husband died, $0 income-don't want to walk, any hope? - Loan Modification Forum

vcinfla · 02-04-2009, 12:43 PM

I am a terrible homeowner candidate as I have had no income for the last 12 years and I am in the process of disability application with my state of Florida. My husband died a year ago. First few months I lived off small life insurance, and tried for all I was worth to make money from home due to disability. Failed. A kind relative stepped in just after I got my first cure the deed letter from Countrywide back in October 2008. Hoping I would be able to earn money in that time, or receive a cash settlement for my husband's wrongful death, she paid it and also paid through to Dec mortgage, but couldn't do any more after that.

I failed miserably to earn any money, and I just got the bad news last week from the lawyers on my husband's malpractice suit they haven't been able to get a doctor to sign the affadavit so they can proceed. They are still trying to find someone but that means no immediate money will be coming, and if so, not for months or may a couple of years even.

I have not been able to pay my mortgage Jan/Feb, and got down to my final $600 (loaned from my relative) with $0, and am now on Food Stamps. Scared even isn't the word because I don't want to walk away from my home, as it would be like losing my husband all over again. As you can understand it isn't just a home, it is the place where my husband and I lived, had a life, and while some people want to leave a home after their loved one has passed, for me I want to hang on to it.

But I don't have a financial leg to stand on. Common sense tells me to do a deed as I don't even have money to pay my utility bills next month but I understand to qualify for a deed, during the whole process I have to be living in the home, which means having to pay the utilities. My relative offered to pay them once next month, but then what?

I keep holding out for a miracle, which I do believe in, but what if it doesn't happen in time?

I am afraid to give up too soon, only to receive disability payments, or a lawsuit offer, but those may never come either.

Now here's the doozey: while my home is a nice 4/2 1958 sg ft with a spectacular lake view, it is infested with drywood termites and I don't have any money to tent my home. So I can't walk away and take any personal items from it because no one wants me to bring into their home items from a termite infested home. So I am super trapped, both emotionally and through a termite problem.

The termites have been here for years, but when they first appeared my husband told me they were "flying bugs" which he had for years at his previous home. It wasn't until shortly before my husband died I had no doubt they were termites as they were eating holes in our wood frame, and by then I had matched them up with pictures online of termites. But my husband was too sick for any tenting, and when he passed I didn't have the income to do so.

A couple days ago, I drafted a letter to countrywide on a deed in lieu, but needing them to extend me their relocation assistance, and needing them to tent the house in order for me to be able to leave in the first place. I don't know if countrywide would give a hoot about my personal situation and if they would pay for a house to be tented in a severe hardship case so the people can vacate. But if they sent an appraiser here, the appraiser could document about the termites if they do that kind of thing.
My relatives are all elderly and no one can help me move, I have no resources, my credit cards are overlimit and locked, yet I am finding it so hard to submit a deed in lieu request in the first place because of my emotional attachment to my house.

One can always find another place to live, but you can never buy again a home that contains the memories that are dear to you.

My relatives keep telling me that I do not need to do a deed, that I can live in my home for a long time through the foreclosure process, even though I keep pointing out to them that I may not be able to pay the utilities even if I can live rent free so to speak. Their intentions are good as they want me to be able to keep my home as I do. But are we all wrong, is my case hopeless and I am only going to lose what little money I have and get no cooperation from countrywide? I am 12 days away from the date the last time I got my first "cure the deed" letter.

Only this time I will have no way to cure the deed. In the last letter they threatened within 4 weeks to have all the mortgage come due and foreclosure proceeding start. If this is true, I would be in real trouble because I have no means to move, and it would be overwhelming to not only have to leave my home, but also to have to leave all of the furniture and items behind; the pain is just oo overwhelming for me. I saw those termites in some of our books, pictures, etc, so I couldn't remove anything.
First I lose my husband, then I face losing my house, plus everything we ever had, not to mention I've lost my health insurance and face losing my pre-need burial next to my husband, it's just crushing.

I have possibilities of income, but nothing concrete. My relatives are wanting me to stall with countrywide in hopes any of those possibilities do come through. The stress is horrible, and if I had a crystal ball and could see if I would fail or succeed to keep my home, I could make the right decision. But I have no idea and I am afraid to make the wrong decision under pressure.

Also, this last summer, under my relatives encouragement, I paid a lawyer a flat fee of $1000 who is supposed to help me buy more time in my home. Countrywide totally ignored the lawyer the first time around, and sent me the "cure the deed" letter anyways.

After seeing the lawyer at that time, the lawyer then confessed he can only help me when countrywide serves me papers for foreclosure, and then only through doing a short sale.

When I visited the lawyer for the first time, I told him under no circumstances did I want to do a short sale, as I didn't want others to profit from my loss. My husband had hoped if he died I could sell my home to have money to survive on, but he never saw this economic collapse. This is where my emotions come in: I would rather hand the house over to countrywide then have some agent or lawyer make a commission off my home on a short sale where I not only don't make a penny as my husband hoped, but would be stuck with a tax liability.

As I do meet the profile of a real hardship case, I could prove to the IRS I was completely insolvent at the time Countrywide may issue me a forgiven debt thing, but I am hoping in my heart someway I could keep my home. With the recent bad news from the malpractice lawyer my hopes are fading fast, but I still am hoping there is something I don't know about, or maybe I do have the choice to stall as my relatives want me to do.

Should I stall, or will countrywide not work with me seeing that I have no income? Or will countrywide's deed in lieu process take so long that in effect it will be stalling? I am so afraid to request a deed for fear it will all happen in a whirlwind fashion and find I have given up too fast.

I know a lot of people here are looking to walk away from the debt, and logically that is the wise thing for me to do, but I love my home, and I want to keep the home my husband and I have lived in. I get nightmares just imagining being somewhere else than here that is "home". I wish it was easy, but the fact my situation is tied up with the loss of my spouse makes it a more stickier situation than just trying to get out from under bad debt.

And I am so confused to what is the proper way to proceed to contact them, especially since they ignored my lawyer back in August and my lawyer had 0 impact on their process. I see the 800-669-6607 on Countrywide's site, but I am leery of anything done by phone as I have read elsewhere that CW has amnesia on phone-only discussions. I have read a couple of posts by *** on some emails to write, but all the emails are missing from the posts. My mom is a stickler to only using certified mail on anything relating to the mortgage, and so I am totally absolutely not sure on the effective way to contact them that I could trust them to uphold.

Here is my loan info: a 40-year fixed at 5.75% with a $260,000 balance. The city appraisal is $141,720 with a homestead exemption lowering it to 116,720.

This loan is subprime in that the broker hid from the mortgage company that I had a consistent large loss from years of at-home business attempts. The broker had said we would get declined and refused to use my bank statements I had provided. We had had a bankruptcy a few years back, and my husband was just recovering from a pacer implant and not in good health, which meant we could not get anyone to insure him to pay off the mortgage in the event of his death. The broker kept my name off the loan application to hide things, but my husband insisted he return my name so I would have ownership of the house should he die and hoped that I could sell it for a profit.

But the mortgage company was not Countrywide initially, but Novastar, and Novastar sold it within 2 months to CW. I have read elsewhere that countrywide only does loan mods on subprimes originating with them---not that I could qualify now for one, but if I got disability payments soon enough, would I be able to get them to do a loan mod?

The current Zillow value of my home is 277,000, and it used to be 380,000. But the interior would not inspire anyone to buy it as my disability keeps me from being a good housekeeper and also the termite problem, which I would not want to hide from any prospective buyers. Not to mention there has been a couple houses on the market a few houses away coming close to a year that have simply not moved.

Oh, and this is now complicating the issue: Chase bank did the same thing to me last month it has done to all of its customers, and there is a class action lawsuit started on it: more than doubled my rate on my mastercard. I paid ahead of time and more than the minimum, but since they did that, the minimum went out of my league, and it has gone from being under the limit to $300 overlimit in 1 month.

Even in my wildest dreams, I can't pay their new inflated minimum, and like they won't do for most of their other customers, they won't budge when I have emailed and called, so now I face the vicious cycle of overlimit fee, late fee, 110% rate increase fee. I worry that they may put a lien on my house and that destroy my ability to deed if that is what I should do. Right now my house is free of leins. I don't know how fast Chase would act, but that is also now complicating the issue, and may make me unable to wait things out if Chase looks like they may put a lien on my house from the credit card debt.

Okay, that the whole kit and kaboodle. Any advice would be appreciated.

jcg109 · 02-04-2009, 01:32 PM

I just want to say that I'm very sorry to hear of your husbands passing. I can only imagine what it must feel like to be going through what you are going through right now, while grieving.

I understand your attachment to your home. The only food for thought I can offer you, is that "home" is more than just a physical place. The memories of the good times can be carried with you, wherever you go. My concern for you right now is that you have no income, and even under the best of circumstances, if disability suddenly kicked in, you may not be able to afford the home and the expenses associated with it on what you could potentially earn. When did you apply for disability income? Have you thought about working with an attorney to expedite your case? The termite problem is a whole other costly issue to consider. The living conditions you are dealing with seem less than ideal due to this problem.

My suggestion to you, would be to make friends with the worst that could happen. Once you do that, things will feel less frightening, and you will see much more clearly. In keeping with this idea, do you have people that you could stay with? Could you rent a room/apt for less $$, and save significantly more than what you're paying for the house?

I don't know much about the foreclosure process, so someone else will hopefully chime in. You mentioned that you fell behind recently on some CC payments. It is unlikely that they will put a lien on the house anytime soon. If I were in your shoes, I'd consider staying in the house as long as I legally could, while getting other plans in place. It sounds like you are "judgement proof" right now, so if they came after you, I don't see what they would be able to really get. Are you in a non-deficiency state?

Only you know what's best for you. I wish you the best of luck, and will keep you in my prayers.

vcinfla · 02-04-2009, 02:01 PM

jcg109 thanks for your reply. Yes, I do have an attorney for my disability claim, and he has tried to expedite it with the state officials due to my financial hardship, but tells me social security usually still takes its time. He says I can be looking at a year's wait from now, as I started mine back in October. I also have 4 dachshunds and it limits where I can go, but I can move in with my elderly parents, but if they pass, I will be ******** if I don't have any income by that time, pointblank.

I am unable to rent anywhere as I don't have income, but if I were to get disability it would be a little over $1000 a month and if I were to get compensation for my husband's death, together I might be able to afford my home, maybe, if a loan mod was made.

I don't know about non-deficiency state, to be honest. And for the CC, yes, I was hoping I can count on a certain amount of time before Chase could or might try to do a lien. When my husband and I had to go through bankruptcy due to medical bills, we were using one of those credit counseling people to pay our debtors. But one of them decided they didn't want to cooperate, capital one, I think, and they went and filed judgements. Even though we had nothing to take, they still were able to get the judgments, and I guess they would have found out we had nothing to take later. And maybe they would hvae moved to do a lien on the house. From the experience, I am wondering if Chase would act first like Capital one did, then after doing a lien, realize they were chasing up the wrong tree.

I just don't know how aggressive Chase is, but from my experience now to work with them, they are totally uncooperative. Thank God they don't have my mortgage!

I wish I could view that "home" is more than just a physical place, and believe me I am going through the motions about moving, but I am overcome with depression and find myself paralyzed at the point of "go". It just isn't that easy because the loss of my husband. If he were alive, it would be sad to leave the home, but not devastating, and I could just move, I've done it before. But having lost him in a traumatic way, and on top of that I have a beloved pet dog buried in the yard that is also hard to leave behind---I'm finding my emotions rule.

If I had a physical friend with me who could figuratively and physically hold me hand through the moving process, I am sure I could do it. But I have no friends, no one, no community to turn to, and I find it makes me paralyzed to move. I had no problem with that before because my husband was my life before, and that complicates the issue.

vcinfla · 02-04-2009, 02:04 PM

I don't know why, but when I type the word "home less" it gets replaced by all asterisks. Is that a bad word here? But that is what I typed where the asterisks appear---I have separated the word here to make it appear.

vcinfla · 02-04-2009, 03:54 PM

I just tried calling Countrywide at 800-669-6607 to see about their Relocation program or doing a deed in lieu and essentially the agent told me they will not even consider a deed in lieu unless I list the home for sale for 90 days and get a real offer.

I explained to the agent that they would accelerate the loan due and initial foreclosure process in less than 5 weeks, and I would never reach the 90 days, and she said, well, sometimes that happens that they accelerate a loan before giving it a consideration period.

I then told her well, I am insolvent and there have been homes sitting on my block for sale for close to a year in pristine condition, so I am pretty sure I would not get an offer in less than 5 weeks. I told her I didn't have the money to live in my home for 90 days, much less 5 months, and if they made the loan accelerated in 5 weeks as their letter said before, then I would never reach a 90 day period for them to even consider her.

I asked her if there was a place I could submit my deed in lieu request due to my hardship in writing. She said no, that they don't even look at them. In essence she said there was nothing I could do or anywhere I could submit a deed in lieu request without gong through their 90 day period first. And that they wouldn't even consider a short sale offer from me or enter any kind of terms in writing unless I approached them with a real offer from a short sale. And in which case they would then only consider it, and not guarantee anything.

I told her I read where people in hardship who didn't have the money were able to just do a deed in lieu, she said no, that was not possible.

So she wouldn't give me any thing in writing, that essentially it would be as if our phone conversation never took place, and they would repeat what they did before, which was to send me a letter that by March 16 the mortgage payments would be accelerate with the full amount acceslerated and due and payable in fule and foreclosure proceedings will be intiated.

I don't know how someone like me with proof of 0 income for over a decade, disabled, and in this hardship due to the sole provider's death, can not have the option to submit a deed in lieu somewhere in writing for consideration.

Please, what are those emails that *** wrote in 2 posts to submit a deed in lieu to? Countrywide agent just is not sympathetic and offers me no recourse or options.

The problem is for some reason my mortgage seems to have slipped the normal process, but fallen into one that is accelerated and not reviewed. It could be that while my husband was alive we made all payments and he had a good income, but all that died with him.

vcinfla · 02-04-2009, 04:10 PM

p.s. I just want to state that I am not going to do a short sale for all the reasons I listed earlier. But, from my case at least, Countrywide's attitude is short sale course or no negotiations. I was trying to avoid foreclosure to not bring down my neighbor's home values, plus to have less stress, but at this point Countrywide has closed doors to working with me. When I mentioned the termites she said I could have the agent disclose that to the buyers (I am rolling my eyes up at this point), but on that phone call at least I didn't hit a helpful person.

Quite frankly it makes me wonder why they even have the phone number available for calling? Is it all a show for the State Attorneys? In reality they don't live up to their statements on the site to be ready to submit your hardship letter and payment proof, tax records, as the agent I talked to didn't want to get anything from me at all to look at or read. Is this typical?

The Professor · 02-04-2009, 05:36 PM

First of all, I'm truly sorry for the issues you are currently facing. At this point in time, your best approach in my opinion is to stop any efforts to make payments, stay in the home as long as possible, and attempt to get Countrywide to pay you once they foreclose to leave the home voluntarily so they will not have to go through the eviction process (cash for keys).

Given your current economic condition, what real choices do you have. You currently have shelter for which your only expense is utilities. Your income, when it comes, will be exempt from execution by your creditors because of its nature (disability). Creditors won't waste their time seeking to attach your income or garnish your bank account. So enjoy the moment, and live as comfortably as you can during this challenging period.

Daniel

vcinfla · 02-04-2009, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Professor Shays

First of all, I'm truly sorry for the issues you are currently facing. At this point in time, your best approach in my opinion is to stop any efforts to make payments, stay in the home as long as possible, and attempt to get Countrywide to pay you once they foreclose to leave the home voluntarily so they will not have to go through the eviction process (cash for keys).

Given your current economic condition, what real choices do you have. You currently have shelter for which your only expense is utilities. Your income, when it comes, will be exempt from execution by your creditors because of its nature (disability). Creditors won't waste their time seeking to attach your income or garnish your bank account. So enjoy the moment, and live as comfortably as you can during this challenging period.

Daniel

Daniel, thank you for your sentiment, great advice. And I came here to add that I just got off the phone with a different CW representative. I thought if I only asked about their Relocation Program, when to apply, I might get more details.

Turns out this time I spoke to a caring person who volunteered helpful information to me. She told me that I qualified for their forbearance program due to my husband's death, and explained that would involve suspending my payments for some months without any collections.

She said I would owe the payments, but it would give me a break. She told me to fax my husband's death certificate and a hardship letter (boy, what a difference from the other rep who denied there was any place or any reason for me to fax anything), and that not to worry, that it would take 30 days or more to be assigned someone.

She said she was sending my information "all over the place" and gave some helpful advice on my letter, and she told me that at the end I might qualify for a workout program if I did not have the full money to pay at the time.

This is great as it buys me unpressured time as opposed to the period of foreclosure. If the worse case scenario happens and I can't raise the income, well, I then have the regular foreclosure period extended to that. But, of course, I hope that my miracle surfaces in that time and the disability and/or lawsuit come through. Good news on disability that I would get a lump sum of back pay which would give me the lump sum I need to get current if that is the case.

At any rate, it just goes to show not to give up on the first representative at CW who may completely go against everything you have read and says there is absolutely no options at all, even though you know they are "lying"! And that first rep was nice, but she just said no to everything! Glad she isn't the only one working there!

Of course the 2nd rep told me my credit rating would get hit from this, but my credit fell apart a few months ago, so no loss there. And if I do end up in foreclosure, which I hope not, there is always Chapter 7 to turn to, but at least now I have a second chance and time. Phew!!!!

Now let me see if you don't see me crying here 35 days later because I haven't heard back from Countrywide or they pulled a fast one, but for now things are looking up.

Vivian

jcg109 · 02-05-2009, 07:58 AM

That's great, as it will buy you some time for the disability application to get through the proper channels, and possibly some income coming in from that.

Sit tight as long as you can. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Don't worry about the creditors. You will get nasty calls, but they can't get blood from a stone.

Focus on what you realistically *can* do for *you* right now. You have alot on your plate, and you seem very isolated and alone with all of this. Hang in there. It sounds so cliche, but whatever happens, will truly be for the best.

cactus77727 · 02-05-2009, 02:34 PM

Hi vcinfla

I hope you get the help you need. Keep us updated OK?
What part of Florida are you in?

925girl · 02-06-2009, 09:38 PM

My suggestion to you is to contact a medical social worker. They have resources that may or may not help. It is worth your time to get an appt. You may need some assistance in obtaining emergency help as in welfare which. listen carefully,
Do not feel to proud to ask for as it may be temporary and also local electric and garbage might put you in a "temp assistance" program reducing your bills. The thing is no one will steer you there esp. in these times of need for many. You must make this your job-do not be proud. It is difficult but supposedly is available for circumstances such as yours. You must try. No one can do this for you. Bring reading material as you will be sitting in hard chairs waiting to be seen. Start with your local hospital. They can refer you. You are not alone. The fact is many productive people are in similar situations it is important to survive so ask for what you need. I don't want you to sit in your house worrying. Put you shoes on and go. If you don't you will talk yourself out of it you will become very depressed until you cannot function. Please consider this.

925girll

925girl · 02-06-2009, 09:50 PM

PS Creditors are one thing-if you default on all of them so what?! Millions of us cannot afford the min payment. It is unsecured credit. Takes a long time for them to bleed a stone. One of the worst lies ever given to the American public was to refinance your credit cards into you house. I panicked for very little and now find myself stuck in mud that won't move. I know this thinking is wrong, very wrong but I can't pay them at this time so they can take their threat of FICO see if in the end I care. I will manage to buy what I need in the future like a car (not new) or home (forget it) and what do think newcomers do? They have no credit etc but function.

You are going to be ok. It's just going to be hard knocks for a while.

02-04-2009, 12:43 PM	#1 (permalink)
vcinfla Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 6 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	husband died, $0 income-don't want to walk, any hope? I am a terrible homeowner candidate as I have had no income for the last 12 years and I am in the process of disability application with my state of Florida. My husband died a year ago. First few months I lived off small life insurance, and tried for all I was worth to make money from home due to disability. Failed. A kind relative stepped in just after I got my first cure the deed letter from Countrywide back in October 2008. Hoping I would be able to earn money in that time, or receive a cash settlement for my husband's wrongful death, she paid it and also paid through to Dec mortgage, but couldn't do any more after that. I failed miserably to earn any money, and I just got the bad news last week from the lawyers on my husband's malpractice suit they haven't been able to get a doctor to sign the affadavit so they can proceed. They are still trying to find someone but that means no immediate money will be coming, and if so, not for months or may a couple of years even. I have not been able to pay my mortgage Jan/Feb, and got down to my final $600 (loaned from my relative) with $0, and am now on Food Stamps. Scared even isn't the word because I don't want to walk away from my home, as it would be like losing my husband all over again. As you can understand it isn't just a home, it is the place where my husband and I lived, had a life, and while some people want to leave a home after their loved one has passed, for me I want to hang on to it. But I don't have a financial leg to stand on. Common sense tells me to do a deed as I don't even have money to pay my utility bills next month but I understand to qualify for a deed, during the whole process I have to be living in the home, which means having to pay the utilities. My relative offered to pay them once next month, but then what? I keep holding out for a miracle, which I do believe in, but what if it doesn't happen in time? I am afraid to give up too soon, only to receive disability payments, or a lawsuit offer, but those may never come either. Now here's the doozey: while my home is a nice 4/2 1958 sg ft with a spectacular lake view, it is infested with drywood termites and I don't have any money to tent my home. So I can't walk away and take any personal items from it because no one wants me to bring into their home items from a termite infested home. So I am super trapped, both emotionally and through a termite problem. The termites have been here for years, but when they first appeared my husband told me they were "flying bugs" which he had for years at his previous home. It wasn't until shortly before my husband died I had no doubt they were termites as they were eating holes in our wood frame, and by then I had matched them up with pictures online of termites. But my husband was too sick for any tenting, and when he passed I didn't have the income to do so. A couple days ago, I drafted a letter to countrywide on a deed in lieu, but needing them to extend me their relocation assistance, and needing them to tent the house in order for me to be able to leave in the first place. I don't know if countrywide would give a hoot about my personal situation and if they would pay for a house to be tented in a severe hardship case so the people can vacate. But if they sent an appraiser here, the appraiser could document about the termites if they do that kind of thing. My relatives are all elderly and no one can help me move, I have no resources, my credit cards are overlimit and locked, yet I am finding it so hard to submit a deed in lieu request in the first place because of my emotional attachment to my house. One can always find another place to live, but you can never buy again a home that contains the memories that are dear to you. My relatives keep telling me that I do not need to do a deed, that I can live in my home for a long time through the foreclosure process, even though I keep pointing out to them that I may not be able to pay the utilities even if I can live rent free so to speak. Their intentions are good as they want me to be able to keep my home as I do. But are we all wrong, is my case hopeless and I am only going to lose what little money I have and get no cooperation from countrywide? I am 12 days away from the date the last time I got my first "cure the deed" letter. Only this time I will have no way to cure the deed. In the last letter they threatened within 4 weeks to have all the mortgage come due and foreclosure proceeding start. If this is true, I would be in real trouble because I have no means to move, and it would be overwhelming to not only have to leave my home, but also to have to leave all of the furniture and items behind; the pain is just oo overwhelming for me. I saw those termites in some of our books, pictures, etc, so I couldn't remove anything. First I lose my husband, then I face losing my house, plus everything we ever had, not to mention I've lost my health insurance and face losing my pre-need burial next to my husband, it's just crushing. I have possibilities of income, but nothing concrete. My relatives are wanting me to stall with countrywide in hopes any of those possibilities do come through. The stress is horrible, and if I had a crystal ball and could see if I would fail or succeed to keep my home, I could make the right decision. But I have no idea and I am afraid to make the wrong decision under pressure. Also, this last summer, under my relatives encouragement, I paid a lawyer a flat fee of $1000 who is supposed to help me buy more time in my home. Countrywide totally ignored the lawyer the first time around, and sent me the "cure the deed" letter anyways. After seeing the lawyer at that time, the lawyer then confessed he can only help me when countrywide serves me papers for foreclosure, and then only through doing a short sale. When I visited the lawyer for the first time, I told him under no circumstances did I want to do a short sale, as I didn't want others to profit from my loss. My husband had hoped if he died I could sell my home to have money to survive on, but he never saw this economic collapse. This is where my emotions come in: I would rather hand the house over to countrywide then have some agent or lawyer make a commission off my home on a short sale where I not only don't make a penny as my husband hoped, but would be stuck with a tax liability. As I do meet the profile of a real hardship case, I could prove to the IRS I was completely insolvent at the time Countrywide may issue me a forgiven debt thing, but I am hoping in my heart someway I could keep my home. With the recent bad news from the malpractice lawyer my hopes are fading fast, but I still am hoping there is something I don't know about, or maybe I do have the choice to stall as my relatives want me to do. Should I stall, or will countrywide not work with me seeing that I have no income? Or will countrywide's deed in lieu process take so long that in effect it will be stalling? I am so afraid to request a deed for fear it will all happen in a whirlwind fashion and find I have given up too fast. I know a lot of people here are looking to walk away from the debt, and logically that is the wise thing for me to do, but I love my home, and I want to keep the home my husband and I have lived in. I get nightmares just imagining being somewhere else than here that is "home". I wish it was easy, but the fact my situation is tied up with the loss of my spouse makes it a more stickier situation than just trying to get out from under bad debt. And I am so confused to what is the proper way to proceed to contact them, especially since they ignored my lawyer back in August and my lawyer had 0 impact on their process. I see the 800-669-6607 on Countrywide's site, but I am leery of anything done by phone as I have read elsewhere that CW has amnesia on phone-only discussions. I have read a couple of posts by *** on some emails to write, but all the emails are missing from the posts. My mom is a stickler to only using certified mail on anything relating to the mortgage, and so I am totally absolutely not sure on the effective way to contact them that I could trust them to uphold. Here is my loan info: a 40-year fixed at 5.75% with a $260,000 balance. The city appraisal is $141,720 with a homestead exemption lowering it to 116,720. This loan is subprime in that the broker hid from the mortgage company that I had a consistent large loss from years of at-home business attempts. The broker had said we would get declined and refused to use my bank statements I had provided. We had had a bankruptcy a few years back, and my husband was just recovering from a pacer implant and not in good health, which meant we could not get anyone to insure him to pay off the mortgage in the event of his death. The broker kept my name off the loan application to hide things, but my husband insisted he return my name so I would have ownership of the house should he die and hoped that I could sell it for a profit. But the mortgage company was not Countrywide initially, but Novastar, and Novastar sold it within 2 months to CW. I have read elsewhere that countrywide only does loan mods on subprimes originating with them---not that I could qualify now for one, but if I got disability payments soon enough, would I be able to get them to do a loan mod? The current Zillow value of my home is 277,000, and it used to be 380,000. But the interior would not inspire anyone to buy it as my disability keeps me from being a good housekeeper and also the termite problem, which I would not want to hide from any prospective buyers. Not to mention there has been a couple houses on the market a few houses away coming close to a year that have simply not moved. Oh, and this is now complicating the issue: Chase bank did the same thing to me last month it has done to all of its customers, and there is a class action lawsuit started on it: more than doubled my rate on my mastercard. I paid ahead of time and more than the minimum, but since they did that, the minimum went out of my league, and it has gone from being under the limit to $300 overlimit in 1 month. Even in my wildest dreams, I can't pay their new inflated minimum, and like they won't do for most of their other customers, they won't budge when I have emailed and called, so now I face the vicious cycle of overlimit fee, late fee, 110% rate increase fee. I worry that they may put a lien on my house and that destroy my ability to deed if that is what I should do. Right now my house is free of leins. I don't know how fast Chase would act, but that is also now complicating the issue, and may make me unable to wait things out if Chase looks like they may put a lien on my house from the credit card debt. Okay, that the whole kit and kaboodle. Any advice would be appreciated.

02-04-2009, 01:32 PM	#2 (permalink)
jcg109 Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 33 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	Re: husband died, $0 income-don't want to walk, any hope? I just want to say that I'm very sorry to hear of your husbands passing. I can only imagine what it must feel like to be going through what you are going through right now, while grieving. I understand your attachment to your home. The only food for thought I can offer you, is that "home" is more than just a physical place. The memories of the good times can be carried with you, wherever you go. My concern for you right now is that you have no income, and even under the best of circumstances, if disability suddenly kicked in, you may not be able to afford the home and the expenses associated with it on what you could potentially earn. When did you apply for disability income? Have you thought about working with an attorney to expedite your case? The termite problem is a whole other costly issue to consider. The living conditions you are dealing with seem less than ideal due to this problem. My suggestion to you, would be to make friends with the worst that could happen. Once you do that, things will feel less frightening, and you will see much more clearly. In keeping with this idea, do you have people that you could stay with? Could you rent a room/apt for less $$, and save significantly more than what you're paying for the house? I don't know much about the foreclosure process, so someone else will hopefully chime in. You mentioned that you fell behind recently on some CC payments. It is unlikely that they will put a lien on the house anytime soon. If I were in your shoes, I'd consider staying in the house as long as I legally could, while getting other plans in place. It sounds like you are "judgement proof" right now, so if they came after you, I don't see what they would be able to really get. Are you in a non-deficiency state? Only you know what's best for you. I wish you the best of luck, and will keep you in my prayers.

02-04-2009, 02:01 PM	#3 (permalink)
vcinfla Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 6 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	Re: husband died, $0 income-don't want to walk, any hope? jcg109 thanks for your reply. Yes, I do have an attorney for my disability claim, and he has tried to expedite it with the state officials due to my financial hardship, but tells me social security usually still takes its time. He says I can be looking at a year's wait from now, as I started mine back in October. I also have 4 dachshunds and it limits where I can go, but I can move in with my elderly parents, but if they pass, I will be ******** if I don't have any income by that time, pointblank. I am unable to rent anywhere as I don't have income, but if I were to get disability it would be a little over $1000 a month and if I were to get compensation for my husband's death, together I might be able to afford my home, maybe, if a loan mod was made. I don't know about non-deficiency state, to be honest. And for the CC, yes, I was hoping I can count on a certain amount of time before Chase could or might try to do a lien. When my husband and I had to go through bankruptcy due to medical bills, we were using one of those credit counseling people to pay our debtors. But one of them decided they didn't want to cooperate, capital one, I think, and they went and filed judgements. Even though we had nothing to take, they still were able to get the judgments, and I guess they would have found out we had nothing to take later. And maybe they would hvae moved to do a lien on the house. From the experience, I am wondering if Chase would act first like Capital one did, then after doing a lien, realize they were chasing up the wrong tree. I just don't know how aggressive Chase is, but from my experience now to work with them, they are totally uncooperative. Thank God they don't have my mortgage! I wish I could view that "home" is more than just a physical place, and believe me I am going through the motions about moving, but I am overcome with depression and find myself paralyzed at the point of "go". It just isn't that easy because the loss of my husband. If he were alive, it would be sad to leave the home, but not devastating, and I could just move, I've done it before. But having lost him in a traumatic way, and on top of that I have a beloved pet dog buried in the yard that is also hard to leave behind---I'm finding my emotions rule. If I had a physical friend with me who could figuratively and physically hold me hand through the moving process, I am sure I could do it. But I have no friends, no one, no community to turn to, and I find it makes me paralyzed to move. I had no problem with that before because my husband was my life before, and that complicates the issue. Last edited by vcinfla; 02-04-2009 at 02:02 PM.. Reason: the word "******" was replaced somehow by asterisks

02-04-2009, 02:04 PM	#4 (permalink)
vcinfla Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 6 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	Re: husband died, $0 income-don't want to walk, any hope? I don't know why, but when I type the word "home less" it gets replaced by all asterisks. Is that a bad word here? But that is what I typed where the asterisks appear---I have separated the word here to make it appear.

02-04-2009, 03:54 PM	#5 (permalink)
vcinfla Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 6 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	Re: husband died, $0 income-don't want to walk, any hope? I just tried calling Countrywide at 800-669-6607 to see about their Relocation program or doing a deed in lieu and essentially the agent told me they will not even consider a deed in lieu unless I list the home for sale for 90 days and get a real offer. I explained to the agent that they would accelerate the loan due and initial foreclosure process in less than 5 weeks, and I would never reach the 90 days, and she said, well, sometimes that happens that they accelerate a loan before giving it a consideration period. I then told her well, I am insolvent and there have been homes sitting on my block for sale for close to a year in pristine condition, so I am pretty sure I would not get an offer in less than 5 weeks. I told her I didn't have the money to live in my home for 90 days, much less 5 months, and if they made the loan accelerated in 5 weeks as their letter said before, then I would never reach a 90 day period for them to even consider her. I asked her if there was a place I could submit my deed in lieu request due to my hardship in writing. She said no, that they don't even look at them. In essence she said there was nothing I could do or anywhere I could submit a deed in lieu request without gong through their 90 day period first. And that they wouldn't even consider a short sale offer from me or enter any kind of terms in writing unless I approached them with a real offer from a short sale. And in which case they would then only consider it, and not guarantee anything. I told her I read where people in hardship who didn't have the money were able to just do a deed in lieu, she said no, that was not possible. So she wouldn't give me any thing in writing, that essentially it would be as if our phone conversation never took place, and they would repeat what they did before, which was to send me a letter that by March 16 the mortgage payments would be accelerate with the full amount acceslerated and due and payable in fule and foreclosure proceedings will be intiated. I don't know how someone like me with proof of 0 income for over a decade, disabled, and in this hardship due to the sole provider's death, can not have the option to submit a deed in lieu somewhere in writing for consideration. Please, what are those emails that *** wrote in 2 posts to submit a deed in lieu to? Countrywide agent just is not sympathetic and offers me no recourse or options. The problem is for some reason my mortgage seems to have slipped the normal process, but fallen into one that is accelerated and not reviewed. It could be that while my husband was alive we made all payments and he had a good income, but all that died with him.

02-04-2009, 04:10 PM	#6 (permalink)
vcinfla Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 6 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	Re: husband died, $0 income-don't want to walk, any hope? p.s. I just want to state that I am not going to do a short sale for all the reasons I listed earlier. But, from my case at least, Countrywide's attitude is short sale course or no negotiations. I was trying to avoid foreclosure to not bring down my neighbor's home values, plus to have less stress, but at this point Countrywide has closed doors to working with me. When I mentioned the termites she said I could have the agent disclose that to the buyers (I am rolling my eyes up at this point), but on that phone call at least I didn't hit a helpful person. Quite frankly it makes me wonder why they even have the phone number available for calling? Is it all a show for the State Attorneys? In reality they don't live up to their statements on the site to be ready to submit your hardship letter and payment proof, tax records, as the agent I talked to didn't want to get anything from me at all to look at or read. Is this typical?

02-04-2009, 05:36 PM	#7 (permalink)
The Professor Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: 49er Gold Country Posts: 1,543 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	Re: husband died, $0 income-don't want to walk, any hope? First of all, I'm truly sorry for the issues you are currently facing. At this point in time, your best approach in my opinion is to stop any efforts to make payments, stay in the home as long as possible, and attempt to get Countrywide to pay you once they foreclose to leave the home voluntarily so they will not have to go through the eviction process (cash for keys). Given your current economic condition, what real choices do you have. You currently have shelter for which your only expense is utilities. Your income, when it comes, will be exempt from execution by your creditors because of its nature (disability). Creditors won't waste their time seeking to attach your income or garnish your bank account. So enjoy the moment, and live as comfortably as you can during this challenging period. Daniel

02-05-2009, 07:58 AM	#9 (permalink)
jcg109 Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 33 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	Re: husband died, $0 income-don't want to walk, any hope? That's great, as it will buy you some time for the disability application to get through the proper channels, and possibly some income coming in from that. Sit tight as long as you can. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Don't worry about the creditors. You will get nasty calls, but they can't get blood from a stone. Focus on what you realistically can do for you right now. You have alot on your plate, and you seem very isolated and alone with all of this. Hang in there. It sounds so cliche, but whatever happens, will truly be for the best.

02-05-2009, 02:34 PM	#10 (permalink)
cactus77727 Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Arizona Posts: 542 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	Re: husband died, $0 income-don't want to walk, any hope? Hi vcinfla I hope you get the help you need. Keep us updated OK? What part of Florida are you in?

02-06-2009, 09:38 PM	#11 (permalink)
925girl Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Antioch, California Posts: 208 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	Re: husband died, $0 income-don't want to walk, any hope? My suggestion to you is to contact a medical social worker. They have resources that may or may not help. It is worth your time to get an appt. You may need some assistance in obtaining emergency help as in welfare which. listen carefully, Do not feel to proud to ask for as it may be temporary and also local electric and garbage might put you in a "temp assistance" program reducing your bills. The thing is no one will steer you there esp. in these times of need for many. You must make this your job-do not be proud. It is difficult but supposedly is available for circumstances such as yours. You must try. No one can do this for you. Bring reading material as you will be sitting in hard chairs waiting to be seen. Start with your local hospital. They can refer you. You are not alone. The fact is many productive people are in similar situations it is important to survive so ask for what you need. I don't want you to sit in your house worrying. Put you shoes on and go. If you don't you will talk yourself out of it you will become very depressed until you cannot function. Please consider this. 925girll

02-06-2009, 09:50 PM	#12 (permalink)
925girl Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Antioch, California Posts: 208 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	Re: husband died, $0 income-don't want to walk, any hope? PS Creditors are one thing-if you default on all of them so what?! Millions of us cannot afford the min payment. It is unsecured credit. Takes a long time for them to bleed a stone. One of the worst lies ever given to the American public was to refinance your credit cards into you house. I panicked for very little and now find myself stuck in mud that won't move. I know this thinking is wrong, very wrong but I can't pay them at this time so they can take their threat of FICO see if in the end I care. I will manage to buy what I need in the future like a car (not new) or home (forget it) and what do think newcomers do? They have no credit etc but function. You are going to be ok. It's just going to be hard knocks for a while.

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