Countrywide Home Retention Department – My 16 week loan workout with Countrywide

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“We originally bought our home in 11/05 with a 2/28 5 yr. Interest Only loan. We thought that at the time of adjustment that we would be able to refinance no problem as I would be back to work after having my second son. Our rate was due to adjust 11/1/07.”

So you went into this loan knowing full well that you would not be able to make the payments once they adjusted and now you are upset at the lender? Bottom line you gambled and you lost. You gambled the value of the house would increase. You gambled you would be back to work. You gambled with someone elses money and now it is time to pay up. As you stated you knew it was a bad loan but you had to have the house you could not afford so you could impress your friends and your family. Are they impressed now? This is the overwhelming problem. Nobody can take responsability for their own decisions.

Also, Moe, are you going to comment on the proposal?

Will banks have to disclose what they make on a transaction. Banks make more than a broker does all day long.

I don’t see one mention of banks having to disclose what they make.

MMMMmmm. Who really runs the Fed? Bernacke and his crew are just puppets. The banks are ones pulling the strings here.

Why do you thing BOA was the number one originator of home loans last year? The use the same practices as every broker out there.
They don’t have to disclose what they make though. Most times the borrower gets jabbed the hardest from the banks.

So it is obvious why the banks are pushing the feds buttons. If mortgage brokers take the fall for all this, the banks win big.

We’re always going to get a lot of opposition and here are a lot of mortgage people that are out of business. Some were good, a lot bad.

As far as the new proposed changes, they really are not much of a change to anything. Think about it? We had a lot of rules and regs is place and where did that get us? Look at where we are at today as our country goes bankrupt and CEO’s bank 100’s of millions of dollars.

I mean, look at what they are saying JacMac, should’nt that all be like, “common sense?” Yes…………….

There will always be ways around the rules when there is a lot of money involved.

I agree totally with Jim. You bought your home in 11/05 on an interest only loan, which means you didn’t qualify for a conventional loan (or that you couldn’t afford to pay principal and interest) which means you really couldn’t afford the house in the first place. My question is, did you get a 1st mortgage and 2nd mortgage together for the purchase of the home, (which means, you got into this house with no down payment), or did you take out a 2nd mortgage later and pull out a bit of cash to live on while you were taking time off to have your second son? I have no problem with taking some time off to be with your family, family is very important, however, you are “Blaming the lender” because you did not plan for the future. You knew what the future held, that a rate increase was coming, but you figured, you would deal with it when the time comes. Well deal with it, take responsibility for it. I don’t mean to sound so callous, I know there are a lot of people struggling to keep their homes because they made poor decisions in the beginning. What about all of us who took the higher fixed rate mortgages, made principal and interest payments, because we wanted to make sure that for the next 30 years, we would know what our payments would be. We planned ahead. We bought what we could afford today, not what we hoped we could afford in a couple of years. We didn’t go out and acquire more debt (2nd mortgage or credit cards), because we didn’t have the extra income to do so because we were paying a higher payment (P&I). You said if they would lower your rate to 6% you could afford the principal and interest payment (does this include your 2nd mortgage as well?) Well I would like for my lender to lower my interest rate to 4%, then I could make double house payments and be mortgage free in about 8 1/2 years. It is time to take responsibility for the choices you have made, its called PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.

Hello Andrea, I agree with Terrance on some of these bloogers. I will go even further, as a Certified Mortgage Planner I advice people all the time on loan structures and the interest only loan is by far the best mortgage you could ever get. Never put money into principal of the loan rather set the money aside where it earns you a rate of return. Why would anyone put money in an asset that can depreciate. I too assist clients with loan modifications and am an ex-Countrywide employee as well. I specialize in wealth creation using mortgages as a tool. If you’d like to know more, you can reach me at info@dollardestination.com. I am currently negotiating with Countrywide on behalf of other clients.

First of all JANE!!! You are calous!!! If a product is availbale for people to purchase and that person is under the impression that there are yet more products out there to obtain to remedy the one they just purchase all in hopes that the person’s intenteions would be to come out with a reasonable outcome is not irresponsible. Isn’t the stock market nothing but a gamble as well? What do you have to say about our economy and how it is structured then? Before you go making JUDGEMENTS and self ritious accusations about people’s motives chasing the “American Dream”, check your facts first and then maybe you won’t look like such a dang fool!!!The Government and our financial system as it is ALLOWED all of this to happen because there was greed on both ends. One half of the problem simply wanted the “American Dream” and the other half wanted to take advantage of the people who wanted it. Get a CLUE!!!

HELPFUL insight needed. The Loss Midigation Dept. is willing modify my loan. My ARM loan started at 6.0 and is now at 10.5 They are offering me a 7.8,and I hate to sound greedy but I need to have it closer to 6.0 in order to function. My question is, will they EXCEPT a COUNTER offer? And if so,were should I start? ANY POSITIVE insight or additional info.would be appreciated.

This will be my very last last try for some goodwill help on this forum,after this I will pursue other avenues. The I need some expertise on the following: The Loss Midigation Dept. is willing modify my loan. My ARM loan started at 6.0 and is now at 10.5.

They are offering me a 7.8,but I need to have it closer to 6.0 in order to function. My question is, will they EXCEPT a COUNTER offer? And if so,were should I start? ANY POSITIVE insight or additional info.would be appreciated.

Andrea,
I am in the same situation. I have only gotten a hold of my negotiator once in close to 3 months. I’ve gotten a hold of numerous.. “assistants”….have gotten nothing. I was able to pay for my mortgage and still am willing to stay in my 9.375% ridiculous interest rate for a $484K interest only loan, if only I could prevent it from going up again in March. The company is asking me not to pay for my mortgage but yet am being assessed late fees at the same time and would still have to pay for them. Now I am being a assessed late fees of almost $200/month. I’ve gotten one nice person out of this and I too have called numerous times. It seems that Countrywide would rather have me go into foreclosure than have me stay in my home. Today I contacted their so-called platinum service..nothing platinum about it…they couldn’t do anything for me either. Now I’m stuck with a countrywide mortgage of nearly 5k a month (escrowed) and it seems have no way out. I’ve got a pretty modest income though my husband has come into rough times at work and this is why I contacted countrywide’s loan mod in the first place. At this point I don’t know where to go either!

Jonas,

Please contact me if you have any questions regarding your interest rate reduction. I have been actively closing loan modification agreements with distressed borrowers the last 6 months. My email is pdamiano@loanmodifications.net. Feel free to drop me a line. I am in contact with every lender that has not closed their doors. I work for a firm that has been endorsed by Mayors of South Florida. If I dont’ hear from you, good luck on the negotiating.

i am in the same situation but with a 17,000 prepayment penalty fee owe 10,000 in back intrest, and loan to date is 530,000.00……..house appraises @ 560,000.00 ive spoke with countrywid hundreds of times since november no SUCCESS surrender ing “our”……house!!!

Andrea,

I read your blog response from http://www.loanworkout.org. and I’m sincerely looking for your help and/or guidance. Please do not criticize my choice of home loans because I am fully aware of my poor choice in loan product and I accept full responsibility for not taking my loan papers to a legal expert for advice, prior to signing them in April 2005. My income was verified and I did make sufficient income at the time to afford the mortgage. Today, my loan is current and not in jeopardy of foreclosure at this time. However, it is the future that concerns me since the value of our home has dropped and I’m unable to get my loan refinanced.

I was approved for a 80/20 home loan which pays principal and interest. Until now, I was not aware of what “subprime” meant. I acknowledge having had some collection and other past due accounts in my past. Prior to the loan, I got everything paid off. I was debt free at the time I took out the loan, which was completely affordable at the time (6.75% @ $2,018 for the 1st and 10.75% @ $789 for the 2nd). I was told by my lender that I could refinance my home after the 2 year penalty clause ended, and I would be able to get a fixed rate mortgage. In May 2007, and November 2007 when my loan reset to higher rates (from 6.75% to 9.75% and now 10.75% – due to reset 1% every 6 months), I was unable to get a refinance because the home value going down and my credit score being too low. I continued to make the payments and have not been late on or missed any payments since I took out the loan. I skipped a few credit card payments so that I could keep up on the mortgage.

My loan is due to reset in May 2008. Currently, my payments are $3,115 for the 1st loan and $789 for the 2nd loan, both with Countrywide. The 1st has an adjustable ARM which resets 1% over the LIBOR every 6 months. The 2nd loan is fixed at 10.75%.

In January 2008 I contacted the Countrywide Home Retention Program and faxed the requested paperwork. I was told by the customer service representative that my income was sufficient to qualify me for the program and that I would not hear from them until late April because there are many people ahead of me. Since the time of my loan, my credit score has dropped due to delinquent credit card account, since I am trying to remain current on my mortgage. I have retirement income, and I now have taken a second job to keep up with the payments. I’m very concerned about my family’s future since this is our only family home. My husband, who is currently serving in Iraq, is due home in late April and soon due to get out of the military. He is planning to get another job so that we can hopefully keep up with our payments. We are able to comfortably afford the initial loan, which was $2,900 for the 1st and 2nd combined. With my second job, we are able to afford up to $4,000 in payments, but no more than that.

Today I called Countrywide for the second time. The lady I spoke with told me that she would be referring my account to a loan negotiator and that I should call back in 2 weeks. After reading the blogs on the website, I am concerned that little or no action will take place between now and when my loan is due to reset. I want to be as proactive as possible so that I do not find myself in a delinquent/foreclosure situation. In preparation for the road ahead, I have a few questions below that I hope you would be able to answer for me.

1) Is there anyone else that I can contact outside of the Countrywide system that might be able to help me negotiate a loan restructure?

2) I was told by the Countrywide representative that Wells Fargo Bank has my loan and that they would need to authorize a restructure. Would it be appropriate for me to contact Wells Fargo to initiate a restructure? Would I be at a disadvantage if I am with a professional negotiator?

3) I was told by Countrywide that my current credit score and the value of the house was not a factor in my ability to restructure, only that my ability to pay would be. Do you know if this is true?

4) Roughly, what is the percentage of people who are successfully at getting their homes refinanced or restructured under the Countrywide Home Retention Program.

5) Do you know if there is a list of negotiators anywhere that I can contact.

I thank you in advance for your response. I know your time is valuable and I appreciate your time in assisting me with this monumental issue.

I’ve had a similar experience with Countrywide multiplied by 10 months and a fire which happened in the 5 month of my repay to loan modification payment.

Another interesting thing about CW is that their computers are not integrated. Calling the property claims division is different from any other department and none of them know what the other departments are saying or doing.

I find that everytime I call Countrywide Home Retention Dept I get different people and different answers.

I’ve come to surmise they are totally over-whelmed and unable to be efficient because of the crush of people having difficulty.

I’m just curious if you made any progress.

i was approve for loan mod i found out when i got the paper in the front door..that same day i called n ask whats gonna happen next n they told me that i have back taxes and they paid that alredy will modify it to.now they updated the info just found out that they didnt get chance to add the back taxes inted they will do repayment plan n they can only stretch it for 60 months now im insted of closeto 3500 with P&I and impound they have to add 460 to that amout im at 4000 now. i called them up n ask since its there mistake there’s anyway they can add itto themod they said sorry coz we close the loan already!!its means oh well to bad….

I have tried modifing my loan for 6 months, and countrywide has cancelled on me twice, I have never received any calls or mail regarding my request. I call daily, and its like a recording, no one there knows what is going on, or what the process is, I called last week and was told my loan was in escrow review, and the guy on the other end of the phone didnt even know what that meant. Yesterday, it was in review, and today I call, and its cancelled, they say that I did not respond to their request for more documentation. Im not a mind reader, I never received any request from them, and they never volunteered any info when I called, now Im at 6 months and have to start all over again! I was told that while in the modification process, i would not asses a late charge, and well, needless to say, they added a late charge to my account and will not reverse it. The people that they have there are a waste of time, all they are are a group of receptionist. I was told that my account had not gone to a negotiator as of last Friday, and today, they said that the negotiater is the one that cancelled it.. I only wish someone at countrywide knew what the heck is going on so I can get some straight answers.. Do I just pack up and leave my house with no hope, or do I not make my payments and wait for them to kick me out since no one there is willing to assist me in this so called modification help.

We didnt even apply for this, have made our payments and they have not posted the payments we made…this ruined my credit, cancelled my cards and cause my interest rates for cards to shoot up. We have our attorney reviewing this now.

andrea

iam getting the same crap from countrywide
they are a bunch of liars they changed my information around on me. iam going on 12 weeks now still nothing. theres on guy that works for countrywide a Mr. Dzumdunu who is the biggest lair of them all. i got him on tape lieing to me many times. get a lawyer they will listen then. everyone is sueing them. good luck steve

OMG, My situation is almost exactly the same thing. After trying for almost a year with CW, I decided to stop paying until they help us. I really hate CW!! They have took 3 years of my life to stress. I have faced the facts too. We put about 100,000 dollars into our property with remodeling, Thats the one thing I can;t get past….
Well, maybe if we all stop paying we will see some results!!!!

I too am totally disgusted with Countrywide. I am in 2 Interest Only mortgages and have lost at least $100k in value since we bought in 2006 at a way overinflated price. I’ve been trying for weeks to get some modification assistance but all I get is dumb & rude reps who have no clue. I am still current but not for long due to a loss of income for my husband. The last rep told me to “just let the house go into foreclosure, we can’t help you”!! What kind of a stupid answer is that? When I asked for a supervisor she said, “she’ll tell you the same thing” and promptly hung up! I’ve been putting my name & phone # in CW’s website and finally got a call this week-only to be told we don’t do the Obama modifications yet, only the refinances and to call back after May 1st. They are pathetic. Too bad we can’t reach Pres. Obama personally to let him know what’s going on or NOT going on as the case may be.

To all: Countrywide, now owned by Bank of America has no intentions of helping, they rather lose to foreclosure and then sell the property for pennies. I’ve tried with them since last year, there recommendation was to submit all paper work to HOPE, hardship letter, financial budget, pay stubs, and what they did was increase my monthly mortgage loan, so if i could not afford the payment before, then i won’t be able to afford it now, this is pointless, time consuming and a waste of time. These bailouts were for banks to provide loans and offer assistance, i haven’t seen any assistance, these reps are trained to be rude, and clueless. Countrywide offered loans to everyone setting them up for failure, because of greed. I ask myself if Countrywide was found guilty of fraud by the courts, then why isn’t the law protecting the homeowners, why isn’t anyone looking out for us. Is all and have been interest of man. MONEY!!!!!!!

WHAT IS A SHORT SALE ? AND HOW CAN IT HELP ME NOT GO THROUGH FORCLOSER.IM CLOSE TO THE OF MY ROPE.DOSE IT COST ME ANYTHING.

Big Red

Refuse foreclosure and short sale, several communities are coming together to fight this injustice, these White collar Crimes, people need to protest, through every news network blogs, voice your story, we are 9 million of homeowners going through exactly the same thing. Just on the news a community activist had to intervene when Bank of America foreclosed a family, this family lost their source of income because the husband has cancer, this family also tried with the banks explaining their situation with no luck, there was no empathy towards this family like many others, IMMORAL LENS. Banks have been bailed out, so if it’s not about the money, then why the greed, these houses were sold to us at a overinflated price, we cannot refinance because the homes are not worth what we currently owe, so we are strapped, if banks were strapped had no where to turn to, been rejected for bailout, they would have done everything in their power to work with the homeowners, just as they do with credit cards, since credit cards are not guaranteed they go through every type of work out plan, settlement, 50% debt reduction of interest, because they know they rather have some money being payed backed than none.

I am in a similar boat. It helps to hear others having this issue. I was suckered into a loan August 27, 2005. I had a failed corporation that I tried to do the right thing and get money out of my house to pay some of the creditors. I was given a plan by CW for a fixed 5.5% 3/27 loan. The plan was to refi after 3 years when my credit improved. They bought an ARM that at the time was 4.7%. Well when the guy came with the papers, the interest was 5.875% and they added prepayment penalties for the first 3 years and a much higher ARM after the first 3 years. I did not want to sign, but they guy convinced me that I had several days to work out the descrepancies and it would save resigning later. There were a couple forms that I did not sign, like one that said I wasn’t in a flood zone, because I was. Anyway, I signed that Friday Night at 10PM and then Hurricane Katrina hit on Monday Morning. We did not have any communcications for over a month and I assumed the loan did not go through. To my surprise, they finally got a hold of us and advised that their checks to all the credit card companies kept coming back to them. To make a long story short, my credit is better after the 3 years, but nobody will loan to me. I have a few collections still showing on my credit report from the corporation (Yeah, incorporating did not do any good). CW will also not help. They sounded encouraging, one guy even saying he would treat us just like his mother. They asked us to wait until the end of March when Obama’s programs came in. They even gave us the interest rates, fixed at 4.6% for 30 years, $770 lower payments, etc. Then when the time came, the story was that our Investor was not fannie mae or freddie mac and they could not do it. They also could not tell us who our investor is because it is not legal. So I am now stuck like everyone else. I forgot to mention that initially we went thru a refi process. Told we were “Pre_approved”. We had to pay a $385 appraisal fee which made no sense to me since the collateral is the same and their risk is no different. But when the appraisal came in at $480K instead of $550K, they said they could not do it. I complained about the appraisal after having a local appraiser look at it. Then they came back saying their reconsideration team dropped it even further to $440K. With my balance at $390K, they would not do the finance. Anyway, CW and BOA suck big time. They are only interested in themselves and the Bailout is a big joke. I want to say that yes, I did gamble and I am paying for it, but I think I was done wrong by Coutrywide. I was mislead, they lied to me. They should not have let the loan go through with all the papers not signed. They wanted to sucker me into this trap and they do not intend nor care to help.

Wow Now I’m worried. I read all the stories above and I’m now in the middle of trying to apply for the make home affordable program. The guy “David” I got on the phone today was very promising. He even told me what my new mortgage payment would be. About 200 less then it is right now. I asked him if that included the second and he said no. They would have to look into that after we are done with the first step. that kinda concerns me because according to the details I read they should be rolled into one. After talking to him for a little while and let him know just how much I knew about the program he put me on hold for about 5 min and then conveniently disconnected we me. I immediately called aback and asked to be transfered to “David” and I was told that they are not allowed to transfer calls. Then that guy told me he could not access the account. Then told me to call aback some other time. This ahas been going on for well over three months. Not sure who to believe and who to trust at this point. Maybe it would be easier to just start over and let the house go. Good luck everyone.

Dont listen some some of the negitive people out there. They are just mad that they lost there job for forceing someone into a bad loan like mine.

I was reading through comments regarding countrywide and they way they handle customers regarding their home modification program and i share the same frustration. my wife and i submitted all the forms needed for the home modification program and ran i to similiar situation. in a six months period i had four different loan officers and only got to speak to one of them once. you never get to speak with the loan officer and the customer service rep has no clue on the status of my loan modification was. it took countrywide one year to tell us that we qualified for the program,but by that time we were already caught up on our loan. the only time we ever hear from countrywide is when our mortgage is late. countrywide wont motify our loan because we are consistantly late,but not late enough to foreclose the house,but late enough so that they can continue to collect the late fees of 100/month extra for the next twenty years. not to hard to figure out why they will not do anything to help us pay the mortage on time.

Welcome to my world I have been working with them for 2 1/2 years. I pretty much went through the same thing only I knew the interest rate on my 20 loan was high but was told by my lender that I would be able to refinance noooooo problem, then of course I hadn’t lived in the house long enough, and buy the time I had my value had gone down 20,000 and no one would touch me even with good credit. Now almost 3 years later I’m still trying to get them to work with me to lower my rate. I guess they would rather take my house for a loss then take my money for a profit.