Running out of time!

[mccannam]

We have been trying to get a loan modification from BofA for almost 2 years. My loan is owned by BofA and we have finally been offered a trial modification which we have not yet accepted because it is way more than we can afford (even though BofA underwriters seems to think we can). The payment offered us is $450 more a month than what we were originally paying. Our account was recently flagged for review by the Department of Justice Settlement, but we have not yet received a letter. I am worried we may miss out on this opportunity as we have to reply to our modification by May 31, 2012 or foreclose June 15 or shortsale our home. Our home is about 300k under water and the trial modification is not taking this into consideration. All we are asking is for more time for the guidelines to be completed, receive our letter and a chance to see if we qualify for the new program.

Has anyone received one of these letters for the DOJ settlement and any ideas on how I can escalate our case. I have written letters to everyone I can think of from BofA to the Attorney General to President Obama. Our case is currently with the Office of the President but our agent doesn't seem to have any answers (Don't get me wrong he has been great to work with). Says there is no way to escalate and to either take the trial modification or shortsale.

We love our home and want to stay but I think time is against us at this point. Any help is appreciated. Thanks

[Evan Bedard]

Welcome and thanks for joining the forum.

From my understanding these banks have about another 3-6 months left to determine who might be eligible. I have a feeling this is gonna be much like HAMP when the program was first established where they strung borrowers along for many months before offering permanent assistance. I'm not too sure if you will still be able to qualify for the settlement if you begin the trial period, but I'm not positive.. Do you know if your mortgage is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac? If so, mortgage's backed by them cannot qualify for the settlement..

National Mortgage Settlement Information and FAQs

Does Fannie Mae Own Your Mortgage? Loan Lookup Tool

https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/

You will find a good discussion on the national mortgage settlement with BofA in the thread below:

Bank of America Starts Mortgage Reduction

[mccannam]

We are owned by BofA and almost 200K under water. We live in Northern California in the Bay Area.

Just an update we did decline our current modification as it was way too expensive. Once we did that our account went into review for the DOJ settlement. They wanted all new documentation which we have provided. That was about a week ago. Now it is wait and see. Our rep did say they can push out our sale date if the account is still under review at that time. But they will review that a few days before the sale date.

[Evan Bedard]

We are owned by BofA and almost 200K under water. We live in Northern California in the Bay Area.

Just an update we did decline our current modification as it was way too expensive. Once we did that our account went into review for the DOJ settlement. They wanted all new documentation which we have provided. That was about a week ago. Now it is wait and see. Our rep did say they can push out our sale date if the account is still under review at that time. But they will review that a few days before the sale date.

That is true that BofA will not generally postpone a foreclosure until a few business days prior to the actual trustees sale. Good job declining the offer as it is never wise to accept an agreement yo cannot afford. Good luck and keep us posted on the settlement!

[mccannam]

Just received a letter from BofA offering a DOJ principal\interest rate reduction. I owe 875K and my home is worth about 700K. They are going to waive back payments and drop the principal to $625k. We have not made payments for 22 months. They are also lowering our interest rate to 2.319%. We have to do 3 trial payments as well but we are going to do it, starting July 1, 2012. It says in the letter it will become permanent after the trial payments. I sure hope they don't change anything after the trial payments. If they keep everything the same we will be very happy. We are also going to see if we can settle on our 2nd with Pnc. Keep your fingers crossed as I hear PNC is hard to work with.

[Evan Bedard]

Wow that is excellent news you have been approved for the DOJ settlement! This is by far the best modification one can receive and I hope you receive a permanent modification once the trial period is complete.

Good luck!