lots of questions

[housepoor]

We talked to our attorney and were eligible for a chapter 7 but haven't filed yet. After we added up our expenses we can't afford to keep our house if we do a 7 because of a 1st and 2nd mortgage. We are thinking of filing a 13 to get rid of the 2nd mortgage so we can keep the house.

We had our home appraised and it valued at 110,000 and we owe 174,000 just on the first mortgage. Thing is even with the 2nd mortgage gone the 1st mortgage is still out of our current income level. Dh went from bringing home 1800 to 2200 biwkly to 1550 biwkly.

So we were thinking of applying for the making your home affordable program but can't figure out how much it would reduce it, whether it would bring it down enough for us to stay in the home. We keep calling the mortgage company to ask questions but keep getting individuals we can't understand due to language barriers. Does anyone know about this program? If they reduce it how do they determine what it is reduced to? And is it for the length of your loan or does it go back up? After several phone calls we don't know any more than we did.

I found the web site for the program but it mostly says call your lender it doesn't say how to determine how much your mortgage would be reduced to. If they can't reduce the payment enough we will have to do the 7 and then go rent which won't be easy with 4 kids. I might not even be able to find a place to rent in our income level and where I live doesn't offer to many rentals in the first place and I don't want to move the kids to a new school district since I have a daughter who will be a Junior next year.

It's all so frustrating and my lawyer hasn't called me back yet. I left a message 2 days ago.

[lrprn]

We are thinking of filing a 13 to get rid of the 2nd mortgage so we can keep the house. ... We had our home appraised and it valued at 110,000 and we owe 174,000 just on the first mortgage. Thing is even with the 2nd mortgage gone the 1st mortgage is still out of our current income level.

It makes no long-term financial sense to file a 13 to strip a 2nd mortgage to keep a house that even with its first mortgage is still worth $60K less than the first mortgage alone.

So we were thinking of applying for the making your home affordable program but can't figure out how much it would reduce it, whether it would bring it down enough for us to stay in the home.

Here's the Making Home Affordable government website where you can sort out whether you qualify or not - http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/ . Is this where you were looking? There's a "Find out if you are eligible" button here that gives you two choices - Home Afforable Refinancing and Home Affordable Modification. You would choose the Home Affordable Modification. If you click that button, then you get a simple survey to complete and submit. Depending on what you put on the survey determines what options you get then. When I put in "fake" answers, it actually told me that I qualified. Try it and see what happens when you put in your real answers.

If they can't reduce the payment enough we will have to do the 7 and then go rent which won't be easy with 4 kids.

No matter what you should be investigating this actively now while you look to see if a mortgage modification is possible. Don't let your doubt and fear stop you from finding out what's really out there. It's always better to make long-term financial decisions that affect your family by using accurate facts.

Hang in there. You might be surprised and find a fabulous house you can rent in the kids' school district and then can let go of the house that will be dragging you down.

No matter what happens, if you do end up deciding to try to keep the house, DO NOT reaffirm your first mortgage!

[relief13035]

Who is your mortgage lender?

[housepoor]

It was countrywide but bank of america is taking them over. Both 1st and 2nd are through them.

[relief13035]

Call here - stop messing with BofA loss mitigation - go right to the top.

BANK OF AMERICA –
Call 1-800-669-6654 – Home Retention Team

[pcn]

Have you dealt with them? What kind of help can or do they offer? Thanks.