First Call...Let the Journey Begin!

[Dizzle831]

Finally after weeks of anticipation we got the first "courtesy call" from BofA. I stopped paying in March and was officially late on April 1st. The lady was really nice and asked if we were going to make April's payment and that BofA was there to help...hmmmmm .

I asked about the modification programs available and that i was only interested in a long term solution ie. principal reduction. She said there were many programs available but would be tailored to the individual and i would need to fill out a loan mod packet along with a signed letter of hardship to see what was available to me. She mentioned the packet would be sent out but i'm not providing any financials and hope it will only delay the foreclosure process.

My wife and i have faced pay cuts this year and could squeak by making our payments, but that's something we are not willing to do anymore. We pretty much wasted the past 4+ years pouring money into our house only to see it depreciate by 60%+ with no sign of recovery in a looooooong time at least in my area (Salinas, Ca).

For those interested here are my details.

Location: Salinas, Ca
Loan Amount: 419k
Current Value: 150-160K
Current Lender: BofA

Our original loan was a jumbo with Country Wide 80/20 back in 2004 for 398K. We refi'ed into a conventional a couple years later with Downey Savings 5yr ARM Pick-A-Payment and a year or so later Refi'ed with BofA through ACORN into a 40yr 10yr I/O (5.875%). Of the 419k about 10k is Refi costs and pulled out 7k for home improvements.

I'm expecting to take a tax ding on the 7k which i am completely fine with but does anyone know if Refi costs are considered purchase money?

I have ZERO intent to stay in my home and pretty much counting down the days hopefully for a Cash for Keys Deal. I'll be sure to keep you CA walkers posted!

Dizzle

[mpfxtrader]

Keep us posted dizzle. I am pretty much the same boat as yours, we are over $200K underwater so decided to join the walk away club. My last payment was last month March 1st and now just waiting for the first call.

[kent302]

Hi Dizzle - I hear you.
I was listening to a Saturday Real-estate talk show and the guy went on and on about the short-sale market is hot. Banks are coming to grips with reality of foreclosure costs and REO short is much less mess for them.
The guy said now is a great time to buy! ...woohoo.
For the underwater homeowner, "now is great time to *move up* to the 1M house that you always craved and can now have for 500K." Sigh, will this madness ever stop?
I did my little calculations, since my house is worth 50% of purchase price. If I walk and stop the money-flushing for 5 years. I will save enough to put a 50% down to buy a similar house at that time. YMMV.
I am quite sure there will be lenders to finance us even with foreclosure-dinged credit since they will be risk-free with such a down.
From that point on, we will be paying a much lowered monthly payment.

Of course, this is based on assumption that,
1) we will not have hyper-inflation of 20+%.
If we have hyperinflation, all bets are off. Don't buy houses, buy ammo.
2) no miracle housing recovery in 5 yrs.
It'll be a small miracle if housing/econmy doesn't get worse from here.

-kent

[Dizzle831]

It's weird even after all the research, number crunching and thread reading to justify the decision to walk it's still gut wrenching.

I think i was anticipating some a-hole to call asking "where's my money beeeyotch"! Like Big Worm from the movie Friday. In turn i get this really sweet voice that sounds sympathetic and wants to help. I was hoping for a bit of confrontation for an opportunity to vent but i'm sure that time will come. I guess i just need to wait my turn!

Originally Posted by mpfxtrader

Keep us posted dizzle. I am pretty much the same boat as yours, we are over $200K underwater so decided to join the walk away club. My last payment was last month March 1st and now just waiting for the first call.

[Dizzle831]

You know in 5yrs the next wave of foreclosure will hit the market guaranteed from all of the 1st generation loan modders. It's sad but true! My wife has family who dumped money into a "dump" and jumped on the first loan mod opportunity that came their way. 5yr teaser rates only to reset after the MDRA has gone and passed. Not only will they NOT beable to afford their home when the interest rate resets, but will most likely have to file BK to avoid the huge tax hit from the fed and state!

I think, "the time to buy" will be over the next 5 years as more people like us walk and as people fold on these early loan mods.

Hopefully the credit world would have watered down the foreclosure ding on our report cards for us to get back into the market when home prices stabalize.

Until then i'm just gonna stack my chips (and ammo!) and wait for the stench to settle and see where i stand.

Originally Posted by kent302

Hi Dizzle - I hear you.
I was listening to a Saturday Real-estate talk show and the guy went on and on about the short-sale market is hot. Banks are coming to grips with reality of foreclosure costs and REO short is much less mess for them.
The guy said now is a great time to buy! ...woohoo.
For the underwater homeowner, "now is great time to *move up* to the 1M house that you always craved and can now have for 500K." Sigh, will this madness ever stop?
I did my little calculations, since my house is worth 50% of purchase price. If I walk and stop the money-flushing for 5 years. I will save enough to put a 50% down to buy a similar house at that time. YMMV.
I am quite sure there will be lenders to finance us even with foreclosure-dinged credit since they will be risk-free with such a down.
From that point on, we will be paying a much lowered monthly payment.

Of course, this is based on assumption that,
1) we will not have hyper-inflation of 20+%.
If we have hyperinflation, all bets are off. Don't buy houses, buy ammo.
2) no miracle housing recovery in 5 yrs.
It'll be a small miracle if housing/econmy doesn't get worse from here.

-kent

[maxx233]

Originally Posted by Dizzle831

You know in 5yrs the next wave of foreclosure will hit the market guaranteed from all of the 1st generation loan modders.

Weeelllll... There's an ever so slight chance that may not be true. If over the next 3-5 years the credit market stabilizes (but doesn't get *crazy* again) enough so people can buy, the job markets stabilize so people are secure, and house prices manage to go up at least 50% to recoup the 30+% losses most have felt - then the 1st Gen modders will be OK and able to refi again or possibly even sell with profit. And from there it'd be back to life as we've known it. But yeah, if not we'll see this whole thing happen/continue to happen again, probably worst, because by then they'll have learned their lesson and be sick and tired of it and perfectly willing to walk/short/BK whatever it takes. The only mod I would even consider right now would be taking my interest rate from what should be illegal levels down to a good rate around 5%, and keeping the 30 year fixed status. If they threw in a principal reduction (HA!) then I'd take it in a heartbeat. But I need some feeling of security that after 10 years of owning I'm at least going to be breaking even... with a principal reduction I'd likely feel secure, but with a 5 year adjusting mod there's only that very slight chance listed above that I *may* break even after 10 years of owning, likely just to have the market plummet again :/

[Enough Already]

Dizzle,
You said it perfectly. It is gut wrenching. That's the best way to describe it. Although I know we're doing what needs to be done it's very hard to do.

The fact that there's no way out, other than short selling (such a long shot), or foreclosure is just the pits.

In a normal market if you realized you were in over your head you could just sell, and move on. We have ZERO options at this point. We sink (along with the house) or swim.

[Esme56]

Dizzle,

Our situations are very similar...stopped paying in March...loan with B of A through ACORN.

Only I haven't gotten a call yet. I changed my phone number a while back so now I am guessing they will call at work at some point.

Please keep us updated!

Esme

[Dizzle831]

Update; I got my letter from the Loss Mit dept. from BofA about a week ago and tossed it into the recycling bin. The one thing that did jump out on the letter was the, *Your Missed Payments May Have Been Reported To The Credit Bureau....blah...blah*. I haven't ran a credit check yet, but already know it's taken a hit. Both the wife and i had 800+ FICO scores prior to walking. We made one last big ticket (upgraded to a van) purchase before we stopped paying so i'm not miss'n my credit to much at this point.

Today i got a call from a nice gentleman at work from BofA asking if i was going to make my April payment (i said...uhhh no). I knew it was coming sooner or later thanks to all of the other posts regarding BofA's collection practices and that helped tremendously. I asked him to remove the work # from the list, which he said he did, and I mentioned I could be reached anytime after 6pm at my home #. Interesting that they're are calling right before the next payment is due. Kinda scares me that they are on top of their stuff and i may only have 3months and 21 days from when the NOD is recorded. I was hoping to stay until Jan of next year. =)

[kent302]

Keep us updated, especially when you get the NOD.

I wonder if the banks are realizing the next wave will stack on the inventory they are already holding so starting to move quicker, to wipe the stuff off their books.

[Dizzle831]

UPDATE
It's been a while since I’ve visited and reading through some of the more recent posts it's exciting to see (with regret of course) posts I’ve followed early in the process are finally reaching an end to this mess. I'm sure I’m not too far behind and I look forward to filling everyone in when it's my turn to officially get the boot.

I've stopped answering the calls about a month ago and have been steady getting calls in the mornings, evening and more so on the weekends. When I was answering, it was the same ol sh*t. Do you know your payment is past due? Are you going to pay? Do you know Obama has new plans to help? Blah Blah Blah...I was never hearing it and never had any intentions to stay in my gang and crime infested city I currently call home.

The only thing new to report is an "official" letter on my door in big red letters "PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL". It's from a company and they are supposed to help me avoid foreclosure. I was thinking of calling to ask if they could do something about the gangs in my neighborhood or get BofA to reduce my principal to help me aviod foreclosure. =P....If you cant tell I’m tired.

After reading a few posts it seems when these scavengers start sending junk mail the banks have already sold the info to them so they can solicit their scam. June will be my 4th missed payment and if I do get an NOD this early on it will be somewhat of a mixed blessing. The last lady I spoke to from BofA mentioned she was calling people 14 payments behind and that got me a little excited. Although I want to stay here as long as I can "Rent Free", the sooner this is over the sooner I can start rebuilding my credit. At the same time I am anticipating a HUGE 1099c from BofA for roughly 250k. If SB 97 doesn’t pass to help folks like me in CA forgive this "Gift", then I’m SOL having to pay the govenator who knows how much.

So I guess you can say I’m in limbo not knowing what to expect at this point, but when I do I’ll be sure to post!

Right on folks, thanks for reading.

Dizzle

[The Professor]

I posted the following on the discussion board today for one of the online classes I teach and thought forum participants in California might find it interesting.

Daniel

____________________

The information provided below was obtained from the California Attorney General 's website and relates to a new California legal requirement that mandates that people who operate as "foreclosure consultants" are required effective July 1, 2009 to register as "foreclosure consultants" and post a $100,000 bond. What are your thoughts relative to this new legislation?

Foreclosure Consultant Registration

Consumers - Foreclosure Consultant Registration - California Dept. of Justice - Office of the Attorney General

After July 1, 2009, with certain limited exceptions, it is illegal to operate as a mortgage foreclosure consultant in California unless the foreclosure consultant has obtained from the Department of Justice a Certificate of Registration as a Mortgage Foreclosure Consultant. In order to obtain the Certificate of Registration required by California Civil Code section 2945.45, a foreclosure consultant must complete the application and provide all required documents to the Department of Justice.

If you are a foreclosure consultant, to be certain that you obtain your Certificate of Registration by July 1, you should submit your application no later than June 15, 2009. Be certain to submit with your application, a copy of the contract you will use with clients and all of the other documents required by the application form. You should send this information along with your check for the $850 filing fee made payable to the “California Attorney General’s Office” to:

Foreclosure Consultant Registration Program California Attorney General's Office Consumer Law Section 300 South Spring Street, Suite 1702 Los Angeles, CA 90013

Before a Certificate of Registration can be obtained, it will be necessary for you to obtain a bond in the amount of $100,000, and to file a copy of the bond with the Secretary of State. The Certificate of Registration will not be issued until the Secretary of State acknowledges that the bond has been properly filed. Please contact the Secretary of State to obtain the necessary bond forms at the address below:

Secretary of State Special Filings Unit 1500 11th Street Sacramento, CA 95814

You can also contact the Secretary of State’s Office via the web at: California Business Portal - Special Filings

If you would rather make a $100,000 deposit in lieu of obtaining the bond, you should contact us at the above address for the Attorney General’s Office and we will provide you with the form.

Your application will not be processed until the completed application form, all required documents, and the $850 fee have been received, and the Secretary of State has acknowledged receipt of the bond, or you have made the necessary $100,000 deposit in lieu of the bond.

After a Certificate of Registration is issued to you, you must inform us each time there is a material change in any of the information or documents you supplied with your initial application. Failure to do so can result in the revocation of your Certificate of Registration.

[Dizzle831]

Thanks for the info Prof.

The company actually sent someone over to the house the other day to hand deliver another letter. When my wife answered the door the lady dropping off the letter immediately grabbed her cell to make a call and handed it to my wife. The folks on the other end stated they were contracted/ hired by BofA to contact me for loan mod assistance.

My wife called me at work to explain what was going on and i was pretty heated at this point. I told the wife to not answer any questions and have them contact me regarding our mortgage. The requested i call immediately when i got home that day, but I wasn’t falling for that one!

Couple days later they get a hold of me and ask me if i was interested in loan mod assistance. I tell them no and that i was already contacted directly by BofA. Then the call gets kinda weird with the person asking cautiously if i agreed to anything with BofA or if i was working anything out with them directly. I summed it up with, "thanks but no thanks". I dont think they were hired by BofA nor do i care. I think dealing with these A-holes comes with the territory when you let go of your home and was anticipating it.

I’m going on my 4th missed payment and just read that CA just placed a 90 moratorium on foreclosures so I’m pretty stoked.

Until next time!