Finally offered us a 5% mod after we ignored them for 5mo's

[Coloradofury]

You know, they did call several times a day for the first 2-3 months. I usually didn't answer the phone but if I recall, when we did answer they wouldn't call again for a day or more. When I did answer I always asked if they were calling to tell me they were offering a modification. They always said no, and I would not so politely tell them not to call back until they were going to offer me one. I'm guessing it was at the 3mo or 4mo point that they must have sent foreclosure paperwork to the county and I didn't hear from them any longer. But strangely after weeks of silence I got a call from India demanding $15000 - yes that's fifteen thousand dollars - and a rep asking if I could do a check by phone. I laughed and said, ah let me check if I've got that laying around, then I laughed pretty hard and hung up. I also had a strange situation where I heard a male voice speaking to my kids out front while I was inside unloading groceries. Some jerk had taken pictures of them in front of our house and asked them their names and who the occupants of the home were. I went running outside and they guy jumped in his car. I knocked on the window and asked who the heck he was - and he told me he was with AHMSI. I asked for a card and he said he didn't have one. He asked me what we were asking for our home (on the market at the time) and I told him I wasn't going to give him any details w/o ID! He told me he'd let the mtg co know how cooperative I was - and he sat there another 10 minutes. I called AHMSI and they said they hadn't sent anyone - yet in my mod schedule, they say they did do an inspection at one point... so makes you wonder.
Hold tight. I really don't know if there are any ramifations of changing your phone #. I would have if I thought I could. I did tell them my hm ph was my only number becuase they had been calling my cell phone immidately after my home repeatedly. So someone took it out of their system - thank goodness! It does get really stressful, but remind yourself that it's the only way they're going to take you seriously. I'm pretty sure they want to see your credit take a hit and make sure there's no more blood in the onion before they'll negotiate. Hang in there and treat your family to a decent little Christmas with that mortgage payment, but be sure to save a couple months worth of payments for the workout (or rent just in case!). My prayers are with you and yours!

[sofla1]

acesfull - I will tell you my experience too: I did not pay for 14 mos., and like Coloradofury the phone calls were horrible at first but once I retained an attorney I would just tell them they need to speak to my lawyer and hang up. I think they are not even allowed to call after you say that. If you are not hiring one, I would just go with not answering the phone. It does get to the point where you can't take it anymore, so when I did answer I was for the most part indignant saying call back when you are ready to negotiate to a reasonable rate, or something like that and hang up. As with Coloradofury the calls did almost completely stop after a few months. I do remember a very funny one that came in late June, right before AHMSI took over Option One (Coloradofury, I got you beat!) wanting $100,000 to bring the loan current! Flat, even, $100,000! What's weird is I am not even that behind now, 5 months later. That was really funny. As to them coming around, I am in a gated community and maybe 4 times over the course of the year I would get a call from the gate saying someone from Option One was here and I always denied entry. I now know they must have been inspectors as I am being charged for a few inspections in my fees.

Just remember you are doing what you need to do for your family and don't let anyone intimidate you or get you down. It was very hard in the beginning to make the decision to stop paying, but for me after a while I almost forgot it was going on and had some peace with it in the middle when things were quiet. That went on for a good 5-6 months for me. I do not know why I had so much time, and I still did not have a sale date set (although when I called this week before accepting the offer I was told a possible date of Feb. 12; but I was told possible dates 2 times before in May and June and that never happened). Maybe Florida is that much more backed up, I don't know. But good luck to you, I hope everything works out.

[eatacheesesteak]

God heard and answered our prayers - tonight Amy Jasman conveyed a new Loan Mod - fixed for 7.5% for the balance of the loan! Thanks to many of you who shared the contact info and other very helpful advice! As I've said before, this forum is great! This is what I had been hoping and praying for but now that the offer was made I'm in a conundrum - take the 5% fixed for the 1st 5 years and ARM thereafter or the 7.5% fixed for the balance. With the 5% the monthly mortgage pmt. including taxes and insurance would be $1605/mo. With the 7.5% the monthly mortgage pmt. would be $2565/mo. Big difference! If we took the 5% we'd be saving roughly $58k over 5 years then we could hopefully refi at 7.5% or less than and we'd be ahead of the game. It would be much easier to make a $1605/mo. pmt. than a $2565/mo. pmt. We could actually maybe even go on a family vacation, have more food money, be able to pay the children an allowance, eat out once in a while with the lower mortgage payment. With the 7.5% pmt. I'd have to work additional hours and we'd have to live "bare bones." It was recently discovered that I have arteries in my heart that are 80% blocked so the extra hours I would have to work indefinitely my wife fears may create much more stress for me which wouldn't be good. I really am now torn between the 2 Loan Mods. Anyone have any friendly advice they'd be willing to share?

[eatacheesesteak]

One more note, Amy Jasman from AHMSI was extremely knowledgeable, very friendly, helpful, respectful, sympathetic and I believe "went to bat" for us. Overall, I give her an A+ and hope that you get to work with her in your Loan Mod process!

[elpjohnson]

cheese....

First of all....congratulations on the mod! You definitely have to weigh your options and go for whats most manageable for you and your family....a 7.5% fixed for life is good because that is forever but if you have to stress yourself out to pay it monthly, it's not worth it....go with what's in your heart and with what is best for you and your family.....a lot can happen in 5 years.

[eatacheesesteak]

In my earlier post I said, "God heard and answered our prayers - tonight Amy Jasman conveyed a new Loan Mod - fixed for 7.5% for the balance of the loan! Thanks to many of you who shared the contact info and other very helpful advice!" When I said "our" I meant mine, my family's and yours! Many of you have encouraged me to continue praying and exercising faith that all would turn out well, which I did. Thanks again for not only the sharing of contact info and helpful advice but for your prayers as well - THANK YOU!

[DAVetran]

"a lot can happen in 5 years" , Yes it can, 5% is pretty unbeatable and 58K would come in handy, plus we do not know what will happen after Jan20, 09.

personnaly I think that this whole debacle will bring in government that will ultimaly force a change.

I am looking for the 5 year deal as I know my situation will greatly change by then as I will make it happen.

But congrats on the Mod, hope all works out for you and yours.

[Moe Bedard]

Congratulations!!

Awesome News!

I am so happy for you and your family!

[eatacheesesteak]

Thank you elpjohnson :-)

[eatacheesesteak]

Thanks DAVetran and ***!

[elpjohnson]

Your welcome! Your faith and prayers got you the mod you needed and deserved....I firmly believe that. God bless you and your family! Now make sure you take good care of yourself in the meantime...your family needs you to be strong and healthy for them...

God is definitely good!

[Coloradofury]

Cheese - Go for the 5. Of course there is no telling what could happen... in terms of a refi down the line, or your health. You have been through such a trial already and I say keep trusting the Lord to take care of the you in the future. That may sound ignorant considering the unmanagable 10% rates we've found ourselves at, but your heart and family must be the priorities. How terrible if you were to put yourselves through more heck only to kill yourself trying to keep up with a loan that isn't right. Sell your house in 4.5 years if all else fails. I for one believe you'll have some equity and other options by then. Treat your family to a heck of a vacation - and commit to beginning again. God is by your side and will not fail you and I would tell any loved one to worry about the here and now and give the rest over to Him.
Continuing to press forward!!!

[acesfull]

Originally Posted by sofla1

acesfull - I will tell you my experience too: I did not pay for 14 mos., and like Coloradofury the phone calls were horrible at first but once I retained an attorney I would just tell them they need to speak to my lawyer and hang up. I think they are not even allowed to call after you say that. If you are not hiring one, I would just go with not answering the phone. It does get to the point where you can't take it anymore, so when I did answer I was for the most part indignant saying call back when you are ready to negotiate to a reasonable rate, or something like that and hang up. As with Coloradofury the calls did almost completely stop after a few months. I do remember a very funny one that came in late June, right before AHMSI took over Option One (Coloradofury, I got you beat!) wanting $100,000 to bring the loan current! Flat, even, $100,000! What's weird is I am not even that behind now, 5 months later. That was really funny. As to them coming around, I am in a gated community and maybe 4 times over the course of the year I would get a call from the gate saying someone from Option One was here and I always denied entry. I now know they must have been inspectors as I am being charged for a few inspections in my fees.

Just remember you are doing what you need to do for your family and don't let anyone intimidate you or get you down. It was very hard in the beginning to make the decision to stop paying, but for me after a while I almost forgot it was going on and had some peace with it in the middle when things were quiet. That went on for a good 5-6 months for me. I do not know why I had so much time, and I still did not have a sale date set (although when I called this week before accepting the offer I was told a possible date of Feb. 12; but I was told possible dates 2 times before in May and June and that never happened). Maybe Florida is that much more backed up, I don't know. But good luck to you, I hope everything works out.

Sofla, thanks for your imput. WoW 14 months without a mortgage payment.. I could built up a big bankroll in 14 months, with my $3300.00 a month mortgage. Almost 50k.
I hope you held onto to some of the cash? I am in NJ and from everything I have read they are one of the States with the longest time frame in the forclosure process, 297 days not counting extentions. But I am sure all states are backloged these days? I am only 2.5 months behind and hopefully I will have more time to get this all squared away. I just want to keep my family in our home. Good luck to you and God Bless.

acesfull

[Melina]

Originally Posted by tryingtostay

I think AHMSI must be getting pressure from somebody so they are sending these (IMO) ridiculous offers to make them appear like they are trying to work with homeowners.

I recently received the "5% interest only for five years" mod offer, too. It seemed too good to be true, so I started nosing around for some background. Here's what I got from my AHMSI loan mod negotiator: AHMSI cannot take the credit/blame for these 5% modifications, as the investors who own the loans cooked them up.

The investors who own a particular pool of AHMSI loans decide to offer an attractive loan mod to homeowners within their loan pool in an effort to bail themselves. Seems this investment pool is performing so badly that the investors have decided to make the 5% offer to a portion of the homeowners within the pool, hoping that the pool's performance will perk up a bit. If enough people accept the offer, it will.

I accepted this mod offer for these reasons:

1. I checked to make sure I can make payments to principal during the interest-only period, and I can.

2. My financial problems are temporary and due to an expensive divorce. I will have some negotiated "divorce debt" paid off in spring 2009; afterwards, I'll be throwing as much toward principal as I can.

3. My loan is a 30-year fixed, and the original interest rate isn't that bad (7%). So when it reverts in five years, I'll be able to afford it as my other debts will be paid off. (This is, of course, if I don't sell the place by then.)

While I'm not trying to absolve AHMSI of any wrongdoing - my original attempts at modification with Option One and AHMSI were as painful as anyone else's, including the loss of a $2K payment! - I think it helps to know where these 5% mods are coming from. Consequently, it's safe to assume that AHMSI probably can't adjust these mods. If you're trying to get the 5% rate extended to the life of the loan, you most probably can't, as the investors will not sign off on it. And if the 5% mod doesn't work for you, you'll have to go back to negotiating with AHMSI.

One warning: My AHMSI negotiator said that he would not have been able to offer me anything as affordable as the 5% deal. And after I did some research, I'm fairly sure he's telling the truth. Of course, your mileage may vary.

[sirkjeff]

Yeah, I posted the a few days ago. I received an unsolicited loan mod of 5% interest only payment for 5 years. Then it reverts back to the original 10.45% 30yr fixed. I did call and ask if I can pay on the principle. Since their is nothing in the paper work about that. No fees either. plus if i do this before the Jan 1st, I get a $250.00 visa card. That what really made me question the offer. They will also add the $12,000 I'm behind to the principle. I also notice that it states no grace period.

I would hope that it was 5% fixed for the life. But Since I did not have to go through the hoops of filling out paper work etc. I think I will just go with it. And not try to haggle. My wife and I have been praying to make our house affordable. We are going to save about $1200 a month.

I posted to see if anyone heard of them sending out mods without asking for them. My wife called me at work when we got the letter through ups. I was like, Yeah OK, Another BS letter from some mortgage broker scum. But she kept insisting it was from Ahmsi. So When I got home , I read it over and over again. My wife was like, sign it now and do it. I was a little more skeptical. I kept looking for the small print.

just to add a comment, I am tired of all the media and the government making out that the home mortgage mess is because of the speculators. I don't know about you, We planned on living the rest of our life in this house.

[Moe Bedard]

Coloradofury,


Do you have a specific contac that you are working with?
Was anyone in Jeanne's office able to help you?

[Coloradofury]

Good morning ***. After bombarding all available lines of communication I was assigned Andrea out of Jeanne Drakes office - any surprise there?!! She was wonderful, but I'm concerned she may have been in Irvine and I'm reading Irvine may have been shut down?fficeffice" />>>
>>
I don't know if I should begin a whole new post - we are disgusted and ashamed to be entering into another possible modification attempt. I swear we all must worry we appear to be total deadbeats trying to get as many breaks as we can. Ugh, that's just so not us, (nor so many whose stories I've read on the forum).>>
We had a mod Oct08. We were so happy to finally have a decent payment after a year of busting our butts to get something out of OOMC and then AHMSI. We weren't thrilled with the fact that it was another flippin BALLOON, but we knew we had 5 years before we'd deal with that and it was the best we believed we were going to get. These were of course the very same terms that got us in the initial mess, (in addition to job loss, legal bills/custody battle, etc.).

Anyway, in our workout, we lowered our payments by over a grand to $1500 a mo at a 5% lock for 5ys on the 1^st, and a 4% fixed on the 2ond. But we are now very seriously facing bankruptcy for the legal costs which continue to hit us (on the custody front). Turns out once one’s credit is shot, bankruptcy is almost the obvious choice. Again, like so many, our credit was fantastic prior to the mod negotiations, (when we were told very clearly we would not be helped if we remained current on our loan - turned out to be very true).

So our dilemma - do we include our home in the chpt7? I can’t get my husband to shake the fear of our being stuck in another balloon payment in 5 years when the housing market turns potentially worse and we have no ability to sell and no remaining ability to file the loss in a bankruptcy. So my thoughts are we have to attempt another workout with the bankruptcy as our only leverage point. Is it possible AHMSI will entertain this when we've only made 3 payments on the new loan? Colorado >>