National Mortgage Settlement

[brimorga]

Here's the latest from the Office of Oversight!
"MORTGAGE SETTLEMENT MONITOR RELEASES PROGRESS REPORT"

https://www.mortgageoversight.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ProgressReport08292012.pdf?utm_source=Press+Releas e+List%3A+Office+of+Mortgage+Settlement+Oversi ght%3A+Opt-In+Only&utm_campaign=0f10906d52-News_Release_8_29_128_29_2012&utm_medium=email

wow, thanks for posting. Skip ahead to page 32. This is a bombshell. It basically shows that BofA isn't doing much other than short sales. The other banks in the settlement look to be doing activity across most of the categories, but BofA has focused on that one category.

Get this, while the other banks have saved homeowners $103M on $4.8B in loans on refi's, BofA has done $0!! Not a single one. Pathetic.

[jbutterfly3]

Man! I missed that important detail! dang! so I guess there goes my principal reduction! sheesh.. well I called the BoA number from the Settlement website.. and supposedly I can qualify for some relief since my loan is not fha or va.. and supposeldy also they put me on a "list" and will get a snail mail in 30-60 days, then another letter in another 30-60 days again.. Has anybody gotten that "letter" after they initiated the call? so here we go again with the waiting game thank's for pointing that one out though!

I called back in March and was told I would be on a list as the program hadnt been implimented yet. Called again in June same thing on a list.
Called in July found out I am not on any list and they would submit a survey on my behalf, called again yesterday and confirmed the survey has been sent.
I will supposedly get a letter saying whether or not i may qualify and move to review?? I am not optimistic but I will definitely keep calling to make sure I am on the radar.

[CWandSLSat619]

I called back in March and was told I would be on a list as the program hadnt been implimented yet. Called again in June same thing on a list.
Called in July found out I am not on any list and they would submit a survey on my behalf, called again yesterday and confirmed the survey has been sent.
I will supposedly get a letter saying whether or not i may qualify and move to review?? I am not optimistic but I will definitely keep calling to make sure I am on the radar.

Well after my first initial call to them inquiring about this settlement, they looked at my account and said that I might qualify, that somebody will call me back.. Somebody did call me back a lot fo them actually.. they started getting my info over the phone and my financials.. they said that I don't qualify for any program because we make too much but we might qualify for forbearrance.. and that someone will call me and I will receive a letter from the mail, someone did call me again telling me that i was assigned to a specific rep.. i forgot what term they used for that person.. after a couple of days that guy did call me back and introduce himself and said that he'll be the single point of contact.. and he will be in touch with me.. and I've never heard or receive any letter from tehm again.. Well I'm still current with my mortgage.. HOWEVER, this Oct will be my first missed payment.. also if they ask me if my financials have changed I'll say yes.. Now I have over $1400 of car payments! hahahaha... maybe now they'll qualify me lol...

[jbutterfly3]

Sadly your bills don't matter to them, it's your income to mortgage ratio they work with.
It's gross income not what you actually take home so the qualifying process is always in their favor.

[Movingon123]

wow, thanks for posting. Skip ahead to page 32. This is a bombshell. It basically shows that BofA isn't doing much other than short sales. The other banks in the settlement look to be doing activity across most of the categories, but BofA has focused on that one category.

Get this, while the other banks have saved homeowners $103M on $4.8B in loans on refi's, BofA has done $0!! Not a single one. Pathetic.

That's exactly what I experienced w/BofA (I think Gray555 is also w/BofA), not doing else other than short sale or DIL, no offer to refi. Need to point this out to the DOJ or oversight person or someone. My circumstances has changed, and I want to stay in my home. Going to press for a refi.

[NotNetBoss]

Now that you have received the Perm Mod. - did BofA deal with the 2nd Lien on your behalf? I have one as well...(GMAC/DiTech - resold)

My Case is weird in that I filed a Chp 7 which wiped out the legal obligation to pay the second, but left the Lien in tract due to a weird quirk in the BK law.

My loan originated with Countrywide in 2004. I do have a second which BofA sold to Old Republic and it os not included in the DOJ mod. I will attempt to settle with them later.

[TomEason]

NotNetBoss

Thanks for your post.

Reference your comment

due to a weird quirk in the BK law

BK law has always provided that, even when the debt is discharged, the lien remains of record on the property.

I recommend you follow the guide at post #1 of the following thread. You might refer to the last part which is applicable to bankruptees.

Strategy for Settling Your 2nd

[widespreadpanic]

I scored one, i had my loan reduced by over 50 percent.

[widespreadpanic]

344trpi.jpg

Here is the letter I received from my loan servicer SPS. MY investor was Bank of New York Melon.

[Jeffrey L. Shurtliff]

Here is the letter I received from my loan servicer SPS. MY investor was Bank of New York Melon.

Am I reading correctly you will be paying 1200 + on a 131,000 balance?

[widespreadpanic]

Yeah, I thought that was high as well. But, live on a resort island that is frequented by hurricanes. When my wind insurance, flood insurance, property taxes are imputed with the high interest rate of 6.3%, it comes to roughly that figure.

[HDKNDHD]

Question:
What kind of pitfalls can I expect? Is this too good to be true?

We just got a DOJ workout approval from BofA (we are 170K underwater).

Three trial payments of 1300 a month starting on Nov1.
initial interest rate of 2% climbing after five years to market rate as it is on Jan 2013 (1% a year max increase)
principal reduction of 165K.

1. told we need to notarize permanent mod papers at end of trial period.
2. told that we will receive perm workout with the previous numbers if we make it thru the trial period.
3. told that additional docs may be requested during the trial period.
4. IRS may hold us liable for the taxes on the 165K reduction

comments?

[TomEason]

Question:
What kind of pitfalls can I expect? Is this too good to be true?

We just got a DOJ workout approval from BofA (we are 170K underwater).

Three trial payments of 1300 a month starting on Nov1.
initial interest rate of 2% climbing after five years to market rate as it is on Jan 2013 (1% a year max increase)
principal reduction of 165K.

1. told we need to notarize permanent mod papers at end of trial period.
2. told that we will receive perm workout with the previous numbers if we make it thru the trial period.
3. told that additional docs may be requested during the trial period.
4. IRS may hold us liable for the taxes on the 165K reduction

comments?

HDKNDHD

Congratulations on being granted the trial mod! I presume you're happy about it and intend to accept.

[HDKNDHD]

Yes, if the permanent modification fall within the range of the trial monthly payments and there is no huge balloon payment attached that I can't afford.

What burns me is that the govt and the banks could have made this easier and fairer to all by allowing the govt and the banks to keep any appreciation difference in future equity and the amount of principal forgiven - that way no one could have said that homeowners got something for nothing, and there would have been alot less resistance to granting a majority of homeowners a principal reduction that would allow them to stay in their homes.

Crazy as this sounds, I would have been willing to sacrifice a percentage of future gains just to stay in my home for the rest of my lifetime at a very affordable price. Anyway, if this works out, my wife and I feel this is a generous development and plan to setup somekind of affordable charitable contribution to those who have been evicted.

[TomEason]

Hi HDKNDHD

This is indeed laudable; your generosity is commendable!

Anyway, if this works out, my wife and I feel this is a generous development and plan to setup somekind of affordable charitable contribution to those who have been evicted.

[AbovetheLawson]

I read through this but couldn't find an answer to my question, so pardon if this is a repeat and feel free to direct me to the proper place. I had a CW loan in 2006, took over by BofA. Stopped paying Sept of 2011. In Dec 2011, my loan was sold to Everbank Mortgage. Here's my question, since my loan was a BofA loan during the DOJ Settlement period, but no longer is, do I have any recourse or is there anyway I can try to get a principal reduction through this settlement? As far as I can tell, BofA dumped a ton of mortgages right before the DOJ settlement went through, that doesn't seem fair. Not that any of this is fair, but I digress. Any thoughts? Thanks!

[Jeffrey L. Shurtliff]

When the suit was filed and if you were still under BOA, I believe you have recourse. I would write the present holder of your mortgage and send a copy to the bank. Ask them for a mod on DOJ and see what they say.

[AbovetheLawson]

Ok - it was and I will try that - thanks for the advice!

[NotNetBoss]

Thanks Tom,

B of A = Round ONE

Left over 2nd Lien will be Round TWO...since BofA will LIKLY not address this during the DOJ Modification.

NotNetBoss

Thanks for your post.

Reference your comment

BK law has always provided that, even when the debt is discharged, the lien remains of record on the property.

I recommend you follow the guide at post #1 of the following thread. You might refer to the last part which is applicable to bankruptees.

Strategy for Settling Your 2nd

[eightracker]

luvatholm

Thanks for your post.

I too have a CW loan originated in 2005. Mine is a pay option ARM. BONY is the trustee of the MBS pool that contains my loan. That MBS contains nothing but CW (now BOA) loans. Hence, it's considered owned by BOA; and BOA has informed me it's eligible for a mod pursuant to the National Settlement.

I have the same situation, AFA loan origination and ownership of the note.

Our loan balance is currently at $747K, @ 2.625 percent, but the house is not underwater, and the payments have always been made on time.

I called B of A in July to inquire if I might qualify for a reduction in principal/interest rate/payment amount, or an extension of the loan term, via the DOJ settlement, and was told that I would definitely qualify for something, and to call back in a few weeks, which I did. I was then told to call back if I hadn't received a letter from them, by October 1, which i did today.

The CSR I talked to told me that the request had to go through the federal government, to determine if I would qualify, and then come back to B of A, to determine which program they might offer. Uh huh.

I've also been contacted by BOA and have an assigned CRM who's in regular contact. She indicates these mods will be underwritten in a couple weeks. Yeah, right LOL!

Since you posted this, almost four months ago, have you had any progress? Also, can you suggest a method for obtaining a B of A contact person that would be assigned to me? Thx.

[TomEason]

eightracker

Thanks for your post.

Since I made that post made on 6-12-2012, my mod is unfortunately still in limbo and BOA has since assigned a different CRM.

[helpwithloan]

Quick question-in order to qualify for the national settlement does the unit have to be owner occupied? I currently rent out my property (at a loss) and it is my only property.

[Cat Damiano]

Quick question-in order to qualify for the national settlement does the unit have to be owner occupied? I currently rent out my property (at a loss) and it is my only property.

Welcome to the forum and thank you for joining.....'

It may not have to be, however, they may be working on owner occupied properties first. It would have to be owned and serviced by BofA if that is your lender. You can also contact them and ask here;

You will be notified by mail if you are eligible for a principal reduction. If you want more information about your potential eligibility, you can call 1.877.488.7814 (Mon-Fri 8am-12am ET, Sat 8am-8pm ET, Sun 3pm-12am ET).

[helpwithloan]

Thank you!! This forum has been extremely helpful. I realize that I am not alone. My loan is owned and serviced by Bank of America. I called the hotline and was told that I am eligible and that a survey was submitted on my behalf ( I don't really know what that means). However my CRM tells me that he doesn't see this information in his system and he doesn't think I qualify because it is not owner occupied (I haven't seen any information on this). So I am getting conflicting information and I am just confused and frustrated at this point. The only reason why I rent my unit is that I can't sell out without owing the bank a lot of money (my property has lost $100,000 in value).

What does it mean to be "eligible"? Hopefully soon I can get a response out of Bank of America!

[Cat Damiano]

Thank you!! This forum has been extremely helpful. I realize that I am not alone. My loan is owned and serviced by Bank of America. I called the hotline and was told that I am eligible and that a survey was submitted on my behalf ( I don't really know what that means). However my CRM tells me that he doesn't see this information in his system and he doesn't think I qualify because it is not owner occupied (I haven't seen any information on this). So I am getting conflicting information and I am just confused and frustrated at this point. The only reason why I rent my unit is that I can't sell out without owing the bank a lot of money (my property has lost $100,000 in value).

What does it mean to be "eligible"? Hopefully soon I can get a response out of Bank of America!

If you feel you are not getting correct information from the CRM or want to find out for sure if your loan is among those that are eligible, you may want to try contacting the executive team instead here;

Direct: 1-704-386-5687

[TomEason]

Thank you!! This forum has been extremely helpful. I realize that I am not alone. My loan is owned and serviced by Bank of America. I called the hotline and was told that I am eligible and that a survey was submitted on my behalf ( I don't really know what that means). However my CRM tells me that he doesn't see this information in his system and he doesn't think I qualify because it is not owner occupied (I haven't seen any information on this). So I am getting conflicting information and I am just confused and frustrated at this point. The only reason why I rent my unit is that I can't sell out without owing the bank a lot of money (my property has lost $100,000 in value).

What does it mean to be "eligible"? Hopefully soon I can get a response out of Bank of America!

Why not simply download the BOA Consent Judgment doc and find the criteria yourself? You'll then certainly know more than any BOA rep.

[Notch Johnson]

If you feel you are not getting correct information from the CRM or want to find out for sure if your loan is among those that are eligible, you may want to try contacting the executive team instead here;

Direct: 1-704-386-5687

I've called many times and always "you qualify" and a survey has been submitted and its under review from the person I talk too but I'm not sure given my loan is serviced by B of A but owned by another bank. will the number about actually lead me to an answer? honestly, at this point i just want to know either way....

[TomEason]

I've called many times and always "you qualify" and a survey has been submitted and its under review from the person I talk too but I'm not sure given my loan is serviced by B of A but owned by another bank. will the number about actually lead me to an answer? honestly, at this point i just want to know either way....

Notch Johnson

If your loan is owned by one of the five majors or is in a MBS containing all Countrywide (now BOA) loans, you qualify. If not, you don't. How hard can that be to figure out?

[I could wrk@ BofA by now!]

wow, thanks for posting. Skip ahead to page 32. This is a bombshell. It basically shows that BofA isn't doing much other than short sales. The other banks in the settlement look to be doing activity across most of the categories, but BofA has focused on that one category.

Get this, while the other banks have saved homeowners $103M on $4.8B in loans on refi's, BofA has done $0!! Not a single one. Pathetic.

PLEASE HELP!! I have been dealing with BOFA and the whole remodification with no real help. we finally rcvd the letter about the DOJ.. applies and where approved but I am so dissatisfied with the offer and now have to send in the forms after i succesfully payed all 3 trial payments and a week later rcvd the final docs..

our offer is as follows:
a principle reduction of 25,290.89
bringing our new loan balance to 221,597.12
my issue is that our monthly payment only dropped to 1705.18 from 1767. only saving us 62.00 a month!!
also our home is only valued at 154,00(per zillow)
once again I feel that BOFA is just trying to get rid of me as I have been a constant thorn to them i have placed a complaint with the state attorney general and have continued to have crms from the office of the pres.

do i have any options??? review?? the funny thing is over the almost 4 yrs we have accumulated about 25,000 in FEES! so it seems like that is all we are rcvn..

[TomEason]

PLEASE HELP!! I have been dealing with BOFA and the whole remodification with no real help. we finally rcvd the letter about the DOJ.. applies and where approved but I am so dissatisfied with the offer and now have to send in the forms after i succesfully payed all 3 trial payments and a week later rcvd the final docs.. our offer is as follows: a principle reduction of 25,290.89 bringing our new loan balance to 221,597.12 my issue is that our monthly payment only dropped to 1705.18 from 1767. only saving us 62.00 a month!! also our home is only valued at 154,00(per zillow) once again I feel that BOFA is just trying to get rid of me as I have been a constant thorn to them i have placed a complaint with the state attorney general and have continued to have crms from the office of the pres. do i have any options??? review?? the funny thing is over the almost 4 yrs we have accumulated about 25,000 in FEES! so it seems like that is all we are rcvn..

Please don't feel like the Lone Ranger. BOA is truly a piece of work. I can relate to your frustrations as I've long had dealings with BOA on two loans.

[den79]

PLEASE HELP!! I have been dealing with BOFA and the whole remodification with no real help. we finally rcvd the letter about the DOJ.. applies and where approved but I am so dissatisfied with the offer and now have to send in the forms after i succesfully payed all 3 trial payments and a week later rcvd the final docs..

our offer is as follows:
a principle reduction of 25,290.89
bringing our new loan balance to 221,597.12
my issue is that our monthly payment only dropped to 1705.18 from 1767. only saving us 62.00 a month!!
also our home is only valued at 154,00(per zillow)
once again I feel that BOFA is just trying to get rid of me as I have been a constant thorn to them i have placed a complaint with the state attorney general and have continued to have crms from the office of the pres.

do i have any options??? review?? the funny thing is over the almost 4 yrs we have accumulated about 25,000 in FEES! so it seems like that is all we are rcvn..

It sounds like you are being very thorough. Don't go by the zillow estimate because they are usually inaccurate. Zillow gives you a range of what the house could be worth and then assigns it a value somewhere in the middle of that range.

I would call a local real estate agent and ask them to do a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of your house. They can do this easily. Just be sure to tell them you are going to use it for a modification and that you are not selling right now but when it comes time to sell you will consider them as a listing agent. Most agents will be happy to do this for you. If the agent values the house close to the modified value you may be ok. If not bring the CMA to the attorney general's attention and use this for negotiation. Whether it will work or not I don't know but at least you will have a professional opinion as to how much the house is worth.

[davephx]

Market value may not be the prime issue.

If you "qualify" under DOJ settlement that doesn't mean you will get any benefit. Each bank (BofA the largest) has to earn kind of points up to the settlement amount but can earn it many ways. Seems BofA is earning most of its points via allowing short sales - but also has done some extinguishments of 2nds and less desirable offers like yours.

If you will be selected as a lucky winner in the DOJ settlement is totally up to bank and seems to be rather random with no identifiable way to know if you have a winning hand or not if you do "qualify" to be in the game. The banks have a few years to win the points by short sales, mods, extingishments etc

[mpaterso]

BofA has only just started their refi efforts under the settlement. The monitor's latest report just came out yesterday:

https://www.mortgageoversight.com/wp...s_11.19.12.pdf

The bank said on Nov 14 that they are now racing to catch up by end of Feb. they have an obligation to do $1 billion in refi activity and have just started. This leads me to believe there will be a flurry of activity in the next few months.

BofA almost halfway to national mortgage settlement requirement | Kathleen Pender – Net Worth Plus | an SFGate.com blog

i hope this helps.

[HDKNDHD]

Cross posting:
We signed and sent in our permanent mod papers last friday (1/11). Got a principle reduc of 168K and interest to 2% for first 5 and then eventually to a max of 3.375 for 35 yrs. Deferred principle of 92K(balloon payment at end of loan) with interest on 219K for 35yrs. It was a long road but worth the effort. Documents say that Feb 1 will be our first perm mod loan payment (halved our previous monthly). We'll be able to stay in our house and grow old in it. Ours was a Bof A owned loan. It seems like BofA is now speeding up the mod process (I heard somehwere that they have to close out these deals by Feb. Of course, the only remaining stumbling block will be if Congress does not extend the principle reduction tax forgiveness thru to 2013.

Additionally: there was no requirement to notarize the docs (took it into the bank just to ask - since the notarization pages were not present). The docs we got said to "notarize - if required". We figured that no notarization was required due to the absence of such pages. Should we be worried about this?

[Cat Damiano]

Cross posting:
We signed and sent in our permanent mod papers last friday (1/11). Got a principle reduc of 168K and interest to 2% for first 5 and then eventually to a max of 3.375 for 35 yrs. Deferred principle of 92K(balloon payment at end of loan) with interest on 219K for 35yrs. It was a long road but worth the effort. Documents say that Feb 1 will be our first perm mod loan payment (halved our previous monthly). We'll be able to stay in our house and grow old in it. Ours was a Bof A owned loan. It seems like BofA is now speeding up the mod process (I heard somehwere that they have to close out these deals by Feb. Of course, the only remaining stumbling block will be if Congress does not extend the principle reduction tax forgiveness thru to 2013.

Additionally: there was no requirement to notarize the docs (took it into the bank just to ask - since the notarization pages were not present). The docs we got said to "notarize - if required". We figured that no notarization was required due to the absence of such pages. Should we be worried about this?

I posted this on the other thread;

It was already extended, which is great news.

Lawmakers managed to extend the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act as part of their 11^th hour deal to avoid the fiscal cliff.
The extension means homeowners now will be excused from paying taxes on forgiven mortgage debt through 2013. The law, established in 2007, was set to expire Dec. 31.

[luvatholm]

Yes! Forgiveness is wonderful. I just paid my first Perm. payment, after years of dealing with BofA on my loan mod. I got the DOJ mod with a 30k prinicipal reduction, payment went from 2k to 1300 a month, 23 year loan, at 2.5 percent for five years then up to 3.375 for remainder.

I wrote letters to everyone to get help and did a lot of research. I can not thank everyone here enough for all the advise I received. I have binders and binders of documents. My home was in foreclosure when the Presidents office called me and assigned an customer service rep to my loan, he has been wonderful, he bent over backwards to help me. I cried a river when they called me to say I was approved.

I have no idea how this happened to me other than to say that I was blessed. I prayed over and over just asking to keep it if I could handle it or take it if that was the best. I'm just thankful.

[JJinAZ]

Market value may not be the prime issue.

If you "qualify" under DOJ settlement that doesn't mean you will get any benefit. Each bank (BofA the largest) has to earn kind of points up to the settlement amount but can earn it many ways. Seems BofA is earning most of its points via allowing short sales - but also has done some extinguishments of 2nds and less desirable offers like yours.

If you will be selected as a lucky winner in the DOJ settlement is totally up to bank and seems to be rather random with no identifiable way to know if you have a winning hand or not if you do "qualify" to be in the game. The banks have a few years to win the points by short sales, mods, extingishments etc

I agree with your assessment. Even knowing that you were "denied" and the reason why would be a hell of a lot better than being in limbo. I contact BoA just as soon as the settlement came out (Spring 2012) using the "official" number designated for dealing with the settlement. At the time, they knew what I was talking about and said I can expect a "pre-qualification" package within 90 days. That never happened and I have NEVER been able to talk with anyway at that same "settlement contact #" who even knows anything about the DOJ settlement! I just spent an hour at a local BoA branch and their service personnel really were no more successful extracting information than I was, other than to put me in contact with the same person I've been talking to for the last 9 months who knows absolutely NOTHING about the settlement. The Maryland AG office has been no more useful as they just tell me I must wait for up to 3 years to find out if I'm one of the lucky ones.

[JJinAZ]

Does any one have a cover letter (censored, of course) they can post to show what a BoA proposal under this settlement looks like? Including what documentation is required? This would be for loan modification or principal reduction. My BoA "point of contact" keeps sending me boiler-plate packages related to refi, having no DOJ settlement context. So, it would be help to be able to show them (BoA phone service as well as local rep) "Here, this is what it should look like." From what I have read here, it looks like most of these contacts are "unsolicited." But, either way, it would be helpful to point out that "No, you are sending me down the wrong rabbit-hole."

[thaipath]

Yeah, I thought that was high as well. But, live on a resort island that is frequented by hurricanes. When my wind insurance, flood insurance, property taxes are imputed with the high interest rate of 6.3%, it comes to roughly that figure.

Your last post was from September... Did you received the final loan mod approval?

[thaipath]

I don't think SPS or Select portfolio is part of the doj mortgage settlement program, which conflicts the attachment above from widespreadpanic, check out this attachment, How are they able to offer doj mortgage settlement if they're not part of the 5 big banks, and also the attachment clearly stated.