HAMP Loan Modification Offer Received After A Year!

Good news! Last Thursday I received a Priority Mail package from IndyMac/OneWest. In it was a HAMP trial mod offer which would lower our payments to an affordable level, and if it is approved in the end, will result in saving my home.

 

Emotions are running amok inside me right now. I am happy to finally have the offer and I am also scared that it will end up being ultimately rejected either become somehow I have too much income or not enough income I can verify.

 

Being self-employed makes things a little harder than if I had a job with paystubs and the like, but it I can document what I earn. Whether they will accept that documentation is something I’ll have to find out.

 

I know if I get this mod, it will be a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. This past year has not been easy and has definitely taken a toll on my health and my sanity. It has also been difficult for my husband who is always calm, cool and collected. Even his temper is running remarkably short these days, no doubt due to too much stress.

 

When I think of the bankers and investors on Wall Street who created this mess and basically wrecked the economy to the point that we’re pretty much in another Great Depression, I get really angry. Most especially in light of the lack of humility and remorse among that crowd.

 

There is plenty of evidence that at the very least, these people were negligent. These guys are not unsophisticated folks who got taken for a ride. At all levels, it was known that the quality of the mortgages were not good and that their very design made them doomed to eventually fail.

 

I hope that the government takes a closer look at this and the Wall Street people are held to some degree accountable for what they’ve done. Given the climate in Washington and the amount of access to our Congressmen, Senators, and even our President that the bank lobby has, I doubt that anything will happen to them.

 

For myself, if I am able to get a permanent loan modification, I will be able to save my home. I will be happy with that and I will hope that other families will be able to do the same.

Really Bad Mod Offer Received

Well, I finally got a mod offer from OneWest. Only it doesn’t really modify anything about the loan. The only thing it does is take the arrearage and throw it into the back end of the loan. It doesn’t change the interest rate nor the terms. The loan would remain as toxic since the interest rate could increase and I could then wind up in the same exact position I am in today and I would still not be in a position to actually be paying the thing off, ever.

 

You know, had they done this back in December 2008 when they threw the escrow account in there that screwed everything up, I would have happily accepted it and I never would have gone delinquent. I would still be asking for a modification under HAMP, but there would be no rush, and my family and I would not be so stressed out.

 

So do I take a bad mod offer merely to get out from under the guns? Do I take this offer and hope that interest rates don’t go up in the near future to give my husband a chance to find work?  I don’t know. The loan itself is not sustainable. Even if interest rates were to stay the same, I would only be paying the interest and never paying down on the loan. I would effectively be renting my house, with no guarantee that the rent would not be jacked up to an unaffordable level at any time.