Deed In Lieu with CitiMortgage

[mandrins]

Hi everyone,

I just found loansafe.org yesterday and I am already amazed at how useful it has been to me. Here's my story. I bought a condo in 2001. Got divorced in 2002 and had to refi to a 3/1 ARM to afford it since I was down to just my income. Of course come time to refi back to a fixed rate and the value of the condo had dropped $25,000 putting me even on value versus mtg balance. The mtg co refused the deal and every other mtg co I called said refinancing would only make the situation worse (ie put me at negative equity or break me with closing costs). So I put the condo on the market. Got absolutely zero interest-no calls, no showings (I live in Michigan so this is not unusual these days). Took it off the market after 4 months to think about where to go from here. My company seemed to be losing money and my fiance didn't know if he'd have a job day to day so we decided we needed out of Michigan so let's sell the condo & price it so low it'd have to sell and then convince the mtg co to take a short sale. Easy right?!?! Not so fast. Condo's been back up for over 90 days, and again zero interest even though we're practically giving it away. Meanwhile I was reduced to part time and bonuses were eliminated. My now husband is getting no overtime so we need out ASAP. Stopped paying the mortgage in July. Now we're pursuing a deed in lieu. Met with a lawyer yesterday who told me to get the ball rolling, then when I hit the wall, and I will, to call him (rather than pay him $250 an hour to submit paperwork etc for me). I was frustrated, took to the internet and came across loansafe. Found the contacts for CitiMortgage and thought what the heck & emailed my hardship letter to every single one of them. In the meantime I faxed over my workable solutions app to the loss mit. dept this morning thinking I'd never get a response from anyone I emailed. The 4 times I tried to talk to my mortgage company- even before I was late-they refused to talk to me until I submitted that. BUT I just got a call from the Executive Response Unit in response to my email from yesterday. They are taking over my account and will be our point person. While this doesn't guarantee success, it is far more progress than I made in my 4 other calls to Citi!

So I will keep everyone posted and thank you so much for this great site. Even if I'm not successful at least I feel like I didn't just walk the line & not try everything I could!

[Dan Bailey]

Mandrins, welcome to the forum!
Thats great that the site helped you so far! Similar to how I started out too.....just looking for info.
If you have any questons, just ask and before long one of the moderators will answer!
Good luck!

[mandrins]

I have had very good response from Citi so far. However I just spoke with two people in the loss mitigation department and I'm not sure if I should believe what they told me or if there might be more to the story.

In a nutshell, they told me I have a good chance of getting the DIL however because I have PMI on my loan, it changes the whole ballgame. The PMI provider is the decision maker and they will absolutely require we sign a note, they estimate for around $30,000 and they will not negotiate how its reported on our credit.

The bottom line was, and she prefaced this by saying she shouldn't be telling me this, that it'd be better just to let it foreclose as then we wouldn't be facing a deficiency judgement.

Has anyone had any experience with DIL on a loan with PMI and does this sound right or are they just giving me a line of BS?

[Moe Bedard]

Hi mandrins,

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

I am so happy that the systems that we have in place were able to help you out...........

Yes, what they are telling you is true...........if there are any other types of liens or insurance on a property other than a 1st mortgage lien........the lender will not accept a DIL because if doing a DIL the 1st takes the title and then becomes responsible for each junior lien on the title and they do not receive the clear title that they would receive by going through the foreclosure process. They opt instead to take the process to foreclosure in order to have a clear title to sell the property.



Please keep us posted on your progress..........

[fyrcapmo80]

Hey not meaning to steal anyone's chance for help but I think this would classify. Seems there are a lot of folk that are now dealing with Ameriquest/CitiResidential loan issues. Can we now get a separate forum for myself, Mandrins and others dealing with CitiResidential? Good luck Mandrins, I'm working with Citi now and hope for some help soon too.

[mandrins]

No problem, I agree with you about a forum just for us Citi people. Good luck to you too, keep us posted!

[lakeowner]

mandrins,

Curious about the comment The bottom line was, and she prefaced this by saying she shouldn't be telling me this, that it'd be better just to let it foreclose as then we wouldn't be facing a deficiency judgement.

You live in Michigan? I thought the law in MI stated the lender had the ability to pursue the dificiency as a collections? Is this a Citi practice?

[mandrins]

Hello,

We did reside in Michigan at that time. Michigan is a state that allows for deficiency judgements. While I'm sure it is not a "standard" practice and/or something I would necessarily count on as being true in all cases, Citi did tell me they generally do not pursue deficiencies. I did not push for any further information at that point so I'm sorry I cannot elaborate! I can tell you that we did let our condo foreclose (auctioned at sheriffs sale in November) & I did receive a 1099 from Citi for the foreclosure which I am told precludes them from pursuing the deficiency in the future.

I hope that helped. If you have further questions please feel free-as someone that successfully "walked away" I'm more than happy to share my experience with others!