This is a long story...

[sickntired]

First of all, I would like to express my appreciation of this site. Now, we purchased our home in March of '07. The situation was that we were renting our home and our landlord was having some financial problems and wanted us to buy the home we were already in. We felt extremely rushed. He gave us the attitude that if we didn't buy it, he was going to lose it (the house). So, after time consuming meetings with the mortgage broker our landlord put us in touch with, we ended up with an interest rate of 11.45%!!!! This is not what we wanted. The broker knew very well that the payment $1895.61 a month was just something we could not afford. So, he said if we agree to these terms, he would get us refi'ed in 6 months.Terms included a check,from him and his partner for $2670. That was to help us with our payments for the following 6 months since we did not want a payment over $1450 a month.Anyway, 6 months comes along, now our appraisal we got in Feb was NO GOOD!!!! The value of our house went down from $225,000 to maybe $190,000. We needed at least $207,000 to refi.Talk about devestated!!! And to add insult to injury, our mortgage broker blew us off for about 2 months! Very dishonest and hard to get an answer from about anything!! Countrywide has our loan now. They have had it since July. We were late with Dec payment. We were late with Jan payment. The most rediculous repayment plan was put into effect. Instead of paying $1895.61, we are now supposed to pay $2390.39 a month !!!!!!At least for the next 6 months. Kind of doesn't make sense. They have also told my husband, before we were 30 days late, "we can't help you unless you have a credit score of at least 620." Hello? It's like, Is anybody there? Am I speaking to a human? We are trying to take care of this so we are NOT late with any payments.Too late for that. We have paying our arranged payment plan. We have no choice, they have us by the You-know-what it seems.The info I have been reading on this site is very helpful in explaining the processes. Thank you for reading my story....

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

The cash back at closing although welcome, was not appropriate...so be aware that that is a problem in the body of this transaction. The higher payment sounds like a tax issue, were there taxes unpaid in this last year, I would think that if the closing occurred in 2007 that the 2007 taxes were paid in the body of the closing.

The larger payment appears to be for impounds of something, like taxes and insurance, and again that is a mystery since there was a recent closing they should have been paid in the body of the closing for the year ahead..well not necessarily the taxes, depends on the State.

All in all you need to QWR this file and determine if there are servicing abuses as well as the body of the transaction what the broker got paid for that rate...it is ugly, very ugly and way above the prevailing rate at the time that this loan closed even for Sub Prime (well things were falling apart then and rates had increased by then, but that is obscene). The Modification process has nothing to do with FICO or so I have seen to date...so that little conversation with a Country Wide person was dumb, on their part.

You need to QWR the file and request modification, the problem is that you are less than 12 months into this loan and they are going to be hard pressed if this is a fixed rate Full Spectrum Loan (Country Wide Sub-Prime Division) to modify in the first 12 months or so, more like 24 months...

You should have a qualified forensic document review of this loan, the closing package and the lender file when you get it....there are enough irregularities to warrant that review.

So here is the QWR stuff - there are examples of the letter in the Tool Box. In that letter demand your Life of Loan History, copy of Note, Deed of Trust, Riders, all Assignments of the Deed of Trust, TIL, Right of Rescission (if refi), Lender Final HUD-1, copy of initial loan application and final lender loan application, all disclosures and all loan documents in your file, copy of appraisal. Send this three times certified return receipt required and also send it to the Broker, Title Company and all others in the Chain of the Transaction.

[sickntired]

Thank you poppy!
I cannot belive the quick response to my letter. The knowledge is helpful. It seems like it will be quite the process. What ,in the end, do you think should happen with this loan?Your opinion,of course.

[sickntired]

Poppy,
What is QWR? I feel silly. But, we keep blaming ourselves about this mess. Hind-sight is 20/20. Besides, we weren't the expert in mortgages anyway. He was supposed to be looking out for our best interest, right?

[sickntired]

Poppy,

I left out the part where our taxes and insurance are NOT included in my payments. So, you can imagine, we are now delinquent with our taxes. Summer and winter.-I don't know a whole lot about closings and what have you.I do know they were nervous and anxious for the loan to be "funded". A little jittery at times. See, our selling price for the house was 220,000. Our loan was for 198,000. They made it look like we put 22,000 dollars down. We did not. The seller had back taxes to pay.About 4800-5000 dollars. Plus I know the mortgage broker made about 8,800 dollars off of this loan. And, I don't know if it matters, but the seller had a real estate agent sign the closing papers and get commision off of this loan and we NEVER even saw the guy. Make sense?

[kshel02]

Don't feel silly for asking questions and don't feel silly for trusting that a mortgage professional would have some ethics. We're all in the same boat. It does look like a daunting task, but it will be worth it. Look at it this way, at least we know better now. If it helps, talk to a friend or family member and get them to help you prepare your paperwork, make it a project to get back at these !@#$er's!!!!!! Kerry

[sickntired]

I guess I just think peopple are going to think we are crazy for agrreeing to this rediculous loan! They made us feel like we had no choice. They were always hurry, hurry......

[kshel02]

Dont worry after we get done with this mess we'll be really good at what not to do. The hurry, hurry part is what predatory lending is all about. I can't believe that I told our broker how much of a hurry I was in to get our loan. They know your back is up against the wall. We are not stupid, we WERE trusting,

Kerry

[sickntired]

Well, I guess I have some work to do. I am just tired of being treated as if I am stupid. I do feel a little bit better knowing there are so many people out there in the very same boat! -Kim

None of you are stupid, ignorant or other wise, you just never had the pleasure of dealing with someone like me on the lending side of the world, sure it would be easier to just tell you "take it or leave it", but I would rather have you educated in the task that you are trying to accomplish when you get a home loan. This the largest credit that you will ever have, it is not like paying rent, it is far more complex and far riskier.

The lovely cash "smoke and mirror" on the HUD-1 is very irregular and as such, the Broker, Title, and Seller were in collusion to victimize the Borrower and Lender. All of that is more common than I would like to think....very ugly and certainly material misrepresentation, however clearly to complex for the Borrower in these circumstances to be responsible for...

The problem is that they are banking on that, do not want to answer your questions and need for you the buyer/borrower to be in a state of enlightenment....so, do not beat yourself up, it is what it is and it will be the last time it happens to you....I am sure of that.

So from here on out, and forever, you will not trust --- rotten thing to say, but in the case of your money, your dwelling, your life as you know it, do not trust the moron who sez, Trust Me...run like hell in the other direction.

Ask questions, lots and lots of them, if you do not understand, keep asking there are ways to explain this process that are understandable to the borrower....I worked with so many first time home buyers and they left knowing a lot more than the Brokers that you all have worked with. Demand prior to closing to always see the papers and go through them prior to closing, do not understand, do not trust the moron you are dealing with, find some one that you do who can explain the terms and conditions of the transaction. Make it clear to them - the Broker that you are doing this...do not ever do this again without full comprehensible disclosure. EVER....

It does sound like the taxes are in that payment and you are paying them back to the Servicer/Lender for paying them on your behalf...here is the way to tell, call the township/County Tax Assessors office and see if the Lender paid some taxes for you, if so how much....

Look at you HUD-1 and see how the taxes were paid, not the Back Taxes, but the prorated taxes and the most recent tax billing...what dates did they cover...i.e. prorated and the tax billings...let me know as the trick is in the prorated portion of the taxes disbursed between buyer and seller to determine just how far up they paid the taxes....so tell me the prorated dates.

QWR -Qualified Written Request...you make that on the lender/servicer, Broker, Title.....this time of year it is easier to call Title and ask for a full copy package and final HUD-1 because you need to do your taxes...they will not have any red flags and just fork the copies over...sneaky, but they were, so why not you....they do not need to have any red flags presently...also QWR the damn Realtor...but ask title first for that package, before you raise the red flags....

I do not know what state you are in while writing this, please let me know what region of the state as well. The QWR letter that I provided a thread to should be fairly explanatory....you are demanding every doggoned piece of paper in your file....every piece.....plus a life of loan history to determine just why they want this money, my guess is taxes...

Then get a hold of Country Fried and request a modification package and start with the process.....you need modification and perhaps forbearance, but some relief with this whole thing. Do not talk with collections, speak with some one in Loss Mitigation and Home/Loan Retention. All you will get is a program that requires what you have now. Make the payments if you can show that you are Willing and have the Capacity to do what you need to do, and express that it is killing you financially, but you are trying your best.

Meanwhile, NO ON LOOKS OUT AFTER YOUR BEST INTERESTS, EXCEPT YOU. That is the most important thing to remember in these situations, Please.

Keep me posted, let me know the prorated dates on the taxes, please.

[sickntired]

I will get back to you on these items. By the way, I live in Michigan.About 50 miles northwest of Detroit.Seems like so much work. But we will be making our rediculous payments until we can no more.....Oh yeah, Our payment is 2390 because they took our January payment and split it up over the next 6 months. They changed our due date to the 25th instead of the 1st. We paid our first 2390 in Feb.Next one is due March 25th...I don't think the property taxes are added anywhere in my payments yet....-Kim

It sure sounds like it, were you past due on any payments when they created that agreement?

You really need to apply for modification yesterday....please do, there is this number to use to get through to the Modification/Loan Retention Department...

866.344.4172 -Loan Retention Department

Lots of voice driven menu stuff, just hit 0000 until they ask a second time --second time if you want to speak with a human, then say yes....you will get a human on the phone then after some clicking and fooling around.

The question that I have is this a Forbearance to Modification with them i.e. Lump Sum at the end of the 6 months? That to requires that after preforming to the agreement within 10 days before the Lump Sum you have to make application for the final Modification?

Please let me know what the agreement says, did you get one in writing, if not you were purely in collections and need to get the modification process started yesterday.

[sickntired]

We did get a letter saying we agreed to a payment arrangement. Forbearence /modification was not contained in anything we received. My husband is the one that speaks with anyone. They will NOT talk to me. I am on the title but not the loan. They did give us instructions to fax them proof of income, bank statements, and hardship letter. i am getting that stuff ready today when I get home from work....-Kim

Here is a trick to allow them to speak to you get a letter of authorization to Release Information to you signed by your husband...i.e. put that language in the document...that you are authorized to transact and to have information released to you with the loan #, property address, borrower name, and last 4 of primary borrower SS# faxed to them, identifying you as authorized to communicate and transaction on this process.

That will make this easier for you and your husband.....get the documentation together, you are in forbearance/work out, not in modification and you now need to submit a modification package to get some relief.

How delinquent were you at the time they did this workout with you? If you were current, then they may have some errors on their end, or this extra amount may be taxes, heck ask them, they will answer as to the reason for raising the payments, they are accommodating some amounts of arrearage or unpaid taxes/insurance...you need to have that clarified in order to understand the issues at hand. This is purely collection work, not modification or real forbearance as of yet, get that package going and call them to find out the reason for the addition to your payments, since it is seriously substantial and you have a right to that information.

Get that authorization signed...does not have to be fancy, just down and dirty...so and so has my permission to obtain information, records, authorized to discuss all mortgage transactions and finances in this matter, refer to all of the data I reflected above have the hubby sign it and fax it to them...all pages with that property address, loan #, name and last 4 of SS# -- it takes about 24 to 48 to scan into the system and you are good to go to talk with them from there on out....well for 60 days, they have a life span of 60 days. So you have to reup it after 60 days.