Loan mod with ASC SUCCESS!!

[Aquarian29]

Hello,
We have a 2 year Arm that will reset on 9/08. We are current with the loan right now and have never been 30days later or over. The servicing company is ASC (American Servicing Company) and I think the loan is through Wells Fargo (but not sure since it was changed to ASC from original loan company) Our interest rate is 7.5%. There is no way we will be able to afford the payments when they reset in September. We were going to refinance, but prices have dropped a lot in our area of Southern California, so now we owe about as much as it is worth (we also have a fixed second mortgage through citifinacial). I stay at home, so my husband is on the loan by himself. His credit isn't that great, around 610-620 (has been getting better, we had problems about 6 years ago.) I talked to a mortgage company about refinancing and the lady told me I should try to talk to our lender. We would be fine if we could keep our interest rate the same. My husband is in the Army. Our current mortgage balance is about $403,000 and our second is about $35,000. We are going to be doing our taxes in a couple of days and should get about 5k-6k back. We want to pay off bills, but I don't know if it would be better to pay down our first mortgage. We have not talked to our lender yet. My husband is set to deploy to Kosovo toward the end of year. I want to make sure we get this taken care of in the next couple of months. Any advice would be great. Thanks!

[Moe Bedard]

Welcome to the community!

Smart woman. Planning ahead is always best and you need to find answers so you can make the best decision possible.

Your rate right now is actually "decent" and if you were to refinance (if you could) your rate would most likely be in the 8-9% range, unless you went FHA. Also it sounds like you are not having any immediate problems with your mortgage.

As far as the $5-6k goes, hang on "tightly" to that money. That money should be in "emergency reserves". Either in a bank account or fire proof safe. You can pay down your bills also. But what is going to happen, when an emergency come up, you'll place it on credit, thus continuing the cycle.

Then in June, I would start the process of trying to get them to freeze your current rate, if they have not already done so by then.

Sound like a plan?

What Moe sez, and have you checked into the SCRA, and does it apply to you and your family. If you purchased the house a period of time prior to your husband going into the Military there is relief for you while he is deployed by virtue of that act.

It is posted at the Top of the Loan Modification Main Page of threads....put it up just for Military Families hoping that some would fall into this category.

Also FYI, your husband's orders will also qualify for hardship in the Modification process. Save your money, hold onto it tight in a safe depository account, you may need it and it will go a long way if there is a problem. The old axiom, A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Since the property has devalued the chances of the value in the property allowing for refinance may be slim. However if you have a 3% equity in the property in relationship to the first mortgage the FHA Secure program maybe a god send.....the rates are reasonable, fixed and 30 year. Credit does not have to be perfect, just the house payment 0x30 in the prior 6 months. It is a refinance for the first mortgage only and the second will go behind it and it will not matter if it exceeds the value of the house in this program. So you should contact a direct lender and see if you do qualify for this program....FHASecure - Chase has a good program and is trained for the product, you local Credit Union if they are FHA lenders should be able to accommodate you on the program. The rates presently are 6.50% or thereabouts and the Banks/Direct Lenders will now skin you alive in fees. So...if your first mortgage is at 97% of the property's value, the mortgage payments have been 0X30 for the last 6 months and your Debt to Income ratio is about 41 to 45% with OK credit and 620 is OK for FHA.....try to see if this program will work for you.

Again please use a Direct Lender, not a Broker they will and can take money in fees and rates that are not to your benefit. I seriously recommend Chase and your Local Credit Unions. Bank of America seems to not understand the program, we have had people go there and they were sort of not helped out properly. This would be the only product that I would consider refinancing to....the only one presently.

[Aquarian29]

Hello,
Thank you for the info. It makes me feel better already. I have been worrying about this a lot for the last couple of months. I believe we might qualify for the rate freeze that President Bush has worked out. Do you know anything about this? We meet all the guidlines that I have read about (having gotten our loan in July of 2006 and not having been late on the payments) I have written a letter to our lender and plan on mailing it out. Is this a good plan? I looked at a letter someone else had posted on your website and modified it for our situation.
Thanks again for your help.

I do not know if the rate freeze is lender specific i.e. participating lenders like Country Wide, WAMU, Citi, Wells.....we have noticed that the lender/servicers like ASC, Ocwen, Litton, Avelo, and a few of the others are not participating in any of these programs.

As well, the rate freeze was never I believe made a mandate....it was discussed by not part of the bill on the table presently.....please check out that FHA Secure, you may be a great candidate for it and since your husband is military you may even get some other breaks, like a higher LTV....FHA has a Military accommodation in their guidelines allowing 750.00 more in loan amount than the rest of the world. FHA is a good solid product that is safe and you folks look like you might be great candidates for the program. Remember the Second stays put, it is just the nasty ARM first that gets refinanced...plus it might be a heck of a lot easier than modification if you are eligible for it.

[Aquarian29]

Hello,
Thank you for the info. It makes me feel better already. I have been worrying about this a lot for the last couple of months. I believe we might qualify for the rate freeze that President Bush has worked out. Do you know anything about this? We meet all the guidlines that I have read about (having gotten our loan in July of 2006 and not having been late on the payments) I have written a letter to our lender and plan on mailing it out. Is this a good plan? I looked at a letter someone else had posted on your website and modified it for our situation.
Thanks again for your help.

[Aquarian29]

Hi again,
I will check into that FHA program. I have heard about that also. Are Servicing company's their own company, or are they servicing the loan for someone else? I believe ASC is associated with Wells Fargo, but not sure. If I call ASC will they tell me?

[Aquarian29]

Where do I go to find out about the FHA loan? Is there a website? Thanks!

The servicer in this case does not own the loan.....I am really sure of that. Wells does own ASC it is their Sub-Prime servicing arm/division. Really difficult to work with, that is why if you can get out of there legitimately, you should.

For the FHA Secure ARM....look for a Chase Home Loan Center near you, they are out in So Cal or try the local Credit Union you can be made a member pretty rapidly for this purpose. I am reluctant to recommend anyone else at this time. The bulk of them are either ignorant of the program or will take to much in fees. I know that the credit unions really limit the amount of fee income that their loan officers can make and my experience with Chase on a personal referral that I just made was handled wonderfully. So owing to my recent experiences and overall dislike of where my industry has gone these are the two best recommendations that I can make.

I am very concerned and careful about even who HUD refers out to as recently that has been a problem in a couple of cases....so these are my best suggestions.

[Aquarian29]

Hello,
I have seen a lot of ther ASC stories on here. Just thought I would ask for some advice. I was on here in February and have been lurking around since trying to learn more info. We have our first mortgage loan with ASC. We live in southern California. We owe about $403k as of now. We have never been late. Our house is probably only worth about 350-370k now. There are a ton of forclosures in our area. We are not planning on moving anytime soon. Our ARM is set to change 09/01/08. Last month we sent a letting to ASC stating that once the loan resets we will not be able to afford it and would like to fix the interest rate at 7.5% (which is what the loan rate has been since we got it in August 2006)We do not want to lower the interest rate, just fix it or freeze it. We also called the Hope now # and have been talking to MMI. We did a budget with them and they are sending it to ASC. Our budget states that we only have about $143.00 leftover every month. I received a letter today from ASC stating that our request was forwarded to their ARM reset team. (I don't believe they have gotten the info from MMI yet, this was just in response to the letter we sent them a couple of weeks ago) I called ASC and the representative said we couldn't do anything until mid July when they Know what our interest rate will reset to. The guy at MMI said we should qualify for the rate freeze program, but the ASC lady said if we hadn't gotten a letter about that already then we didn't qualify.

I am just worried that if we wait until July/August it will take to long and we won't be able to afford our payment when it changes in September. Is there anything else I can do? I am a stay at home mom, my husband is in the Military and is going to be deploying for a year sometime at the end of this year. We are trying to get this all taken care of before he leaves. Any advice would be great. Thanks!

[Moe Bedard]

Aquarian,

You were given some great advice here in February about FHA.......did you try that route?

If they are telling you that they won't work with you until July it is only because they are swamped right now with people that are severely behind and in foreclosure..........so unfortunately that becomes a priority right now........

Here is the ART Team direct line if you don't already have it.........all you can do is try calling and see if they will freeze the rate........but it might still be too early.........

ART TEAM
1-866-398-7569

[Aquarian29]

I don't think there is any way we can refinance, even through FHA secure. Our house is upside down. Most the houses around here are selling for around 300K and we owe over 400k. I was just wondering if anyone has had any luck get a loan mod before their loan has reset? It seems to be somewhat of a catch22. You have to be late on your payments or not be able to afford them once it resets for them to look at your loan. I am trying to be proactive so we don't get in the situation where we are behind or can't make the payments at all. Has anyone had luck with the hope-now,modification people. I thought if we got a middle man to work with us they might be able to deal with ASC better then we could. Thanks!

[Moe Bedard]

Just go to the Success Section and look at the ASC Successes........not everyone was late and you will be able to see the timeframes and workouts that were given......

[aspen806]

Just speaking for myself I am in the process of doing a modification and my rate isn't due to go up until July 1st. I started early like you did because I wanted to avoid not being able to afford my home. I submitted all of the paperwork to my mortgage company and when he called me he said "not that your problem isn't important but there are people right now who are either way behind or are getting ready to have their homes taken from them" he went on to say that they are trying to do those 1st. He told me to call him back May 1st and then he would submit my paperwork. I called him on the 5th and he said he would submit my packet. I was told today that my modification was at the underwriters. I'm HOPING that this process will be over BEFORE my rate is due to go up.

[Aquarian29]

Thanks for the info... I will look at the other threads also. Aspen806, keep us updated, hope all works out. It looks like I will just have to make sure all my ducks are in a row and stay on top of it.

[Aquarian29]

Hi,
looks like a lot of other people on here are having problems with ASC. Hopefully we can get ours worked out before it's to late. We sent them a hardship letter a couple of weeks ago and earlier this week got a letter dated May 5th stating they had received our correspondence regarding our ARM and forwarded the request to the ARM reset team and gave me the phone #. On May 5th we talked to a guy name Ben from the Hope-Now phone# (Money Management international) He took all of our info, including budget worksheet etc and was going to send it to ASC. Today we received another letter from ASC saying they received our inquiry concerning our loan. They said they are in the process of reviewing it and will advise us of the status within 30 days. Should I keep calling them, or should I just wait. When I originally called them after the first letter they sent (must have been before they received the paperwork from the Hope-now people) they said we had to wait until July when they would know what interest rate would adjust to. I don't want to wait until the last minute, since it seems that many people are getting the run-around from them for months.

The only good sign seems to be that they are contacting us, and have received our info. Also, it is strange, but on our original loan docs it says our rate will adjust on August 1, 2008, but on their info it says September 1st. Should I be worried about that? Would it be a good idea to go through the attorney on here? My husband is in the military and I have three small children, so I don't have a lot of free time to sit on the phone and harass them. Thanks for any advice!

[mar639]

You did just fine.
Just keep calling them every other day till you they tell you what you want to hear.
Ive called everyday even twice or three times a day till I found someone kind and patient enough to tell me that I was assigned to a negotiator.

[Aquarian29]

Hello,
I have some pretty amazing news. Today I received a loan modification package from ASC via DHL. I didn't even though they had sent it, since we had only sent our info and talked to them a couple of weeks ago (also talked to the hope-now people at the beginning of May). I just opened it up and am somewhat confused by all the mortgage terms etc. Maybe someone on here can help me decipher this, since we only have a few days to send it back. Our mortgage originated in 07/06 and is a two year ARM at 7.5% and was due to adjust on 09/01/08 to some crazy amount. We told them we couldn't make that payment (we have been on time will all of our payments) and would like to modify our loan to a fixed rate of 7.5% which is what I believe they did. Our original loan I believe was a 40 year loan (not a 30year)even though on their paperwork it says 2036 (I think there was a scary balloon payment on the end). Here are all the numbers and what they have onthe loan mod paperwork. Let me know if I am reading this correctly, thanks!

Our current Principal - $402,156.00
Modified Principal - $409,696.44
(they are adding on $7540.44 which it says is interest since it says our first new payment is not due until 8/01/08)
Current rate 7.5%
Modified rate 7.5%
Current montly payment $2665.19
Modified payment - $2918.05
Current ARM interest change date 9/01/08
Modified interest change rate 07/01/08
maturity date 08/01/2036
New terms 337 months

Says loan modifaction agreement was made on May 15, 2008 between us and ASC (Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. doing business as ASC)

1. Balance. As of May 15th, 2008, the amount payable under the note and Mortgage (the "unpaid principal Balance") is U.S. $402,156.00
2. Extension. This agreement hereby modifies the following terms of the Note and Security Instrument described herein above as follows:

A. The current due date has been extended from 05/01/08 to 08/01/08

B. Maturity date has been extended from 08/36 to 08/01/2036

C. The amount of interest to be capitalized will be U.S. $7540.44. The modified unpaid principal balance is U.S. $409,696.44

D. The borrower promises to pay the unpaid principal balance plus interest, to the order of the Lender. Interest will be charged on the unpaid principal balnce of U.S. $409,696.44. The borrower promises to make monthly payments of Principal and interest of U.S. 2918.05, at a yearly rate of 7.5%, not including escrow deposit, if applicable. If on the maturity date the borrower still owes amount under the note and security insturment, as amended by this agreement, borrower will pay these amounts in full on maturity date.

3. Note and mortgage. Nothing in this agreement shall be understood or construed to be a satisfaction or release, in whole or in part of the Borrowers obligations under the note or mortgage. Further, except as otherwise specifically provided in this agreement, the note and mortgage will remain unchanged, and borrower and America's Servicing Company will be bound by, and shall comply with, all the terms and provisions thereof, as amended by this agreement.

That is everything on the loan Modification agreement page. By reading this it seems to be they have fixed the rate of our loan to 7.5% for 28 years and we don't have to make a new payment until August 1st, 2008. Is it because our loan is shorter that the payment is higher? If anyone can let me know if this sounds ok, I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much!

[Aquarian29]

It also says the proposal is valid for 5 days for the date of this letter which is May 15th. So does this mean 5 business days or calendar days (since we just received it today (5/19). Does it have to be postmarked within 5 days? If anyone has sent mod papers in and knows about this, and info would greatly be appreciated! Thanks!

[Moe Bedard]

The mod docs look good...........but you should call on the whole 5 day thing to clarify.......about you just receiving it and just be on the safe side......you don't want to mess with return dates...........so just be sure about when it is due back so you can have it back promptly if need be......

Your original loan was most likely a 40 year amortization schedule due in 30 years......that is why you had the scary baloon payment at the end.......by amortizing it over 30 years you would have a slight increase, but you remove the threat of the baloon payment.............if you are able to handle it.........the modification puts you in a much better loan scenario......

[Aquarian29]

It looks like you can move this thread to SUCESS STORIES.
I called them to find out info about the loan mod paperwork we received today. It looks like everything is good. They fixed our rate to our original 7.5% (What we have been paying since beginning of loan in '06) for the remaining 28 years left. So basically we now have a 30 year fixed rate with no balloon payments etc (like we had on our original loan) Our payments do go up about $250.00 a month (luckily my husband is getting a raise in August right when our first payment is due, so it should about even out), but we don't have to make any payments until then (8/1/08) so we can pay off a lot of things up 'till then which will make it a lot easier. The only money we have to pay them now is $133.00 late fee which we hadn't paid. Does anyone know how this will show-up on our credit? They are rolling the 3 months of interest (May, June, July) into the new modified loan. Should I worry about it? We have never been late on our payments and want to keep it that way. Thanks everyone, for all the great info on here! It's been a HUGE help!

[Moe Bedard]

Oh good............I will move you to success...........so happy for you!!

You shouldn't have to worry about the payments they are rolling into the principle as everything will update in the computer that way......and since you are not late this will not cause them to report you that way........just call them in around 2-3 weeks to make sure that the modfication was input into the computer and that everything is updated..........

Congratulations!!!!!

[schwefls]

Congratulations Aquarian 29, so happy for you. Kudos to you party hardy

[mar639]

Congratulations Aquarian 29Im very happy you recieved the modifcation...based on what you posed about what is written on your modification note everything is fine. you have received a fixed rate. I recieved the exact same paper, what is written on yours is the same as what is written on mine, only the rate and #'s are different.
Now you don't need to worry about paymetns till August.
When you do go ahead and make the August payment, it will not apply immediately, you will need to wait a few weeks, but I advise that you do call in to check that your payment is applied accordinaly.
I made my first payment May 1st and they didn't apply the payment till May 14th. I would call them every other day to check on the payment.
As for my statement, I haven't recieved it yet. I did call them to ask if I was going to recieve a statement for June and they told me I should recieve it soon. Im hoping I do becuase I want to actually see something written on a piece of paper.
Once again Congratualtions and all the best.......finally another ASC Loan has been modified

[Aquarian29]

Hi,
I just wanted to thank everyone on here for the great info. I don't think we could have gotten our loan Mod so quickly if it hadn't been for this site. We used the example hardship letter as a template for ours and also used quite a few of the phone numbers/adresses people had posted on the site. We were proactive before we got into a bad situation. Just goes to show that Mortgage companies are actually doing loan modifications on loans before they adjust! We sent our loan mod papers back today via DHL! Yeah! I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders. No more worrying about our rate adjusting in September to some crazy rate and we don't have to make a payment until August 1st! Thanks again to everyone on this site!

Aquarian29