed, its been one lie after another. 2 Weeks after they got the complaint from the attorney general we sent, they decided now they want to accelerate to foreclosure. We believe it is in retaliation. Well they will not get another dime out of us, they want it so bad they can freakin have it. I hope the rest of you have better luck!
Sorry, you have posted before and I thought you were in the home stretch and now this, makes you hate BOA.
Yes CJ I thought we were too, the partial claim got us caught up except for the escrow, had they applied the $2,700 they can’t seem to find, even though i gave them the MTCN number from Western union and the cancelled check for the other payment, plus the $900 left over from the partial claim, they would of covered the escrow, would of lowered our payment back to normal and given us a reduced interest rate, but that did not happen. Like I said they can’t seem to find the funds, they took the $900 for their late fees and refuse to lower our payment back to normal, they sent the letter to accelerate 2 weeks after they contacted me about the letter they got from the attorney general regarding my complaint. So I guess that was in retaliation. So after talking to the lawyer they told us to give up the fight enough is enough. We were told we already do more than most people do. In the last week they have sent me 3 different documents, with 3 different amounts, so they don’t even know how much we owe. The whole situation has taken a toll on our nerves. We wish everyone else better luck than we had.
Anyone that has issues with Bank of America in Missouri, a law firm in Clayton has started a class action lawsuit. It may not save our homes, we may not see anything from it, but at least it will be on record somewhere and just might make you feel better. I don’t think they have a link to sign up yet, it is fairly new, but the name of firm is Carey, Danis & Lowe
WAKE UP AMERICA, FIGHT FOR YOUR HOMES! Don’t you have a problem with the fact that the banks are pushing you and your families out of your homes, only to sell them for peanuts or a $1.00 like we all heard on the news last month. My family has been fighting for 3 years now for modification, and come hell or high water, we are not giving up. I will bulldoze the house before I will give it to a bunch of thieves. Six applications later for modification and having a Senator involvement, we finally got a trial mod after we hired a law firm to do the modification. After 4 months of trial payments, we then get a permanency modification at Xmas 2010. Fannie Mae sends email to Senator’s office advising that our mortgage has been permanently modified and the case is closed. Signed and notorized the package and sent it back to bank. Bank received package on December 28, 2010, way before due date. January 11, 2011, we get a call from the bank (servicer) reneging on their offer stating that they themselves made a mistake by approximately $250.00 on our household income and we may no longer qualify for HAMP. Contacted the law firm who did the deal, and they advised us that the difference of 250.00 should not make a difference because once the bank runs the correct numbers (just like the law firm did) we still qualify for HAMP. I have been told that our case has been sent to an escalation specialist and we should have word regarding a decision. Still living in limbo. Senator’s office is waiting to hear from Fannie Mae regarding this BS. OTS is involved now with complaint from Senator. Our advise, homeowners must attack the banks from all ends. File the complaints against the banks, document EVERYTHING YOU DO, and keep all correspondence to and from the banks. If you want to keep your home, don’t leave it until you really have to. If you leave your house during the fight, you have no recourse. Although we are waiting for a final word from the bank, we have decided that if the bank renegs on permanecy through HAMP, we are filing suit against the servicer and Fannie Mae. We have been nice long enough. Then I will have the law firm brought in to testify how we qualify for HAMP. The bank is not going to get out of this one. They knew 6 months ago that we qualified for HAMP, and the law firm ran us for HAMP before they even agreed to represent us. The bank won’t be able to explain how they sent us plenty of letters telling us we qualify for HAMP and then send us a permanecy mod for HAMP, of which was signed, notorized and returned to the bank. Goodluck on explaining that one to a judge! America, the land of the free and the home of the brave is becoming the land of the jobless, homeless, and creditless. As for Obama, we don’t blame him for this mess, but we do have a problem when he continues to claim that America is doing fine. He needs to take his head out of his ass and realize that America is in serious distress. If everything fails, our last suggestion would be to pitch a tent on the White House lawn.
I could not agree with you more. To make a long story short. My husband and I were both on unemployment when we applied for this so called Home Affordability program. I documented EVERYTHING. Every phone call, letter, how long I was on hold. EVERYTHING. We were accepted in right away (with PNC). I made the trial payments 5 days before the were due. 9 months later after sending them the same paperwork over and over and over again because they kept saying they never received my husband found a job with half his pay but it was still income. I found part time work. They then asked us to update our income info. Now almost 10 months after and us making trial payments (about half our mortgage). They said we now make enough money to make our payments, we weren’t approved. The kicker was about 3 days after being told we were denied we then had to come up with $10,000 in back mortage payments within 27 days or we will be foreclosed on. THANK GOODNESS we had money in our 401K that we could deplenish and pay off our mortage. But now of course, we had to pay the 20% (10% penalty for early withdrawl and 10% for taxable income). On top of all the late fees all of this oh yeah, now our credit score was crap, because we were “late” on our mortgage each month. When prior to this Home Affordability Program we had excellent credit 715 and 720. So my advice to anyone lookinginto this program, unless you are really truly desperate don’t do it. The banks aren’t giving up any of the billions that “we” loaned them to help them get out of debt.
Not much happening here, has anyone else got a mod.? There has to be some positive stories but guess they won’t write about it.
I’ve been fighting for a loan re-mod since April of ’09. Now I’m unemployed and behind three months mortgage payments. Wells Fargo is working with me, and I’ve had no harassing phone calls, etc.
I do plan on walking away from the house, because I’m not expecting much.
I understand your frustration. This is our second time going through a mod on our home. This time we are in to the 6th month. Us like some of you we hired a credit counciling service. The first time we did the mod, we did it ourselves, what a nightmare that seem to never end. This time has been a bit less stressful, I had a call today, the proposal i believe will be disappointing be really high,like the first one. The paper will b here by friday. If this is good, I would love to give some info on this service. Im amazed at these stories I read are exactly our first mod experience. Good Luck to everyone.
I understand your frustration. This is our second time going through a mod on our home. This time we are in to the 6th month. Us like some of you we hired a credit counciling service. The first time we did the mod, we did it ourselves, what a nightmare that seem to never end. This time has been a bit less stressful, I had a call today, the proposal i believe will be disappointing be really high,like the first one. The paper will b here by friday. If this is good, I would love to give some info on this service. Im amazed at these stories I read are exactly our first mod experience. Good Luck to everyone.
I have been dealing with bank of america since 2009 13 trial payments later and them saying it wasnt going to applying for mha program i stopped making payments. They donot know what is going on talked to 42 different people all documented, all different answers. I spent hundreds ofdollars faxing the same papers over and over again. Wake up. I am at my wits end feel like i wuill have heart attak and then i will make sure we sue them.
The nightmare of Chase Bank……
In December of 2009, I found out I was losing my job as a self employed medical transcriptionist, working from home due to car accident related injuries. I had this job for 8 years. We contacted Chase, our mortgage holder (for the small older home we bought in 2007 before the housing market fell), to tell them what was about to happen to be proactive so we would not run into any credit problems and have them help us with an easy solution. HA.
It’s been 16 months. If anyone I knew did our jobs the way Chase did, they would all be fired. The reason I have lost my job as a medical transcriptionist is because of the wonderful government’s involvement of the EMR systems that doctors must use for their medical records. This takes away the jobs of transcriptionists, and is a faulty system to say the least. So the government sticks their nose into medical records, and it’s a mess. Well, it can’t be any worse than what they have done with the mortgages…thank you Chase. The head of Chase has been very vocal about how he doesn’t approve or agree with the HAMP program because people have signed a contract (i.e., mortgage) and they must pay it and that’s his thing. (and he gets a $19 million pay raise)……Well, he had no problem taking the billions of dollars from the government did he? Couldn’t put his hand out fast enough. And our tax dollars bailed them out. Oh, and we were also told during this time not to pay any mortgage (when I asked if we could be a reduced amount) because I was told if we could pay, then we didn’t need help.
Right before I found out about my job, I had a car accident, injuring my neck. So we’ve had tons of medical bills. Physical therapy, surgery, co-pays, portions insurance doesn’t pay. Our medical bills have been running around $1200-$1500 a month. We told Chase that too. And that is not going to change anytime soon, thank you lady who doesn’t know red means stop.
As soon as I knew I was losing my job, I called to say – look – what we can we do about our mortgage? So we talked about the HAMP program and we did all we had to do to apply. Copying TONS of papers, UPSing the package of information ($10 of copying, $49 for UPS times seven because of Chase’s incompetence, losing paperwork, allowing it to “expire”). We called them every week. Every blessed week. I have a list of names longer than the nations that we spoke with. As stated above, from department to department to department, each individual telling us something completely different. Every week. They don’t know what color their own underwear is. After being told time and time again that we had no “relationship manager”, our paperwork finally “expired” and we had to reapply. So we went through it again. Went through the same mess again – week after week after week as my paycheck got lower and lower. We are now making about $3000 less a month and can’t make our mortgage payments. Our house isn’t big. It’s an old style farmhouse that we have put $50,000 in to fix up. We weren’t the people who bought a house out of our means.
Anyhow. After the second time of the paperwork expiring, my husband went nuts and told them this had to be resolved that very day. Now this was 6 months into the process. Maybe two weeks later, we finally got a relationship manager. Had to send ALL OF THE PAPERWORK AGAIN…..Each time, copying fees, UPsing fees. Ok so now because of Chase’s delay, we were 8 months behind on our mortgage. Our credit is toast. And guess what? On Friday, we finally got a package from Chase. Yeah, they lowered our mortgage $75 a month. What a modification. That helps. how much did they get of OUR taxpayer money to help people in need???? Really? What a freaking slap in the face. Shame on them. Our relationship manager, Elizabeth, told us if this modification was not to our satisfaction, we should reapply, and we did, and heard nothing.
It’s now April of 2011. We still have heard nothing. We have gotten letters from Chase stating they are working on our modification (about every three days), even from people who when you call their number and extension, don’t exist at Chase. We have gotten a letter stating that foreclosure will start on a specific date. We were then, two days later, informed they were still working on our modification. Then we were notified by a congressman’s office that we contacted, that we were not approved because we didn’t have enough income. NO KIDDING. That’s why we need a modification. BUT, when we contacted Chase for about the 899th time, we were told that was incorrect, and they were still working on our modification. Carol, the woman my husband has spoken with twice now (cause we actually have her extension) says that the foreclosure information is wrong because they are still working on it and she emailed the underwriter to see the status. I was told that in February of 2010!!!!! OMW – you need Prozac to deal with this incompetence. Christopher Elkins – a name on so many letters. We’ve been told to call – never calls back even though his voice mail says he will return your call within 24-48 business hours. I’m thinking hours means years???? Another two letters, we contacted that woman only to be told she doesn’t work for Chase. Are you flipping kidding me????????? So now, 16 months into this mess, we are still here. Can they be anymore incompetent? They are a joke. Yet when they asked for help, we taxpayers had to bail them out. What can be done about this mess????? So guess what – this is going to TV stations, congressmen, senators, talk show hosts, it’s going everywhere that has a mailing address. And I can only pray it helps us and the hundreds of thousands of other people in the same predicament.
We met with HUD and they told us to call the HOPE hotline. Now get this. The woman asked me why I was calling. I was like – um for you to help me save our home! She said – well if HUD couldn’t help you, then neither can we…..really???????
We are low middle class Americans. When I lost my job I didn’t qualify for unemployment. Now we don’t qualify for a modification. Go America.
So now an addendum that will blow your minds……Yesterday, on 4/20/2011, we received two letters from the magnificent Chase. One letter was dated 4/12, from the same infamous Tosha Hayes stating again (it’s the same flipping letter we have about 10 copies of with different dates) that they are working on it and we will have an answer within 15 days. Remember- she doesn’t exist. Ok it’s only been 16 months. Then another letter dated 4/16, stating that no, we are denied. We are not qualified for a modification. We will lose our home. We have 30 days to contact them or they will begin foreclosure. So I called them and spoke with a woman named Jen, who certainly seemed like she had a brain. She said that letter is the final determination. Our mortgage doesn’t qualify for a modification. So unless we begin making more money quickly, there is no other alternative but to do a short sale. Now keep in mind, we called Chase the day we found out I was losing my job because we wanted to avoid the credit trash we have become, and to keep our home. 16 months later, 80,000 phone calls, stress and anxiety that would make your head spin, we are losing it anyway. Way to go Chase.
This seems to be a repeat of the same story with all the banks. The modifications are a big scam to get people to keep paying them something. They don’t even know who owns your mortgage anymore and don’t have the paperwork to prove it.
Just enjoy staying there because it will probably take them years to foreclose anyway. Get a lawyer to represent you.
I don’t know if anyone is even posting here anymore, but just to update where we are now. We tried filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy, but was told we make too much money to do so. The rich do it all the time, but we can’t? Then they said we could file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, but our payments would be $1,700 because we would still be liable for the negative amount they sale the house for. Our house is worth $80k less than what we paid for it. For that kind of money we can just stay here and pay the mortgage, so we can’t afford the jacked up mortgage, which now is $2,400, or original payment started at $1,500. When we started this whole process we were only 1 payment behind and now we are more than $30,000 in the whole and no way out. So we are staying here until they throw us out. We have stopped paying anything in to our mortgage company and trying to save as much as we can so that we can at least look for somewhere else to live. This was suppose to be our dream come true and now it looks like the nightmare that will haunt us until we die. We contacted our attorney general, our congressman, even sent an email to the president himself. Believe me when I say there is no one out there really cares about what happens to our homes, they can say the do all they want, but they really don’t.
I’m so glad I read this blog. Thank you to ALL those who shared your horror stories. I was about to fax in my paperwork tomorrow. Just got off the phone with my husband and he agrees that we will leave things as they are and just tighten our belts even more. So glad I read this. I have yet to find one post, anywhere on the web, with someone happy, or even just satisfied, with this program. Again, so glad I found this….ya’ll saved me a ton of hassel/stress/sleepless nights.
Just recently got a mod. 700 less then what it use to be my payments start in July. I received an email just yesterday though and it said my payment was $600 more then what the mod indicated making the saving only$100 and that I owed late payments and interest making it more then what I originally owed!
I hired Pinnical law firm formally known as nationwide financial to deal with all this because I was embarased of the situation I was in. They said they closed my accout after getting my mod although they told me they would not only get my mod for my mortgage and hel but if I was unhappy with it they would fight to get it better and that they would do everything! Here they are bow telling me to call the bank to find out what is going on and that they cannot do anything about my HEL until my trail period passes. I could have used HOPE and would have done the same thing, the reason I used them was so I wouldn’t have to do any of the follow ups and leg work.
The fact is there is no help, making home affordable is not real! An the government nor the bank care that keeping you as a owner is better for the economy then selling the home at a foreclose price and if you are going to stay in it you are going to pay the full price with late fees and interest. Maybe is better to let it foreclose have a friend buy it at that $1.00 gov/bank price then buy it from him at a profit of $5.00 and live mortgage free in your home!
Face it if you are down they want to keep you down, they don’t want a middle class hard working society they want poor and rich! They want poor cause they will cater to the rich!
Demanda de Clase
Ya se radico una demanda en el Tribunal Federal Distrito de Puerto Rico (11-1224) contra Citimortgage por no honrar el Making Home Affordable (MHA), por querer ejecutar propiedades fuera de LEY y DISCRIMEN por no querer atender al mercado latino que vive aqui en Puerto Rico. Ve y lee en nuestra “info” o en las “notes” de Demanda de Clase.
I have been dealing with the Housing Partnership in Louisville Ky since Nov 2010. I have submitted and resubmitted every paper they have asked for. I contacted my worker today to ask if she would be submitting my paperwork to BOA soon since they sent me a package requesting that I fill everything out for them with the same info that I have given to her several times. She informs me: Won’t be able to review your file today. We went from a team of 21 to a team of 9 due to Federal Funding Budget cuts. There will be delays. If you prefer to deal with BOA directly, you can do that. Sorry for the inconvenience but until we have completed our restructuring and retraining we will be delayed in current servicing.
So basically I just wasted a precious 7 months trusting this govt program. False hope and promises and I will still lose my home.
I also have problems with chase. After losing my job past november i have spent months faxint the paperwork, calling, applying and reapplying to get the letter yesterday stating they will continue with foreclosure. They didnt even give me a reason why I was denied or any letter from chase have been sent out to me at least with an explanation why. I am single mom with limited income and i have paid for that house about 1400 every month before when i coul afford it. Seems to me they made up their mind after listening to their lies for months now and i will still lose my home
I am now permanent with Making Home Affordable Program into 2036. My attorney wants to file bankruptcy to remove the second mortgage. Should I let them do that????
MHA program is only benefit to the leaders.it is a government program created to help lenders to make more money that is all. they get to make extra profits by keep collecting late fee and interest fee from homeowners who applied for this program like me. they approved and gave me the trial payments right away and then they delay the review so they can keep adding those fees to you and after a full year of review they denied my application. by the time they denied, i would not be able to afford to pay off those debt and had no choice but to let them take my house back. it is a very smart game plan.
also , filing complaint about this unfair treat to OCC or any gov department would not help at all because they do not lean you the loan so they have no way to over power this over the leaders.
so be ready to be homeless if you are already in because they would never ever approved anyone. why would they willing to lower the interest and payments on the loan just to help you??
why would they want to make less benefit from you while they have this chance to make the most from you.
Omg I want to cry. It’s my story with chase over and over. I’m self employed divorced. Iv been doing this loan mod 2 yrs they won’t take my checks anymore. I’m sure I’m 20 tho plus behind it’s just me and my daughter we were denied twice idk what to do iv never felt so insecure in my life my daughter sees her mom crying and shutting down. I’m so upset depressed where r we going to live? Who going to rent to us. Bad credit and 6 dogs Idk if I can take losing my house I found this house went bank to bank till we got approved. I use to be strong independent. Now chase has me wanting to die. This on top of business being slow something always getting shut off. Idk what I’m gonna do never see a solution to all of this.
We called Citi 7/2009 to discuss other options for escrow. We prepay a year, we pay taxes and insurance when do, etc. We were told it was a state law that we had to escrow. (untrue, but did not know at the time) My husband was going to be getting a pay cut so we were trying to be proactive, (we were and always have been at this point current on our mortgage) Citi told us that what we wanted was a loan modification and they would put us in that and that was the help we were looking for (sure, right) Of course, I had no idea what pandora’s box we had just opened. May of 2010 we were denied HAMP. BUT, we were told that was good news, we were actually back to Citi for a traditional modification. The next month we get a letter to call and make arrangements before foreclosure would start. Of course I called hysterical and was told as long as I was making monthly payments and in the modification process, Citi would not foreclose (haha). August 2010, Citi mysteriously loses my automatic monthly payment information, does not take my August payment and files foreclosure. We get served papers and file an answer. 2 weeks later we get offered a modification, my attorney calls their litigation department, and their local attorney (calls were not returned). Modification offer gets closed. (WHAT!) Another court date is scheduled for foreclosure. I finally got the contact in the ERU dept. Executive Response Unit at Citi and they rush and we get approved for another modification (But worse terms, only lowers interest .6% instead of 2% like previous offer (all income and bills were the same) we sign offer to get foreclosure case dismissed. After 4 months of on time payments with the modification, we get a letter from Freddie Mac that they do not approve of the modification because of our credit (What!) and a letter from Citi to call to workout arrangements instead of foreclose (short sale, etc)
So confused and no idea what is going to happen next. Just when you think everything is going to work out and you can breathe, it all comes crashing down again. Well, yes, after 2 years of lies, and the run around from Citi, our credit is ruined. (The only payment we did not make are when we called 7/2009 and they told us to make our 1st trial payment in 2 months, I even asked about the missing 2 months and was told they weren’t needed. Then August 2010 when they didn’t take our automatic payment. This is what they filed foreclosure on. (All while I was talking to them 2 – 3x every week!)
I know many people what HAVE GOTTEN THE MODIFICATION AND THEY ARE PEOPLE WHO DON’T EVEN NEED IT!! THEY HAVE MONEY IN THE BANK AND JUST USED IT AS A WAY TO GET THIER INTEREST LOWERED. SO IF YOU REALLY NEED IT AND HAVE A LEGITIMATE REASON FOR NEEDING IT YOU WILL BE PUT THROUGH THE RINGER UNTIL YOU GIVE UP!!! IF YOU HAVE PLENTY OF MONEY AND MONEY IN THE BANK YOUR MOD WILL BE PROCESSED IN NO TIME!!!!!!!!! RIP OFFS !!
Has anyone found a successful way to negotiate and positive outcome wiht FM and HAMP?
I know one friend who was successful. She had an illness that was take into consideration,as well as all the other hardships.
Another person suggested an attorney to represent you. Another person told us to contact the state senators office and many have a staff person who is representing home owners in HAMP. I offer these suggestions in hopes that someone out there will post suggestions on bargaining and winning with FM and HAMP. Or suggestions. How many have just stayed and not payed the modified rates. How fast did foreclosure happen. OPRAH had an article that recommended not paying the modified rates. Article said put it in the bank for rent and plan to leave.
I know someone who has been in the program 2 years. The market continues to drop and even the modified rate is too high. That person is seeking assistance from state senators office.
Home owners, please post, particularly if you made headway.
Same thing here as above. Medical issues and self-employment income went down, have not paid in 2 years because doing the paperwork dance with Wachovia all this time. (6 times now I’ve sent them the same crap!!) If they don’t at least approve us for modification and trial payments soon we could be out now as early as Christmas time. This last modification attempt only came up because in Florida they now force you to attend a mediation before foreclosure. For which, I might add, the lawyer for our bank was on the phone trying to get someone at Wachovia for 45 minutes while we twiddled our thumbs!
We love the neighborhood but are way underwater and frankly I am done with this whole mess. I have a lawyer and she told us from Day 1 they are just not really giving folks what is needed and we were advised this was simply a tactic to get as much time without rent as possible instead of an actual solution to keep our house. I’ve read several blogs online from lawyers who fight this fight saying the same things. The banks just aren’t doing what they are supposed to be or frankly, what makes sense! Sure, I would love to be a success story but honestly I don’t have the mental fortitude to continue this BS.
I have sent the paper for a modification they said that we are aproved to lower our rate but they not able to give it to us because we are not behind on our mortgage. I told them that I and my husband were strugulling to make the payments every month all they said was since you are paying that means you can afford it.
Hello All,
I just wanted to let you all know that it is possible and it does happen!
We have a mortgage through BOA. My memory is a little foggy as we have had our modified mortgage for almost a year now. I remember qualifying for the program and thinking “it’s never going to happen.” I want to say we qualified in September of last year. We faxed, Fed Ex’d, called, emailed, paid and etc. We jumped through all of their hoops. We never got excited and never thought “this is actually going to happen”. I didn’t think we would ever hear from them as it took forever. Finally the last part of November we received a Fed Ex saying we were approved. A few weeks later we received our new mortgage agreement. We signed it and sent the check in. I went over the paper work over and over to make sure we had done everything right. We still did not get excited. Finally Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s to us we finally saw the change on the website and paperwork. We finally got excited, but I still held my breath. Our interest rate was lowered from 5.8% to 4.2% and our monthly payment went down about $100. Like I said, it has now almost been a year and we have paid on time every month and have had absolutely no issues what-so-ever!
I have told my husband over and over about how we are the ONLY people I have ever heard of actually getting a modification. I just wanted to let you all know, that it can happen.
Home modification program is a scam.
I have been dealing with this program for over a year. I got to see the modification but my husband signed on the wrong line and they denied me. Now they will start foreclosure procedure. They told me on the begining not to pay my mortgagee so now I owe to much in back pay.
I was approve for modification program, which it reduce my monthly mortgage payment $1000.00 less per month. At 2% per rate for 5 years and lock in at 5.25% rate for 35 years. after 5 years the interested rate goes up 1% per years till I reach the 5.25% rate.
After my 1 year 1/2 of payment. The mortgage co. told me that I was about 4 payment behind. I needed to pay the bank about $7,000.00. I was never late in those months. The bank told me if I do not pay the $7,000.00 they will start the foreclosure. I do not have the extra money to pay them. This is BS what the bank is doing. If I knew this was going to happen I would have never paid them. The bank are taking the money and are not to be trusted.
Cat – which bank is doing this? that is awful. And the crooks wonder why people are saving their money under their mattress until they are thrown out? We live in a shack practiccally and owe almost 2000 a month. By the time we are done paying over 30 years we will have paid tripple the amount. its just not right the way it is set up for struggling Americans trying to live the American dream.
We have attempted mods before – this is our 2nd offical attempt = Im trying to be more hopeful in that now we actually are assigned to ONE person – Bank Of America appears to be sending their people all over the map to draw home owners who are behind in to get help. Dont trust them completely – in past they told us we were just about completed – then they took our whole tax return one year and was suppose to put all the late payments at end of loan – they didnt. This month makes us 7 months behind. Lady told me usually at 12 months they dont do load mods. One guy told me from BOA you have to be like 24 months behind before they throw you out. So my idea is for people who are getting the run around – live there and don’t pay and save up the money instead if they are gonna lie to you then put the money down on a home that is actually not going to leave you owe 300.000 for home that is only worth 1/2 of that cause of this economy. I think the bail outs are bs and Americans are being set up if they are not the elite ones!
I was in a program with makeing home afforabel and freddy mac and b of a and on the the 6th sent in all the paper work and on the 9th the bank said to call in 20 days, well in 9 days they sold my house, all the time the bank and MHA knew on the 19th and no one called me or e mail me, to let me know, that the bank said no and now my house is sold to a third party, so if you are thinking about this program think again you will loss your home don’t what to do now. i want to do some think but don’t know what to do, can any one help, we won’t even get any money to move we have been in this house for 30 years. sham on them.
one more thing no one from the bank called me back but on the 20th the bank sent a other letter ot call them back in 20 days and on the 22, my sale date got a other letter call in 20 days can’t belive this.
I WAS approved in December after 6 months of faxing, Fed-ex, calling, passed around, no answers. The problem is, I am a truck driver and had not received the paperwork to sign and send back in time. So now, even though I have made payments on time, and can overnight the paperwork, they say it is too late and will not reconsider me. They tell me I do not qualify even though I was approved last month and my pay or expenses have not changed.