Posted: 6/10/2010 11:58:12 AM EDT
| I know its gubament cheese and all but if the money is being thrown around???? Any one here run this program seems too good too be true. For clarities sake I think it is going too put our kids 's kids in debt beyond belief but seems like the iron is hot so too say. What I heard from a coworker Is too qualify you must miss atleast 1 payment and write a letter of hardship then you free ride till the paper work clears and at that point you rework / write off your original loan agreement. |
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wow. I guess I was just a sucker for living within my means, doing the right thing, and being responsible. Did you just figure this out, now? what do you think? and my comment was tongue in cheek as I am glad I did things the way I did, and would not change them if I could. And to the OP, I hope things work out for you and understand rain can fall on anyone at any time.... |
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Not that easy...There has to be hardship and debt ratios must be in line. If they figure its better for thenm than foreclosure, they will do it. I wouldnt miss anypayments. That wont help the cause.
I worked at GMAC Mortgage for years thats how I know this.... It isnt just a "Hey if I skip a paymemnt will they make life easy?" No, if you have a good amount of equity in the house they are likely to tell you to piss off and sell it or foreclose... |
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Do it. It is 100% moral, and I would even go so far to say you have a moral obligation to do so.
If you are a tax payer, everyone in their power should get their loan modified. You are going to pay for it regardless if you want to or not. Your taxes will be increased, in order to pay for it. Your savings will be destroyed via inflation, in order to pay for it. Get your money back by any means possible. You are only getting back what is presently rightfully yours, or getting back what will be confiscated from you in the future. This is aside from the fact the Federal personal income tax is immoral. |
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I did it. Here's my post from GD around October last year.
Business has been much slower this year than last (self employed). We haven't gotten behind on our mortgage, but it's been really tight some months. I mean eating ramen and being thankful we can afford that tight. That's not the lenders fault. I want to get out of the way that I signed a contract, agreed to it, and always intended on following through with it. We have owned our home for just under 6 years and have always made our payments.
Anyway, my wife saw these ads for this non-profit called NACA (Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America). I don't completely agree with their tactics or their opinions, but they do have contracts with lenders and servicers to modify loans. They are having a weekend event here in Phoenix. The wife talked me into going. We arrived at the Phoenix Convention Center about 7am this morning. Stood in line a while, and the doors opened at 9. First, they put you through a little orientation session. About an hour where they talk about how 'evil and greedy' the mortgage companies were. And lets be honest, I think there was some shady shit going on. However, you and I know that a lot of that shady shit was forced on the companies by the Democrats. But, I digress.... From there, you basically shuffle from area to area while they talk to you about what paper work you should have, help you write a hardship letter, etc. My business IS down 40% from last year. That's a fact. We went in there 100% truthfully. I'm not sure that is the case for everyone. We waited until about 5pm to meet with a NACA counselor. Yeah, 10 hours. We gave her all our income documents, bills, etc. She plugs in the numbers, and comes up with a plan. Our mortgage payment as of this morning was $1200 + Property taxes and insurance, so $1382 total. Our interest rate was 8.7%. She came up with an 'affordable' number of $1212 a month, PITI. Hey, $150 a month ads up over the next 24 years,we figured anything would be helpful. From there, we went and signed in to meet with our lender. Our original lender was Countrywide, who has been taken over by Bank of America. So after waiting another hour or so, we got to sit with a rep from BofA. And this isn't like calling in on the phone. This is a person who is a decision maker. She ran our numbers and we talked about how business has been down and how we had a baby last year which has increased our household expenses. I explained to her that we were 'able' to make the payments, but its been pretty tight. I told her we just wanted to see what could be done. She worked on it for a while. She came back with what she could offer us. And holy shit. Am I glad my wife dragged me down there. She beat even the NACA recommended restructure. She came back with a fixed (for the life of the loan) 3% rate. THREE PERCENT. THREE PERCENT. There is NO way I could have gotten that even with a refi. AND, this doesn't net me a new 30 year loan. Just restructures my current loan. No extending for another 6 years, etc. Our new payment? $940 PITI. We got out of there at 830pm. 13.5 hours. And we saved $440 a month for the next 24 years. Just to put that in perspective: we spent 13.5 hours sitting around to save 126 THOUSAND dollars. Yeah, you read that right. This is not pie-in-the-sky either. We actually signed new documents. Most, but not all, of the people in our group got something. Some had to wait for approval from the actual investor. Some were unable to be helped. Mostly, those unable to be helped were those that owned 2 or more properties. They aren't interested in helping investors. I can't say they can help you or not. But, if you're struggling with your mortgage, and NACA has an event in your town, I would go. The worst that can happen is nothing. The best? Seriously, look at what I got. Where else could I get a 3% mortgage? If you want more info about it and don't want all of ARFcom knowing, IM me. I'll tell you what I know. I don't see this as taking advantage of anyone. All parties must agree. There is no strong arming. That already happened. In the end, I think everyone wins in this scenario. There are a lot of people out there like me and my wife. Making it, but just barely. There's no reason not to go after what's being offered. |
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I say this in no official capacity so take it for what it is worth.
If you have lots of equity, don't bother trying. If you have missed a ton of payments and have got behind in your taxes, insurance and other escrow items, don't bother. If your house value has dropped dramatically, don't bother. If you have a high income, don't bother. I have seen so many mods go through and at the end the payments are higher than they started out being it is crazy do to everything being rolled back into the loan to get it current again. They common options are to do a very low step rate 2% for a year, 3% for a year then 5% for 23 years or put everything into the pot and take a 40 year loan on it, or write down some of the principal and interest but that doesn't happen often. In short the only way you could really come out ahead is to not pay the P&I but keep the taxes and insurance current, then you will stand a chance at coming out ahead but you will most likely have to hide some assets to do it. |
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You're probably late to the party. See, the way to make this work for you is to spend years living way beyond your means, really get some value out of it you know? and do it carefully so your credit lasts as long as possible and you can extract as much as possible before you default. If you're just an average Joe who tried to do right but bought at the top of the housing bubble you're just going to destroy your credit, there isn't much chance the money you'll actually save will be worth it unless you're WAY underwater on too much house in a coastal city, which isn't a situation an average Joe is going to get into.
If you're over 30 and haven't gone bankrupt yet then you've really missed out, gotta take big risks to get big rewards, if you lose oh well, grind it out for another seven years, maybe even get some assistance from the gov, and take another shot, but if you hit then you never have to grind again... Just don't be the sucker working for wages his whole life who ends up with a 3/2 tract house and a honda civic to show for it, I don't know how those guys manage to keep from from going postal by about 50 watching the winners and the losers both passing them by... I'm only half kidding. |
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I just modfied my loan too bad I had to go to closing with 108k. All the retards out there that let there house go into foreclosure and my dumbass buying in in 2006 combined for me being upside down. I wanted to refinance due to 5 year arm up in 10 months and much lower rate I just had to come to the table with cash. I look at it this way the money was only making 1% in my saving account and the market is not going to do shit for a while so I am at least making the 4.25% on my money that I did not have to borrow.
I could have taken that 108k and put it down on a bigger house and walked away from mine after but I didn't and I do feel better for it. I can honestly say it felt good giving that check and paying down my home, I can only think a better feeling will be when I pay it off. The good news in the long run I will be wealthier for doing this the bad news I could have had some fun with that money. |
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wow. I guess I was just a sucker for living within my means, doing the right thing, and being responsible. Don't make such a generalization please. My parents both worked in the morgage and appraisail industry. They made excellent money and incredibly reliable jobs and bought a house that was well under their max budget. Refied a few times for equity to do projects. Always paid on time and always paid a little extra. Then the GOVT fucked all the appraisal requirements and the banks did all their shit. Result, in a day, both lost their jobs. They now make 1/2 of what they did. Thankfully the bank modified and they still have a place to live. Loan modification IS a great thing when used by the right people for the right reasons. |
| They changed ours to 2% for the next 10 years due to our change in circumstances (Loss of work, new baby). I am not one for handouts, but I put a lot of money into the system over the years, so I figure if I am elegible, I mnight as well take it. If not somebody else will. |
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wow. I guess I was just a sucker for living within my means, doing the right thing, and being responsible. Did you just figure this out, now? what do you think? and my comment was tongue in cheek as I am glad I did things the way I did, and would not change them if I could. And to the OP, I hope things work out for you and understand rain can fall on anyone at any time.... I was mostly echoing your sentiments, sir. I apologize for the misunderstanding. |
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wow. I guess I was just a sucker for living within my means, doing the right thing, and being responsible. Did you just figure this out, now? what do you think? and my comment was tongue in cheek as I am glad I did things the way I did, and would not change them if I could. And to the OP, I hope things work out for you and understand rain can fall on anyone at any time.... I was mostly echoing your sentiments, sir. I apologize for the misunderstanding. Roger brother! no worries.... |
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I know its gubament cheese and all but if the money is being thrown around???? Any one here run this program seems too good too be true. For clarities sake I think it is going too put our kids 's kids in debt beyond belief but seems like the iron is hot so too say. What I heard from a coworker Is too qualify you must miss atleast 1 payment and write a letter of hardship then you free ride till the paper work clears and at that point you rework / write off your original loan agreement. Hey, as long as everybody else is doing it... 
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I know its gubament cheese and all but if the money is being thrown around???? Any one here run this program seems too good too be true. For clarities sake I think it is going too put our kids 's kids in debt beyond belief but seems like the iron is hot so too say. What I heard from a coworker Is too qualify you must miss atleast 1 payment and write a letter of hardship then you free ride till the paper work clears and at that point you rework / write off your original loan agreement. Hey, as long as everybody else is doing it...
There is a bridge calling to be jumped off of. |
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It does nothing and it is a huge waste of money. The whole program is a joke.
The only people this remotely helps is those that are so far behind on their mortgages that they will never catch up and the bank doesn't want to have to foreclose on their property because it is so upside down it will never sell; inducing even more servicing and miscellaneous costs on the mortgage company. That's pretty much it. This program is NOT designed to help people, it is designed to subsidize mortgage companies and banks in order for them to cut their losses. Take this for example: A house that was purchased and mortgaged for $200k is now worth $75k. The owner has 0 chance to refinance this loan nor could they sell the house for anything close to the mortgage value. They are stuck and are ready to say fuck it, or are behind on their payments for whatever reason. If the owner walks away or if the bank forecloses the bank would incur a ~$125k unrecoverable loss as well as incur additional costs in the foreclosure process and further costs in servicing and REO. They also have a negative, depreciating asset on the books. They would rather get government money to 'help' someone that is about to say fuck it and make the bank eat the balance of the $200k loan on a house that is worth maybe $75k at this point. Why? because if they forgive a piece of the debt or lower the interest rate; they are still ahead especially considering the alternative. This is all it does and helps next to noone. I called my mortgage company a few weeks ago inquiring as to what programs they had opened due to the new 'bailout' programs. They reviewed my file and literally asked me why I was calling as I have never been late and am current with everything. I mentioned to them that I would like to see my interest rate go down as I know they are being subsidized to do so. They simply said no. When I asked what needed to be done or what needed to happen for me to lower my rate - their reply: Let me transfer you to a foreclosure specialist so that you can begin the foreclosure process. |
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