Success with Wachovia & M&I Bank!!!

[AZhelpneeded]

Started loan mod process with Wachovia in 2/09 fro primary residence. Completed modification in 06/09.

Terms for Wachovia:
Old Balance: $301.531.89
New Balance: $241,225.51
20% principle reduction!
Had pick-a-payment loan (interest only payments = $1344.62/monthly)
New payment $1332.63, 5.65% fixed until 8/2010
5.775% 2010-2011
5.9% 2011-2012
6.025% 2012-21013
6.15% 2013-2014
6.275% 2014-2015
6.5% 2015-2049 (Fixed)
*payments do go up yearly until 2015 but only by about $25-$35/month for that year. 40 year loan.

With M&I we have 3 loans with them. One for a rental house and the other two were for vacant, residential land. Started process in 4/2009. Completed modifications in 7/2009.

Loan 1 (rental house)
Balance $162,086.45
Old payment: $906.41/month (interest only)
New payment $705.41 until 8/2012
$833.53/month 8/2012-7/2039
New 4.4% fixed rate

Loan 2 (lot loan)
Balance: $224,994.42
Old Payment: $1406.02/month
New payment: $937.48 until 7/1/2012
$1622.66/month until 6/2039
6.8% fixed rate

Loan 3 (land loan)
Balance: $43,350.00
Old payment: $234.81
New payment: $180.63 until 8/2012
$284.18/month until 7/2039
6.1% fixed rate

*even though on two of the loans with M&I Bank our payments go up in 3 years and we will be paying more monthly than we are paying now (without the modifications), we are still very happy with the mods because previously with lot/land loans you have to refinance every 3 years and that usually meant payments would go up anyways and you had to go with the current interest rate at the time. Plus you have to pay for apprasial fees, doc fees, etc. More importantly, with all 4 of these modifications, we are saving more than $700/month at least for the next 3 years!

Thank you so much for this site!!!

[keeranbri]

Wow..AZ...how did you do that with your wachovia..I practically have the same kind of loan like you with Wachovia, which my present balance is at about 280,000. but the bad thing about mine is that I am paying minimum payment only, which is more worse.

That would be the greatest if I could get a modification just like yours at about 1300.00. Does that include your full interest and principal and escrow?

How did you do it? Can you tell me your steps. I am about to fax over a hardship letter along with me and wifes recent paystabs before the end of the week. but I'm not sure if that would be enough. What did you do? Did you have to miss on a payment and be late?

Please help me out..thank you,

[AZhelpneeded]

keeranbri:

Contacted Wachovia in 2/2009. Told us to send over hardship letter. Our hardship at the time was that I was given notice in 1/2009 that I would be laid off on 6/30/09, pregnant, and live in a very hard hit state for unemployment and declining home value. With the pick-a-payment loan we were only paying the minimum and not paying anything towards the principle or interest, actually our loan amount was increasing every year! I think the amount we should have been paying to cover principle & interest was around $2100. We were only paying around $1350. It was a horrible loan! It was due to adjust to principle and interest payments ($2100) at anytime since we were over our 125% loan to value.

My husband called a few more times after our initial contact in 2/2009. We were current, so they kept telling us to call back in 30 days to see if any new programs had come out that we would qualify for since their main concern was helping people in immediate danger of losing their home.

Finally around April my husband got a rep on the phone that basicaly said you have to be 31 days late in order for them to work with you. The rep also told us that all they look at is whether or not you can afford the modification and when we called back in 31 days, NOT to mention my lay off in 6/09 (which never happened anyway). The rep said to come up with another reason why we needed a modification that would not effect our income (HUH???). We weighed out options and decided that we would miss the 5/2009 payment. We owed about $80,00 - $60,000 more than the house was worth (after putting down $70,000!!!) and it is not a house we plan on staying in forever, so we took the gamble. My husband called back on 6/2/09 (31 days later) and they asked a bunch of questions over the phone. One of which was why the reason we needed a mod. My husband said we needed it due to medical expenses (daughter had been in the hospital in 3/09). The costs were very minimal, but it's the only thing we could think of. The rep asked us to fax over bank statements, paystubs, and W-2s. I was shocked they did not ask for medical bills or at least another hardship letter or a spread sheet of living expenses/monthly bills. On 6/12/09 Wachovia called us and said we were approved and we received our paperwork a few days later.

Our new payment does include interest & principle and also includes taxes and insurance (about $200/month).

So that's our experience. We did not have to call every other day like a lot of people, in fact we probably only spoke with them about 5-6 times. It also might have helped that we had the type of loan we did (pick-a-payment). They seem to want those off their books and we make more than enough to pay the new amount. I feel guilty saying it, but it was pretty easy and we may have just been one of the lucky people that slipped through. We did have to damage our perfect credit and miss a payment, but I've read another post where the person is current with Wachovia and is getting a 3 month trial offer (have no idea what the terms are). So, maybe you don't have to be late now to be considered. Ours is not a trial offer, it's offical.

Here are the phone #'s we used:
Wachovia Executive Team 1-866-642-9407 (we started with this one)
1-888-565-1422 (given this # on 5/15/09, rep said it was the "magic" #)

One piece of advice. If you don't like the answers you get, call back. Different reps tell you different things. It's like a puzzle and unfortunately it's up to you to put the pieces together. Best of luck!

[keeranbri]

hI aZ...Can you let me know ...I would just need your opinion if you could help me before I send this..It is a hardship but was not sure If i should include what amount to modifed, or do I just leave that up to them.

To whom it may concern,
I am writing this letter to explain my unfortunate set of circumstances that are now starting to become a desperate situation on how we are going to pay and prevent from being delinquent and/or foreclosing on our mortgage. We have done everything in our power to try to make ends meet and although we are not or have not yet been late in our monthly payments, this will soon change due to the pick-a payment loan we are in. Therefore, I am writing this letter to you for your consideration in working with us to modify our loan. Our number one goal is to keep our home for our family and children and we would greatly appreciate the opportunity.
We are currently in a negative amortization, pick-a-payment loan with an adjustable rate that keeps increasing every year on our anniversary. We are in a loan that was originally sold for 256k and since we have been only able to afford the minimum payment due, our principal balance has grown to about 280k, which has turned us upside down on our mortgage. Our full amortized payment is about 2k a month and this is simply unaffordable considering me and my husband current income and would be able to afford a full amortized payment between $1300.00-1400.00. As a result, this has caused me to become further and further behind on our negative amortization and has caused me to become at great risk of default or foreclosure on our home. I am not in the position to refinance due to the loss of values in the real estate market.
Me and my husband income together is just not enough to cover the full amortized payment of our mortgage along with our other expenses, household liabilities, taxes and unsecured/secured debt that we carry along. However, we are confident that given the opportunity for a loan modification, we can resolve this issues that caused this financial distress. I am fortunate and positive that both me and my husband employment are secured and by obtaining a loan modification, I feel confident that I will be able to maintain my mortgage and pay on the loan that has been afforded to me. I will greatly appreciate your attention on this very important matter and hope you will consider working with me/us.

Sincerely and Respectfully,

[AZhelpneeded]

Here is our original hardship letter we submitted. I see nothing wrong with including the amount you can afford to pay every month. It seems your loan was the same as ours. Although we did not save any $$$ monthly, we are now in a fixed rate loan that will not adjust to over $2,000/month.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to explain our unfortunate set of circumstances that have caused us to inquire about a loan modification. We have done everything in our power to make ends meet but unfortunately we have now come to a point where we would like you to consider working with us to modify our loan. Our number one goal is to keep our home and we would really appreciate the opportunity to do that.

The main reason that we are asking for a loan modification is that my wife was recently notified she will be laid off on June 30, 2009 (please see enclosed memorandum). We are trying to be proactive in our unfortunate situation. We have always been a two income family, so she is currently looking for other employment, but she is also five months pregnant. We live in Arizona, which is one of the worst hit areas for unemployment and decreasing home values.

After receiving a letter from Wachovia inquiring if we needed assistance; we would like to explore the possibility of obtaining a fixed rate mortgage and/or paying down the principle of our mortgage. Currently, our loan is a negative amortization loan. We can not refinance to a new fixed rate loan due to the fact that our house is worth approximately 40% less that what we paid for it in May 2006. The purchase price of our home was $360,000. We put over $70,000 down on this home, but even with our substantial down payment our home is appraising between $200,000 - $220,000. The balance on our loan is approximately $300,000.

We truly hope that you will consider working with us and we are anxious to get this settled so we all can move on.

Sincerely and Respectfully,

[BenFW]

Good evening AZ, I am especially interested in how you were able to refinance the loans on the land. I have a lot loan with what used to be Indymac Bank and tried to get an extension, but was rejected. It is not even that I cannot pay the monthly payments, but that the loan is a baloon loan, because I had intended to roll it into a construction loan. How did you negotiate the refinance of the land you own?
Thanks!
Ben