Newbie in trouble

[HavenB]

Hi everyone, I've just spent hours reading this forum- so much info out there, but I'm overwhelmed. Up till now I was thinking a loan mod might be a solution for me but now I'm not feeling hopeful about that, given my situation and what I've read here...here's my deal...bear with me if I ramble...

My husband and I bought our house (central coast of CA) in March 2005 for $645K...peak of the market, of course. We'd sold our previous house to get into this one so our loan is for $470K now with Countrywide/BoA. We were some of the classic suckers who fell into an IO mortgage (now regretting that). Its a 30-yr convertible Jumbo ARM (fixed 5 years, so due to go adjustable in March 2010! Panic time!). Naturally we were convinced we'd refinance before it went adjustable... then reality struck hard... My husband lost his job in January of this year, so is now going on 6 months of unemployment (getting state UE pay), and I work for the state of CA which has just announced furloughs starting in August to last a year (equals about 10% pay cut). In the four years here we've never made a late payment, but are about to miss our first one- August. We are just out of cash and in a lot of debt (one of my next calls will be to CCCS...huge CC debt). I really want to keep my house if at all possible, so a month ago I called CW to check into options...they basically couldn't help me since we were current, and I got bounced around to different depts till the loan mod rep told me not to bother calling till I missed payments. I called again yesterday and told them I'm about to miss my first payment...got bounced around again, the loan mod lady gave me a phone number for a "new program" that might help me...but wouldn't tell me what it was called. I called it and it was...BoA loan origination. Huh? The guy said he could look into a new loan but it probably wouldn't help me cash-flow-wise since it wouldn't likely lower my payments...current loan is IO at 5.125%. MHA doesn't help us because we don't have Freddie or Fannie as investors. Our house has lost tons of value...the BoA loan origination guy used his computer appraisal to roughly guess around $299K as our current value, so naturally a refi isn't an option unless we've got an extra 200K to pitch in...and of course I wouldn't be TALKING to them if I had that.

So, after talking with him, I called loan modification dept back...they suggested my next step should be looking into refi (duh, have you listened to me at all? home value? upside down? no equity?) and transferred me to BoA/CW refinance dept. I sat on hold for nearly 45 min, and finally got sick of the on-hold music and had work to do (called from my office) so I hung up.

Whew. This isn't looking good, is it? Any thoughts? Tips? In the meantime, I'll just keep reading and trying not to panic...

Thanks for this resource- its great to read all the info.

[playinthegame]

Wow Haven,
I just read your story real close to what we are going through 300k+ upside down in Ca. Sounds familiare.Stay strong we will pull through this mess. There are tons of people on this great site to offer there comments to help. Stay positive.

[Moe Bedard]

Hello Haven and thanks for joining our community!

You have experienced the loss mitigation shuffle that is designed to bounce borrowers who are not yet late around until you get frustrated and just don't call anymore. They are trained to do this because they are debt collectors and your are a debtor who is not yet a risk. Meaning, you are not late.

To compound your problem, there are about 2 million borrowers who are late calling in to get help too. These guys are busy helping these people because these debtors are a risk to their bottom line. You are helping it by paying your mortgage.

Think of this like poker and they are betting you can make a few more payments and they most likely will not help until you are 30-60 or 90 days late.

I say this so you understand that this is the way it is in loss mitigation and you need to do loss mitigation for your household right away AND PRESERVING WHATEVER CASH YOU HAVE LEFT to preserve yourselves.

[HavenB]

Thanks. I understand them not considering me a priority since I haven't missed a payment yet. It just makes me nuts that I have to just sit here and get sucked down the whirlpool and they won't talk to me till I'm near drowned! ARGH! I *guarantee* I won't make August's payment unless some miracle happens with my husband's unemployment. I may not make September's either. By then maybe I'll have CW's attention...I just hope that's not too late to save my house. I should probably start looking for a cardboard box to live in.

I'd love to preserve cash now to save myself, if only I had any cash to preserve!

I'll keep calling CW and being a pest, maybe I'll get lucky...I'm reading good things about NACA too. Probably should contact them once that 30 day mark hits, since I've heard so much talk about how slow CW is with loan mods.

[Murray12]

My opinion is they can get away with it, because they have to evaluate for a MHA refinance. So they can just say, we were evaluating him/her for the refinance. They know that you will not be eligible for the refinance.

My opinion is that if you are going to go with NACA, why not start right away. It will take some time to go through that process.

[HavenB]

Originally Posted by Murray12

My opinion is that if you are going to go with NACA, why not start right away. It will take some time to go through that process.

I was kind of thinking that too...since it would take a miracle for me to suddenly be able to afford my mortgage come September. Maybe I'll try starting with NACA now, assuming they'll work with me now even though CW won't. Thanks.