Hi everyone,
I am a long time lurker- mostly because I forgot my log in info
Anyway, we have been in our current situation since Oct 2006, when we refinanced one bad loan with HomEq for another with Fremont Investment and Loan ( now owned by Washington Mutual). Due to bad financial advice in 2001- we have gone from credit scores of close to 800 to God only knows what- because I don't want to even know, nor do I care, it really doesn't matter at this point.
Barely keeping our heads above water, both husband and i working 2 jobs, I approached WAMU in Dec 2007 when i knew I would be losing a contracting job of $1,000 a month. And of course got the answer I have seen so many times here before- they couldnt help us as long as we are current on our payments. I could not believe it so i called back 2 more times and was told the same thing. In March of this year a personal friend who is a CEO of a small local bank offered to do a short refinance for us, WAMU would not even negotiate because we were current on payments....sigh..... Offered an unmaneageable modification and we just said ok, we will mail them the keys- enough is enough- we have been living like this for almost 7 years.
So in April, we stopped making payments- I decided my family cannot live like this anymore and it is just a house ( albiet we have lived there for 17 years)
Cut to today- Sheriff showed up at the door and said sale date is 12/4/08 and gave us papers. Our friend the banker said to sit tight, this is a normal process and many banks are not even motivated to negotiate short sales, short refi's, whatever- this "early" in the process.
Our house has gone from an appraised value in Oct 2006 of $330,00 to May 2008- $225,000!!!(Realistic sales price in todays market might be $215,000 or so) We already over 100,000 under. We think there may have been some appraisal fraud because I find it hard to believe a home could drop that much in 18 months.So, for over a year WAMU has made 9.99% interest and the damn thing was set to readjust to 11.5 %!! Our payment is 2,592.00 no escrow or ins!!! Our banker has offered WAMU $165,000, and they have proceeded with foreclosure...... not good business sense, but then look at the situation they are in- surely not by using good business sense!
Anyway, I have been reading here for awhile and I am so glad to see we are not alone. Even though it is sad to think of potentially losing our house- and again it is the memorries like others have said- everything will work out ok in the end and we will be all be fine and together. I have to keep believeing that! The mortgage industry has made enough money off of my back these past few years, and I am exhausted trying to keep/improve a credit score that will never happen anyway due to debt/income ration- which will not change no matter how much we make payments on time, because we can only do the minimum- we will NEVER get ahead. (Now I read where potential employers check credit and that makes me nervous as hell to seek other employment!)
Wish us luck- we are on our way- wherever we end up!
Lisa in MN