Thank you LoanSafe for this forum and giving people the opportunity to get, and share, the power of insight. I started reading this forum in November 2008, while waiting on the sidelines to see how the Obama administration would address the foreclosure crises. At the same time in reading the forum threads, I noticed the pattern of conflicting stories being told by Countrywide and the disconnect between the India call centers and here in the U.S. Not surprising. After reading other's stories, our situation is still relatively at the early stages of despair with arrears (@45 days), but do need to make the modification. Nevertheless, on February 15, 2009, we "dipped our toe" in the water by sending our hardship letter and information to the Countrywide retention program (Dallas, TX P.O. box). In turn, we followed up a few weeks later to assess the status. Through the automated phone prompts and transfer tones, I knew we were traveling to India. So we provided the same information again to the call center, with the intention of, at minimum, logging our proactive action into the Countrywide system. I see that many of you are attacking this at multiple angles via
CW, NACA and law firms. At this point, I think the law firm is the right approach to accelerate resolution as
CW will most likely pay more attention to those modification filings, then NACA, and finally mere mortals. I think
CW will drag out the mere mortals for as long as possible without the fear of litigation to get the most they can. We've reviewed both Griswold and Fransen and Molinaro. Seems like FM has a lot of experience and answers in dealing with
CW. Both law firms are in Corona, CA -- ground zero for foreclosures. We have a few other things going for us in our situation:
- Based in Illinois with AG Madigen coming down hard on
CW
- Bank of New York as investor -- seems to have more flexiblity with loan modifications
- Current 30 year pay option ARM -- ripe for modification
I would welcome any other thoughts on the legal route, or preferred law firms. Seems the fastest way to get a modification, rather than be delayed for months on end by
CW, and slightly improved by NACA. I can only imagine the backlog at
CW and what it will take to get their attention e.g., via legal representation that knows how to file and work through their labryinth system.
Best to you all from the Land of Lincoln (made popular again by Obama).