Home Affordable Mod- So frustrated! Any suggestions?

[LovingTim]

I'll try to make this quick and less than book length.

We got our CW loan a little over 4 years ago. A year before that my husband had been diagnosed with Melanoma Stage 3, went through surgeries and other medical problems in between.

He was still working through most of this. He made 42k a year, and our loan was for approx. 110,000.00, which amounted to about 27% of our gross income for payments.

A few months after getting our mortgage and our home, my husband's work decided to let him go. He was told, "We feel it best you spend this time with your family." My husband didn't have some kind of death sentence. His cancer was being handled just fine. He had some blood clot problems and had to go to the hospital every morning to have his blood drawn as they had him on some heavy medications. We are guessing this is why his work let him go.

My husband is now on disability and we've been trying to wade through the hard times since then. We have tried many times to get CW to help us work something better out but we just get the run around saying that we don't qualify for any programs available.

Fast forward to now. We heard about the Home Affordable Modification program through the Gov. We started calling them immediately, and were being told that they (CW) didn't have enough information yet, to keep calling back.

We called again yesterday. They say that as of 2 weeks ago everything is up and running.

Yet... they still say we qualify for no programs!

According to the gov. website we meet qualifications.

Our mortgage payments are 55% of our income. Our balance is approx. $107,000.00. We own our home and are occupying it. Our loan is "unaffordable" due to loss of income (income changest) and changes in expenses... The change of expenses being that CW has increased our PMI almost $150.00 in 4 years taking our payments from $809.00 to $955.00.

When asked why we don't qualify for the Home Affordable Modification, we are told that we do not have enough income and our loan is unaffordable!

What?! My husband asked, "Isn't that an oxymoron? According to the website your loan needs to be unaffordable, yet we can't qualify because our loan is unaffordable?"

Our monthly income is $1655.00. We have no credit cards. We do have a car loan that is $150.00 a month.

If what they are stating is true, then no one should be able to qualify for the Gov. Home Affordable Modification. You can't qualify if your loan is affordable and you're not having problems, and you can't qualify if your loan is not affordable and you are having problems.

We are so frustrated!

If anyone has any suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[Confused!]

That sounds ridiculous, I agree you should qualify. Really the program was designed for people like you. I would suggest e mailing the president's office and telling your story to her, she will assign someone within her office to work with you. It sure is better than working with these entry level reps...they know nothing! Good luck and keep us updated! E mail today and you'll likely get a call tomorrow.
barbara.j.desoer@bankofamerica.com

[cobra]

Tim;

Have you tried NACA yet? Go here www.naca.com and read about the home save program. They might very well be able to get you a better mod than the Govt. program. It won't happen overnight and dealing with CWBOA
will make going to the dentist seem like a fun outing. However....if they can assist you in getting a lower AFFORDABLE payment it will be worth it.
And....it won't cost you a penny.
Lots of people on this forum have given up on riding the CW Merry go round
and choose to go with NACA.

Keep us posted here. We are a band of brothers and sisters!

Regards,

Cobra

[LovingTim]

Thank you, I will try that. Should I just copy/paste my post into the e-mail and edit it a little to make it sound a little less forum like? LOL

[Confused!]

Originally Posted by LovingTim

Thank you, I will try that. Should I just copy/paste my post into the e-mail and edit it a little to make it sound a little less forum like? LOL

That's what I would do! And like Cobra said, NACA may also be able to assist. Many people here have had success with them. Most of all, don't sweat it-you guys have been through enough. There are options and you will get the help you deserve!

[CW California]

Loving Tim
I was going to post a separate thread about this tonight but this seems like a perfect place to post this. Today I spoke to BofA. The customer advocacy dept. had assigned a negotiator to my account. I've been current and have trying to get assistance from CW since last Oct. In March I got excited because the Making HOme Affordable plan seemed to be perfect for a struggling homeowner who was current. Well fast forward to today and after much run around from CW I was told that CW still does not have the packages to send out to their customers for the plan because of one form they are still missing from the government. According to the negotiator they DO NOT HAVE NOR HAVE THEY SENT ANY PACKAGES OUT for the Making Home Affordable Plan. I specifically asked her, "Do you mean for the investor on my loan?" (I have Bank of New York as the investor on my loan.) She said, "NO, not for anyone."

To say the least I am shocked. I commented that I could not believe there had been a program since March and that CW had received the most funding for the purposes of modications and the government on June 2 has still not sent out the necessary paperwork for CW(now BofA) to mail out the packages so their customers could apply for the program. I know of other people that have received these packages. What I don't know is what banks and if there is specifically anyone here that has received THE MAKING HOME AFFORDABLE PACKAGE FROM COUNTRYWIDE to fill out? If you are out there please post. The woman from CW says they have been being told two more weeks since March. I give up on CW. I'm going full speed ahead with NACA.

[Confused!]

What?!
I received the initial letter on way back in April, and have been patiently awaiting my packet ever since. But it seems like someone around here got one, darned if I can remember who though. I'll go look and see what I can find.

[CW California]

tx confused. I had thought so too but maybe it was a different mortgage company. It's really awful isn't it that the worst offenders of predatory mortgages supposedly hasn't received the necessary paperwork from the US government to help homeonwers under the President's plan to help them? What is wrong with this government?

Anybody out there with a Countrywide Mortgage get the Making Home Affordable Package sent to them yet????

[Confused!]

When I called the people who sent me the original letter today, she told me it was now taking 4-6 weeks. (I've been waiting 5). When this all started it was supposed to take 7-10 days.

[CW California]

Lies all Lies.

[Sunny11]

I did receive The Making Home Affordable package from BofA after receiving the first FedX package saying we may qualify. It includes a three month trial payment agreement and a list of docs to send back to determine qualification. What the trial agreement says is we make a payment for three months on time based on the income verbally given to them and if they determine we qualify based on the docs we provide, they will send out another agreement making it permanent. The payment is about $400 less than what we currently pay. The problem is, it does not address our second mortgage at all.

Our file was submitted by NACA on 5/29. NACA's proposed payment for both our first and second is slightly lower than what the MHA payment is for the first only!

I contacted BofA three separate times to find out about a modification on the second and was told that MHA will not include seconds. Said I was wrong when I told them it was a new addition just added and any seconds are supposed to be automatically included for modification. They said if I wanted a modification on the second I had to apply separately for it, but no guarantees.

I did tell them I had been trying to deal with them directly since January to get a modification and finally gave up and contacted NACA who had just recently submitted a proposal. I told her I did not want to muddy the waters by proceeding with the MHA at the moment...could I reapply if it does not work out with NACA? Basically, she told me that MHA was the best deal I was going to get and if I missed the deadline, that was it. I'm pretty sure she is wrong about that??? She said working with NACA guarantees nothing.

Anyway, we decided that the savings we would see with NACA's proposal was worth risking the $400 savings with MHA. If it does not come through, we will try for the MHA again and maybe by that time, BofA will know they can include seconds.

Praying and keeping our fingers crossed! I've seen a lot of NACA success stories, hopefully we will be one soon! On the other hand, does anyone know of NACA submitting a proposal and having it totally rejected or have BofA come back with something totally off the wall?? That is a fear in the back of my mind!

[CW California]

Sunny, Were you orginally a Countrywide customer or were you always a BofA customer? If you were a CW customer than the negotiator they assigned me flat out lied. This is a negotiator whose name has been posted on this board by others. Initials CM.

Not to be persistant, ok yea I am, lol, but did the package they mailed you have Making Home Affordable on it or did they just tell you it was Making Home Affordable? I'm asking because I just want to be entirely sure I was lied to before I make my next call. And it won't be a call to BofA...............

P.S. Sunny- I have that same fear!

[Sunny11]

CW, yes we were originally with Countrywide. I called immediately when we rec'd the first FedX saying we may qualify in early April. Called weekly after that to check status, got the same thing...call back in two weeks. Received the second FedX 5/21. It contained a a blue folder that has the Making Home Affordable logo on it and says on the front "Helping You Stay in Your Home, You May Be Able to Make Your Payments Affordable". The cover letter included states we may qualify to have our mortgage modified based on the income verbally provided on the phone.

Now, to me it seems they are wasting so much time doing it this way. Send Fedx letters to everyone who may qualify to tell them to call and give their verbal income information....have them wait and then get another FedX package that says you may qualify if you send in the written documentation. They are basing the proposed payment for the three month trial on verbal information!? It makes more sense to send the initial letter saying you may qualify and asking for written documentation then so they could have an accurate modified payment for the trial period. And, not confident at all that they would get all this information processed by the time the three month trial is over!

It is so frustrating to know more about this MHA plan than they seem to. My God, it's not a big secret, go right to the website and read! I actually had to give the website to one of the reps I talked to so she could have her manager "look into" second mortgages being eligible because they have not heard of it. FYI, the number to call 866-603-3198 which is listed on the MHA letter is not actually BofA. They are contracted by BofA to handle the MHA docs.

Now, I do not know if this helped us or not, but we finally could not make the payment on time for March. Received the Notice of Intent in April (owed March & April at that point). We paid March at the end of April. We just made April's payment for the first, but still owe April's second and May & June first and second. I'm wondering if finally being late showed them our hardship was legitimate? We are trying to not fall any further than two months behind because one of the reps (and I don't know if it's true) said they will send out foreclosure notices once you are three months behind.

It's doubtful we will hear about the naca proposal by 6/19, which is when the MHA docs are due. But at this point, I have more confidence letting them handle this than BofA where nobody seems to know what they're doing.

Totally off topic, but has anyone seen the BofA commercial where they say are doing their part to help by modifying something like 2,000 loans a day for homeowners?? Got a chuckle out of that!

[CW California]

How big was the package they sent you for they MHA. Was it the official documents from the government were you had to swear to income, etc? I'm asking because I am just stunned at how this woman, who was assigned by the advocacy dept., would lie and say THEY ARE NOT AND HAVE NOT MAILED ANY MHA PACKAGES. Just blows me away. I am going with NACA but in the meantime there needs to be some accountability at BofA. I'm just trying to think of what I could do and who I could write.

Yea Sunny they are really on top on that homeowner help!

[Sunny11]

The folder had two stapled sets of papers and a return FedX envelope. One stapled set of papers had a notice to borrowers regarding not commiting perjury, a letter from BofA explaining the 2 step process (provide information they need and send in trial payments), a checklist of what to send back, a sheet explaining program information, and a FAQ sheet. The second set of stapled papers was two copies of the "Home Affordable Modification Program Loan Workout Plan (step one of a two step documentation process)" this looks to be a government form it says Fannie Mae/FreddieMac uniform instrument on the bottom, hardship affidavit, tax form 4506 (request for tax return)

I think it all goes back to the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. BofA is not actually handling the MHA paperwork, they have contracted it out.