New to This Forum

[shahb]

Hi,
First of all thanks to this forum for giving such a wonderful knowledge about loan mod and other aspects of foreclouser. It also gives a confidence to fight for your rights.
I really appreciate the members who really devote their time in explaining and encouarging especially ***.

My Story
----------
I'm in the same boat as others. I bought a single family home in Dec 2007 @711K (yes its high) in bay area. I got my both first and 2nd loan from Bofa. As i didn't had enough cash, made a down payment of 5% and took first one 80% @6.25% IO 15/30 and sencond one 104K baloon 10year fixed @7.1%.
I was somehow managing my monthly mortgage of 3700 till six months back when i lost significant amount in stocks. On top, my parents who are above 75, came down to live with me and have to support them going forward. I'm the only earning member in the family and have wife a kid and my parents to support. Its becoming difficult day by day to manage the payment. I am still paying in time but soon will default if something is not done in near future. I started calling the bofa loss mitigation dept and they asked me to submit the docs - expense, w-2, paystub etc in last week of Oct. since then i made several attempts to call them but most of the time the agent goes over all the expenses with me again but nothing happens thereafter. Sometime agent comes over the phone and tells me that nothing canbe done as you're paying in time and only -$250 shortfall. Each time i get a different response and sometime have to wait for an hour to get any response. Its been more than 2 months and haven't moved a bit. Then finally couple days back i came across this forum and started reading all experiences. That gave me a ray of hope to gain fight for this. I read the expericence of IHarveyMadman who was in the same boat as myself. I finally got the big gun emails of bofa and emailed ( 4 emails lsited in the forum including debora J) my complete hardship letter and expenes and requested them to help me on Friday 1/9/09. I still haven't receive any response yet. I just wnat to check how much IHarveyMdman had to wait till he got a response after emails to these bofa executives? How often should i call them and ask for the update? Will this email will help? I will follow up on Tues and Thurs going forward as listed in this forum but am not sure if my emails to these executives will be actually read by them and will get any sort of help. I am pretty sure the email went through as none bounced back. Is there any other number which might help besides the emails.

Thanks again for all your help and support.

[Moe Bedard]

Hi shahb,


Welcome to the forum and thank you for joining..............

The modifications given are up to the investors on the loans.........so you would need to follow up with BofA at their loss mitigation number for updates............the process does take a while and the would also be working on the homeowners who are in the foreclosure process first.......
Bank of America Loss Mitigation
1-800-936-6362

If this is your only property and you feel that you are not able to do this on your own you can also enlist the help of NACA who will work with BofA on a modification proposal if you meet their criteria............click on the link for the info.............
https://www.naca.com/refinance/refinanceTenStep.jsp

[shahb]

Thanks ***. So, do I need to default on payment to get their attention?

[Moe Bedard]

any decisions having to do with making payments or not would need to be entirely up to you...........we can not advise on this as it is a personal decision based on your situation. The member that you were referring to in your post had not been late............but it is ultimately up to the investor on the loan and you may have a different investor.

[shahb]

I agree with you *** and respect your suggetion. I just want to know from your personal experience, what's the advantage and disadvantage of not paying the mortgage to bofA for couple of months to draw their attention? If you can share any such incident you know of will help me decide on this.

[Moe Bedard]

I have seen modifications done in both cases......as I pointed out above....LHarveyMadman was not late and he received a modfication as have other members that were not late as well........
It is ultimately up to to the investor.

[shahb]

Thanks ***. I will wait and keep calling them twice a week. I will update as soon as something changes. Thanks again

[HopingtoFind]

Hi shahb,

I also contacted executives at BofA and at this point received a modification on one of the HELOCs (we have several properties we are trying to modify) as well as currently working with a rep on the 1st.

We have heard from the rep within a week from sending an email... Hang in there you will hear from someone soon.

[shahb]

Thanks HopingtoFind for boosting the confidence. You too sent an email to bofA execs? and got a response within a week from Loss mitigation rep?

[HopingtoFind]

Originally Posted by shahb

Thanks HopingtoFind for boosting the confidence. You too sent an email to bofA execs? and got a response within a week from Loss mitigation rep?

Yes, within a week.

[shahb]

Hi HopingtoFind,
I think you said in one forum that "bofA/Fannie Mae wants you to be late in your payment". Did you do that to get their attention? Waht's your 2nd mortgage modifed to? and what is the status of 1st? are negotiation are underway for the 1st? how much you think they are willing to do?
Thanks again.

[SoCal 67]

I am not with BofA ..BUT my investor was Fannie Mae. From my knowledge the investor Fannie Mae is taking requests for loan mods for those that are 3 payments behind. That is when the ball really got rolling for me, after 3 payments.

[HopingtoFind]

Originally Posted by shahb

Hi HopingtoFind,
I think you said in one forum that "bofA/Fannie Mae wants you to be late in your payment". Did you do that to get their attention? Waht's your 2nd mortgage modifed to? and what is the status of 1st? are negotiation are underway for the 1st? how much you think they are willing to do?
Thanks again.

Yes, they originally offered to do a forbearance for 3 months on the 1st... being 3 month behind is a requirement from Fannie Mae.
I think we might get around that... we'll see..we are working with rep on that.
On our second they offered 0% interest for 2 years, effectively cutting our payment by 75%. After 2 years it goes back to original terms.

[shahb]

That was good reduction. Good luck with 1st one. Thanks for sharing the information. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hope someone will call me within a week.

[HopingtoFind]

You're welcome. Let's hope it works out for all of us.

[shahb]

Bofa Success!!
I got a call from loan Mitigation analyst on Friday and she went over with me all the numbers and came up with the same program with LHarvey got.
My first loan was modified to 3.25% P&I for the next 5 years from 6.25% IO and second was modified to 4% P&I for the next 5years with 20year fixed from 7.1% 10 year baloon. This will reduce my monthly mortgatge to almost 900 but as my tax returns will reduce by almost 600 a month, my monthly saving won't be much but the good thing is , I will be paying principal from now on. After 5 years the interest rate will resest to 6.25% amortized (from original IO) for the first and 7.1% amortized for the second.
I told the analyst that I will not be able to pay the mortgage after 5 years which will be 4200 and she gave me couple of options such as refinance if market turnsaround or if I pay 12 monthly payments in time, I am eligible for another loan modification (if possible) depends on the circumstances at that time. For now I am happy with the modifiction. I Thank all the people on this forum for their support and help. This forum rules and teaches you not to give up and keep trying and you will get success.
I am also thankful to LHarveymadman, HopingtoFind and *** for their continual support. Thanks to all.

[HopingtoFind]

Shahb.... Congratulations! I am very happy for you!

[Moe Bedard]

Congratulations that is great news!!!

Please let us know when you receive the docs and if you have any questions on them...................

[shahb]

Thanks ***. I really appreciate your help. I wish I can be of any help to this forum going forward.
Once the docs comes, Do i need to sign in front of notary or just sign and return the doc? Or I can go to any bofa branch and sign there? I got different answers from different analyst. Also, there will be 4 pages and only last page is to be signed. Do i have to send all 4 pages or only the last signed page?
Thanks again to all.

[shahb]

Thanks Hopingtofind...Best of luck to you and all others who are still waiting...

[Moe Bedard]

the bank personnel most likely are notaries too............so if you bring them into the local BofA branch they can also go over the docs with you as well.

[shahb]

thanks ***. I will go to the local bofa office and get it done. Thanks again.

[LHarveyMadman]

Originally Posted by shahb

Thanks ***. I really appreciate your help. I wish I can be of any help to this forum going forward.
Once the docs comes, Do i need to sign in front of notary or just sign and return the doc? Or I can go to any bofa branch and sign there? I got different answers from different analyst. Also, there will be 4 pages and only last page is to be signed. Do i have to send all 4 pages or only the last signed page?
Thanks again to all.

The initial document you receive does not need to be notarized. It is the offer letter, which spells out the terms of the modification. Read it really carefully for errors - there was a huge one on mine, as it stated that I had to pay >$10,000. It was an error carried over from someone else's mod offer (everyone cuts and pastes these days). It took about 2 weeks to get this corrected.

If you approve of the mod, you sign the document and return it to them. They then send the information to their closing department, which draws up the official documents that need to be signed in front of two witnesses in addition to the notary. There were typos on these documents for us as well, and it took nearly a month to get new documents, and not all the typos were corrected. However, they were minor enough that we could just cross them out and initial the corrections.

You send these final documents back to B of A, and then wait and wait and wait. This is what I'm doing now. They need to have the document notarized on their end, and then eventually it will be sent to the county courthouse to be recorded. In the meantime, my online account is still not updated (still shows the old loan balance and "past-due" payments), but I have been assured that as long as I make the new payments, there will be no problems. It could take another 90 days for everything to be fully settled.

By the way, congratulations!

[shahb]

Thanks Harvey. So, I will send the 4 page doc signed and send it back to them and doesn't need to be notarized correct?
Thanks Harvey. Congrats to you as well. You are the role model for bofa loan modfication. We just follow you...

[LHarveyMadman]

Haha, shahb, I'm no role model. I appreciate the sentiment though.

No, if your future path continues to follow mine, then this first letter you receive does not require a notary's signature. The cover letter will make reference to a due date, but there was no explicit expiration date on this four-page document. There was also a paragraph that alluded to automatic payments, but no additional information was enclosed about this. Just sign and return. I strongly recommend sending it back by certified mail, return receipt requested.

By the way, where in the Bay Area are you?