What are my odds?

[Heavy D]

For those of you who have dealt, or are currently dealing with AHMSI, please weigh in with your comments and let me know if you think I have a snowball's chance in hell of working things out. Here's my dilemma...

I'm an unemployed commercial construction manager and I haven't worked since June 1st. As my savings is depleted and I've run out of options, I recently accepted a job offer that requires me to leave my family for a year to work in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a nutshell, the upside of working in an active war zone is the money; I'll make a helluva lot more over there than I was making here. I'll be able to get out of debt (with the exception of my mortgage) and put some money in savings. The downside of working over there is that I'll be away from my wife and kids for a year and I could get my a$$ blown off!

I'm currently three months delinquent on my mortgage and today received a notice of foreclosure set for December 2nd. I've talked to every "customer service" rep in Bangladesh over the last couple of months and was pressured to agree to payment terms that I knew I couldn't handle. I mailed a payment last week so I wouldn't fall 4 months behind, but they sent it back and won't accept anything short of the past due amount in full. The "customer service" reps I've spoken with have been... let's just say... less than helpful. They've all said that between my wife's salary and my unemployment benefits, my debt-to-income ratio will not allow me to do anything other than spread the past due amount over a few months payments.

As I mentioned, I'll be making really good money working in the Middle East, but I won't receive my first paycheck until mid-to late December. I want to either pay off my entire past due amount over two months in January and February of '09, or push my past due amount to the end of my loan and start making regular monthly payments again. I would also like to re-structure my loan to extend the fixed interest period of the ARM or convert it into a fixed-rate note.

I faxed a hardship letter and my financial ledger to AHMSI earlier today and proposed these repayment options in my letter. I need to get this settled and put to bed so that my wife doesn't have to deal with it once I'm gone. She and my kids are already going to be under enough stress worrying about me when I'm over there; they don't need to wonder if and when they'll be evicted from their home too.

Now that I've aired my dirty laundry to the entire world-wide-web, do any of you have any advice on what I should do next? Is there anyone I could call who would actually listen rationally to my situation and not just pigeon-hole me because I don't fit into their standard criteria?


Any help would be greatly appreciated........

[Moe Bedard]

Hi Heavy D,

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

The modifications given are up to the investor..........if you have any chance at a modification it would be starting with Jeanne's office..........you would need to fax her your hardship letter and also call her and leave a message with a call back number if they don't answer.

Jeanne Drake-VP Home Preservation Dept.
Direct: 1-949-784-6011
Fax: 1-866-642-4196

[Maia7]

Hey Heavy D -

I was in your exact situation. I had been unemployed and became three months late on my mortgage. They would not consider a loan mod when I was unemployed.

The moment I received a job offer I put together my hardship letter explaining my unemployment as the reason I fell behind and also included a copy of my job offer which specified the start date and how much I would be making.

They took my three months of late payments and fees and financed them back into the loan. My interest rate was reduced and fixed for the life of the loan. You should be able to receive a modification that simply puts the back payments in the loan and gives you a new start. That's what I'd ask for in my letter to them.

I pasted my hardship letter up to LoanSafe if you want to have a look. I think you have really good chances of a modification.

Maia

[Monnie]

Hi Heavy D,

Don't give up!!! I was recently denied back in September and had the opportunity of speaking with Andrea Plum who told me that I needed to try and get a job to be considered, even though my husband has a descent income. Since I have had no luck with getting a job, I refaxed my information to Jeanne Drake and to the Home Retention Team last Thursday. This past Monday someone name Jackie called me because Jeanne Drake had passed all our information over to her to handle our modification. It turns out that things are looking up now and Jackie told me that my husbands income seems to be enough to help get us approved for a modification. My husband recently received a raise and is due to receive another raise in April, and I included all of this in our hardship letter, so Jackie was saying that we should be ok and she is looking at offering us 5% and not giving us a payment due date until Jan 09 or Feb. 09, which will give me time to pay my truck off. She was extremely nice and helpful, even trying to come up with ways to make this work out. I now need to send her an updated paystub that reflects my husbands raise and then we will go from there. Heavy D just hang in there and fight. It will work out, just keep the faith. I will keep you posted as to what happens with our situation.

[Heavy D]

My prayers have been answered and my family really had something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving... I received my modification paperwork today!

After sending my hardship letter and financial information to AHMSI, I spoke with Bob France. I explained my situation to Bob and let him know that I'd be leaving for Iraq on Nov. 30th. He said that he couldn't promise anything, but that he'd try to get a decision on my modification request before I left the country. He asked that I send him copies of my employment contract, my wife's paycheck stub and a bank statement. I forwarded the information and he went to work.

As my deployment date grew closer, my anxiety grew with each passing day and I think I must have called Bob about every other day to see if he had any news. Even though I know he must have had countless other people hounding him about the exact same thing, he always returned my calls and let me know exactly where I was in the process.

At about 5:45 pm on Wednesday evening, Bob called and said that my request had been approved. AHMSI reduced my interest rate to 5% and converted my note to a 30 yr. fixed loan. They also agreed to add my delinquent payments, late fees, etc. to the end of the note. My monthly payment went down almost $300 and the first one isn't due until January 1. After going over everything with Bob and agreeing to the terms, he said that they'd get the paperwork processed and headed my way.

Bob called me again at about 6:30 pm (4:30 pm California time) and said that he saw something in my file that said I was leaving for Iraq on Sunday, Nov. 30th and asked if that was still the plan. When I told him that I would be leaving on Sunday, he asked me to hand on for a second and put me on hold. He came back and said that he explained my situation to the lady who prepares the paperwork. She agreed to work late (on the night before Thanksgiving) and make sure that my documents were finished and overnighted so I would get them on Friday. They wanted me to be able to sign everything before I deployed so my wife wouldn't have to worry about sending everything to me next week and we could enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday knowing that our home was still ours.

[Moe Bedard]

Heavy D,

That is awesome news! Congratulations!! And kudos to Bob as well!!!

Please be safe in Iraq and thank you so much for the service that you perform to keep us safe!

[elpjohnson]

HeavyD

What an awesome ending! I am so happy for you and your family! May God bless you and keep you safe in Iraq.

[Coloradofury]

HeavyD - Our prayers are with you as you leave for the desert. You probably didn't have time to read all the stories on here, but my husband did the same thing you are doing. He went over to Afghanistan to train police officers for a year. We were denied a mod at that time because he was making so much money. In that sense I am so glad to hear that AHMSI didn't pull that one on you! The money was fantastic, but one year was all our family/marriage could take. Please have your wife check in with me if she is interested. I so wish I had the support of other wives in the same sitation (and we also weren't military). I am thanking the Lord for putting your modification through to give you that piece of mind on the home front. God bless you!