Thank you Loansafe.Org! Countrywide Success!Modification Approved!!!

[8pacmama]

Live in California and had 5.875% 5 year fixed ARM with 6 month libor at 5 years. Spouse was AD Navy and deployed quite a bit and with 6 children, made it difficult for me to work fulltime to help out financially. Have also been dealing with a seriously ill adult child still living at home due to respiratory failure for the past 2 years. She has been hospitalized 4 times and intubated twice within the last year. I include that info. in my hardship letter as well. We fell behind on our property taxes which increased considerably with the housing market inflated sale prices and comps, but managed to keep our mortgage up to date by paying interest only. I originally contacted Countrywide back in May 2008 to inquire about a loan modification to pay the past due property taxes, add an escrow account and avoid the interest rate adjustment that was to hit in November 2008. I was told that since we weren't delinquent on our home loan that there was nothing they could do to help us unless we defaulted. We tried refinancing to solve our dilemma and discovered that with the drop in property values we had no equity! Ironic that the County was still accessing our property taxes on sales comps from 2007, nothing had sold in our area since then but can't refinance at those values.

Fast forward to September 2008 when we received a letter from Countrywide stating that if we didn't bring our property taxes up to date that they would default on our home loan. I was frantic and made the decision to fall 30+ days delinquent in order to be heard and finally get some help from Countrywide. Applied for a loan modification in October, faxed all of the paperwork requested and info was posted on CW site within 2 weeks. Called CW weekly and often routed to India and spoke to reps that didn't have a clue. Was getting desperate and finally looked up NACA in December and made an appointment to go to orientation 2/7(Ended up putting wrong date into my calendar and missed the orientation! I am going to call them and try doing by phone or online).

Finally received a call from a CW negotiator, Dennis Simpson of Arizona, 1/24/09. He takes our financials again. Turns out that they had our financials with a $2000 surplus each month and that is why I hadn't been contacted earlier. We actually have $200 surplus each month per negotiator. He gives me his # 1-800-669-0102 and extension which I can never access because I am always rerouted to a random REP and they refuse to connect to an extension. I have been calling CW every other day for an update and having the REPS email my negotiator to contact me. I have left numerous messages with the Office of the President and spoken to a negotiator that helped out another loansafe.org member whom did give me an update on modification. I have yet to speak to my negotiator and get an update on progress directly from him! As it turns out my investor is ING Bank and they rejected my negotiators first offer for modification and he has resubmitted another offer, which I am not clear on what was offered in the first place. We are unfortunately 6 months behind on mortgage, I have been putting our surplus to the side and paying down our credit card debt instead just in case, and I am very worried that our investor will not negotiate at all. To top it all off, CW TARP division for the property taxes have set up an escrow account to cover the past due property taxes of 16000 which would begin 4/1 and also added an escrow account to cover the current property taxes now due. All in all we are now looking at a minimum of $1000 per month added on to our now delinquent mortgage payment. Our mortgage is due to adjust interest rate again in May. There is no way that we will be able to make it all up and I have had no luck in contacting my negotiator!

Has anyone dealt with Dennis Simpson? I have not been able to find out his email or any others for that matter. Does anyone have current emails for the negotiators or any new telephone #s that I can try. I have tried all of the contacts on this forum and have hit a dead end every time! Any suggestions from anyone? Has anyone dealt with ING bank as their investor and if so what happened? I will be contacting NACA tomorrow because I am tired of waiting! Please advise! Sorry this is so long.

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Dan Bailey]

8pacmamma,
Glad you found the forum and posted.
There is a good chance that person is not even with CW anymore, they have done alot of restructuring .
Your best bet at this point will be to contact NACA either online or calling again, and keeping the ap[pointment.
Hang in ther, good luck and let us know how your NACA contact goes.

[8pacmama]

Started this new thread to express my gratitude to loansafe.org and its members for helping me through my loan modification with Countrywide. I have been lurking and reading all of your posts, doing what was suggested CALL, CALL, CALL, for the past 6 months but finally signed up as a member a few weeks ago.

My Countrywide modification was approved unexpectedly on 2/10/09 per the paperwork I received today by Fedex. I was informed by the Home Retention team last week that the modification had originally been denied by my investor and had been resubmitted by my negotiator but no mention of this modification approval was made. I immediately called to verify that this was not a mistake and received a recorded message, after I entered my loan number, that modification was approved and to send back paperwork notarized by 2/23/09. It also said not to call or else it may cause a problem with the offer, therefore can't confirm Home Retention team or negotiator. Is this normal? They don't give you much time do they?? Anyway, the following is modification offered and it's way better than I could have imagined!:

Modified principal balance $348,728*
*Amount added to original loan $29,232 6 months past due mortgage payments and escrow three years property taxes. Original principal balance was approx $319,000

Interest rate decreased to 4.25%* 5 years 2012
*Interest rate was at 6.25 and due to increase 5/09 6 month libor

New monthly payment to include current property tax(escrow) $1666 due March 1*
*We were originally looking at $4000 monthly payment prior to modification due to past due payments and property taxes.

No fees nor past due payments requested, 0 cost!

Now we will notarize tonight and send back with current pay stubs and cross our fingers for final approval. I hope the best for the rest of you going through the modification process. Like others on this forum have said, it can be done but does take time and persistence. Thank you once again to all of you for the great advice and the positive support that you provide others.

[heehoo22]

Sounds great! Way to be persistant!

[Dan Bailey]

Congrats spacmama!!

[sandyg]

Fantastic, it should encourage everyone. What happens to your interest after 5 years?

[8pacmama]

Correction, reread the loan doc, it is 4.25% for 3 years but I'm still content with this deal. Our income is due to increase within the next 6 months so I can easily pay down the principal with the new lower payment and not have to worry about the property taxes due. The loan will revert back to the 6.25% adjustable 6 month libor after the 3 year period. But my husband and I have solid employment (School District and Department of Defense) and military retirement with COLA which means constant increase of income for us almost guaranteed. I've also worked out deals with my other creditors bringing my lowest credit card interest to 5.99% with Discover for the next year.

[denised]

Congrats!!!!!!

[FLgata]

Congrats Pacmama! I'm so happy they agreed to work with you and actually offered something that would benefit you.

[luisren]

WOW! That's great - congrats!!!!

[lugson]

Congrats! It has given me renewed hope!