Bank of America loan mod -SUCCESS!!

[LHarveyMadman]

Originally Posted by Jaws1875

I'm hoping someone can give me some recommendations on my next step. I've applied for loan mod with BofA. I gave them my info over the phone and faxed my hardship letter and corresponding info to the fax number they requested I send to.

They responded back with a letter within one weeks time. The letter said this "the type of assistance you have requested is not available. If you are unable to continue meeting your monthly mortgage obligation, you may want to consider listing the property for sale at fair market value to attract potential buyers"...

My situation is I'm self employed and my income has drop by 60% therefore I asked for them to combine my first and second loan into a 30 or 40 year fixed loan at a low interest rate. I further asked them to take my $3,100 mortgage payment down to about $1,500 for the next 3-5 years till I get back on my feet. I've never missed a mortgage payment but need some relief.

Any ideas on the next step I should take? thanks--

The first problem is that it's difficult, if not impossible, to combine loans in a modification. This is because your two loans most likely have different investors, each of which has to make a decision about whether to modify or not. A great example of this problem was with emorybetsy, who had 3 loans with B of A. She had to get modifications on each of the individually. So, it's not surprising that B of A said they can't offer what you requested. You may want to approach them again, requesting a modification on each loan separately.

Secondly, you're asking for a fairly massive cut in payments. If your interest rates are already relatively low, it might be impossible for B of A to cut your payments as much as you require. They can't drop the interest rates to 0%.

What are your loan balances, interest rates, and monthly payments?

What are your monthly property tax and insurance costs?

What is the fair market value of your home (roughly)?

[eichergm]

Lharvey -
THank you so much for your valuable information on this site. We have wiated through our 90-day waiting period and received our papers for final loan modification today. Emailing the executives was key. For our home in Orange County that we are about $300k underwater on (NO equity was ever taken out, just bought at the height of the market due to job transfer ..). We were offered 5 years fixed at 2% and then the remaining 35 years at our current rate 5%. On our second B of A loan, we were dropped from 6.875% fixed to 5% for 5 years, then it will adjust back to the current rate. The process is long, but once we emailed the execs, we were assigned a negotiator and the process was smooth through the 3 month waiting period. It was also nice to have a local contact who was responsive when I had questions. Thank you soooo much for sharing your experience and advice. Good luck to all!!

[JSal88]

Wow-I see all the informative posts..I guess I am in the right place to ask my questions!
We are desperately trying to get a loan mod thru B of A at the moment!
We more than qualify, we currently are upside down about 130K and our interest rate is thru the roof. Sadly, we were not as educated in Mortgage as we are now and were victims of predatory lending. When we got the original loan in 2007(thru Greenpoint) we received a "stated income" loan-with the promise that we could refi in 30days. Well, that was obviously a JOKE.

So, that leads me to my current situation. We started the loan modification process with Countrywide back in March..we were told it would be 90days to get the loan mod approved; so we waited patientiently. We called on the 80th day and we were THEN told that since they merged with B of A now we have to start the process all over since its now B of A. B of A then advised us that it will be 60 days for the full review to get things moving. July 31, 2009 will be our 60th day(from the date B of A states they received the docs from Countrywide-not sure how that happened) So, I tried to call B of A today. I was on the phone for OVER 2 hours being transferred etc etc.

NOBODY seems to know anything about our loan mod!! I am working with a Broker to get the loan modified, and she tells me that B of A doesn’t have their $hit together-which is making this really hard.
So this was my first effort to call since I am contracted with a Broker she usually does all the calling. I had to see for myself if it was the Bank that was slacking or it was her that was dragging her feet. But after what I went thru today, I feel her pain.

My Broker submitted the paperwork 2 times so far once to CW and then B of A to get a reduction in the principal and get us into an FHA loan. This would lower our payments $700 a month based on the good faith estimate.

Do you think I should contact the Loss Mitigation Dept? I have to check my list of phone numbers that I called to see if it was even a dept I was referred to!

I just dont know where to go from here!! Any advice from anyone would be apprieciated!!!!!

[LHarveyMadman]

eichergm, congratulations! Nicely done.

JSal88, most of us here got our foot in the modification door by emailing the executives. You might want to give that a try. You might be told, however, that since you have a third party working on your modification, the lender can't work directly with you at present.

[JSal88]

Thanks! I emailed them today- I did also advise them that I am working with a Broker, who has gotten NOWHERE with them- so I am requesting that they contact both of us. Keep your fingers crossed....and thank you for this wonder thread!!! It really gave me a lot of insight!

[aurers]

After being rejected 3x for a loan mod by the BofA 800 rep, I sent an email to all the execs. I am praying for a miracle. I really don't want to short sale my place. I have paid off all my revolving debt and picked up an extra part-time job (starting September) in hopes that this will make the private investor on my loan see that I am serious about keeping my home.

I will let everybody know what I hear.

FYI -- The following emails bounced back to me:
bradford.r.dinsmore@bankofamerica.com
michelle.shepherd@bankofamerica.com
barbara.desoer@bankofamerica.com (However, barbara.j.desoer@bankofamerica.com does work. So for those who are looking for exec emails, make sure to add the ".j." in the email address.

[beelzebub]

Got a modification offer letter today from Bank of America, after waiting 60+ days! They propose to reduce the interest rate from 6.675% to 4% so that the monthly payment goes from 40.6% of our monthly gross income to 36.4%. That helps a lot, but I was hoping it would go down to 31%. How do I press them (BofA) to bring it down to 31%?

[beelzebub]

Got a modification offer letter today from Bank of America, after waiting 60+ days! They propose to reduce the interest rate from 6.675% to 4% so that the monthly payment goes from 40.6% of our monthly gross income to 36.4%. That helps a lot, but I was hoping it would go down to 31%. How do I press them (BofA) to bring it down to 31%?

[beelzebub]

Originally Posted by beelzebub

Got a modification offer letter today from Bank of America, after waiting 60+ days! They propose to reduce the interest rate from 6.675% to 4% so that the monthly payment goes from 40.6% of our monthly gross income to 36.4%. That helps a lot, but I was hoping it would go down to 31%. How do I press them (BofA) to bring it down to 31%?

I was misinformed by the rep. I called them again and they said my monthly payment would go down to 32.7%, and would jump up to 36.4% after 5 years. That's not bad at all.

Their written offer arrived by FedEx only this morning after I left for work, so I'll have to verify all this tonight. If it's 32.7%, I'm going to accept.

A nice bonus is that the loan begins Oct 1, 2009, so I don't have to make the Aug and Sep payments.

[minknmelissa]

I too have been turned down 3x and am waiting to here back from office of the president lady

[LHarveyMadman]

Originally Posted by aurers

After being rejected 3x for a loan mod by the BofA 800 rep, I sent an email to all the execs. I am praying for a miracle. I really don't want to short sale my place. I have paid off all my revolving debt and picked up an extra part-time job (starting September) in hopes that this will make the private investor on my loan see that I am serious about keeping my home.

I will let everybody know what I hear.

FYI -- The following emails bounced back to me:
bradford.r.dinsmore@bankofamerica.com
michelle.shepherd@bankofamerica.com
barbara.desoer@bankofamerica.com (However, barbara.j.desoer@bankofamerica.com does work. So for those who are looking for exec emails, make sure to add the ".j." in the email address.

That list of ~15 or so "executives" that is floating around these forums is overkill, in my opinion. Nearly half of them are just press spokespersons or execs of non-mortgage divisions that are inappropriate targets of the email. Ken Lewis, Barbara Desoer, Liam McGee, and Maryellen Baker were the only ones I emailed, and it sufficed. It also was enough for a lot of other people here. If you get a response (and I bet you will), it will likely originate from either Ken Lewis's or Barbara Desoer's office.

[LHarveyMadman]

Originally Posted by beelzebub

I was misinformed by the rep. I called them again and they said my monthly payment would go down to 32.7%, and would jump up to 36.4% after 5 years. That's not bad at all.

Their written offer arrived by FedEx only this morning after I left for work, so I'll have to verify all this tonight. If it's 32.7%, I'm going to accept.

A nice bonus is that the loan begins Oct 1, 2009, so I don't have to make the Aug and Sep payments.

That's about what I received as well. But hopefully in 5 years my income will be a little higher and the percentage will still be closer to 33%.

[chasepmt2hot-firefighter]

You are certainly blessed that this mess is all over. I'm very happy for you. I'm not w/BOA, just enjoy seeing you get the opportunity to rebuild your family.

[JSal88]

Has anyone been successful in getting a fairly large principal reduction with B of A? Just curious as part of getting me to 31-34% would mean reducing the principal. I am currently in a subprime-with a HUGE PMI-and a HUGE interest rate and my house is upside down by about 100K dollars. I am asking to be refi'd into an FHA to reduce my interest and principal-on top of forgiving a large sum. My friend just got Wells Fargo to reduce the principal by $140K(musta been his lucky day) but I wasnt sure how resistant B of A is going to be.

[aurers]

Hello everybody.

I talked to another B of A rep yesterday (Jared) who told me the same story I've heard since October 2008 -- private investors own my loan and have certain guidelines that determine what B of A can and cannot do. Jared said that he could lower my interest from 5.25% to 4%. However, my ARM loan would then switch from an interest only loan to a conventional loan paying principal and interest. In addition, he would make a repayment plan (I missed the last 2 months of mortgage) that would be an additional $372 per month for the next 12 months. With the modifications that would increase the payment on my first mortgage by over $500 -- money I do not have. When I told Jared that I cannot afford this, he said the investors will not go lower than 4% since my mortgage & escrow are 46% of my living expenses. I told Jared that the number the credit counseling service gave me was 52%. Jared then said that B of A does not take into account the 2nd mortgage payment when making the calculation of income to mortgage & escrow. Is that correct?

After all the back and forth, Jared suggested that I sell the property.

However, I also received messages from Jenny Cooper (B of A exec) that my email has been forwarded to Loss Mitigation and from Stacy Adam (B of A loss mitigation dept), so I'm hoping to talk to Stacy about my situation and get some assistance. But since it's Saturday I know I won't hear from them.

This process has been long and tiring. With a 2 1/2 year old and an almost 1 year old, I feel like I'm better off just selling the property and cutting my losses short so that I can spend my time being a mom and wife.

[mike175gr]

Has anybody worked with AccuMark Solutions? Their attorney is Andrea Loveless.
They were very confident about finding a good resolution for me with BofA
Thanks,

[QuayzyCrazy]

Originally Posted by LHarveyMadman

That's about what I received as well. But hopefully in 5 years my income will be a little higher and the percentage will still be closer to 33%.

LHarveyMadman, I'm so pleased with your outcome. Congratulations on your successful Loan Modification. Now after reading your thread I'm a bit curious. I want to do what you succesfully did and plan to send the e-mail to these four senior managers.
1.-When you initially sent the e-mail, did you send it as just a hardship letter or was it more like a Finantial Hardship affidavit that I've read somewhere?
2.- What else did you send accompanying this e-mail?
3.- Could you please clarify if you sent along expenses report, bank statements, signed form for release of taxes and paystubs as well, or did you just wait until somebody contacted you asking to fax them the information?
4.- Did you fax the information as well or only the e-mails?
5.- How did you know that they had received all your information? (they seem to keep having difficulties with e-mails and faxes, and also the system is down or doesn't bring up my loan for a Modification)
6.- How long after you first contacted them, did they contacted you back?

Bank of America is giving me the run around, obviously, so I figured your solution made sense if it's going to take me somewhere. CCCS supposedly sent all this for me but I have no news and I cannot confirm if BofA received anything. Do you think I may hurt my chances by not waiting 60 to 90 days to see "if" and instead send the e-mail to these 4 people like you did? I kind of feel not at ease resending my information to too many people since paystubs have all my personal details...

My loan is Countrywide/BofA, backed by a Fannie Mae note. I'm still current and I'm waaaay over the 31% reference with respect to my income.
Your time will be appreciated.

[LHarveyMadman]

Originally Posted by QuayzyCrazy

LHarveyMadman, I'm so pleased with your outcome. Congratulations on your successful Loan Modification. Now after reading your thread I'm a bit curious. I want to do what you succesfully did and plan to send the e-mail to these four senior managers.
1.-When you initially sent the e-mail, did you send it as just a hardship letter or was it more like a Finantial Hardship affidavit that I've read somewhere?
2.- What else did you send accompanying this e-mail?
3.- Could you please clarify if you sent along expenses report, bank statements, signed form for release of taxes and paystubs as well, or did you just wait until somebody contacted you asking to fax them the information?
4.- Did you fax the information as well or only the e-mails?
5.- How did you know that they had received all your information? (they seem to keep having difficulties with e-mails and faxes, and also the system is down or doesn't bring up my loan for a Modification)
6.- How long after you first contacted them, did they contacted you back?

Bank of America is giving me the run around, obviously, so I figured your solution made sense if it's going to take me somewhere. CCCS supposedly sent all this for me but I have no news and I cannot confirm if BofA received anything. Do you think I may hurt my chances by not waiting 60 to 90 days to see "if" and instead send the e-mail to these 4 people like you did? I kind of feel not at ease resending my information to too many people since paystubs have all my personal details...

My loan is Countrywide/BofA, backed by a Fannie Mae note. I'm still current and I'm waaaay over the 31% reference with respect to my income.
Your time will be appreciated.

1. I only sent a hardship letter. I included some general details about my prior loan (an interest-only ARM), my second mortgage (a HELOC), and my income.

2. Nothing else was sent with this email message.

3. When they contacted me by phone, they took all my expense information over the phone. At no point did I send in any tax records, bank statements, paystubs, etc.

4. No fax, just email at first. However, when the process was going, I did send some letters by fax to my analyst and her supervisor. Some documents that I had to sign were also sent by fax as well as certified mail.

5. I called and called and called again to make sure that they had the information that they needed. Anything I sent by mail went by certified mail, return receipt with signature requested.

6. I received a phone call about a week after I sent my first email message. Within a few days after that the modification was approved, but it took over 2 months for all the paperwork to be completed.


I negotiated my modification back in October, before the flood of modification requests that came with the Obama plan. Nowadays, I think all the lenders are swamped and having trouble keeping up with the requests. I think they're also using stricter guidelines than when my modification went through. I was lucky with the timing, I guess. Having said that, though, there are still people who are reporting results after sending emails to the executives.

[aurers]

I wanted to tell everybody that I got a phone call from Stacy Adams (714-792-4904) from the Loss Mitigation Department after emailing Barbara J. Desoer at barbara.j.desoer@bankofamerica.com (Thanks LHarveyMadMan for the email). Stacy is going to talk to the investors on my loan about the Making Homes Affordable program and will get back to me tomorrow. I wanted to thank everybody on this blog for being my support system through this process. I'm hoping for the best.

QuayzyCrazy -- I only emailed my hardship letter. But in the hardship letter I gave the numbers of how much living expenses has increased since purchasing my property and the decrease in my spouse's income. Having specific numbers is good. I also kept the hardship letter to one page. But after sending the email I got a message from Jenny Cooper (B of A Exec) the next day. My letter was forwarded to Loss Mitigation Dept. That afternoon I got the phone call from Loss Mitigation. I'm in the process right now and hoping for the best.

[haleybop]

Stacey is really great to work with. She has handled our loan mod and it has taken about 3 to 4 months but today we finally recieved their offer. It will be 3% for 5 years then 4% for the 6th year then 5.25% then on. She really did an awesome job. Good luck with yours!!

Originally Posted by aurers

I wanted to tell everybody that I got a phone call from Stacy Adams (714-792-4904) from the Loss Mitigation Department after emailing Barbara J. Desoer at barbara.j.desoer@bankofamerica.com (Thanks LHarveyMadMan for the email). Stacy is going to talk to the investors on my loan about the Making Homes Affordable program and will get back to me tomorrow. I wanted to thank everybody on this blog for being my support system through this process. I'm hoping for the best.

QuayzyCrazy -- I only emailed my hardship letter. But in the hardship letter I gave the numbers of how much living expenses has increased since purchasing my property and the decrease in my spouse's income. Having specific numbers is good. I also kept the hardship letter to one page. But after sending the email I got a message from Jenny Cooper (B of A Exec) the next day. My letter was forwarded to Loss Mitigation Dept. That afternoon I got the phone call from Loss Mitigation. I'm in the process right now and hoping for the best.

[JSal88]

Has anyone been successful in getting a fairly large principal reduction with B of A?

[aurers]

haleybop --

Congrats on your loan mod. I'm still waiting to hear from Stacy, but I wanted to know if you had a 2nd mortgage and if so, was Stacy able to modify that one as well. I have a 1st and 2nd mortgage (both used to purchase the property in the SF Peninsula) and both loans are with B of A. The 1st is owned by private investors; the 2nd by B of A.

[haleybop]

We had a 1st and 2nd with Fannie mae. They reduced the 2nd rate to 6.25 from 8.25. Our payments were around 18 to 1900 now they are 1398. Really though Stacey was awesome.

Originally Posted by aurers

haleybop --

Congrats on your loan mod. I'm still waiting to hear from Stacy, but I wanted to know if you had a 2nd mortgage and if so, was Stacy able to modify that one as well. I have a 1st and 2nd mortgage (both used to purchase the property in the SF Peninsula) and both loans are with B of A. The 1st is owned by private investors; the 2nd by B of A.

[LHarveyMadman]

Originally Posted by JSal88

Has anyone been successful in getting a fairly large principal reduction with B of A?

I don't recall seeing anyone report getting principal reductions from B of A.

[aurers]

SUCCESS AT LAST!

Since October 2008 I have been fighting with B of A reps to get my loan modified. Finally, after emailing Barbara Desoer's office, I got my loan modified by Stacy Adams.

The new terms:
Missed payments will be added onto the principal
Loan changed to a 40 year loan

2.375% (principal & interest) for 5 years
5.375% (principal & interest) after the 5th year

I don't have to pay until October 2009.

Only catch -- I have to get caught up on the 2nd mortgage. However, that is also with B of A so Stacy said she's going to find out if she can put me on a repayment plan or extension on that mortgage. But all in all, I'm very happy with the outcome of this. I highly suggest emailing Barbara Desoer if you are having problems with your loan mod. It worked for me!