Yes, Google trends indicates that searches for the term stop foreclosure has seen a huge spike starting in late 2006 and climbing upwards.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a crystal ball to analyze and make predictions to where our real estate market is heading in the Unites States. Daily I am getting news alerts about many big banks allocating funds and changing their procedures in dealing with pre foreclosure and loan workouts.
My goal is to connect with these banks and provide information to consumers so they can avoid foreclosure with their bank. The reason I am doing this is because there will be a lot of scammers, greedy attorneys, mortgage brokers etc. taking advantage of consumers.
Wherever there is money, there is greed and fraud. That’s what happened to the mortgage industry in the first place.
Now as I look in the search engines I see all the scammers popping up by the second. Registering domains and getting ready to prey on the people who need desperate help. Attention banks: Let’s unite and stop these websites, scammers and sharks before they only add to the housing crisis.
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
My husband called the Hope Line to see what they offered for help to avoid foreclosure and was told he didn’t qualify to refinance our loan because of our payment history. We were instructed to make our payments for a few months and call back and then maybe they could help us. It seems like it would be cheaper to help us refinace our loan than to take it back and try to sell it. I guess they have been in the business of jerking people around for so long that it’s hard to actually offer help now.
Hello Lorre!
There seems to be people that work in these departments that sometimes give out information that is not correct and it’s frustrating. That’s why I am trying to get this information to people so they know how to deal with these banks and their loss mitigation departments. In this case it’s Countrywide’s HOPE department which handles loan modifications.
Is your loan adjusting or did you just have a hardship that caused you to be late on payments?
Let me know and I can guide you to the best way to handle this and get the “right information” so you can get the help you need.
Best Regards,
Moe
hello I really need information for a loan workout. Can you provide this to us thank you
Hi Mary!
I would love to help you in any way I can. I will email you my information and please do the same.
Many people are having difficulties in dealing with their lender and sometimes it’s best to have a professional loan workout specialist handle the negotiation, when other attempts have failed.
Best Regards,
Moe
Trumanistra 19 post
all about Trumanistra and top news
I am also seeking help w/Countrywide’s loan workout program. I am not and have not been late on any mortgage payments but my loan has adjusted over $1000 mth and I am feeling the stress of this. Please respond and advise. Thanks.
Hi Teresa!
I would be happy to help in any way I can. I will email you so we can discuss privately.
Hi,
I just talked to Countrywide and was told she had no idea about what I was talking about. she had never heard of such a thing. What do I do now? She kept pushing me to talk to their refinance department
Just wrote. Countrywide says my loan must be convertible. What is that?
That means that it is elligible for a loan modification! Good news! Come join http://www.LoanSafe.org and tell your story. This is great. Let me help in any way I can and review whatever they offer you.
Best of Luck!
Moe
Moe:
I spoke with you Saturday regarding my Countrywide mortgage and also sent you a couple of e-mails Sunday. I did not hear back, so I’m not sure you got them. Can you confirm, please?
Yes I did Jim! No problem. I just need you to post your story on http://www.LoanSafe.org. That’s all I ask in return to help you. That is where we can communicate and help others by helping you. Pay it forward
My loan is currently being handled by the HOPE dept at Countrywide. It was referred to that department because I did not qualify for a loan reinstatement with Countrywide.
When my loan was 2 1/2 months delinquent, Countrywide was quick to place the loan in foreclosure. I called about a week after they did this, and learned that they would not accept my payment. It was at this time that I was told it would be handled by the HOPE dept.
I was assigned a negotiator, but was told that he is so busy that he may not return calls for 2-3 days. In my case, he returned the call the very next day and told me that he was waiting for some information from the legal office pertaining to my property taxes. It did not matter that I informed him about the status of the property taxes, he needed to get the info from the attorney.
About a week later, I received an automated e-mail from Countrywide indicating that my property taxes had been paid from my escrow account. Since I do not have an escrow account for property taxes, it was a little confusing. When I called my negotiator, he actually answered the phone. He informed me that my loan modification had been packaged and sent to “management” for approval and that I would know something by soon. Once I told him about the taxes being paid, he said that it was very good news and that my modification probably had been approved.
However, I was never informed of the terms of the modification. And that is my question today. Do I have any power to negotiate the modification? I was told that the terms are all the same, they just take the outstanding balance and tack it onto the principle, but the other terms are the same. I don’t like that idea, because that extra 3 (now 4 months) payments will cost me plenty when my adjustment comes in June 2008.
Here’s what I would do. I would contact a local non-profit HUD Certified Housing Counseling Agency to have them negotiate with Countrywide’s HOPE Department or look over your loan modification offer. You can find one on the HUD website or call 1-888-995-HOPE or visit http://www.995hope.org.
The terms are not all the same and they will push to get the most amount of money as possible. So be careful.
Thanks for the links to a counseling agency. I had already e-mailed several local agencies listed on the HUD website, but heard from no one. Is it really worth having someone else try to negotiate for me?
I was informed by the HOPE DEPT yesterday that my loan mod was approved, and I will be getting the docs this week. However, I was told that there is no negotiating the terms of the loan. If my loan is part of a securities deal that makes Countrywide purchase back my loan if they change the terms, is there any hope? I was told that my loan payment would increase by $705 per month (including a new tax impound). My principle would be higher by more than $20K. I really need a lower rate, or a fixed rate.
Can a HUD approved counseling agency really make a difference, even if Countrywide would have to purchase back my loan if they change the terms? It just doesn’t seem possible that Countrywide would ever start changing the loan terms.
You’re quite welcome. I’m sorry to hear that you have not heard from any housing counselors. That actually upsets me because I am trying to promote them to borrowers so they can get help for free. If you would like me to look at what they have proposed then please call me or email me.
If this loan modification is not affordable to you then don’t agree to it. They are negotiatable. The offer they made you sounds ridiculous.
Please call me or email so I can find out more of that offer!
I need to help on what to say to Countrywide HOPE team. My mortgage is 2 months behind but it started in June 2006. My husband started making the payments then and we had too many financial obligations. Now we are separated and I am paying the mortgage since May 2007 but this month Sept I am short. I need to reduce my mortgage amount a little and catch up. What can I do or say to a dept. that is very rude.
Here’s some techniques.
So how does one go about dealing with their lender?
The answer is really quite simple. Make a game plan on how exactly you are going to approach them. These people are trained in minimizing loss for their company and they get paid to by getting the most amount of money out of you as possible or declare that your case is un workable and foreclose on you. That is how they mitigate loss. If you understand this, then you’ll know that you have to approach them and all conversations very carefully. Everything can and will be used against you.
Don’t think for one second that they are there to help you save your home. If you do that then you’ll just end up blowing up on whoever is handling your file and maybe blowing your chances of saving your home. It’s a game of cards and their the dealers. You never know what card your going to get and this may be the biggest gamble of your life.
Have all your ducks is a row before you call and be in a good mood. Be prepared to be fake and nice.(even though you would like to tell them off). Make sure all your financials are together.
Oh yeah, don’t talk with collections. If you are transfered to collections, be asked to be transferred to the loss mitigation department or home retention department. Don’t give collections any of your personal information or tell them what you are trying to do. Just give them you social, loan number and address. If they try and badger you, tell them your lawyer is on the phone and he advised you not to tell them more than that. Trust me, it shuts them up every time. Get everyone’s name, extension employee number. Take meticulous notes of all calls or record them and tell them you are recording them.
If all else fails, seek out a third party to handle this for you. There are many non-profit and for profits that are very experienced in loan modifications and loan workouts.
Don’t give up and fight to avoid foreclosure and save your home!
You would assume that these lenders would hire highly trained professionals to handle their loss mitigations and collections when dealing with hundred’s of thousands of dollars on the line with each phone call, but in most cases that’s far from the truth.
Their attitude and demeanor is as if they are lawyers and that they hold your life in their palms. They may not be lawyers but they do hold the keys to saving your home.
svirtokilo 12 post
all about svirtokilo and top news
Ask them if you could do a modification.
Countywide has ruined my son’s life, and curshed his spirit possibly forever. I hope that the government finds out all of your dirty secret!!!! Because they exist.
IM IN NEED OF HELP IVE BEEN NOT WORKING FOR THE PAST FEW MONTHS GOT BEHIND ON PAYMENTS HAVE BEEN TRYING SINCE NOV, 07 TO GET HOPE DEPT OR WORKOUT WITH COUNTRYWIDE , NOW ITS BEEN TURNED OVER TO A LAWYER FOR FORCLOSURE WERE DO I GO HOW DO I FIX THIS TO MODIFY THE LOAN , SO WE DONT LOOSE OUR HOME
CHUCK, I JUST HAD BYPASS, MY WIFE HAD BREAST CANCER, I AM ON PERMENENT DISABILITY, CW WANTS TO KICK IN ON MY ADJUSTABLE TO THE TUNE OF AN ADDITIONAL $486.00 A MONTH, I ASKED THIER ” HOPE ” DEPT FOR HELP WITH A RATE ADJUSTMENT, THEY NAMED IT RIGHT THE HOPE DEPT, IT’S BEEN 2 MONTHS, I HAVE HEARD NOTHING, I CALLED 2 DAYS AGO, CALL WENT RIGHT TO INDIA !!! THEY COULD CARE LESS, BELIEVE ME WHEN I TELL YOU, I TOLD THEM HAVE AN ANSWER BY THE END OF THIS MONTH, OR I FILE CH. 13, OR 7 AND WALK AND THEN THEY CAN TRY AND SELL IT !, BEST OF LUCK.
I too have been faced with the struggle of keeping my home. I purchased the home at the height of market value for 485,000. Put 100,000 down and now my home is worth 308,000. Needless to say I also contacted the Hope Dept. I plan to call them because I have not heard from them. Intially the person I spoke to was very vague about how this program worked…I plan to call them tomorrow and I hope they give me more than HOPE. I would appreciate any input on how to deal with the Hope dept I really do not understand how this works . I would like to lower my mortgage payment due to a financial hardship I have never been late on my payments and I am looking to decrase my payment to make it easier to make the monthly payments being that I can not refinance it due to the value today!
Hi,
I stumbled upon this site and looks very promising. I appreciate your assistance for everybody that I have read about. I have attempted to call Countrywide on numerous times (25?) and have run around in circles with them without getting anywhere. My dad is retired and living off his retirements from a few countries. His loan is about to adjust (letter 3 days ago stated it will increase about $1500 a month). I’m pleading for help now. We are current on the payments but things are getting tight now.
Please visit http://www.loansafe.org Munier. There is a lot of free help in my forum.
We have had very similar experiences as you’ve had with countrywide, with Saxon Mtg. We are trying to ask for a workout plan with them and have been trying agressively (I’ve logged over 40 attempts, not counting those before we started logging) and are so frustrated!!!! We need some kind of call to action to get these companies’ attention, especially amidst the current housing crisis.
Hello,
I have a loan with CW as well, In the past six months I have had 3 negotiators ( all 3 quit ). I was told they had dropped the ball and I would have to go through the process all over. I also was told several times that if i could not make the full payment (twice what I was paying), not to send any payments. Now what use to be a perfect credit with them is showing six months late! My husband’s credit is messed up and I am at a loss of what to do. The house is in his name. I have tryed to work with naca to no avail, the hope program, now what? I to have kept a log of all the calls i have made and what the conversation intailed. Can You help? God Bless all of you out there in the same position. I ask all to lift up there voices in prayer for every person or family in this nightmare situation.
Linda
I have been trying to deal with naca and the so called hope dept since November. All i can say is what a joke.I decided to let my condo go that i occupy because of the Florida real estate market or lack their of. I, like many other people in this area are very upside down and it will take decades to see our home prices rise again.I hate doing what i am doing and always paid my bills and been a responsable humane being but this housing crisis has bit me in the ass and its not going to let go. I wish everyone good luck trying to save their home. I think you will need it because there is not a hole lot of compitant help out there.
Last September (2007) we were looking at 30 days past due, cause we own a home business (pool maintenance co.) and alot of our loyal customers were having financial difficulty, and could no longer afford our service, and a few went into forclosure themselves….well this made our situation difficult, but, as soon as I saw “the writing on the wall” I contacted Countrywide to request a special forbearance or loan modification. What a joke, I called 2x’s a week, to see how things were progressing, and if they needed extra info from us…blah blah blah….well, long story short, they (after I called them!) finally notified me Jan. 10, 2008 ..some four months later that they felt that we could make our monthly payment, but that we could not pay any additional “repayment” amount, so they denied our loan modification. Of course, I asked if there was any other product that could help…nope. Called 995-HOPE, they analyzed our situation, yah, we could just afford the home, but nothing more….news to us! Well, today we called (cause we are playing the 90 days past due….run make a payment, go 60 days for 2 weeks…roll back into 90 days game) and they said that the “hope” department (they may want to change that to “joke” dept.) could possibly help us…since we have demonstrated the ability to pay the current monthly pmnt, just not current + back pmnt, they will be able to “wrap” the past due 2 months back into the loan, and add it back onto the principle……I am very skeptical to say the very least….We will try to get the info to them this weekend, but I am not excited about the answer…….
Q: How many of you here are using your Federal stimulus payment to pay your lender for a past due mortgage pmnt??? We are.
RICK NACA AS YOU WELL KNOW IS OVERRRRRRRRWHELEMED I WAS IN THE PROGRAM LAST YEAR APRIL DID EVERYTHING BY JAN THIS YEAR STILL NO HELP FINALLY DID TALK TO A LOAN PROCESSER WHO DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO THE FORECLOSURE SALE DATE HELPS THEY ONLY CALL WHEN YOUR HOUSE IS ABOUT TO BE SOLD A WEEK BEFORE I DONT SEE HOW THAT HELPS
COUNTRYWIDE HAS ANYONE HAD ANY SUCCESS WITH GETTING THERE LOAN WRITTEN DOWN
MY PARENTS ARE READY TO DO A REVERSE MORTGAGE BUT THE EQUITY HAS GONE DOWN WITH THE FORECLOSURES IN THE AREA I WANTED TO KNOW HAS ANYONE HEARD THAT MAYBE THEY COULD WRITE DOWN THE LOAN TO MAKE REVERSE MORTGAGE GO THRU
Hello all,
It all started last year around February when I had two police officers come to my home to notify me that both of my parent have been killed in a car accident by a drunk driver operating a semi which jack knifed and killed them. I was devastated. It was very difficult to work. So I just didn’t work for a couple of months while I get my parents affairs in order. I came back to work and it took me another month to get my business back on track to where I’m earning income again. So now I’m three months behind and I make a mortgage payment every month. However, each month I pay my mortgage payment the Representative fails to mention that hhe didn’t include the late fees that have accumilated all these months. So I was just over four months behind on the payments at that point. They took my income and debt info and ask me to send in my paystub and a Hardship Letter.
They forwarded my info to the Work-Out Dept. Anyhow, when it was all said and done, They approved a Loan Modification Agreement which was fine with me. I knew I was behind and I knew I would eventually pay the money back I was delinquent on later in life. So I was doing fine and I made four months of payments on time until I got laid off in December, a week before Christmas. It was bad enough I lost my job, but I wasn’t about to let my three loving kids go without Christmas presents. That just wasn’t an option in my book. So with the lay-off and my decision to give the kids a Christmas it caused us to get behind on the Mortgage again. I had been receiving an unemployment check from Jan. through Feb. I didn’t receive enough to make the mortgage payment. I had to save what I got in Jan and Feb to make one payment. I just got a new job that pays only 78% what I used to earn. Well it is now May and I am three months behind once again. I spoke to a customer service rep and they took my financial info over the phone again like last time.However, I’m afraid they won’t approve it this time because I just got one approved back in August of last year. Can anyone tell me if they had a similiar situation where they had to due the Hope Dept. twice? And if so, did Countrywide approve your loan modification the second time around?
Thanks,
Another Countrywide Victim
Hi!
My husband has a loan with Countrywide and has perfect payment history with them throughout the entire loan. He was recenlty injured and unable to work. I am 7 months pregnant and about to take maternity leave. So my husband called countrywide to see if we could defer a couple payments until he is back at work. The lady at the workout dept. said no problem since he has such a good payment history, all he had to do was fax in our bank statement and the reason why we need deferment. They would take the next three months payments and place them onto the end of our loan.That was a month ago, we got a call today from a lady stating she was from collections (keep in made we are still right on time with our payments) saying that countrywide does not do deferred payments. And that the only hting we can do is not pay for three months then pay the full amount after the three months???? Seriously? I’m so mad, we have perfect credit and with the market in the condition it is you would think they would want to keep their good paying customers. Moe, what can we do? I’m looking into contacting the manager of the HOPE/Workout Dept. to find out why exactly their Service Reps are giving out false hope. Thanks a bunch!
was approve for loan modification n did all the paper work.i was told that they would add march ,april n may payment to the loan then my payment will start on july 1st dont have to worry bout june payment,then i called yesterday they said its updated was told everythings updated ready n payment is due june i ask them how is that possible when i was told its july n it even stated on the contract. question is this my mistake on my side or theres?
I got this company name THE FIRM to help me make modifications on my mortgage I paid $2500 to them. they started the process back in april 1, 2008 up to this point the one thing that they have told me is that countrywide has ask them to re submit the modification by aug, because my mortgage is about to go up since is variable.My question is, is this real to re submit and fall more in arrears on my mortgage.
thanks
I think you have been taken for $2500 Mercedes. Meaning you have been scammed. Please investigate further.
Hello,
I have been reading a great deal of people having problems with Countrywide. I have read many complaints about Countrywide, but no resolutions. I have fallen victim to the “cant do anything until your 3 months late” along with the “Countrywide doesn’t defer payments” speeches. I have unfortunately lost the home due to this lack of help and procrastination of filing paperwork on their part, after cashing out an IRA to catch up and being told that was not good enough. I just want to know how legal this is and is ther anything that one can do at the point I am in? If I were to do something like this, a law suit would be slapped on me faster than I can blink.
Best of luck to all,
Troy,
The best outcomes from what i have read and seen is when you email the list that is on this site. Keep pushing for help and let them know you want to keep the home. Also try to involve your local legislature person and media if possible.
Do not threaten just let CW know your goal is to work this out.
It is a painfull and slow process and until there is some package passed in congress that will give the lenders an incentive to peform modifications in a timely manner it will continue to be this way…just be persistent.
Best Of luck…