Loan Modifications – They Can Be Done! Lots of Patience Required!
I haven’t blogged in a long time, partially because I’ve been super busy with work, but also because I’ve been so wrapped up and worried about a loan modification that I had been trying to get on my house since 2008. Yes… I said 2008!
This has been one of the most frustrating and stressful experiences of my life. As mentioned, I started talking with the bank in late 2008. Around July of 2009, they told me that I had qualified for a certain type of loan modification. They gave me my new payment amount and I started paying that amount. I paid them faithfully every month thereafter. I was concerned, however, because I never received any formal paperwork and, because real estate is my job, I knew something had to be wrong. I called them constantly and they kept telling me there was no problem, everything was “in process.”
I believe it was in January this year that I returned home to find a letter from the bank in my mailbox. The letter indicated that I was in default and that if I didn’t pay them $35,000 by a certain (very near) date, they would start foreclosure proceedings. Needless to say, I freaked out.
After my initial panic, I went back to making my constant calls to them, re-submitted all of my paperwork and kept waiting to come home and find a foreclosure notice on my door or to find my house on the list of defaults that we get every week. It was a terrible time.
Luckily, in my case, after an incredible amount of phone calls I finally got an actual loan modification (notarized paperwork and all), dropping my mortgage interest rate to 2% for the first year, 3% the following year, capping out at 5% in 5 years.
What troubles me is that I am a professional and knew who to call and that I had to be tenacious, yet I was at the end of my rope. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for those who are not in this business and don’t have the skills or tenacity to keep fighting. Heck, or those who have regular jobs where they can’t sit on hold for 30 minutes every day waiting to talk to someone who actually knows nothing, repeating your story over and over for months (in my case a year and a half!)
All I can say is, that if anyone out there is trying to get a modification….don’t give up. Call them regularly, take notes from each call that you make and, to use my favorite quote from Winston Churchill…”Never, never, never give up.”
Kathy Wall
(415) 608-4168
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3 Responses to “Loan Modifications – They Can Be Done! Lots of Patience Required!”
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Kathy,
Congrats on being super busy and thanks for your story on the modification.
Althought the rules and procedures change in each case, the moral of the story is don’t give up, you didn’t!
Brian
Hi Kathy,
Thanks for sharing your story! I have a client who is in the same boat. He has been trying to modify his loan since 2008 and the battle is still ongoing. I will forward your blog to him.
-Annie
It is unbelieveable what the banks put people through! Thanks for sharing it is good to hear from someone who actually had a loan modified!
Larry