AHMSI Success!! Thank you Moe, *** + Loansafe Members!

[timtete]

I never thought the day would arrive where I could say Thank God and thank you to everyone on this website including Moe, *** and everyone who has shared their stories. It was by accident that I began looking for mortgage forums about Option One, when I came upon this website in mid-October of 2008. At that time, our family had experienced the loss of our business, tenants and after filing for BK 13 in order to hold onto our home and investment properties that we had purchased in better times, we decided to re-evaluate everything because we had fallen 18 months+ behind on our primary mortgage and after months of juggling so much things had come to a head. Anyway to make a long story short, we filed BK 13, hoping to re-pay the past due amount on the mortgage plus surrender some of our property. 8 months after filing BK, our case was dismissed as we struggled to make the payments to the trustee and make payments for our household. I was really scared because our case was dismissed, I knew it would be a matter of time before we would get collection notices, foreclosure papers. During that time I found this website and spent several weeks reading others stories about Option One/AHMSI. Some were scary, others hopeful. I learned from this website valuable contacts and how to put a proposal together. I sent the following to Jeanne Drake's office on 12/11/08:

• Hardship Letter explaining loss of business and request for loan modification at 2.5_3% over 40 year period with $70 principal reduction and 20 months of mortgage payments being re-paid over life of loan. I also requested payment of taxes for 2007 + 2008 and that payments begin in 60 days
• Bank Statements for last 60 days
• 2007 State + Federal tax return
• Paystubs for last 30 days
• Family Budget Form ( Found free that I created based on our family's expenses)

Within 48 hours of sending my 30 page fax I was contacted by Amy to confirm the income and debts that I submitted. She requested proof of my car insurance premium because she said it was higher than the national average. I explained that we had 2 teen drivers and one of the vehicles that financed required full coverage which made the premium for everyone higher. Once she recieved this information, she ordered the escrow information. We waited for an answer from 12/27/08- 2/26/09. I called every week to check in with Amy and even if I left a message she was very good about calling me back within 24 hours. She gave us a call and told us that we were approved for modification but the terms would be different:

4% P+I with escrow payments estimated at $350/month for total payment of $3130/month for 1st year.
4.5% for 2nd year.
5.0% for 3rd year and
6.00% for remaining 23 years.

They would not extend the term of the loan to 40 years or reduce principal This included all back payments. I was hoping to get our payments lowered to $2300/month including escrow but it ended up being $3130. This amounted to 50% of our income before taxes. After go back and forth between a mix of "disappointment" and relief at having a chance to start over. I talked with Amy over the next few days and she gave me some straight talk which was essentially, cut everything out of the budget except for:

• Mortgage
• Food
• Car Insurance
• Car

Everything else like tuition for your kids in school/college, credit cards, charity contribution, pet care was not taken into account. She also told me that even though we had suffered a reduction in income, the investor anticipated it would not always be that way and was not wiling to take a further loss by reducing anything else. Well we cut more "non_essential items", clipped coupons and had everyone 18 and old in our home find part time jobs so that they could pay for some of their living expenses. It was tough but with careful planning, we look forward to paying our mortgage by Western Union on 4.29.09 and will request permission to make online payments starting in 6/09 since we can't process the payment that way for the first month. Listed below is the screen shot from AHMSI. I know this may not be everyone's idea of a success story but for me it is. I look forward to the day when I can start making prinicpal payments to move things along much faster but for now I am truly, truly grateful for the second chance, my family and I have been given.

Current Principal Balance	$548,115.05		Current Interest Rate	4.000 %
Loan Origination Date	07/11/2006		Original Loan Amount	$468,457.00
First Payment Due Date	09/01/2006		Loan Type	Conventional
Maturity Date	08/2036		Payment Method	Monthly Statement
Payment Information
Scheduled Payment Breakdown:
Next Payment Due 05/01/2009 Last Payment Received 04/18/2008 Principal & Interest $2,750.37 Total Scheduled Payment * $2,750.37