AZ: mod letter from Gibson Ferrin & Riggs, PLC ....

[FacingNorth]

Bought in East Phoenix valley 3.5 years ago with zero down - 15 yr. balloon on secondary loan and fixed rate on both, now value is nearing 50% underwater. Making more now than when bought house, but not wanting to stay here as it's a financial suicide to stay w/o significant principal write down. I got a letter today from Gibson Ferrin & Riggs, PLC stating that I may be eligible for mortgage modification relief from my original lender of my primary loan, Lending Co Inc (now owned by Chase).

I was working with an FHA specialist underwriter for a modification last summer, but gave up after being pushed too hard, not receiving the answers I was looking for in regards to my most important questions, and finally after receiving a good faith estimate that was for the current value of house (as of Oct 1st of last year), which was equivalent to dropping the value of the secondary loan plus a $10k drop on primary, but it appeared that I would need to shell out $10k to close, and the total amount that I'd be paying over the next 30 years would equal the amount that I would have been paying with the old loan. I don't remember how that worked out, but it wasn't worth loosing my ability to walk away w/o worrying about the bank coming after me for having done a refi, for a short term gain but no long term gain - especially since I knew that the value of the home would eventually drop to almost 10% of where it is now, 1 year later, and twice as underwater as it was last year.

So I had to focus on other things like maintaining my job, relationships, health etc. for the past year, but now I'm looking at my options again. Does anyone know if this firm is any good, or are they just scamming desperate homeowners?

[davephx]

I get these types of solicitation letters all the time, but not from them. IF you look at their website they do loan mods but probably charge $4000+ and doubt they can do anything more than what you can do yourself direct.

[AZOwner]

Facing North:

I am in the exact same situation. We purchased our dream home in 2006. Now the home is worth 56% of our purchase price.

I sent a letter to BofA and told them:

1. I have been directed that you will not discuss loan mods until I am late on my payments. I am not making any more payments (9/09)
2. My home is my only asset, and per their own calculations our home is now valued at 56% of the original value
3. I have a balloon payment of 90 thousand dollars due in 13 years; I will not be able to refinance, so, I will be 54, homeless, with freshly ruined credit
4. I am willing to renegotiate the mortgage; they will need to lower the principal to current market value, forgive my 1st and 2nd (both purchase monies), and fix my credit.

I emailed our congressional reps and the attny general after 4 calls and a message the bank wanted to confirm that they had received my financial information (which was never requested, therefore never sent).

We are ready to walk away from our home at this point. It is a bad investment and any wall street person would bail on a failing investment at their earliest possibility -- we waited too long and flushed ALOT of money down the toilet for convenience sake.

I did hear back from the attny general -- and they sent my information of BofA. I responded to one of their lettes "contact us you may be eligibile for modification" yesterday, and found out that we have been turned over to a negotiator.

You and I are VERY fortunate in that, unlike so many others here, we can walk away in this non-recourse state (unless you took an equity loan for other than purchase money).

So, I don't stress too much about our choice, and I will lightly deal with the bank -- I know my expectation and won't settle for less -- but I am certainly not going to make it EASY. Stash cash.

Peace! AND -- sign our petition, please tell your friends and family too -- we only have 3 AZ signatures!

There are 2 petitions. Use each link below to sign:

PETITION TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT FROM AMERICAN HOMEOWNERS | Petition2Congress | TO THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FROM AMERICAN HOMEOWNERS Petition

[flagirl4444]

Scam. No one can get you a true principal reduction, it just isn't happening. It's not happening for people in hardship situations, let alone for someone who has had an increase in income and only wants a modification due to being under water. 1/3 of the homeowners in this country are underwater. HALF of your state is under water on their mortgage. Do you really think the banks are going to just give you tens of thousands of dollars because your home value declined, just like it has for the rest of the country? Sorry to be so blunt, but you have a better chance of winning the lottery. If the banks wrote down 1/3 of the loans in this country, they would all collapse and so would our economy, much worse than it already has. Then your home value would fall even more and you'd end up under water again. Principal reductions aren't going to fix this problem.

[AZOwner]

Flag - maybe you misunderstand my position.

the banks caused the current state of the economy -- the bubble busted, banks quit lending because they grossly overextended, the impacted the worlds economic systems, millions have lost their jobs as a result; they can't refinance their homes, because the prices we paid 3 years ago have hit the floor, and it all goes back to the banks that we should have let fall on their duffs in the first place.

Principal write-downs are not the solution, but they are certainly PART of the solution. If you believe that prolonging this agony for the United States of America is actually a positive move for our economy and the housing market -- I beg to differ.

I simply am not going to continue to flush 48 thousand dollars a year down the toilet for something that is going to eventually leave me homeless. In addition, I have little hope that I will actually get a principal reduction -- and I don't give a rats axx. They can have my home and choke on it.

Trial mods are garbage, and allowing the banks to give you permission to live in your home for a reduced interest rate for 5 or 15 years, just means that you'll likely be homeless in that period of time, and they will end up with your house anyway. Don't know about you, but I am not going to live every day knowing that I have been set up to fail -- potentially again.

There are other options for our government and our banking institutions -- they need to step up.

[AZOwner]

Banks are continuing the recognize the original purchase price of home as assets on their books. It’s smoke and mirrors – if they had to account for the REAL value it would already be a different picture.fficeffice" />>>
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Too big to fail? Chop them up and sell them off. They should no longer have the right to do business, in their current model.>>
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Our economy is in the garbage, that is a fact. You want to look at the blatant misguided balance sheets and feel all warm and fuzzy – you’re wearing blinders. We are far from done spinning out of control.>>