[azdmsmith]

Due to a divorce, I refinanced my home in Nov 2008. At the time I had about 100,000 in equity after buying out my former husband. With the Arizona market continuing to fall I now have probably $30-40K in equity. In order to make the payment as affordable as possible I took out a 40 year mortgage. The payment is about 37% of my income. My only other debt is a car payment but as a single mom of two teenagers my budget is still very tight although I have been making the payments on time.
I have been with the same government employer for 15 years so I felt taking on the large payment was a safe risk. However, when the state budget crisis hit, I was forced to take unpaid furloughs which have decreased my monthly pay by $600 and my payment is now 41% of my incomeafter taking on a on a second part time job.
I am absolutely thrilled with the prospect of assistance that the Homeowner Affordable Modification Plan seems to offer. I have confirmed that Fannie Mae owns my loan that is serviced by Chase. I have read extensively about it and feel like I have a pretty good understanding of how it works. However there is one gray area. As I understand it, if I meet the qualifications, my interest rate could be lowered to as much as 2% to get my payment down to 31% of my gross income. If that interest rate didn’t get me to 31% my loan term would then be extended to 40 years. I can’t find any info about how this would work if my loan is already at 40 years and I am above 31%, but I’d like to think that I’ve demonstrated that I have done everything I could possibly do including the second job and extended term to try and make the loan affordable on my own. I could get down to the 31% on my existing 40 yr loan if the interest was dropped to about 3%.

On March 5, I faxed the Borrower’s Assistance Form from Chase’s website and all the required documentation to the number on the form. I tried to follow up this week to confirm receipt and was transferred all over Chase. One person said they were transferring me to someone who would accept the application over the phone. That wasn’t the case. I ended up with someone who said they could not even verify receipt of the documents because the fax number they provide sends the documents to a 3^rd party rather than Chase. He also said that it would take at least 30 days before I hear anything. I’m sure they are swamped and under the circumstances I supposed that is a reasonable timeframe, but I hate for someone to say at some point that they never received my paperwork so I’d feel much better if I could at least verify they have it and will begin working on it (I do have my fax receipt so I know it got there).
So that’s my really long story to get to 2 questions:
· Has anyone been able to find any information on how a mod would work under the federal plan if the loan is already at 40 years?
· Has anyone applied for a federal Homeowner Affordable Modification through Chase and been able to verify the process and that documents were received/accepted?