Citi Residential Loan Mod SUCCESS!!!!!

[JulesK]

Hello everyone,
I am so thrilled to have found your website. Thank you, Moe, for creating a forum for all of us, stressed homeowners, to share, learn, and vent.

Here is my story... In '02, my parents purchased the home. In '03, I became co-owner of the home. In '04, I became sole owner of the home through a "deed over refi" (at least that's what they called it back then). The home was appraised at $470K (a bit overinflated, even during those times) and ended up with an 2/28 ARM loan. Much like everyone else here, I was told that I could refi in 2 years and be set in a fixed loan.
So, although the mortgage was high for us, $2950/mo, my husband and I were continuing to pay each month. In Nov. '07, I received a letter from Citi stating that they were now our mortgage servicers (correct lingo?) and also, our mortgage was set to increase in Jan '08. I immediately contacted Citi and informed them that we were unable to meet the increased mortgage ($3500). I was told that Citi was in the process of developing their Refinance Dept; call back in Dec. In Dec, I heard on the news about the Pres. Bush Plan. I thought, "Yeah, there's something that can help us." I contacted Citi and was told that any customer that qualified for the Pres. Bush Plan would receive a letter/postcard by mid-January. Naively, I waited and my husband and I had a very frugal Christmas so that we could pay our January mortgage. On Jan. 19th, I decided I had waited long enough and contacted Citi. The cust. serv. rep explained that they did not have the Pres. Bush Plan and they had not heard of any letter/postcard being mailed to customers. However, she was the first and (so far) the only kind customer service rep who informed me about the Loan Mod program. So, long story short, I received their financial packet within the week and after a couple of week-long work conferences, I finally faxed the Hardship Letter, paystubs, bank statements, etc. to them on Feb. 14th. After calling for 4 days straight, the rep said they finally showed a notation that they received my fax. What was frustrating was that I could not speak with anyone in the Loan Mod dept. directly. Today, however, I received a message from a Loan Mod rep that they did not receive my entire fax, could I please fax the pay stubs again. She also wants a letter allowing them to conduct a credit report history on my husband. My question to you is: should I do this? My husband is not on the current loan or deed/title. When I purchased the home, it was prior to us being married and I/we prefer to leave the home as a sole owner. Both of our credit history is not stellar, above 565, and although my husband's history would show more debt, I don't want to include him on the deed/title. Any thoughts about that?
Also, is there anything else that I should do now? I want to trust that Citi is doing everything that they can do, but I am learning to be less naive. My husband urged me to pay the minimum due this month, but that leaves us with NO ability to pay next month. Should I fax something, call someone, write something? (Poppy says, "Fax, fax, fax, call, call, call, write, write, write...
Thank you so much for your help! Look forward to chatting soon.

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

Please do make your payments, above all with these buggers make your payments. If you do not pay this month, they will not accept next month's payment.

They are not putting your husband on title if this is a modification, they can not reopen the Deed of Trust and title and still have what is a strict modification. The financial statement that you supplied to them in the initial stages of the modification package had your husband's income on it? It is their intent to also review your husband's other bills to ascertain that the financial statement you gave them is factual information for them to predicate their decision to modify the loan on. They are not changing title, your husband will not go on the loan through this process or title.

They do need to assure themselves that the modification agreement that they are working on however has "legs" and that the household bills are all of the household bills. That is why I tell everyone to put everything on the financial statements as it is in the household. So, let them pull the credit report, that is part of the process and there are no other choices in the matter. They do not use the FICO score in this process....there is no reason to you already have the loan and the FICO score is just that, worthless in this process, was to begin with too. The concerns that you have regarding title are not ones to worry about, the issue here is pure and simple checking up on household bills and consumer debt within the household budget....

[JulesK]

Thank you for the clarification on my spouse's credit history check. I will fax them the letter today allowing them to do so. I did include all of the household debt (including my husband's) and his income, which now makes sense why they were making their request.
Is there anything else that I should be doing at this point? I am so fearful that they will come back and say they can not do a loan mod and then I'm back to square one. I want to be as proactive as possible. Thanks again.

Only thing that you can do is call, call, call and fax, fax, fax...stay proactive and find out what they are doing at every step of the way. The biggest thing is not to be underwater on your monthly income to debt analysis and not to be so liquid at the end of the month that they can not figure why you are making the request....i.e. 700.00 left over at the end of the month after everything is paid. We have no formulas for this process, only a general idea that you need to be around 150.00 to 250.00 left over at the end of the month. Some of them are allowing an underwater figure....go figure, but they adjust the payment to accommodate that issue and resolve it. Citi does not appear to be one of them allowing the underwater situation...at least so far.

So, please stay proactive, do not wait for them to contact you, they will not and if they do it is generally bad news....well not always, some of the modifiers and negotiators are good professionals, but few and far between.

They decline you the first time out of the starting gate, ask again, they are approving a lot of them on the second go round....all in the luck of the draw and the investors' changing attitude about modification.

[JulesK]

Thank you Poppy for your advice. Since I last posted, I did finally speak with the individual who is gathering all of my documents, "Naomi". She did not receive my fax and asked that I fax it again. (It was the 3rd time that I was faxing it.) So, I completely agree with your motto "Fax, fax, fax, call, call, call..."
On Friday I was so surprised when she actually answered her telephone (I had left several voicemail messages with no return call) and she was actually very kind and asked me several times if I had any questions for her. And I had a ton of questions (I had been keeping a list and wanted to be prepared when I finally had a "live" voice on the other end) and bombarded her with them. She did admit that she had not checked her voicemail in about a week and half - good to know.
I asked what was the next step; there are several "stages" to the loan mod process. First, you must complete a telephone "screening" with the general Customer Service Dept. If you qualify (whatever that means- they couldn't define exactly what the qualifications are) then you will receive a financial packet in the mail. Once you complete all of the paperwork and fax it to them, then your file is assigned to someone in the Loan Mod Dept (until then you can not contact them via phone, actually you'll know when your file has been assigned to someone because the telephone prompts change). After they verify all the docs, then your file is sent to the Underwriting Dept (according to Naomi). So, that's where we are...waiting in limbo btwn Loan Mod and Underwriting. It may be another 2-4 weeks though until we get an answer.
Here's a piece of advice that I learned so far, Ask for the fax number everytime you are asked to fax something. I just assumed that the fax number was the same, but I got the sense that each worker has a "preferred" fax number. I ended up faxing the same docs to both fax numbers, just to cover my bases. So, cross your fingers that they'll have good news for us.

[JulesK]

Poppy, or others, I have a question re: short term loan mod. Echo2 had a fantastic success with CitiMortgage, "Our interest rate went from 13.6 to 2% for the next two years. After the two years are up, they will review our info again and determine whether or not another modification is needed."
I was wondering, however, whether you would suggest holding out for a long term loan mod vs. a short term loan mod.
I understand that it completely depends on the homeowner, and I may choose to take the short term loan mod offer (if I am offered one), but would you suggest "holding out" for the long term loan mod?
My concern is that I don't know if I have the energy or emotional reserve to do this again in two years, you know? I guess, if they offer a long term mod (with reasonable rates) then go with it, right?
Just wondering... thanks for your help.

[Moe Bedard]

Jules,
The investors on the loans are different in alot of cases. So what was offered to Echo2 might not be the same offer for you. Wait and see what type of modification you are offered and then make the decision from there. I know the waiting is the hardest part.......but hang in there, you can do this....
The unkown is hard too......the investor group on your mortgage might present a fixed long term rate, you just don't know right now until the decision is made.
Good Luck and keep us posted on the progress.....

Jules that was a HELOC or HELOAN that went back to the teaser rate, not a long term first mortgage that is why the rate was so demonstratively less, they are tied to prime and not of the size or magnitude of the first mortgage. So that success had some inherently different issues than yours with a first mortgage. That rate will adjust as that is the nature of HELOCs and HELOANs they are variable, actually, not even adjustable rates, and variable rates are very volitile and they are subject to review monthly in the real world of payment and payment amounts when they are running along as originally skewed at the time of inception and funding.

They start them with a teaser rate of 2 to 5% and then 6 months later...whammy, up they go, often to 13 and 14%....not pretty and if it is a large HELOC or HELOAN....real unpleasant.

With the first mortgages they are trying for a more permanent "fix" to resolve the situation, the goal is not to have to go back and re-address this issue in the future. Will we, yes in some cases, this is an ongoing problem and as such in the future I suspect they will be better at it and we will too. For that matter will you be living in this house in let's say 6 to 7 years...if you can get a resolution to the problem for that long....the average life in a house was at one time 7 years, recently due to this hyper inflated market, less. We will go back to the longer terms in the primary residence, but for now, if you can get a solution for 3 years or better, which is the average we are seeing on these firsts....it is a start. Again the next go round they will be better and we will to, we are seeing a lot of permanent "fixes" for the firsts as well. So...fingers and toes crossed...and keep, call, call, calling and fax, fax, faxing...

[JulesK]

Thank you both, *** and Poppy. I didn't realize that Echo2's loan was a HELOC and so it makes much more sense. Thank you for explaining. So, fingers, toes crossed and yes, we will keep making our efforts. Thanks again, I'll let you know what happens next...

[JulesK]

I don't know if anyone would be interested, but I thought I would give an update on our loan mod...
Last Friday, I spoke with "Angie" with the Underwriting Dept who was very kind and said that she received my file but that I was #15 on her list, call back in a week. So, I decided to have faith and I called her today. I was so thrilled that she returned my telephone call the same day I left the message. She has looked at our file, and although she wouldn't give any details, she did say that she did "get something" on our loan but that she did not like it and was "still working on our file". It was like pulling teeth to just get that little bit of info; I felt like she was speaking in code. So, I don't know what that means but what she assured me was that she is trying to get the best deal for us. I hope so.
The bummer is that even after she puts together a proposal, it will take "Management" two weeks to accept/deny the proposal. And then it will go to another dept if they need to "pull escrow". Angie mentioned something about late taxes, any ideas?? I told her that we've paid all of our taxes and will do so in April again, with our tax return.
I told Angie that I would be calling her again tomorrow afternoon to just check-in (she told me to call at the end of next week- I can't wait that long). So, that's that... patience and faith.

They pull a tax cert and title at the end of the process to determine that taxes are not late or past due...if you have paid them, not to worry. That information will be reflected in the tax cert.

She is trying to pull a lower or longer lower rate by playing with figures to try and get the investors to lower and elongate the time they will accept the lower rate.

Management is investors and final stamp of approval for the modification with the following tax cert and title....the time frames they have given you are not terribly long, I know it feels it, but there are worse....2 weeks at "management" the investors must be really behind in the approval of these things, but given that it is Citi, they have a boat load of them....so no wonder they are backed up.

[JulesK]

Tax cert and Title- oh! That makes sense. Well, at least that's one less thing for us to worry about, for now. Two weeks- Angie did say that it may not take that long, but I will try my best to be patient.
Thank you again!

Do not let them rest during the 2 weeks, call them, they would miss you and you do know my formula...call, call, call and fax, fax, fax.....that one you know...

[JulesK]

Well, it's finally over... we're APPROVED!
My husband and I have been so thrilled that we haven't stopped smiling.
In my last post, I mentioned that it would take two weeks for "Mgmt" to respond to the proposal, but it only took 4 days! Mgmt received the proposal on Monday and we received a Fed Ex packet on Friday! The terms of our loan mod include returning our interest to the original rate (prior to the 5% jump in January), fixed for 7 years, and the best news... we don't have to make our first payment until June, that's a 3-month grace with all late fees waived! We're paying off a few credit cards, paying the property tax, and we're treating ourselves to a short Las Vegas trip! YIPEE!
It took exactly 6 weeks for the entire process, once we mailed our packet to them, and although it was absolutely nerve-wrecking while waiting, I have to admit that Citi did a great job getting through the application.

Thank you so much for your help and your advice. We would not have been able to get through this without all of you.

[Moe Bedard]

Jules.......I am assuming that you did sign and return that puppy already right???

[JulesK]

Oh YES, absolutely!
We received the FedEx packet on 3/21 (Fri), went to the Notary on Monday and mailed it that same day. The envelope that Citi provided was for overnight Fed Ex.
That's it! YEAH!

[Moe Bedard]

Well Then...........Let me be the first to say

CONGRATUALTIONS!!!!!!!!! THAT IS GREAT NEWS!!! SO HAPPY FOR YOU GUYS!!!

HAVE FUN IN VEGAS!!!

[JulesK]

Ha Ha! Thank you! Hee Hee!