CW Deed in Lieu SUCCESS!!

[CWMATT]

What happens if you have a second mortgage? Can you still do a deed in lieu of foreclosure if you have a second or a heloc?

Sorry I missed this one. Typically it is a dead deal if you have a second mortgage,HELOC, or any other lein. I consider myself pretty lucky that they paid off the city lein. I don't know if it was the fact that my house wasn't as upside down (put 20% down) or that I left the house intact (didn't strip or destroy it).

If anybody has any additional info I would love to know myself.

Once CW said they were considering paying off the lein when it was $17,000, I arranged for a meeting with the city to get a reduced payoff. Thankfully they came down to $2,200. I don't know if they would have paid the $17,000 or not but I figured I had come this far to not do anything I could to get this closed.

[Stuck_In_FL]

Very informative post, thank you for sharing your story. I'm about to try to go down the same road and I am curious if you were behind on payments when you started the DIL process or if you were current throughout.

[CWMATT]

You're welcome. This site was a big help during my process so if I can be of help to anybody, I am happy to do so.

It is my understanding that in order to qualify for the DIL:

You have to be behind on payments.

You have to owe more on the house than it is worth.

Household income will not allow for any other form of modification like a rate/payment reduction or extending the term of the loan.

The house is currently listed with a realtor for equal to or less than it's current value. I think they prefer that you try the 'short sale' route first, leaving the DIL to be the last option before foreclosure.

No other leins on the property. If there is a 2nd mtg, heloc or other lein it normally means a dead deal. I know my story had the lender paying off a lein from the city but I have not read of anybody else getting that lucky. On the paperwork I had to sign and return to their attorney, it specifically said that other than real estate taxes, all other leins, fines, and hoa dues must be paid and current. I don't know how or why, I just consider myself very lucky.

When I get home I will try to remember to look thru my paperwork to see if there was anything else they needed.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask, this site has a lot of informed people on it.

[Stuck_In_FL]

I know the title is clear and up to now I am current. Property has been listed for several months at a break even price so I don't know what they will have to say about that. Another downside is I put less than 20% down so there is PMI on the loan and I don't know if they will just let me go down in flames and collect from the insurance company. Nothing is moving in my area, short sale or otherwise. I expect that if it goes through I'll encounter the same promissory note situation that you did and I'm ok w/ that. Hopefully they will see from a business perspective that it would be cheaper and easier to work w/ me on a resolution other than a foreclosure. I guess time will tell.

[CWMATT]

I don't think it makes a difference how much you put down so long as there is only one mortgage on the property. I do think it helped my situation that I wasn't as upside as others that had done 100% financing.

Where in Florida are you? I am in Broward County

[Stuck_In_FL]

I'm up in Hernando. Not the greatest place for job prospects and Tampa is not much better, sadly. I just have the 1 30yr fixed loan to deal with but looking at my account on the web it says that my LTV is 95% so I don's know how that will factor in either. I bought my house on the lower end of the crash so I'm not as bad off as some, but I know things have gone down since. I tried calling the 1-800 number but after several voice prompts I got some garbled message about a system error and then got hung up on. I'm still living in the house but I'm not going to leave unless a DIL is accepted or ultimately a foreclosure if that's how they want to play it. I'm no expert but it would seem to me that the house in excellent condition that has not lost quite as much value would be cheaper for the bank to take back than to pursue a costly foreclosure. From what I've read, some homeowners that have been forced out by foreclosure have stripped everything of value from the home and throughly trashed it on their way out. Between the foreclosure costs, missed payments and cost of bringing those homes back to a marketable/liveable condition, I wonder at what point it would be cheaper for them to take the home back rather than foreclose and have little or no luck recovering any of that money. I guess all I can hope for is that someone w/ some decision making power can see the DIL option as a cost effective solution.

[Stuck_In_FL]

CWMATT I meant to also ask if there was a different # you called for the DIL or just the generic 800 for financial hardship and got directed from there. Thanks.

[CWMATT]

I think that is what helped my situation in that I didn't strip the house of everything valuable nor did I destroy in an attempt to 'get back' at the bank (which I never understood why people did that anyway).

Any info or advice I give is only from my own experience and I am by far an expert.

I can tell you that it is a long process involving lots of phone calls, follow up calls, and more follow up calls to the original follow up calls. They will claim to have lost your information, not have received your information and change their minds about the information they want you to send. BE PATIENT. They will probably ask you to send info 2, 3, 4 times just to 'keep the file' up to date. BE PATIENT.

It is not a complicated process and other than having a real estate attorney look over the DIL docs they send you, you can complete this entire process yourself. No need to spend the thousands some people are for these loan modification services. They possess no additional bargaining power with the banks to warrant the money they charge. If one tells you so tell them to pound salt. Actually, there is no bargaining, you either qualify or you don't.

I paid from savings for months until I had to give myself a reality check, sit down, and figure out what I was going to do. Looking back I wish I would have called the lender sooner. Once I did decide though the key thing was getting in contact with the lender to find out what options I had to choose from.

I would suggest contacting the lender to see what they are willing to work out with you. Since your house has already been listed without any bites, you may already qualify for the DIL. Oh yeah, be patient!

Good luck!

[CWMATT]

I started out with the generic 800#. That is another part of the process that requires patience because there is no direct number, so you have to battle the automated system everytime. Not only do you have to hit this number and that number, the system makes you enter info regarding your loan info. It is a pain.

I did notice there were some numbers listed on the CW section of this site but none of the people I was dealing with were listed. Maybe you can get lucky and yours will be one of the ones listed.

Once I got furhter along in the process I was provided different numbers to call but honestly, the process of calling them never was easy. I don't know if different stages of the process allowed me access to different numbers or if it was the merger with bank of america and maybe they were switching offices. No clue.

[Stuck_In_FL]

I'm going to try to get in contact w/ someone again today. I haven't made my payment yet but technically am not "late." I'm thinking they must suspend collection activity while they are processing a DIL but man would it suck to get several months into the process, having already moved out, for them to shut down the deal and be that far along into a foreclosure process already.

[Stuck_In_FL]

Well I got a hold of someone today who noted the file and asked me to send in the usual info: hardship letter, bank statements showing income and real estate listing agreement. I have the packet put together and will fax it in today so here we go. I haven't sent in my payment yet and am debating whether or not to go ahead and send it in to keep my options open while they take their 30 days or so to review for qualfication for DIL.

[CWMATT]

In my case, they suspended the collection/foreclosure activity while I was in the Shotr Sale and DIL process. There was a short time (about a week) that they denied me and scheduled a foreclosure sale date. It was related to the listing of the house on the MLS compared to the By Owner. That opened up a whole new can because everytime I called in after that every operator told me that my house is going to be sold at auction and I was not in a workout program.

I am curious to see if they put you in any type of workout program if A. you are still on time with payments and B. if your current income is still sufficient enough to cover it.

I just received my 1099-C, cancellation of debt. Looks like I am off to see my CPA next week. Thank God they passed the Mortgage Relief Act!

I am like a kid on Christmas waiting to see my recorded ROM on the county site.

[Stuck_In_FL]

They may very well ship me over to workout, and I say this because when I asked the rep who to address the fax to he said "hope" and from what I gather that is the dept for workouts. I may call back a couple times tomorrow and ask different reps where to fax my info for DIL, although I made it very clear to the rep that it was the only option I am interested in and why. Incidentally when I first called the home retention # they gave me a separate direct line for DIL (or more likely the dept that handles that and other disposal programs.) Any of this sound familiar? Out of curiousity if you were working and not living in the house but still making money did they give you any flak for having more in the bank than a months payment? Thanks again for your help and insight.

[CWMATT]

Towards the very very end I got a number that went directly to the DIL dept. That was after going thru 6 or so different numbers.

My income dropped to practically nothing when compared to what my housing expenses were.

I had moved out and my general living expenses went way down but I don't think I ever had a month's payment in the bank.

I had been paying the house payment and utilities with my savings for 6 months and pretty much had nothing left for them to ask for.

[CWMATT]

Today is a great day. My DIL is complete. I just printed the recorded Satisfaction of Mortgage and it will be framed on my wall.

Just wanted to thank this webiste and it's members for the welath of information I got from it.

If anybody has any questions regarding my experience with Countrywide and the Deed In Lue I would be more than willing to help.

[mgallant]

Originally Posted by CWMATT

Today is a great day. My DIL is complete. I just printed the recorded Satisfaction of Mortgage and it will be framed on my wall.

Just wanted to thank this webiste and it's members for the welath of information I got from it.

If anybody has any questions regarding my experience with Countrywide and the Deed In Lue I would be more than willing to help.

I have a question on how you negotiated such a deal with the town on the lein they had on the property. How did you convince your town to take such a lower amount than what was owed? Once you negotiated the amount did they release the lein on the property immediately?
Thanks

[CWMATT]

"I have a question on how you negotiated such a deal with the town on the lein they had on the property. How did you convince your town to take such a lower amount than what was owed?"

I provided a hardship letter to the city much like the one I gave to the lender and also fixed everything that they had cited me for by the time I plead my case in front of the magistrate. Thankfully they were receptive to my situation and saw that this wasn't a case of outright neglect but a legitimate hardship.

"Once you negotiated the amount did they release the lein on the property immediately? "

I had to wait a week for the revised payoff amount. I submitted to both the lender and the attorney for the lender. That's when the waiting took place. Once it was decided by Countrywide that they would pay it off to close the deal, each thought the other were going to actually cut the check. In the end, CW paid the city directly.

Hope this answers your questions.

I got very lucky with my situation.

Thanks

[Moe Bedard]

There were two or three previous ones that are in here but were not labeled as DIL because they had not started that way.........but the finished that way.