Anyone ever foreclose on purpose? - Page 2

[Amys1st]

This was in the NY times the other day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/bu...article&st=cse

[fierrbugg]

We're in this situation right now. I lost my job in July and still haven't found anything. We were barely scraping by but kind of making it and then dh had to have emergency knee surgery in February and was out of work for 12 weeks. We called the mortgage company as soon as we knew he'd have to get the surgery and tried to work something out w/ them then - but they told us that since we were current at that time, they couldn't help us. So 7.5 years of solid payment history meant nothing of course. They actually advised us that if we were a few payments behind they'd be more inclined to work something out w/ us. So, we stopped paying because we only had my unemployment for 5 weeks until his short-term disability (which was dismal) started coming in. But we couldn't afford the mortgage then either. So we sent in paperwork to try and do a loan mod showing that at the time we were short on monthly expenses by half a mortgage payment (we are about 115k under (our neighbor has lost 148k) - and yeah we know we messed up). They sent us back a rejection saying that the investment group that owned our loan didn't allow modifications. I mean really all we really need is interest adjusted - dh says it'll be tight but we could make it on just a mod on interest. So we kind of gave up and started preparing ourselves for the inevitability of moving.

Then a few weeks ago they sent us a letter that we had been approved for a 'temporary' loan modifciation. When dh called them confused about what they were doing - basically they told us that doing this temporary loan mod where they wanted us to pay x amount for 3 months, didn't guarantee that we would get a loan modification in the end. And every mortgage person we know advised us not to throw money at them without a premanent written modification in hand. We don't want to lose our house - we know we did this. Lots of stooooopid decisions and lack of planning for the what-if's got us into this situation.

Right now we're stuck here, but are saving a moving fund, knowing we're going to have to do deposits for the dogs, etc. We have checked and we can rent simliar sized houses in our area for less than half of our mortgage. Of course there's only 2 of us so we don't even want a house this big. But that's where we are. We don't think that a short sale would work, but aren't ruling it out. But in our state, there are protections for homeowners who face foreclosure and not neccessarily for those who choose short sales. Kind of backward, but I guess that's the way it goes.

[Fuamami]

Fierrbugg, I think that was a good choice not to go for the modification. I don't think they have much intention of actually modifying the mortgages, but there's a lot of pressure on them to try, so they offer them and then keep coming up with different excuses until the homeowner gets sick of it or gets a better job and can afford to pay again. That's just my theory.

good luck!

[fierrbugg]

Originally Posted by Fuamami

Fierrbugg, I think that was a good choice not to go for the modification. I don't think they have much intention of actually modifying the mortgages, but there's a lot of pressure on them to try, so they offer them and then keep coming up with different excuses until the homeowner gets sick of it or gets a better job and can afford to pay again. That's just my theory.

good luck!

I think you're right. When we got the paperwork - I was excited, like maybe we could make it work - but reading the packet was depressing. Basically you pay 50% for three months and then they decide if you're going to be eligible for a permanent loan modificiation after that time. The guy that dh talked to said that even if we paid exactly on time for those 3 months, there's no guarantee that we'd get a modification at that time - they may decide to move forward with foreclosure no matter what you do. One of the things that was just ridiculous was the fine print, particularly where it said things like if you're in foreclosure (which we're still not - I guess it's taking an average of 15 months in my state right now), and you get denied the mod - it continues as planned w/ out further notice. I just thought how devastating that could be to families who pay for 3 months, but are only a few weeks from foreclosure completing. So, they pay for 3 months hoping for a miracle and get denied and then only have a few weeks to pack and get out? That's just crazy.

I still hold out hope that they will come to us w/ a real modification offer, but also see how this can be a new start for us, complete with a hard learned lesson about what not to do when buying a house.

[~Boudicca~]

I feel for you, fierrbugg, I really do. We were strung along forever with our loan mod too and eventually just said screw it. The day that our realtor contacted us with the Comparative Market Analysis for our house so we could try to short sell (it had tanked 135K from it's last assessment in 2006!! Holy cannoli!!!) we got the foreclosure papers in the mail from the bank's lawyers and she said since it looks like a foreclosure was already in the works so she couldn't take it on but we could speak to the bank to see if they will allow us to try to short sell it. Bank didn't want to hear it.

It will probably take a pretty long time for the bank to actually come seize your house and put it up for auction. We made our last payment in October 2009, got the summons for the foreclosure in February, were found officially in default as of May, and we've been checking on the house weekly (we moved back to our hometown to cut the commute down and to be closer to our families) and no one has done anything with the house yet. A fellow homeschooling mom friend of mine was in her house for 18 months before she received notice that it was time to go. My former next door neighbor left their house 20 months ago and the banks only changed the locks a couple weeks ago.

So don't worry, you're not going to have to move for a little while. They are just too backed up.

[UrbanSimplicity]

I say, ask yourself seriously what is best for your family's future, and do it. Just make sure you take the experience as a lesson learned and be more cautious in the future. Good luck.