1st time homebuyer needs advice...

[jdsd21]

Hello,

I am new around these parts and wanted to introduce myself and give you all a look into my current home mortgage situation. I came across this site last week while researching my options for dealing with a bad loan that I am currently in. I have to say that it’s been great to find this site, a lot of helpful information floating around, and it’s good to know that I might have a place to go when I have questions, concerns, or need advice.

My story is a new and developing one. Last week, I was asked by a close companion, who happens to be a financial advisor, to come into his office to discuss my current financial status. Our discussions went no further then my home mortgage. He gave me his opinion on where he sees the market going in the future and requested that I educate myself on the terms and conditions of my current loan and look ahead to ensure I am ready to adjust when my terms do. All in all, it was a shock to hear his outlook and his opinion on the situation that I was in. This is my first house, loan, so if he didn’t pull me aside to give me his input, I probably would have never uncovered what I have in the past few days, that’s to come later in the story.

I have been researching from the minute I got back from my advisor and I have found loads of information. For the sake of saving paper space and your time, I am going to get to the meat of the story and see what you all have for an opinion of my options going into the future.

I found a house in April 2007 that was in a short sale. I approached a mortgage broker and told him my situation and what I was looking to spend. It was my first time going through the process so I wasn’t involved as much as I should have been, heck I didn’t know anything about loans. I literally gave my information and let him roll, putting my faith in him that he would find a loan for me. He did just that, he worked with a loan officer from Chase to get me set up, pre approved, and ready to make an offer on this house. I made my offer and it was accepted. The seller’s bank required me to close by a certain date, I believe it was 30 days, and at a certain title/escrow company. To say the least, from the time my offer was accepted and to the time I was sitting down closing, I was flying around trying to do all the things that I needed to do. It all ended with me signing all my docs, but to be honest, I didn’t know exactly what I was signing. All the emotions of purchasing my first house, the reality of putting down a huge down payment, and the responsibility all overwhelmed me, not to mention the title agent who was late to our meeting and controlled the speed of going through the documents, it was intense.

Fast forward to this week, I began to examine my loan docs a little further and I think that I have found some things that are not so kosher in the financial world. The one that jumps out at me right off the bat is my income was inflated 175%. This probably would be something that you may see on stated loans all the time right? Well, my loan is a conventional 5/1 ARM loan fully documented. For a documented loan, doesn’t the lender need proof of income to match? Is this telling me that my w2 was altered? I don’t know the process, but this is the feeling that I get right off the bat. I also found an unsigned copy of a w9 and Tax Return request in my closing docs that I don’t recall signing. The level of my inflated income put me at 41% DTI, I am assuming that was the threshold for getting approved for the loan. Going through my loan docs a little more I found some other discrepancies, such as it states that I am married, my debt obligations appear to be low, I have a huge balloon payment at the maturity date of my second, and I can’t seem to find my right of rescission letter. Heck, my documents aren’t even signed, and a lot of them say draft on them. Am I supposed to have a signed copy of all my closing docs? I will be going through these docs a little more to gather more details that I can share later.

My mortgage is broken up into an 80/20 loan. My first is a 5/1 I/O and my second is a fixed rate 15 year conventional. I am currently not late on any payments, haven’t been since I got the loan. I have worked my ace off to make my payments for sure, and I have lived on the bare minimum for some time. I have a roommate which helps a lot, I don’t think, well I know, I couldn’t do it by myself, unless I went back to my college days and lived without food and electricity, but nowadays I prefer those amenities. I really can keep going on, but I am not too sure what info I should be putting here for you all to help me with advice, so feel free to ask me any questions.

I guess my first question here is, what are my options at this point? I am not late, however, at any point if something adverse happens I sure can be. My Interest rate doesn’t adjust for another 3 years or so, I can see a dark cloud loom in my future, and if I don’t take action now, it may overtake me. After talking with my advisor and reading the forum here, I don’t think there is any way that I should have gotten approved for the loan that I am in. My true DTI far exceeds what it should be. I was naïve, and trusted the people I was working with, did I get reamed here? Can I rescind this loan off mortgage fraud. I am planning on sending a QWR to my lender, and I have a feeling I am going to find docs with forged signatures on it. However, I did sign the closing papers, so does that make me liable? Please comment as you see fit and send me any questions you may have. Maybe we can build this story together and close it at the same time…

JD

[Moe Bedard]

Hi JD,

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

The modifications given are up to the investors on the loans and in a hardship situation..............so you will need to put together a hardship letter........this link has examples and what the lender looks at for a hardship.........
Examples of a Hardship Letter

Who is the servicer on the loan?
What is your interest rate at?
What is the loan amount?

At the closing you will only get copies of most papers without signatures.........there are a couple such as the HUD1 and Buyer's Settlement Statement which you sign in triplicate so you should have originals of those. You would have also signed at closing another copy of the application that had the income and debt information on it......doing the QWR is a good thing as it will give you the copies of your loan file to look over and see what you signed at closing.
The three day right of rescission is given on a refinance not a purchase so if this was a purchase, you would not have that document.

[jdsd21]

***,

I appreciate your response. Chase is the servicer of both of my loans. The first loan is for 300K and is set currently at 6.25%. This loan is a 5/1 I/O. My second loan is for 75K 8.45% fixed rate for 15 years with a balloon payment of 60K at the maturity date of the loan.

***, I don't have signed copies of any documents, no HUD1, Buyers Settlement statement, or loan application. This isn't saying I didn't sign them, but I don't have a copy. I would like to complete a QWR. I realize that Chase would have 20 days to respond to my request and 60 days to attempt to fix any problems. When I initiate the process of the QWR, I am assuming that opens up case on my loan. This has been what has held me back from submitting one just yet. I don't want to open a can of worms until I know that I can close it back up. Is my thinking correct? Or can I request a QWR whenever without opening a case? I will be talking with a lawyer soon regarding my recent findings. I will see what they have for advice moving forward. In the meantime I am fishing the web for edification purposes, I want to be prepared, thanks again for your response...

JD

[Moe Bedard]

A QWR doesn't open a can of worms......especially if you are missing a good majority of your documents.......then at least you will have them to show to the attorney too............ the QWR would go to the customer service address of Chase and has nothing to do with Loss Mitigation if that is the route you want to go after speaking with an attorney to see what is best for you to do.