Settlement Of Mortgages

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Originally Posted by Anonymous Hello, I've been trying for 3 months now to settle my Second with Wells and no luck.(it is not a HELOC just a home equity loan) I did everything the bank told me by sending in tax returns and income documents and now they are telling me that they will not accept my offer of 17%, because they feel I can afford the payment. Instead they offered to modify my payment, but that payment along with my first is almost 50% of my income and is unaffordable. I really wish I had ran across this blog before I sent all my personal info to them because as ball mitch said, they don't need this info for a settlement. I am current on my first, which was modified by wells a few months ago. The property is underwater 120k and I owe 82k on my second. I am almost 180 past due and it will charge off next week and am terrified of the fact that since it is a recourse loan and they have all my personal info, they may file a judgment on me. Whats the likely hood of this? Will it be easier to settle after charge off? Dantheman- did you send wells a settlement offer any time before they charged off?

Well, there's no way to know for certain if it will be easier to settle after charge-off or not, but in my experience is was vastly easier. The loss mitigation group (i.e. pre-chargeoff) must not have had the latitude to seriously negoatiate a settlement because I never gained my ground with them despite a lot of effort (and they were hard to get a hold of to boot). The Recoveries group, while they were not pushovers, definately had authority to settle. It took some time and multiple phone calls but I settled with them.

If your home is underwater, and depending upon whether this is a recourse loan or not (was it purchase money?), they will likely prefer to settle it than to foreclose your house.

Underwater- A HELOC is a home equity line of credt so you should have the same thing as us. Do not panic, I finished my settlement 2 months after charge off. Where I think BallMich and myself had the advantage we were behind on our firsts and they knew if the first foreclosed they got nothing. I would never send them any documents the whole time, I told them all my tax and income stuff was with the accountant out of town and it cost me money that I did not have to send back n forth. Which actually was true, but either way I would not send them anything because i wanted a settlement not a modification. I am still trying like hell to get a modification on the First 14 months later only to hear its still in review (First horizon seems to be horrible on Modifications)

In my oppinion you should not settle for a dime over 20%. Mine was 19.28 and I believe BallMich was around there too so you know they will go that low. I would tell them you are borrowing money from family and the max you can get is 15% see where it goes keep calling them and say the same thing for a month or so after charge off then if they come back finally with 20% take it.

Thanks for the advice Ball mitch and Cali. My loan was not purchase money so it is a recourse loan. I am current on my 1st (Wells is also the servicer of this loan) which was modified under HAMP a few months ago. I asked them about extinguishment under 2mp but they told me they are still putting everything into place to start offering it to customers who already have their hamp 1st completed. They said they did sign on to it in April but the whole process isn't finalized yet. I don't know if they would extinguish or just modify to a 1% loan as the guidelines suggest. They also told me if my heloc charges off then it might not qualify for 2mp because it was rendered uncollectable, but that would be a decision the recoveries dept would have to make.

No Problem at all. I am very happy you were able to get your first Modified. I have not heard of many people that have actually got a good Modification. Is there any advice you could give me on the Modification process of your first? Also what changes did they make for you? Thanks.

Cali You have to be very persistent and keep in touch with them. I feel like nothing got rolling until I was 60 days late, this is when they started asking for all income documentation. Once you send that documentation follow up on it and make sure they got it, because they are real good at losing it. The HAMP mod I got on my first thru wells reduced my interest to 2% for yrs 1-5, 3% for 6th yr, 4% for 7th yr and for yrs 8-39 it steps up to 5%. The length of the loan was extended to 39yrs also. I think I qualified for HAMP because I currently am employed and under the guidelines they have to bring the loan down to 31% of your income. Unfortunately I have that second I'm trying to negotiate which wasn't put into that factor.

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Originally Posted by matamerojo I have 2 mortgages that if the lenders would settle for 50%? 75%? would consider paying off. The loans are not in arrears and never have been. Both amount to around $100,000 each so have an encentive to pay off. Is this possible?

There is a program out there that is capable of canceling the mortgage by holding the Lender accountable for violations of Federal and State consumer protection laws. check out TheHomeOwnershipProgram.com to learn more. End result is clear title (i.e. no mortgage or promissory note) in less than 12 months as I understand it. Check it out for yourself though.

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Originally Posted by Anonymous There is a program out there that is capable of canceling the mortgage by holding the Lender accountable for violations of Federal and State consumer protection laws. check out TheHomeOwnershipProgram.com to learn more. End result is clear title (i.e. no mortgage or promissory note) in less than 12 months as I understand it. Check it out for yourself though.

I will say, I was very interested in the Produce the Note concept and was heavily invested into researching that methodology. In the end, it was too much work with too little guideance, plus I no longer lived near the home foreclosing which made pursuing a lawsuit to stop it very difficult, so ultimately the home foreclosed.

This an interesting take on the mortgage industry and I've asked my mortgage broker friend to take a look at this website. I'll see what he says.

I really can't find any fault in what they've written, but it still wreaks of scam. Who are these people, what are their names, and why isn't this self evident and on the website, and why are they only offering legal forms and advice instead of a full-service shop?

I'm not a complete expert on this "produce the note" defense but from what I have read, the results of that approach are spotty. First of all you need to determine if MERS was listed as the holder of your mortgage from your title insurance docs when you bought the house. I forgot what MERS stands for but it is a clearinghouse/exchange of mortgages. If your home loan was listed as owned by MERS, it was probably immediately sold to a bank and maybe another bank and another one, etc.

Local cities and counties are suing MERS because on every title transfer, document fees are supposed to be paid to the county and MERS bypasses that whole step trading a mortgage like a stock. This has cost local governments millions of dollars.

The problem with a "produce the note" defense is that it is a point in time argument. If you happen to be going through a BK and are trying to reaffirm (not sure if I have the terminology right since I have never BKd), then you show up at the courthouse to document the mortgage and at THAT MOMENT the bank cannot produce the note, you actually can win something in that case. But to sit at home and blindly send a QWR to the bank asking them to produce the note, thinking that alone will cause a cancellation of your mortgage won't work. They may not be able to produce the note at that moment but they can do a forensic audit and find it etc. Its really not a valid defense against your mortgage in and of itself.

The other thing these "produce the note" legal firms are doing has to do with who SIGNED the note, there are some issues there with the signor representing the bank being some designated low level employee of MERS, again not really kosher but that defense is not cancelling mortgages, it is just stalling foreclosures etc.

There is a site called Mandelman Matters where this lawyer discusses all these types of defenses.

Annoyed with Chase & horse221 - Have either of you signed up for or used the service offered at thehomeownershipprogram.com?