BoA Loan Mod Trial Payments Offer

[momny]

I applied for a loan mod with BoA in February and was denied due to the income to debt ratio in April. I called and asked for reconsideration, since they did not include my husbands income. He is not on the loan. I am 3 months late on Payments. Now they are offering trial payments of $1956 under FHA HAMP.

I am confused because the FHA loan was acquired in Feb 2009 and I thought I am not eligible for anything but inhouse mod. Also the offered trial payment is 42% of my gross income and 23% of our combined income, so really not sure how they came up with it. It is $222 less than our previous mortgage payment and honestly not sure if it will make such a difference in our budget. What would happen if I do not agree to it. I know we will go ahead with foreclosure proceedings, but could I re apply down the should I decide to? We live in NY and foreclosure takes some time since it is a judicial state, so I was hoping to either get a better mod or save up the payments. Any thought would be appreciated.

[Evan Bedard]

I am confused because the FHA loan was acquired in Feb 2009 and I thought I am not eligible for anything but inhouse mod. Also the offered trial payment is 42% of my gross income and 23% of our combined income, so really not sure how they came up with it. It is $222 less than our previous mortgage payment and honestly not sure if it will make such a difference in our budget. What would happen if I do not agree to it. I know we will go ahead with foreclosure proceedings, but could I re apply down the should I decide to?

I agree with you that it is strange they offered an FHA HAMP modification even though you obtained your mortgage after January 2009. I'm assuming they have made a mistake and it is actually a trial period for an in-house modification, that would explain why the payment does not equal 31% of your gross income. If you do not agree to the payment you can always reapply for a mod at a later time.

Is there anything else such as other debts causing your mortgage to be unaffordable? Since you supplied your husband's income as well they are going to take that into account when modifying the mortgage. A payment at 23% of your gross household income is an excellent offer and will be difficult to obtain anything lower than that.

[momny]

Thank you for replying.

There is nothing else, my husband had kidney surgery and we had a new baby last year which resulted in some medical bills and of course another $1000 a month in child care expenses. Now I guess I have to decide if I want to keep the house or keep the credit cards...

[Evan Bedard]

I'm very sorry to hear about your husband, but congratulations on having a new baby. I would suggest sitting down and figuring out your entire budget to see if this new payment is going to be manageable. You are quite lucky to have been offered a modification at 23% of your gross income because many times in-house modifications will equal 32-36% of ones gross income..