Hope for the first time: modification in process

[candle]

Please join us on our modification journey!

I will update often through this process.

Thank you for this forum: ***, Prof. Shays, Moe, and others!

After posting recently in the Deed in Lieu section that we believed we were headed towards the D.I.L. reality with respect to our second home because of an acute medical situation in our lives, we have been counseled to seek the advice of an accountant before proceeding with that process. We did, and he advised us to seek a loan modification instead. So, as of last week, we became loan modification clients of an attorney we found through this site, and are SO HOPEFUL that we may be able to afford to keep not only our primary residence but our second home as well.

We are hopeful for the first time in over a year.

We hired the law firm of Griswold & Agdeppa in California. In the 7 days since we've been clients, we have more hope since we've had in the 11 months trying to deal with Washington Mutual on our own and basically banging our heads against the wall. It's been an enormously frustrating journey for us thus far, but this week has been so encouraging.

We had come to the place where we were holding both homes loosely and just finding peace with whatever the outcome needed to be as long as I was still alive - after all, these are just buildings. But these are also the buildings that house our children and family and we had liquidated our retirement and put payments on credit cards to try to keep things current. But now, the knowledge that we may be able to keep these homes without killing ourselves, through an interest rate we can actually afford has us walking through our days with HOPE for the first time in over a year.

Our adjustable rate in Maui is set to reset in November, 2009. Our adjustable rate on our house here in California is set to reset in February, 2011, but adjusts monthly. Both have negative amortization features and are racking up negative principle as we can only afford to pay minimum payments.

We have discovered that the Maui property loan is a complete mess: the lender nor the title company has a copy of the Right to Rescind in the file, nor a copy of the original signed loan application, signed by us. Nothing in our package has original signatures. Our copy of the loan application has the wrong information for us filled in by the loan officer. It is not signed by us: it has the wrong bank, wrong employment information, and way wrong income for me (inflated by a factor of 3!!). It's so strange, it's old or made up information entirely. Because I was in surgery during a lot of this loan process and signed the closing package from my bed, I didn't see these docs until way after the loan closed. It feels awful, like we should have known better. But also like I am finally understanding the concept of the words, "predatory lending" for the first time. It makes me embarrassed and angry, actually. I feel taken advantage of. Someone made up information about us and typed it onto an application used to obtain a loan on our behalf - it is not accurate and we did not do it, sign it, or see it until after the fact. The lender mailed these copies to our house after the loan closed. We are really shocked it happened to us.

Hopefully, our attorney can act on this to arrange a principle adjustment and rate modification for us that we can afford over the long term so we can keep our homes. It feels so good to be untangling this mess. I can't even express it adequately. Thank you for this forum and opportunity to come and share our newfound HOPE. We'll keep you posted often!