Does this sound right to you???

[CERA219]

Hello!

I currently have 1 mortgage with Citi for 390K- 10 year interest only at 6.78%. My home should appraise at approximately 325 - 335K. I called Citi last night and after giving our debt/income/home value information I was connected to another rep and told to ask them about the Home Affordability Refinance program.

So I did...explaining that I had been told that Congress just passed a new loan to value ratio of 125%. He said yes that is true, but not all companies are doing it yet. He said at this time Citi is not, but they should be any day.

Anyway, he quoted me a mortgage amount of 400K for 30 years at 5.375%. This will only shave off about $75 each month, but will lock us in at a fixed rate. We have excellent credit, and as long as we make appraisal at 125% or less, we should be able to qualify (he said).

I asked him if this is the best deal for us, and he said yes.

I asked him why we would need to go up to 400K, and he explained that there may be some points with the rate due to the loan - to - value level, and that there will be some closing costs that can be wrapped up into the loan. 10K worth, though???!!!

I'm curious as to whether this sounds kosher or not?

[DaveG]

I don't know how kosher it is, but I was told something similar by Citimortgage. Closing costs would be around 5k, plus another 5k to pay down points to get to a lower interest rate as an effort to keep the monthly payments close to my current payment.

I'm in the same boat as you... interest only ARM (a couple more years left for me) but then the adjustments would start, with no way to do a standard refi since we're now underwater due to our home losing over 100k in value.

But... the Citimortgage cronie told me that the Obama plan only allows you to add-on 5k to the back of the loan... which means we would need to bring the other 5k to the table to cover the purchase of the points.

[flowergirl110]

No!.. and I don't want to seen too "know-all" but I think you should go to the government website and read what is best for you and ask for it specifically by name and say how you qualify. Citi is a business wanting to make money, remember they helped create this mess, they didn't become a caring, charitable organization. Their job is to maxmize profits for investors. Be your own advocate or go to a free credit counselor (look on HUD website) or find another advocate, CITI is not finding you the best deal for you. You are someone who CAN pay this new deal and who cares about your credit score and they can see this too. From my view Obama admin. pushed the banks into this and they DO NOT want to do these programs. They are looking for everyway to come out ahead on this! Be persistant!

[DaveG]

Aren't 5k worth of closing costs normally standard these days? Plus a higher loan means a higher monthly payment, so that is why they want more money to pay down the points. I'm not at all advocating for the scummy/scammy baking industry, but isn't that just how it is?

[CERA219]

Thank you all for your replies. DaveG- I'm wondering what's up with the 10K tacked on if they can only tack on up to 5K. I've got my rep's direct line and email, I figured I'd give him a call today and find out if Citi has gotten on the 125% bandwagon or not...

[DaveG]

Yeah let me know what you end up finding out about the max that can be put down. You may be right, I could have been misinformed.

[Sunbeam]

I suggest you start by reading this: http://www.ustreas.gov/press/release...es_summary.pdf

If you qualify for HMP, then you should get it...if you don't then that is another story, but please don't trust CITI to give you the best deal. You need to educate yourself and advocate for yourself.

Good luck!

[pwrought]

DO NOT SIGN IT. The making home affordable plan does NOT have any closing fees or buying points involved. Please use NACA to refi your home. Citi usually offers a bunch of crap modifications so people take anything. I declined 2 modifications from this bank and end up offering them a settlement for my second mortgage. I settled $25,000 for $2000. Be carefull.

[SillyWorld]

Also with Citi make sure whatever they want you to agree to and if you want to agree make sure they send it to you in writing, and not dated to be returned 1 or 3 days before you ever even received. Only sign what can be dated correctly and returned in a timly manner..

Good Luck!

As other poster said I would ASAP to NACA for help and not trust Citi, they tried to mess me up bigtime and I was glad I declined there offers

[DaveG]

The Home affordability modification is what would be offered without any cost. What I am talking about (as well as the original poster, I think?) is about being able to do a refinance (because our payments are less than 31% of our incomes) up to 105% (hopefully soon 125%) of the loan-to-value amount.

As I understand it, there is no way to complete the refi without any costs. I WISH I could do the loan mod, but am not financially elegible.

[CERA219]

yes, Dave is correct.

I do not qualify for the modification due to the ratio of our mortgage payment versus our take home pay. Thus, I have to go for the refi that Obama's plan allows for homeowners that are upside down (and thus not able to refi normally).

I contacted the rep I spoke with last week. As of last night, Citi is still not accepting the 125% l-t-v. He said they hope for it to happen this week.

[DaveG]

Did you ever get clarification as to how much you can add on to the back of the loan? (They told me that the max is 5k.)

So now... once they open the program to 125%, do we GO GO GO or sit on it for a while and hope that interest rates may fall a bit?

[CERA219]

My gut on this one is to just go, go, go...I'm worried that Citi may tack on uber-points to these refi's once the floodgates open up.
It's telling that they are dragging their feet right now while so many other lenders are on the 125% bandwagon already

I don't *think* rates are going to shift dramatically. I know the feds are worried about inflation (thus higher interest rates) But who knows? In the end, a 1/4 point would save us about 30 - 40 bucks/month.

I have not yet found out about the fees...I did ask the guy a lot of questions re: why we would need to go to 400K from our current loan of 390K. He did not mention at all the limit (which he would have to I'm assuming since I would really only be allowed to go to 395K).

On my next email to him, I will ask and post here once he responds (I'm going to get an update on Wednesday)

[SillyWorld]

Any Complaints on your servicer plaese read post and file complaint

Encouraging news article today

[CERA219]

Received an email from my loan rep on Saturday, still no go as of yet.

I did not receive any info re: how much $ you can tack onto loan for points/refi costs from him either.

Reading up on CNN, ect., it sounds like Citi may be working on keeping themselves out of Bankruptcy again...so perhaps that is why they are holding back???

[Tberries2]

Have you thought about doing a Streamline refi?

[SillyWorld]

Originally Posted by Tberries2

Have you thought about doing a Streamline refi?

I was already and only needed to sign on the Dotted line for my Streamline, emailed the Good Faith offer to NACA they said its up to me but they can get much better deal than Streamline, so here we wait 3 months later and still no solid deal, I just called the other day to NACA sai9d I need an answer soon as if I do Streamline too late I could end up not getting lower % on interest rates, right now can save at least 2% lower on streamline, but it woulda cost me $8,000.00 totasl package costs and NACA deal cost me $00.00 and keep my loan at same lenght the streamline wanted to set me up for 30yr all over again