Ugh!

The business of Christmas kept my mind off this obstacle for a short time, so thank you Christmas! But now I have to get back to it!

We got a letter in mid-December (dated the 17th from Bank of America along with our check returned. The letter simply stated:

"IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT YOUR LOAN Thank you for sending the enclosed payment. Although we appreciate your effort to settle your account, it is necessary to return these funds to you for the following reason: The amount remitted does not represent the total due. WHAT THIS MEANS Please note that additional amounts may become past due until your account is brought fully current. If you have any questions, please contact us at (800)669-6654"

So here is a copy of the letter I originally sent them and have been sending weekly for several weeks (for our privacy, I x'ed out the dollar amounts):

November 25, 2009

Dear Bank of America Representative,

I, like many hard-working Americans, am struggling to keep my home. My husband and I do not want to be another statistic. We do not want to walk away from a property that we feel responsible for and want to keep. We have been trying to communicate with your institution unsuccessfully since May of 2009 and no one will give us the time and attention we require to work out a solution that benefits us all. We want to repay our loan to you, and in order to do that we need to establish new terms that will pay Bank of America what it is owed and keep us in our home.
Unlike the many homeowners who have washed their hands of their financial responsibilities, leaving their financed properties to fall into disrepair while banks struggle to get them on the market before the values drop even further, we want to pay you. We simply need to work out payment terms that work with our current financial predicament.

Our Situation:
Due to the educational systems drastic budget cuts my teaching aide position was cut and I have only sparse substitute offers, which I excitedly accept. My second, part-time job is as a real estate agent. As you know, this industry and my sales have all but dropped off. My husband continues to hold his position, but his income alone does not allow us to pay the mortgage as is stands. We have used all our resources, including exhausting our retirement and savings. We have been applying for extra work daily. We have qualified for the Oregon Health Plan for our children and are receiving food stamp benefits.
We realize we purchased at a market high, made mistakes in our mortgage choices, and are now facing foreclosure if we cannot come to reachable terms with Bank of America and Chase.

Bank of America's Situation:
You are dealing with many short sale and foreclosure proceedings, which we understand is not easy on Bank of America's bottom line. As a licensed Oregon Realtor in the Newberg/Dundee area, I know this market well. The current market value of our home is no more than $xxx,xxx at best. We currently owe $xxx,xxx between the $xxx,xxx on our first with B of A and our $xx,xxx on the second with Chase. Foreclosure and short sale properties are not selling quickly in our area, which means you stand to go without payments until the sale. You also run the risk of a much larger loss if the market's downward trend continues. Add to that the costly expense of the foreclosure process for your institution, and it seems beneficial for all parties involved to work with us- a borrower willing and able to make reduced payments-to collect the full amount owed to your bank.

A proposed solution:
We have family that is willing to assist us with the cost of utilities and transportation expenses until we procure additional work. That means we can use the bulk of our income towards the mortgage. With the money coming in right now, that would mean we could pay $xxxx per month. Since we have both a first and a second we are requesting the following:
Bank of America accepts payment of $xxx (the additional $xxx will be paid toward the second mortgage) as a complete monthly payment.
Remove all late fees and fines associated with the missing payments from May of 2009, since our calls and pleas went unanswered.
Re-issue new loan agreements with us that lock us in at a fixed interest rate for the next 5 years minimum.
See to it that our loan balance does not continue to grow due to negative amortization from the difference between the payments due as per our current agreement and the proposed new payment.

Your cooperation and assistance in this matter would save all involved further financial losses. We realize this is an extreme reduction in the monthly payments. We trust you see the benefit in working with us to collect the full balance of what you are owed through a new loan agreement instead collecting a severely reduced amount via foreclosure. To honor and respect your willingness to commit to an agreement that benefits us both we will agree to a pre-payment penalty so that you can be assured of making your money back with interest.

We have been completely transparent with you by showing pay stubs and account balances to verify our financial situation. I have also included information on a recently sold property that is similar to our home. If there is something we have failed to clarify, or something more we can do to initiate an open dialogue to solidify a new agreement with Bank of America, please notify us and we will promptly respond. If you agree to accept these terms, please accept this check as our first payment and we will await new documentation from you verifying the new loan terms. We will take the cashing of this check as approval of the solution we propose. We anxiously await communication from you and thank you in advance for working with us to keep this loan and our family form being another sad statistic. We appreciate the opportunity to keep our dignity and our home by making realistic arrangements with Bank of America.

In gratitude,


Teresa Kolb
Brian Kolb

Hopefully I can get someone to talk to us on the phone this week. I'll try again to negotiate a deal and then continue to send my weekly letters. Ugh!

Twitter-Will it help me?

12/07: Upon the advice of a friend, I sent a tweet directly to my mortgage lender and they responded fairly quickly! Wow! They asked for my contact info...hopefully I can get a real person to communicate with! If that doesn't work, I'll have to start tweeting about my bad experience to the world!

12/08: Got a call from a BofA Twitter Help person...not associated with BofA however. Probably a marketing person trying to save face for BofA. She took my info/history with the lender's customer service to forward to a BofA rep....

12/09: Got a call from another Twitter BofA Help person...she said she had my info and gave me another BofA phone number to call...back to square one I guess. This number is for the Home Retention Division, which I'm sure I've already called. But she insisted I call again, "because that's who can help me".

I'm sitting on hold right now, after listening to a 5 minute spiel about the Making Home Affordable Program....another 5 minute hold with wonderfully loud music before I got to talk to another BofA rep! Not bad at all compared to the other times I've sat on hold with BofA! Trying to stay positive!

I asked him what he can tell me about my file..."can you hold on a sec"..."just trying to find some documentation"..."I don't see that you are in review at this time"..."can you tell me what you've sent?"...Seriously? You can't find anything I've sent to you. You have full access to my file right? "Right".

After telling him what I've sent he miraculously found my info in my file...ugh!

I asked for an address I can send a letter to...and it was like pulling teeth out of a snake!!! I gave him the address I had and he wanted to know where I got the address, but would not confirm that it was a correct address! "What letter are you sending?, who are you sending it to?, what else are you sending?, who told you to send a partial payment?"

...this is so frustrating...on hold again...40 minutes on this call...and I still feel like I'm on square one!!! He calculated some ridiculous amount for us to pay...a three month trial period and then maybe they will modify our loan, and maybe not! Ugh!

I just want to curl up in my bed and cry myself to sleep. I don't feel like they are really helping us. They asked for our budget info and our income (again). Then they gave us an adjusted payment amount for our loan. The problem is, the math doesn't add up. Income minus budget doesn't equal new loan payment...deep breaths!

He wanted me to make a commitment to this adjusted/temporary (3 month) payment amount and said he couldn't guarantee it would be offered after today. I called him on his pressuring me to make a decision and he said he wasn't pressuring me. I asked him what he called it, "just an offer that I cannot guarantee will be here later".

I told him I couldn't make this decision without my husband. I also asked how he could take a commitment like this from only one party on the loan docs and not each and every person on the loan? His answer..."you don't have to commit today, but I cannot guarantee this offer will be here tomorrow." I asked him what the terms are and what would happened to the missed payments and late fees. Again he was vague and said "they would remain until we got approved, if we got approved, and then that would be decided at that time."

I was on the phone for over an hour...crying most of that time...although the man I spoke with was calm, I still felt beat up by the time I hung up the phone. I felt like I was being roped into accepting a deal that I would eventually regret. Ugh!

Time to Tweet!

I'm Exhausted

I don't know when the last time I got a decent nights sleep. The last several nights I have been in and out of sleep and having bizarre dreams. Last night I counted backward from 100...didn't work...then backward from 1000...which finally worked, but it took me over an hour to doze off only to wake up an hour later and do it again. This morning I woke about 6ish and tried to count backward from 1000 again...when I got to 400, I just gave in and got up. (And mid-day naps don't work for me either!)

I'm starting a new "job" tomorrow morning. I'll be working in a special needs preschool speech class for 2 hours/1 day a week...but hey, it's a job! ...And then back to work at FM from 5-11 pm.

So why am I not in bed now? Good question...cause I know I'll be counting sheep for an hour :) Obviously stressed!

Good night!

I'm NOT Giving Up!

To this date, the mortgage company has yet to contact us, nor have they sent their threatened foreclosure papers. To me, this just buys me more time to get a regular job and for the real estate market to pick up. I am hopeful.

Since they have not yet contacted us nor have they been willing to offer us a solution or even speak with us, I decided to start a letter campaign. This week I sent a letter along with a proposal for payment plans/terms to our mortgage company. Included in the letter was a check for our proposed amount for a new mortgage. My plan is to continue to send letters weekly as well as contact anyone I can at the mortgage company via email. Maybe someone will listen! We don't want to become another sad statistic! We want to keep our home and pay what is due...we just need some adjustments made until the economy turns around and our financial situation stabilizes. I'm not giving up!!!

A Glimpse of Hope

I got a job! Seems like it should be cause for celebration...and it is...sorta!

The job is a temporary seasonal job (with a slight chance it could become a regular job in January-fingers crossed). The job is just over minimum wage and part-time. (According to the customer service people, our mortgage co. wants to see regular employment, not temp.) The job is with the same company I worked for when I turned 16...and I'm working my butt off for next to nothing!

It is very humbling to work in a starter-level job in my own community where I constantly run into people I know! I am supposed to be a successful Realtor. I'm 43 years old, not 16! I've paid my dues. I've worked my way up the ladder. Ugh! But I keep telling myself that I'm doing whatever it takes for my family-to keep our home, my twins in college, bills paid and food on the table! Humbling!

Exasperated!

I started contacting our mortgage company in May 2009, long before we were late with any payments. We could never get anyone to talk to us and were always told that they cannot help us unless we've missed a payment.

Finally, when we could no longer avoid the unavoidable, we missed a payment. Since I've never missed a payment before, I assumed someone would contact us about the missed payment. I was wrong. Not only did they not call us, when I called them to discuss our situation and ask for help, they told me there was nothing they could do until we missed another payment. Seriously?

I am a Realtor with contacts in the mortgage industry! I can do this! I turned to every professional source I could find for help and advice. It seemed that nobody was having any luck with their personal mortgage company and this so called Making Home Affordable Program.

So we missed another payment, and again, no call and no help when I called them. I began to worry and get frustrated. Then we got a letter. The letter told us that if we missed another payment the mortgage company would begin the foreclosure processes and after 120 days our home would be auctioned/sold.

What? But we tried to communicate with you and you wouldn't even talk to us and now you are going to take our home? What about the Making Home Affordable Program? Once again, Panic set in!

I began to process the inevitable. We would have to move. Our twins would head to college, and we would look for a home to rent. After Christmas, we would say good-bye to our beloved home and turn the keys over to the bank. I couldn't walk through my yard without crying and thinking of the many losses that would soon follow...my roses that I tenderly pruned and groomed...my collection of flowers that I acquired from friends and nurtured though our 10+ years here...the deck my dad and I built the summer before he died...the arbor my father in-law built so I could plant my favorite plant-wisteria...the memories made with birthday celebrations and family/friend BBQ's...the days playing in the sunshine with my kids...and my special made gate and stone walkway that I created to my best friend's house. I hadn't even told her I was in trouble financially, and now I would have to tell her I would soon be moving.

I have contacted the mortgage company over a dozen times since May, 2009 and still haven't had anyone communicate with me/help me figure out what I can do to adjust my mortgage, keep my home, or arrange to refinance!

Prideful

I have never really thought of myself as a prideful person. But the day I signed up for food stamps was very hard for me. I was afraid someone would see me walk into the building. What if their was someone I knew there? I was ashamed and emotionally exhausted. I didn't even think we would qualify. It turned out, we were below the national poverty level. Speechless!

When I knew we weren't able to make our house payment again this month, I panicked. I drove myself to the local food pantry and meekly asked for help. I was greeted with kindness and given a box of food, some fresh fruit and bread. At the time,we didn't really need the items they gave me, but I felt a sense of relief. I knew that if necessary, I had a way to feed my family. That was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. We usually give food to food banks, not take food.

The food stamp card-every time I use that card I am worried about who might see me or what the cashier must think of me. I'm pretty sure my kids don't even know about the food stamps, even though they know we are struggling to keep our house and pay our bills. This is not their fault, and they do not need to worry.

Last month, we sat the kids down and told them our situation. We told them we would do everything we could to keep our home, but that there was a chance that we would have to move into a rental house next year. We reassured the girls that this would not affect their plans to go to college in October, and that no matter what,we would get through this as a family! I am so thankful that my marriage is strong, my family is healthy, and we have love and happiness in abundance in our home.

Once we said these words out loud, we knew we couldn't continue the facade any longer. Our next move was to tell our parents and ask for their help. That was hard, as this was not their problem either. We haven't had to ask them for help in the 20 years we've been married, so this was very difficult. This isn't supposed to happen to us. We work hard, pay our bills, are good parents and responsible citizens. Again, I felt ashamed.

Very Humbling

This has been a very humbling experience. In fact, we have kept our circumstances as private as possible. But now, at the expense of embarrassment and shame, I have decided to "go public" with our trials in hopes that we can not only find a way to get through this with our home and our dignity, but also, possibly be able to be a helpful witness to others in this same situation.

My tears flow freely as I carefully type these words, knowing that there is no return to our secret plight once I publish this blog. Even our very closest friends do not know that we have been desperately struggling to pay our bills and keep our home for almost two years. We kept this secret, not because we thought our friends would judge us, but because we didn't want pity or cause worry to others. We even kept our secret from our family until a few weeks ago.

I know by now you are wondering how bad our situation could be. When the real estate market took a downturn in October of 2007, we thought our loss in income would be temporary (FYI-I'm a Realtor). Although we had heard the sayings "save for a raining day" and "don't count your chickens before they hatch", we have never seen a reason to do this. That advise was for past generations, not ours. Every year Americans (and us) make more money, get nicer appliances, houses, cars and gadgets. We have never personally experienced an economic crisis. Until now!

The truth is, we are now almost 3 months behind in our house payments. We even struggle to keep food in our pantry. Although I got a temporary substitute teaching assistant job last school year, it wasn't enough to make up the difference in the income I make as a realtor. On top of all this, we've spent all of our 401K retirement savings, as well as the small amount of savings we did have. Oh, and that temp job disappeared with all the teacher budget cuts last year.

Sounds bleak? Feels bleak!

We've both applied for jobs daily. We get rejections as fast as we apply. Sometimes, when we do get to speak with someone about the job opening, we hear there are hundreds of applicants for each job. But we keep trying and try to feel hopeful...truthfully, I feel hopeless most days.