[dontwantthehouse]

Here is my situation--complicated one at that--I haven't seen any similar situations yet. Any suggestions on how to get Countrywide Home Loans to approve my DIL? My name is the only name on the 1st mtg and HELOC but they want total household info--even if I use my husband's income we still can't afford both homes nor do we want to keep the other property. So do I provide both of our information or just mine?--don't want to put his credit or business in jeopardy--not sure if Countrywide Home Loans can go after him for asset but business still in debt (2years old). Any advice appreciated!

Here is my hardship letter:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to explain my unfortunate set of circumstances that have caused me to become delinquent on our mortgage. I have done everything in our power to make ends meet but unfortunately I have fallen short and would like you to consider working with me to consider a short sale for my home and ultimately, a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure if a short sale should not occur soon.

The main reasons that caused me to be late are that we cannot afford two homes as we can barely keep up with having one with the economy the way it is today and let alone being self-employed in today’s economy. Furthermore, to add to the complexity of our situation, we were blind-sighted by the property management group that was leasing this property causing us to lose our savings entirely.

We have spent all of our savings and much of our income to carry both homes since the lease was breached. We have spent thousands of dollars to repair the home after the property management group defaulted on the lease option agreement in April. Their tenants left our home needing extensive work both inside and out. The repairs and carrying of the home have cost us over $17,000 with a running tab on utilities and maintenance bills since we had to take over the expenses. These were repairs that the property management group was contractually liable for but they have since “disappeared” on us.

However, we wanted to do what was right and that was to have the repairs done: entire house, inside and out, repainted, lawn maintained again, new carpet installed in the entire house, fixtures replaced, and etc. Needless to say, we are maxed out as we used our entire savings on doing what’s right.

Please be aware that it was never our intention to retain two homes whatsoever. Please also be aware that this home was originally put on the market in October 2005 since we went into a contract to build a smaller home that would be easier to manage, both financially and physically.

With this event, it was our first time ever buying a home while still owning an existing home. We believed that we went into the second-home purchasing process as most buying homeowners traditionally do: found a house they liked and then put their previous home on the market and typically everything worked itself out. I also had professional experience with this process as I used to sell homes as a builder’s rep for 3 years and all my customers did the same thing: they found a floor plan they liked, signed a contract, found a realtor, listed their existing home, existing home sold within 6 months or by the time the new home was completed and everyone was happy. This was the process that 90% of my customers went with as they decided to make their next move. Well, little did we know that our decision to move would be during the real estate market down fall.

Again, it was not our intention to have two homes. We made the decision to buy a smaller affordable home as this was the time that both my husband and I became self-employed. Buying a smaller home would allow us to build our business which we knew would take much of our initial earnings to invest back into the business as it was started up and still be in debt. So along with the blind faith to go on our own came many expenses that the self-employed has to acquire: self-employed taxes, individual health insurance, credit debt to help invest into the business start up expenses, and etc.

So while we were waiting for our new home to be built and the starting up our business, there were few showings and no offers. We reduced our sales price a few times with still no offers. We had a terrible realtor that never even suggested about a short sale. We have never known that there was such an option or even a deed-in-lieu for us to consider. We thought foreclosure was our ultimate doom with this property; otherwise, we would have explored these above options two years ago.

Since we were not aware of the other options, we had to move into our new home in March 2006 when it was completed and made the decision to continue paying the mortgage on the Baccarat house with our savings / emergency fund.

So it has been a long haul for us just to keep current and to keep our creditworthiness sound. We ultimately decided to go with the property management group’s lease when it was presented to us in August 2006. We thought this as our only option to keep current with both mortgages since the first property had not a single offer presented during the 10 months it was on the market. We never intended to have this home rented out but after months of paying two homes, it was our last resort and our dwindling checking and savings accounts supported our decision.

So from August 2006 to this past April of 2008, we were able to carry the two homes with no impact on our good standing with you. Unfortunately the outcome of the lease was, needless to say, far from what we believe the lease option agreement was going to provide us in the end. We were told that the property management group’s subtenants had paid the option down payment to buy the home outright but unfortunately, they decided to buy another home after 20 months on the lease and in turn that was when the property management property management group defaulted on the lease with us as they could not afford to carry the cost of the home without tenants.

Their breach cost us our savings, now my good standing with Countrywide, and has negatively impacted my excellent credit history as a whole.

We are selling the home once again because as soon as the repairs were completed we put the house back on the market in the first week of June. Since listing it, we have reduced the sales price 4 times in the last 90 days of it being on the market and still no offers. The house is impeccable and move – in ready but the competition out there is fierce. We are competing with homes that should be selling in the $275k and up pricing but they are undercutting the prices so they can sell faster—understandably because that is what we are doing as well.

Our home is now priced where it will be a short sale if an offer is presented. We also recently received a letter from the county auditor stating that home values have been reassessed due to the market from the last two years and our home is now well undervalued at approximately $230k.

As I have explained, we have done our best and certainly have gone to lengths to keep current with the mortgage and HELOC with you all. We have no additional income to carry two homes without jeopardizing our basic needs and keeping our primary home.

As many homeowners, we have been living paycheck to paycheck. We count every cent and prioritize where each one must go. Therefore, we ask that you please look over our situation and request that you consider a short sale for us as soon as an offer is presented and to expedite the process. And if a short sale offer should not present itself soon, we ask the same of you for a deed-in-lieu request. It has been very hard for me to see how my creditworthiness will be impacted after many years of monitoring it and taking pride in keep it in good standing so time of the essence would be much appreciated. The quicker that I can be approved for either event in order to have the least amount of negative impact on my credit history will be greatly appreciated by me.

Please let me know what else is needed from me in order to assist you in this process and have it be resolved as soon as possible.

Best regards,