[Lisa in MN]

Hi Jillven..... I am sorry this has taken me so long to get back to you! I was not able to find your post for some reason. Anyway, my letters are contained in this thread, and here is the letter I sent that got me action:
Dear Mr. Dimon and Mr. Lowman,

I am writing to you in an attempt to get directed to the right place regarding our WAMU mortgage. I have been given the run around by WAMU for over a year now.

It is not my intention to bore you with another hard luck story on why we cannot afford our mortgage. What I need assistance with is getting to the right department/person that can help me. Please take the time to read this letter in it's entirety to get the big picture because it really is important.

We purchased our home in 1991.In 2000 we made a bad business investment and trusted a mortgage broker who convinced us to roll all the debt into our house.My husband at that time had a very lucrative contracting job and it didn't seem to have an end in sight, so we agreed in the short term we would be better off protecting the almighty FICO score than file bankruptcy and then refinance. Lots of equity, increasing home values, etc.... Since at that time we had perfect FICO scores and ethically did not believe in bankruptcy, we took this advice which ironically has destroyed our credit, and caused us to be in a worse situation financially. Ironically had we filed bankruptcy it would be over by now. Well, the contract job DID have an end and we were totally unprepared for it. Got behind with a "rolling late" payment, placed into unreasonable forbearance payments ( after 2 "rolling late" payments, HomEQ started foreclosure and made us pay 7,000 in "attorney fees" to which they added to our forebearance. Again, nothing to make things better or tolerable in the long term. October of 2006 when we were just not able to meet the terms any longer, I was able to find a refinance that was less ( a few hundred a month- but I was desperate) but placed us in a loan with terrible terms ( 9.9% interest than adjusts after 2 years with Fremont initially which was sold to Washington Mutual.) Our current mortgage payment is 48% of our take home pay without taxes and insurance, with those it goes up to 56%.

I have done everything the way I was told to do it: Having trouble paying your mortgage? Contact your lender right away before you become delinquent for help----- a JOKE. I called WAMU a year ago when I knew I was losing a contracting second job and was told there was nothing to help me because I was not delinquent. I didn't believe it so I called right back and got a different customer service rep and was given the same answer.Ok, thought my only option was to continue to struggle and not meet my families needs just to pay for a house. In early March of this year, I contacted a local bank who was offering a program called the Humane Mortgage Program, which was essentially offering short refinances for people with adequate income to afford their home. I was approved fro the program. In March, we made the very difficult decision to stop paying our mortgage. Meager savings had been depelted and all credit exhausted just to meet daily living needs. Vision Bank attempted to negotiate with WAMU for us. I was told so many different things by WAMU collections people. Actually something different every single time. I was told there was no record of any contact at all by Vision Bank, then told another time there was a history of multiple contacts from our banker. I have sent a QWR request on Ocober 13th to which WAMU has not responded. We are preparing to have a loan document review by an attorney because we believe our loan on 2006 was based on an inflated appraisal of our home by at least $50,000. $330,000 in October 2006 and then in March 2008 the appraisal was $235,000. We thought at the time it was high- our neighbor who sold real estate at the time was shocked and said "No way- maybe $280,000 on the high end" . We questioned the mortgage broker who assured us the appraiser was "the expert" and "knows what she is doing". More misplaced trust.

We have been in our home for almost 18 years but we cannot tolerate it any longer and are prepared to let Chase/WAMU, whatever the company is now have it. I would like you to please direct me to the proper person to discuss Deed in Lieu, Keys for cash, whatever we have to do to be done with this. I cannot take it any more. I need some peace for myself and my family- we have been destroyed financially for 8 years, and while we take responsibility for being ignorant, the banking industry took full advantage of that ignorance as well as exploiting our ethics ( being against bankruptcy) and fierce desire to keep high credit scores. Shame on all of them. Please let me know how to go about the best way of handing over our house. I do not want it any more. The only thing that would make this affordable is interest rate and principle reduction and that won't happen. Working with Vision Bank, Washington Mutual could have had cash and been done with us, but again, reason does not seem to be how they operate.

All the joy has been drained for me from my home, which is now just a house to me. There was to be a Sheriffs sale on Dec 4th then it was extended to Jan 4th while loan modification ( another JOKE) was in process, then when I called collections back ( I missed a call from them) I was told there is no sale date set. I don't get it.

I truly have been appalled by the lack of communication, poor, poor customer service- from downright rude people to misinformation and never being able to speak to the same person, or when you do get a "contact" they hand you off to some other person/department. I can think of no other industry that could operate in this way and survive.

I thank you in advance for your time in reading this and would very much appreciate direction.

Good day,

Also, I debated posting these but half the time they dont return calls anyway, so here you go:
WAMU quality assurance department person that called me after I sent this letter:
Victoria Linkletter 904-886-5963


One thing to keep in mind, with successful modifications, they need to see that you can afford to live, not just pay the mortgage, or you will be right back in the same boat soon.
Best of luck to you. Try to keep emotion out of your letter and be factual.

Lisa