Senator Dodd:
My name is xxxxand I am writing this letter in regards to financial hardships I’ve experienced over the past year or so, and it’s affects on my ability to keep my mortgage payments current. I purchased my home back in May of 2005 for $269,900; it was a conventional loan with a fixed interest rate. I have been basically fighting this battle to save my home since February of this year day in and day out. While I have no record of it, Bank of America has told me I was sent a Notice of Intent in July of 2009.
I received a call from your office requesting I send you a letter with a brief summary of my circumstances. They are as follows:
·I received a home loan modification with Countrywide in April of 2009, the terms were:
o4.57% for the 1
st year (2/2009 – 2/2010) – New payment was $1947.27
o5.75% for the 2
nd year (2/2010 – 2/2011)
oThen back to the original 6.75% from 2/2011 on. – Back to original payment of approx. $2500.00
oThe loan term was extended from a 30 to a 40 year term.
oMy past due amount (including Interest and Escrow) was $9191.91. This was added onto the total loan balance for the modification and set it at $269,262.00 which is approx. $700.00 below what my original loan balance was when I purchased the home for $269,900 back in 2005.
·The above modification was performed prior to the introduction of the HAMP program.
a longer term solution loan modification once HAMP was introduced, and Bank of America had purchased my home loan.
·I was told to be late on my payments, so I could apply for the program. I am currently 6 months behind on my mortgage payment. Per bank of America I received a “Notice of Intent” in July of 2009, I have no record of this.
·I sent all the required documentation in, and in August of 2009 received a 6 month HomeSaver Forebearance agreement from both Fannie Mae and Bank of America with the following terms:
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·During the tenure of the agreement my loan is being reported to credit bureaus as late/delinquent, even as I make the above payment on time because they are lower than my loan amount from my previous modification. I wonder if my home loan was counted as one of the 500,000 reported that were supposedly modified.
·I have no idea if my loan is in review for a modification, if I qualify for a modification, or what will happen to my loan at the end of this agreement. Per the agreement documentation, Bank of America has numerous options they can use, including foreclosure.
·Bank of America has assigned my loan to so called “senior loan negotiators”, who are extremely poor at responding to both my email and phone inquires in regards to my modification status. I had one, and my loan has now been assigned to someone different. I have serious concerns that at the end of this program I may be denied for a modification as I have nothing in writing saying it’s even been reviewed for one at this point. Thus resulting in acceleration, and my families’ loss of our home in foreclosure. I am not getting straight or consistent answers from anyone, and have the emails to prove this. Every time I call I go into someone’s voicemail or am placed on hold for 10 to 20 minutes. I get read receipts on my emails from the receiver but never any responses.
·The market value of my home has substantially decreased over the last 2 years. Using the Home Value estimator on the Bank of America website was given a range of $178,200 - $235,000 as the estimated value. Either way this is substantially much less than my current loan’s balance of $269,800(even after the modification) therefore eliminating any equity in the property, along with the possibility of refinancing. In addition, as I will explain below I also have a 2
nd mortgage I took out on the home in 2007, with a remaining balance of $47,000. Making me approximately $100,000 upside down at this point in time.
·I was able to receive a 1 year modification with my 2nd mortgage servicer Green Tree Servicing for a term of only 1 year, again this is not a permanent solution, and I feel it was their way to take advantage of the government subsidy that is being provided to participating servicers. The loan’s previous owner was Irwin Home Equity who was unwilling to work with me at all.
o1 year fixed interest rate of 2%
o1year monthly payment of $349.00
oAfter the 1 year expires in 9/1/2010, my loan goes back to the original terms of a 13.75% fixed interest rate and a monthly payment of $649.00.
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It was hard for me to purchase my home back in 2005, it’s a 1000 sq. foot Cape. No one can deny that home values were inflated due to the packaging and selling of debt securitizations by banks to investors. But now it is homeowners like myself that have to pay the ultimate price, losing the roof over our families heads.
I find it unacceptable that only 5 out of the 500,000 loan modifications reported last month involved some type of principal reduction. If we have to take a hit, shouldn’t the banks have to as well? Foreclosure rates are not slowing down and more help is needed! I visit online forums everyday where people like me are fighting hard to save their homes form foreclosures. Sharing our stories it is easy to see that all the banks are not taking all options in the HAMP program into consideration. Nor are there any consistent or streamlined practices in place. Please see the graph below from the Congressional Oversight Panel’s October report:
This is my primary residence, and either walking away or going into a foreclosure would leave both my family and these financial institutions at a loss. Both my wife and I are young and gainfully employed, we have young children, I’ve gone back to graduate school, and we want to work with our loan servicer if at all possible to lower our home loan payment, rebuild our credit, get our finance under control, save money for our children’s education, and at some point be able to invest in maintenance and improvements on the home.
Kind Regards,
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