| Approved for a mod, but dad won't sign
In December of 06 I refinanced my home to combine the first and second I took out to purchase it in April of 06. In order to get a good interest rate my dad signed on as a co-signer. Of course at the time I was able to make the payments - I work for the county 6 hours a day and in the evenings I put on my Notary gloves and was contracted out as a loan signing specialist.
In February of 2008 the signings were pretty much gone and my roommate moved out. I began looking for an evening job - anything! In May I was hired at a pizza parlor taking delivery calls in the call center, being paid half what I make an hour at the county (ouch!). Still it was a job, but I was struggling to make ends meet, even when I found another roommate. By then I had exhausted my savings and scrounging each month to pay all of my bills.
In March I had contacted Countrywide about my situation and began working on a modification - at the time I was hoping just to get a repayment plan on the two months of payments I knew I was going to be short. I was denied the first time around, but in May after getting the 2nd job and a roommate I tried again and send out another hardship letter.
In the meantime I resumed making payments, still being 2 behind and keeping contact with Countrywide saying I was trying to catch up, and in my modification letter had requested maybe they could reduce my interest rate a little and make it a 40 year vs a 30 year so my payment would be a bit lower.
At the end of August I was preparing to leave the country for 3 weeks, came home to find a yellow flyer on my door from "Freddie Mac" I called and the woman told me they could give me a consultation over the phone, submit paperwork, etc. Everything I'd already done ... I said I didn't have time to do that right then, I was leaving in 3 days. She said to call back when I returned home.
A few weeks after I returned my roommate "found" some mail he'd set aside for me while I was gone. One item was a FedEx envelope from Countrywide - a loan modification!
The terms are to reduce my interest rate from 5.99% to 3.999% and lengthen the term from the remaining 28 years to 40 years reducing my principle and interest payment from $1364 to $951 a month (and my property taxes have been readjusted so my total payment each month would be less than $1300!) a $400 savings, I'd finally have a little room to breath each month! They'd given me what I'd asked for.
But my dad won't sign. He does have a very valid point ... My house was built in 1929, I owe $228k on it, it has lost at least $85k in value in the last two years since I bought it (A home that is way nicer down the street is listed at $160k). It needs some repairs, at least $25k over the next few years (needs a new garage, wiring should be updated, and will sooner than later need a new roof etc). When I bought the house I put about $8k into it to update some plumbing etc and banked on being able to take a HELOC out later to slowly do the other work to it.
My question is ... should I continue to beg him to sign this modification, or should I try to get Countrywide to reduce a bit of the principle owed on the home so I'm not upside down forever (dad says it will be forever, the market will not catch up for a long time). I contacted Countrywide the other day and they said they didn't have record of the mod, but to contact their HEART department since that is who the paperwork came from. I haven't been able to call them during business hours due to my hectic work schedule the last two days.
Do I have a chance? Might they reduce the principle? Should I deal with HEART or is there someone higher up who has the decision making power that I should contact? Or should I take what I was offered and just hope that one day there is some equity in the home again (when I refinanced it was valued at $275k, I had paid $210k 8 months earlier - it just dropped from there at a rapid pace).
My dad contacted an attorney. I told him he should visit this site - anyway their attorney wanted $2500 to negotiate and guaranteed to get us a better offer than what was on the table (they claim they have gotten the interest rate reduced all the way down to 1% - still that's not reducing the principle). I'm pretty tenacious when I have the time so I think if there is a way I have the will and can save us the $2500.  | 
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