Outta Luck for Modification or What?

[hileng777]

I called Countrywide many times and informed them that I had a car accident, became disabled for 4 months and eventually lost my job and my husband retired to take care of me. I asked the agent I've spoke to if I can refinance my loan but he told me that since we owed more than the equity they can not help me. I sent them all the home keys, garage door opener and a Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure they have not responded. I put my house for sale since July of 2007 and there's no buyer. So I lower the price of my house from $499,000 down to $290,000an pending Countrywide's approval, my agent called and told me that someone is interestd to buy my house as short sale. I called Countrywide and told them that a buyer wants to know if they will accept a short sale, I owed $442,000 and I asked them to give me 1099 for the balance owed. The Countrywide agenttold me to fax an authorization letter to them authorizing my agent to talk to them, paystubs and listing price, date my house was put to market, the purchaser's agreement and estimated seller closng costs. I faxed everything except the purchaser's agreement. I told them that the buyer wants to make sure if they will accept short sale beforethey make an offer. Now Countrywide is asking us to send them our bank statement and the 1040AND w2 last year.
I am hesitant to do that since you have mentioned that Coutrywide does not help you modify your loan and my husband feels its a waste of time.
I told Countrywide that they should accept a short sale in the amount of $200,000 and not $290,000 as I put in the flyer. The prices of new homes in this area built by Centex, Richmond and other builders lower their prices at $200,000 with big lots, high upgrades, free closing costs from $30,000 or more. There's many more negative information about this area and if I have know this information I would have not bought this house. Countrywide doesn't even care, period. I think they need to train their agents and employees ad owners of this company how to treat customers with respect and how to be compassionate and have listening ears. That last guy I've spoke with did not return my call when I asked him to return my call.
YOU KNOW COUNTRYWIDE, WHAT YOU REAP YOU SOW, IF YOU SOW A HARD STONE HEART, YOU WILL REAP TRIPLE OF THAT. I HOPE AND PRAY THAT YOU WILL NOT GO THROUGH WHAT WE BORROWERS HAD GONE THROUGH. WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS AND WE DESERVE TO BE TREATED AS ONE.
VENGEANCE IS MINE, SAYS THE LORD.

[Andrew]

wow thats a big difference from what you owe to what you want to sell it for. How did they give you a mortgage that high. Was the appraisal overstated? Where do u live?

[Brian K.]

I keep reading post after post where borrowers never get return calls from loss mitigation agents. I cant help but wonder why no one ever writes a confirming letter and sends by mail it or faxes it to the loss mitigation agent. As an attorney we are trained to follow-up every conversation with a confirming letter so there can not be a misunderstanding between the parties.

It is a simple thing to just to pen a letter confirming your conversation and it will save you countless problems in the future. From my perspective of defending a foreclosure it goes a long way to getting the judge to see the bank for what it is. Judges are very sympatric to borrowers anyway, but when you can show him ten letters to the bank asking for a workout it puts most judges over the top. They read the same papers you do and the have the false belief that the banks are really doing anything they can to keep people in there homes.

Moreover, the writing of the letter lets you put your spin on the conversation with the bank. Where the negotiator says that something will be done in a “few days” you can write “As per our conversation the following items will be completed within in three (3) days”. We must all remember that these loss mitigation people are under trained, without any real authority to make final decisions, and way overwhelmed with files. The negotiator will not recall the conversation the next time he reviews the file, but the will read your confirming letter and accept what it says. This does not mean that you can just make stuff up and put it in a letter (he is taking notes on his or her side also) but it gives you control of the timeline.

Is there anything worse then a new person being assigned to the file in the middle of the process. They can never find any of the notes the prior person took during your conversations, and they always want a “few days” to get up to speed with the file. All I am saying is that if you have a computer, just type a few lines after each conversation and put it in the mail. Not just email, or fax, the US mail. Make sure you put your full property address on the “RE” line along with the loan number.

[Andrew]

Brian how would we know where to mail the letter too for the loss mitigation.?I know the two different ones I had were in different parts of the country.

[Brian K.]

Ask the person on the phone for the bank for the mailing address.

[dixy2k]

hileng777,

Usually from what I heard, all lenders want to see a Purchase Agreement and maybe even a qualification letter for the buyer. It might be a waste of time as your husband said but what other option do you have. If you send them the paperwork that they requested, at the end they might tell you the same thing: we couldn't process your case without a Purchase Agreement! These people in Loss Mit are not trained to understand the change in the market or they did not receive the "word" from upper management to really work out the deals. For the last few years they did not have to deal with this type of problems.

About 8-9 months ago I was talking with somebody that works for a lender and he told me that lenders are aware they will not be able to keep up with the problem (this was even before the big problem was official!) but the word inside is that they need to be strong and declining any short sales for as long as possible. They said if they will approve short sales people will run to do this type of transactions and they will loose money. In my personal oppinion they are loosing even more if they don't agree to short sale but I don't work for them so I don't know their internal issues.

[XLOnCA]

I stumbled on this site and for good reason I hope. I want to share my opinions and let you know that Countrywide is not the problem - but may not be the answer either. As it is easier to point fingers, thankfully news finally broke yesterday that Bush has a plan (I had to stop laughing after typing that) that will have a rate freeze for non-neg adjustable notes (...fine print to follow)

Excerpt: Which adjustable-rate mortgage holders are affected?

Only a small group. To qualify, you need to have received your loan sometime between Jan. 1, 2005 and July 31, 2007, and you need to be facing a reset of your interest rate sometime between Jan. 1, 2008 and July 31, 2010. If you're within this range, you may be eligible to have your interest rate frozen, so you can keep your current, lower rate for five years.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...126_633122.htm

More importantly after skimming through these posts and replies the one big difference I see is - YOU NEED TO BE CURRENT and may need to have a clean payment history.

If you are facing foreclosure or have a NOD how or why would Countrywide (Profit-wide) want to help you. Over the last 6+ months, these are catastrophic losses and yes this comes right after a time where the gains were unamountable and many, many people made a lot of monies. If you got your loan from Countrywide (not from a broker or lender other than) they should be held responsible - but what business (shareholders in mind) wants to go into a foreclosure collapsing part of the country and deal with any of this mess. The loan officers that worked for CW gave great rates at a cost that was just ridiculous. On the other hand, brokers were charging the same and giving a little higher rate (making even more money on the back end). It is stupid how easy it is to give someone a loan when the carrot (cash out etc.) is hanging over their head and for what 3-4-or 5 points that come out of some made up number (equity that will have disappeared in the next few years anyhow).

Do not let Countrywide off the accountability hook, but at the same time don’t expect them to rescue you just because... I as many of you, are in this same predicament. I wanted to add my opinion which I am sure will change over time as I post more on this message board – If I don’t see results or get my way (BE PRO-ACTIVE).

...I will leave with this - I contacted countrywide yesterday to see if they can assist me with their Workout Program? I will post updates and maybe tips on how it goes - it may be wasted effort for all I know. I am a candidate for Bush's plan given what I have read about it. I feel confident they will freeze my rate for 5 years before it adjusts. My goal is to have them lower my monthly payments with an interest rate reduction or as posters here label it as a (rate modification) and fix my new interest rates for the next 5 years.

We are entering a time of uncertainty on who will help, when the help will come, and who will be helped. Help yourselves and believe that you have to do everything you can to make this happen. There is a hand reaching for yours but will you be able to grab on to it???

-B