VA Loan Modification Question

[COLLOG]

Has anyone had any success modifying a VA loan? I am currently on a repayment plan with Wells Fargo my servicer. I was modified last year through the VA where my owed amount was added to the life of the loan, the loan years were not extended and my interest rate stayed at 6%. Causing my payment to go up just over $100 a month. I now see that the modification rate for a VA loan is 4.5%. I am wondering if I can request to be reviewed to have my interest rate lowered. There has been no word yet when VA loans may qualify for the HAMP program. Any ideas?

[Evan Bedard]

Hi collog,

Has anyone had any success modifying a VA loan? I am currently on a repayment plan with Wells Fargo my servicer. I was modified last year through the VA where my owed amount was added to the life of the loan, the loan years were not extended and my interest rate stayed at 6%. Causing my payment to go up just over $100 a month. I now see that the modification rate for a VA loan is 4.5%. I am wondering if I can request to be reviewed to have my interest rate lowered. There has been no word yet when VA loans may qualify for the HAMP program. Any ideas?

The very first thing I would do is call your lender and ask if you can reapply for a new modification. Some will require you to wait at least 12 months after you have signed the first agreement.

Who is your lender?

[COLLOG]

Wells Fargo but they have to follow VA guidelines and the VA only allows every three years unless they want to make an exception. Which they did for me last year because we were two months shy of three yearsfrom our last modification.

[Heids]

We are in the same boat. We are waiting to hear back from WF on a 2nd modification, due to my spouse's job loss. We also have a VA loan. Our first mod was done over 2.5 years ago. It will be three years in February. We are currently on a repayment plan. Our original loan was 1540/mo. After the 1st mod, it went up to 1882/mo. When we could not afford that, they put us on a repayment of 2067/mo. Then spouse lost his job this past January. Just got back to work last month. We have drained our retirement to pay for our house. This mod is it. If we cannot get approved for something reasonable we can afford, we will have to move. I called the VA last week and the rep from FLA I spoke with was NO help at all. She was confused as to why I called her, she did not know anything about HAMP. She told me there was no reason to contact her in the future that WF would get in touch with her if they needed anything. As far as the mod goes, WF will contact the VA for approval.
I originally went through HUD who transferred me to Money Management International and assigned me a rep/counselor. The guy will not return any of my phone calls unless the message is to him is cc'd to his supervisor. I feel like I am sailing this ship alone. I have no professional support or guidance with this. Sorry COLLOG for taking over your thread. We are in the same boat as 1gringo1..hopefully our outcome will be the same.

[COLLOG]

Did they make you break your current payment plan with them to be reviewed for another modification? Thats what they made us do last year. I went through this whole process last year it took eight months for us to get a modification. I had to tell Wells Fargo executive dept that they had to ask the VA for an exception so make sure you do that otherwise they will come back and tell you they can't do it because it has not been three years yet. I want to ask for an exception again but they probably won't even give me a chance this time. I don't want to break our current arrangement i want to just see if they can do anything else. Your right the VA is useless even though all over their site it says they are there to help. All I want is a lower interest rate because now they are offering 4.5% and we are at 6%. My original payments were $1244 now my actual payment is $1515.20 and on the payment plan it is $1688.20. I am also working mega overtime to keep up with these payments so they will probably come back at us and tell us we make too much but we don't. It all around sucks. Can't refinance becuase my credit is crap I would love to get out of my VA loan but can't even do that. At least I would have a chance at HAMP if I had a regular mortgage.

[Heids]

When I originally contacted them to tell them we were going to be in trouble. They told me we had to break the payment plan in order for us to do anything. Earlier in the year after my husband lost his job, I contacted the VA to tell them and they told me to cash out our 401k. They really have been no help. What I do not understand is how our payments continue to get increased when we are in this mess because circumstances prevented us from making the original in the first place.

[COLLOG]

So are you on a payment plan now or are you not paying and being reviewed for a modification? The problem with the VA is they typically do not lower your interest rate. They add what you owe to the back of the loan and they do not extend the life of the loan. Supopsedly with everything I have read they can now extend the life of the loan and offer a lower interest rate as it is lower than it was prior. But I do not want to break my payment plan and be worse off than I was before and then get thrown into foreclosure.

[Heids]

Originally Posted by COLLOG

So are you on a payment plan now or are you not paying and being reviewed for a modification? The problem with the VA is they typically do not lower your interest rate. They add what you owe to the back of the loan and they do not extend the life of the loan. Supopsedly with everything I have read they can now extend the life of the loan and offer a lower interest rate as it is lower than it was prior. But I do not want to break my payment plan and be worse off than I was before and then get thrown into foreclosure.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. Yes we were on a payment plan and could not keep it, it was too high. I am hoping they can help us out. Even if they dropped our interest rate from 5.5 to the current rate down 4.865 for a 30yr fixed, we would be able to handle it. I have to put another call into them tomorrow and get an update. I will keep you posted.