Delaying Foreclosure - Loan Mods and stuff

[jlynn275]

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving

I have received my petition from attorney and currently reviewing and coming up with the rest of the money to file (which I will have Friday). So filing date is scheduled for Monday, the 6th (hubby's bday - ha ha). I'm excited more than anything, just crossing fingers that there are no huge red flags.

Anyway, my question is about my house. On our statement of intentions we selected we are retaining and reaffirming. But we will not be signing any reaffirmations (for car or both mortgages). Part of me wants the foreclosure process to get going so we can move on, live closer to work and start working towards possibly owning again some day. But the logical and greedy side of me wants to stay free for as long as humanly possible. That's the side I am going with and I hoping you guys have some tips on how we can stay in house as long as possible?

Some basics:
We have an 80/20 loan - $115,000 and $39,000.
Currently valued at about $60,000.
We started the loan modification process September of 2009.
First got denyed (we were just above the percentage criteria and of course they only calculate FIRST mortgage).
Submitted new employment information for husband (he got a significant pay cut) in February 2010.
Been in review ever since. We were calling every week for the past several months, but once we stopped paying (September) we stopped calling.

Since I am not going to reaffirm these mortgages, should I be trying to get them to work out a modification still....would that help prolong the foreclosure process? I have received one letter, certified mail, stating I had 30 days or we would be in default. That was about 20 days ago. That's all I know at this point.

Any thoughts?

[tobee43]

we were right in the MIDDLE of our loan modification process when we got served by the very bank that was doing the mod!!! also, in the letter from their atty...it was chase...it says just because you have doing a loan mod application it does not stop the process....yet i called the chase rep doing our loan mod and he was really upset stating they...(meaning HIM...aka CHASE) were NOT suppose to do that...oh ...really...because they did...

we waited over 8 months for our loan mod....i gave them every piece of paperwork for 10 years...no stone was unturned...yet, they never ever even gave us any denial....so once we got the summons...we never answered as per our atty...who told us lock it and leave it....we didn't ...i did email the rep from chase to let him know we were out....so then he calls....now we are going into almost a year after we submitted the mod application...and he says don't go...i can try and get this done for you...right...too late...we left our house of 33 years ...what more could we have done..no jobs...nothing coming in anymore and no help to have been had.

sorry got off of your point or question....my answer is...the experience we had with our bank clearly indicated one hand didn't have a clue what the other is or was doing....so maybe you might be more successful then we were...i hope you are. and, you know, down here in florida there are so many empty houses ...hopefully they will work with you better than they did with us.

[jlynn275]

it is such a nightmare, isn't it? I guess my question is - if your mortgages are discharged is there anything to modify? Do we do anything once we file or wait until after?

[debee]

Have you read through the 6 page Florida Foreclosure thread? I'm not from Florida, but I read it. Lots of great info in there about how to prolong foreclosure and what to expect in terms of timeframes and how to monitor, district differences, etc.

If you haven't, it's here: http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.ph...da+foreclosure

[tobee43]

it is such a nightmare, isn't it? I guess my question is - if your mortgages are discharged is there anything to modify? Do we do anything once we file or wait until after?

well, if you do intend to keep or retain your house,then of course a modification would serve your best interest, if, it lowered your payment and assisted your financial recovery. however, if like us, we ended up during our modification process losing our jobs...so we at some point had to come to sitting down and making the best, sound business decision for us personally....which ended up surrendering the house.

so, really it's going to depend on whether you can or want to keep your home....that's the first question.

[jlynn275]

Debee, I will go check out that thread now. THANK YOU!

tobee, I do not plan on keeping my home...but want to stay as long as possible to save money....obviously

[jlynn275]

oh crap, I think I have seen that thread but got distracted when I started reading it before. lol

[tobee43]

it's a good thread....however, it really depends on your BANK and how soon the area is moving on the foreclosures...right now some areas are really really slow...but it's hard to tell what will happen. all i know is here they haven't moved on any foreclosures for a while....

and, i would also stay as long as possible....save and save and SAVE what you can!

[debee]

it's a good thread....however, it really depends on your BANK and how soon the area is moving on the foreclosures...

Foreclosure is governed by state law though and the time requirements are set out there. The bank can drag their feet as long as they like, but they can't go faster than the law allows. Also, justbroke offered some good tips for staying in longer and cory 1848 hired a lawyer and discussed what that did for him. Here's a quote: "If you want to stay in your house and save money, hire a lawyer to fight it. That bought me 6 months right there. $1500 which would have equalled one mortgage payment. It was worth it. Another $1500 to fight through Summary Judgement phase would extend me another 6 months easy..."

[tobee43]

Foreclosure is governed by state law though and the time requirements are set out there. The bank can drag their feet as long as they like, but they can't go faster than the law allows. Also, justbroke offered some good tips for staying in longer and cory 1848 hired a lawyer and discussed what that did for him. Here's a quote: "If you want to stay in your house and save money, hire a lawyer to fight it. That bought me 6 months right there. $1500 which would have equalled one mortgage payment. It was worth it. Another $1500 to fight through Summary Judgement phase would extend me another 6 months easy..."

yes deb...they have signs ALL OVER here now!! attys that can help you stay in your house longer....i didn't see jb's post on that, but i do know it's happening...and yes, i know it's the darn banks or in some cases for many it's a good thing the banks are dragging their feet...it gives people the opportunity to save some money before they leave. and, no, they can't go faster than the law allows...that's for certain.

however, it's been fairly slow here in florida right now...we have 4 foreclosures in our subdivision and the banks are not moving. i was asked and have been working with the hoa president and our hoa atty....about the maintenance costs etc...so it's been on going process...we just sent out bills to the banks...NOT the old owners. LOL!! like that's going to work!...but in as much as the actual foreclosure they haven't moved an inch. i'm sure they will at some point.

[debee]

however, it's been fairly slow here in florida right now...

Yeah, I hope OP gets to stay a loooooooooong time rent-free.

[tobee43]

Yeah, I hope OP gets to stay a loooooooooong time rent-free.

i do as well...maybe SOME good can come of it...it's such a hard time for everyone at that stage. we did it and it was awful really...but it was nice to be able to save money for the move.

[jlynn275]

Thanks I let nature take it's course, less stress that way

[tobee43]

Thanks I let nature take it's course, less stress that way

that's really what we did...i hate to sound this way..but we just simply had to "roll" it over and let it be. we just couldn't worry night and day about it...whatever was going to happen and when it did, we would deal with it.

i'm not saying we didn't "plan" , because we did...and when the time came we had a plan a and plan b and even a c.....but we did our best to "file" it away and just deal with the daily problems we faced...just took them one by one and day by day!!

[helpme2010]

Debee, I will go check out that thread now. THANK YOU!

tobee, I do not plan on keeping my home...but want to stay as long as possible to save money....obviously

I am in a similar situation. I do not plan on keeping my house in California, but I do plan on staying as long as possible in the house until I can find a job, then rent a house. Obviously, without the job, it will be difficult to rent another place, so I don't want to end up homeless.

I received a loan modification plan from my mortgage company trustee company and have thought about filling out the paperwork and submitting just to see if it would buy me more time in the house or not. I'm not sure about whether this would work or cause trouble.