Woodland Hills Worrier,
With regard to the CA AG settlement with
CW/B of A, I don't know the specific details of the program. Since I had B of A as my lender (i.e. it wasn't a
CW loan that was absorbed by B of A in the takeover), this agreement didn't apply to my situation.
I have a friend in a similar situation to you - SoCal, bought in the late 90s, refinanced in late 2005 (and took out a hefty chunk of cash in the refi), and has now lost most or her previous equity. She isn't facing any financial difficulties, but did look into a refi/mod when she saw where the credit markets were going. I don't know who her lender is.
One question that came up in the process was: when you did the cash-out refinance, what did you do with all that money? I don't know what she told them, and I didn't ask what she actually did with that cash, but she told me that her answer was apparently not acceptable to the lender and they wouldn't move forward with the modification.
I don't know if your story is similar, but if it is, you might want to be ready with a plausible (and verifiable) answer that would support your case.
Keep in mind that if
CW starts considering giving you a modification, they are also going to look to see if you can afford the loan after the modification. With an impressive monthly net of $11k, one would surmise that you should be able to afford a mortgage. You mentioned, however, that you are in a negative amortization situation with a number of other debts. You probably should also be prepared to show how you are going to take steps to reduce your monthly expenses and thereby reduce the likelihood of default. Recent reports have indicated that over 50% of borrowers who received modifications are delinquent again within 6 months, so if it appears to
CW that you could fall into this category, they might be disinclined to modify your loan.
Good luck. As was already recommended, you should probably start a new thread in the
CW forum. To get to most specific feedback, you should probably include information such as loan balance, home value, current mortgage terms, second lien obligations, etc.