BAC Home Loans

BAC Home Loans Servicing - Bank of America Bank of America IN REVIEW; SECOND LOOK Internet

15th of Jun, 2011 by User540150

You think 11 months is bad, we started the loan modification process in November 2009. Dec 2009 approved for Trial Payment Plan. First trial payment Feb. 2010 because loan was not only current but ahead, wherein January's payment was made in November. Because of pending income reduction set for the first week of March, we applied for HAMP under the imminent default guidelines and was approved. At the time my credit score was 783 (now it is lower than 500). We were able to make all three trial payments and submitted all documents with the aid of HUD approved housing counselor. We jumped through all of the same hoops of repeated request, Fed Ex packages coming one day apart from another, confirmation that documents were received, and the hold tight and wait comments. My daughter was 19 years old, in college, and living at home when we started. She has since graduated, is 21 years old, and moved into her own home last October. We went through the same routine as others: lost paperwork, transfers, run around, IN REVIEW, denied for missing document/incomplete request/ not submitted in timely fashion, granted appeal twice, then declined appeal that they forgot to tell us about until 6 months later through a collection call. They said they didn't have to send us notice that our appeal was declined in Aug. 2010 because we got a denial letter for HAMP in June 2010. Never mind that we had confirmation of an appeal in June 2010 and in July 2010; further they continued to accept all of the trial payments we made from Feb. 2010 through March 2011, and all of the mortgage statements assured us to continue to make the trial payment to the Dallas TX address instead of our regular payment to the Wilmington DE address. Additionally, we had a letter in October that told us that no information or action is needed from us that the letter was for information only, and that BAC "looked forward to modifying our loan." Our taxes continued to be paid through Escrow and likewise our Homeowners insurance was paid in October out of Escrow funds. Every single month we got a statement showing the "Misc. Posting" of the amount of our Trial Payment amount and every single month the PMI (mortgage protection insurance) premium was paid no matter what. Of course, every two (2) trial payments covered a regular payment and late fees, so those postings were every other month. Again, I want to point out that from each of the trial payments a PMI premium payment was made no matter what, but the rest of the money was applied first to late fees, then to Escrow deficits, before any P&I payments were applied. BAC cashed a trial payment on March 4, 2011 and then "called in the loan" on March 7, 2011 (accelerated the loan for full payment i.e. foreclosure). So since March 2011 we have not been able to make a payment, yet we are IN REVIEW for a loan modification and have been in SECOND LOOK since Aug. 2010 with no decision. The financial information was so old that we had to resubmit it all in Feb & March of 2011. Since the account has gone into foreclosure status at the servicer, but has not made it to the courts for "service of notice," we are in limbo. The servicer has to figure out what to do since it hasn't figured it out in all of this time, we are not confident in any resolve through a modification with them, so we have to wait for them to actually enforce the foreclosure through the courts. We cannot go to mediation through the courts/legal system until we get an official court foreclosure notice/service (which has me scared to answer the door and check the mail for the intimidating service by Sheriff or Court, but also has me wanting it to hurry up and come). As well, we are no longer in any of Bank of America's electronic systems (per se) because the loan-reporting amount is stuck at the March 2011 information on the Website and at the credit repositories. I can no longer access my payment history or any other statement information because the account has been terminated as it actually shows that on my credit report: Mortgage Terminated, wherein it shows last regular payment as September 2010. I have utilized every resource and contacted everyone I can think of that could help. I have attended multiple homeowner workshops only to find the monkeys the bank sends to these events as useless as the ones on the phone. I have filed complaint at each of these: Hope Now, Freddie Mac, Attorney General, Deputy Commissioner of Banks, Office of the Comptroller of Currency, FTC, BBB, and my US and state Senators' offices. I have even had my neighbors writing their senators concerning my case. I have been through the 4 required HUD approved housing counseling sessions (2 this year and 2 last year). I have a seasoned housing counselor, who has explained the mediation process to me as my best chance to get the loan modified. Further, our state has a required mediation as a pre-foreclosure measure, but the process requires court service, then within 15 days, another HUD approved counseling session from which the counselor has to submit a proposed financial plan that will cure the default through the most appropriate remedy for the case. Next, we wait for the court to schedule mediation with a mediator, the lender, its counsel, my housing counselor, a free appointed volunteer legal representative for me, and me. Meanwhile, a loan that was current before trial is now very delinquent, in foreclosure, and I am stuck in loan modification limbo while the account becomes more and more behind. The modification would have been to the bank's advantage last year, but now with all of the fees (legal, late, Escrow deficiencies, and others) and with the value plummeting that has happened over the year a loan modification that would have been NPV positive last spring/summer is now definitely going to be NPV negative by the time they look at really modifying it with all of the capitalization that will be necessary. This presents me with a problem too because HOW MUCH is it WORTH? I have wasted a year and a half on a prospect that is a bust and have no recourse now. Last year, I could have explored a refinance instead of a modification because I was current on the loan, the property value was more, I owed less, and my credit score was good. So how much will I allow to be added to the loan? Again, last year, a simple modification (stepped lower interest, extending the term, and a reasonable balloon payment in 435 months) would have been advantageous to both me the borrower, the servicer (incentive payments) and the investor (secured income and stable property value). Now, too much added in legal fees and late fees, damaged credit score, months of aggravation, waiting, worrying, and putting off repairs, plummeting property value, and discouragement about income returning to former levels, has occurred for me not to foresee a point of no return. I firmly believe this would not have happened if the loan modification process worked correctly because all lows would have crept back up slowly to higher levels. However, now I as the borrower am doing my own NPV and seeing staying here as not as lucrative as walking away (and I will not let them off easy with a short sale or deed in lieu, they are going to do a full blown foreclosure, sheriff's auction, and forced eviction because they are paid $2,200 per pre-foreclosure option verses the $800 for modification option; that and since the bank made all of those PMI payments with my money, let the insurance company take a hit too. So what will happen in a foreclosure action is I lose ownership (so I have to rent, big deal, no equity is going to be built anyhow), Freddie Mac the investor gets stuck with an UNSALABLE (and it will be unsalable) REO because the investor can't let it go for less than the floor price (I owed 160k its real market worth is less than 120k), the lawyer gets paid by servicer not me, the servicer makes a claim to the insurance company which pays them a capped price, then the REO tries to unload it at another auction through private company, all to have a real estate company manage it for Freddie in a sale or in desperation fix up and rent. I can't image that any of this is profitable to anyone but the servicer who had no interest in the property but the incentive payments it gets for causing the foreclosure or the lawyer on retainer for the banks. This makes me so mad because it could have been prevented. So what, our family is having a temporary income reduction and we needed breathing room in our mortgage temporarily. We did not have an ARM reset, overextend in unsecured debt, or buy way out of range, yet we may be "seen" as that way because that is what everyone thinks, right? That our unemployment in the construction industry is our fault, that our applying for help was us taking advantage of the system's free ride, and/or that we sat around not making our house payment for fun. We were not applying for a gift, if anything we were applying for a "noose" around our necks. Maybe it is meant to be that the HAMP system is a farce and that we were sucked in to lose our mortgage. Maybe a refinance would have been unmanageable because the employment scene is not improving. This may be a blessing that we are set free from a large obligation with the freedom that just renting affords; besides any type of financial finagling we did would not change the fact that we would be paying more than the property is worth and thus building no equity, which negates the purpose of home ownership.

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