Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Making Home Affordable Update

So I decided to call the HOPE department today, to see if they could enlighten me on what we can expect now that we've made our last trial payment on the Making Home Affordable 90 day trial modification. I had attempted to reach my loan negotiator, but wasn't so lucky in succeeding in that endeavor. I know they're swamped, so I'm not going to take that personally--yet;)

Anyway, they had no new information for me. They don't know when they'll have anything to tell me. I was assured our application doesn't have any negative notes and that they have all they need from me at this time. I'm trying to be reassured by this, but we all know I've heard that before. If you're new to our story, you can catch up here.

I was also told that I should continue making the lowered trial payment until I hear something back from them. That is a relief, since there was no way I was going to be able to make our regular monthly mortgage payment on November 1, anyway. Something that wasn't helped with my pricey lesson yesterday. Haha!

Here's the letter I emailed to my negotiator today:

I left a voice mail yesterday, but haven't heard back yet, so I thought I'd try email. We've now made our third trial modification payment for Making Home Affordable. That payment was made toward the end of September, and was due October 1. Since this time, all of our payments have come out of the suspense account and were applied to the mortgage interest, principle and late fees. None of it has gone to our escrow account and now it is extremely short of what is needed to pay our taxes next month.

Also, I still haven't received any kind of package, notice or info on what is going to happen with our loan now. Every time I check the website the information changes and the date gets pushed back. As of today, there's no date listed at all. Does this mean I continue to make the trial payments until I hear something, even if we're outside of the 90 days? One person on the HOPE team told me to do just that.

It's nearly the end of October and I have to say that I'd thought I'd know something by now. We've made all payments as agreed, we've sent all required documentation multiple times and have done everything required of us. Can you tell me what we can expect now and what is happening with our account?

What happens if, at the end of all this, for whatever reason we get denied? Do we suddenly have to come up with thousands of dollars for the difference between the trial payment and what our actual mortgage payments are, including late fees? That really would be a nightmare for us.

We are responsible, upright people and are willing to do what it takes to keep our home. We do not want a free ride, we just want a chance. We didn't ask for our income to be cut, as I'm sure you understand. We want to meet our obligations and are doing everything on our end to try to make that happen. This program can make that possible for us. We just aren't sure if we're being jerked around (pardon the expression, but it's the only way I can explain our fears) and we'll end up in a worse mess than when we applied for this program for help.

God Bless,
Nellie Butler


Hopefully I hear something back from him soon. In the meantime, I've been going to Loan Safe periodically to see how others there are faring. If you haven't checked that site out yet, you really should. I couldn't have gotten even this far without them. Lots of valuable information there!

Feel free to share any information or stories of your own here, too. Also, if you have any questions, ask away. If I have the answers, I'll let you know. If I don't, I'll try to point you in the right direction:)

No comments:

Post a Comment