Anatomy Of A Foreclosure

This is odd... I just received my first phone call from the lender. Well, first, if you don't count the "you owe us money" calls.

Bessie C. is a lovely, helpful lady, who is apparently among the select few allowed to pick up the phone and push buttons.

The fact that she verified information that I had already verified on my own yesterday is irrelevant - What is most impressive to me is that someone took the time to provide verification that I might not have had, were it not for my dogged pursuit of anything that would correlate my Lender's verbal statements. Here's what she told me -

• The loan modification is currently being considered.
• The initial check for the agreed upon amount had been entered into their system as received, and "imaged". I take it to mean they scanned the check - which means they have opened the envelope containing our loan modification documents, forms, etc. This is new information to me... thank you, Bessie. :)
• The foreclosure date has been extended for 30 days, and will continue to be extended as long as the modification is being considered.

Bessie also gave me her extension number, her fax number... Her first and last name... I nearly wept. When you spend a period of time being denied certain information, finally receiving it is like getting the one toy you wanted for Christmas... You run off to a corner laughing maniacally to play with it all by yourself. I'm considering sending Bessie faxes that just say "Thank you - you rock."

So that's about it... We now have verification of certain facts, and a new fact along the way. They aren't yet showing our documents (except the check) entered into the system, but Bessie seems confident that will be the case shortly. This is on our schedule to verify tomorrow, so we will be making another call to them. We're currently not letting them go for more than 3 days without a phone conversation of some sort. Even if they can't tell me anything, they're at least adding to my documentation pile.

-=C=-

It has been a crazy nine day stretch since my last post. Let's see if I can do a fair job of presenting it here.

So, our foreclosure sale date was still set as the 23rd. We were still awaiting the modification documents that we had been told were mailed on the 2nd. Finally, on the 13th, my wife called Litton. When we put in our loan number, we are automatically routed to Litton Loan Services' very own Jennifer Howard. More on her later. She did not pick up the phone, my wife left a voicemail.

No callback... So V called again. Talked to someone that said she showed the documents being mailed out .. but she would mail it again. Fax, please? Maybe email? "Oh, no, we can't do those things." Seriously? In 2009, you can't fax or email documents? Sounds suspiciously like not wanting to leave a paper trail of actions. But this lady doesn't set policy, she just follows it. Fine, mail us the documents.

On the 16th, still nothing. We are now 7 days away from our sale date. Another 4 calls to Ms. Howard, with no response. Ms. Howard's voicemail also contains a fax number for faxing documents to them. So I created a script that faxed her every hour asking her to call back. Between the 16th and 17th, 27 faxes were sent and received by a fax machine on their end. No callback. So on the 17th, I called and left another couple of voicemails in Ms. Howard's voicemail box. Of course, no response.

So I finally did an end-around. I put in a bogus loan number so that I would be routed to Customer Service instead. I gave them the real loan number and asked them to fax the documents or send them by some trackable means. Or email. Of course, they are not allowed to do that. It's beginning to become clear to me now why people that go through foreclosures take chainsaws to the supporting studs in their foreclosed homes.

So I asked to speak to a supervisor. During the transfer my call was dropped. I laughed... Not quite a maniacal laugh, but ...

Okay, so I dialed back again, got a very helpful man whose name I did not write down, otherwise I would have given him credit here. Sorry, anonymous helpful guy. He put me in contact with the foreclosure team where another helpful lady named Kendall (who is apparently the only person in the organization allowed to operate the fax machine) faxed the documents to me and tried to get the foreclosure date moved back a month. Seriously, Kendall, from the bottom of my heart if you're reading this... Thank you.

So we cobbled together all of the information they needed, plus the money they wanted for the August 1st payment and stuffed it in a Fed Ex overnight envelope, and V took it to Fed Ex on Saturday for Monday delivery. Cost some bucks, but the tracking capability is crucial. If I haven't said it yet, I know that thousands of other places have - Write down EVERYTHING. Every conversation you ever have with them, every attempt at communication (there should be lots). Try to get them to send you anything via trackable means as well, though they probably will not. Document, Document, Document.

I have every one of my 27 fax receipts, each of the phone calls are documented, and with the exception of anonymous helpful guy, the names of everyone we've talked to. You hope that this information will not be needed, but it's FAR better to have it and not need it than the other way around. In truth, it helps when you're talking to others in their organization when it sounds like you're documenting everything - "On the 17th, I called and talked to so-and-so, and she said this. I'm calling back to check on the status of things..."

Anyway... This morning, having received a delivery receipt from Fed Ex, I called back and just for fun and nostalgia, left another voicemail for Ms. Howard. I have no idea why that is funny to me.

I was able to get to the Foreclosure department where I talked to another very helpful lady named Chivon. Apologies if I spelled that incorrectly. She and I talked for a while on things - First and foremost, the documents all said that there was a due date of the 15th... we didn't even receive the documents until the 17th. She assured me that it was fine, they knew that there was a disparity there... I am optimistic, but have the nagging feeling that will come back to bite me later.

We also talked about the sale date. She showed that the date had been moved back a month (I think from Kendall's good work, but I'm not sure), but that I would need to contact their attourneys to get verification. We did so, and they also showed a month reprieve. Finally, it was recommended that we contact the company that actually does the selling. We did so, and registered an account at www.fidelityasap.com, where we could actually see our house up for auction. I can't tell you how mixed my feelings were at that moment. In any event, I saw that even they had the date moved back a month... So it appears for now we have a month of breathing room to get the loan modification approved.

It's been pretty stressful, and policies and procedures that seem to impede progress just make it that much more difficult. Add in a person that refuses to return calls, and you've got a recipe for a lot of frustration.

Stay with it though, and document. Call a lot, and document everything.

In the course of my work, I come in contact with a lot of professionals. Lawyers, Accountants, Mortgage Professionals, Doctors, Mechanics, Executive Officers, Clergy... You name it.

Let's say you were experiencing a medical problem. Would you fail to mention it when you were meeting with a physician when you were getting a checkup in his or her office? Or would you fail to make the appointment to deal with the problem?

The reason I bring this up... and ask the question is this - I have noticed this annoying tendency in myself. Not so much with physicians... But in the case of my foreclosure, I had a lot of people that were both willing and able to help... if only I had told them about my predicament. I know a large number of public accountants, and a small number of mortgage/loan professionals. I called none of them.

Why? Simply stated, shame and pride. Pride can be a good thing - pride in your work, pride in your children. It can also work against you - as in this case, when I bypassed a LOT of professional help because I was so embarrassed about the situation in which I found myself.

One of the professionals with whom I could have received help was a VERY knowledgeable professional who was going through the same process.

Moral of the story? Get professional help, and get it early. Put your pride in your pocket, get help.

I was talking with a friend the other day about her situation; she is also going through the foreclosure process, but is only about 2 months behind. During the conversation, we identified the fact that this is a game of options. You, the person facing foreclosure, must either find or manufacture options for yourself. The mortgage company representatives will either deliberately or accidentally fail to advise you of your options.

The best way to find or manufacture an option is to get with professionals that have done this before for other clients. It is perfecty sensibe to talk to a Certified Public Accountant, a Mortgage Professional, and possibly an Attourney.

The bottom line is this - If I can give any advice - talk about the situation you're in. Talk about it often. Bring it to the attention of the professionals in your sphere of influence. If there are none, get some. The options that are available to you may not be apparent - the guidance of a professional can help to identify them.

-=C=-

Today is the 8th. Not the 15th, as they said to call them; the 8th, because we wanted to see if anything was moving forward. We wanted to see if there was any news at all. So, we waited a week from our last call, and called them again. I was all settled in for another 20-30 minutes of frustration.

Wow.

Today was the first sign that I know of that Litton knows what is going on; that there might be some financial trouble out there.

Granted, the people in Litton surely must understand that there is a problem in the financial world. But until now, I had not seen where that knowledge translated into a policy shift. It's as though they were still acting as though there wasn't an overabundance of foreclosure inventory. They were heading right down the road to foreclosure with us, and no attempts to communicate or reason were met with any interest at all.

Note I used the past tense there.

Today's call was ... mind blowing. When I called this time, Carmen P. answered the phone. She told me that she was happy to deliver the good news; that our trial modification was approved. The significance of this didn't strike me just yet. What does a trial modification mean? Is it like the last time they modified us, where the monthly payment went up by $900.00 a month?

Not even close.

Apparently, Litton mailed out the acceptance documents on July 2nd. We haven't received them yet, but they may be in today's mail. Here's the details:

• Our first payment is due August 1st
• This is the beginning of a 3 month trial
• Interest rate is at 2% for this trial
• At the end of the trial, providing we have made the payments as stated and provided all the documents requested, Litton will look at the market rate, and begin stepping us to that rate. Hypothetically - if the standard market rate is 5%, we will begin a periodic (possibly annual) step from 2% to 5%; so the first year at 2%, second at 3%, etc.

See? Wow. Just... Wow.

So at 2%, my payment is going to be a bit more than half of what it's been. Even at 5%, the payment will be significantly lower than the previous payment.

Moral of the story? Stay persistent, if you're still in your home, it's not too late to talk to the lender. Keep at it... This is a total 11th hour save, and I can't believe it will be the only one.

-=C=-

I have really been struck by the amount of moral support provided by friends... both far and near.

This has really helped to assure me that being open, honest, and straightforward about this was the right thing to do. Since we started talking about this, people have come out of the woodwork to provide some sort of reassurance. So-and-so's cousin went through this, and this other person too, and we're praying for you, thinking about you, supporting you.

One of my clients is also my best friend. I honestly was dreading telling him... He's a finance guy, and very good with money. There was a bit of intimidation factor. But more than those things, he's the kind of friend that everyone should have at least one of.

I think we're all familiar with the fact that there are a number of different kinds of friendships. There's the acquaintances, which we should all have proportionally a fair amount of. These are the people that you discuss sports, cars, movies, some proud mention of your kid's achievements, that sort of thing. Nothing horribly deep, just warm conversation. Then there's the friends... which we all will probably have only a handful of in our lifetime, if we are lucky. Frankly, it would be emotionally exhausting to have more than a handful of them, I think. It's not because they drain you, it's because true friendships are much deeper than acquaintances. It's all the stuff you talk about with acquaintences, plus the trials that life throws at you, and the stuff that annoys you, and the areas of your life where you are weak. It's vulnerability, and implies a lot of trust. This is what differentiates acquaintences from friends.

My friend is firmly in the latter category, and today he proved again why. I forwarded an email that we had sent out to family explaining the situation. We then spent a long lunch discussing it, thinking about options... and getting some valuable insight from him - since he's a finance buff, it was really helpful to hear him think some of this stuff out loud. It was done with concern, but without judgement, and it was greatly appreciated. One of his signature phrases is "Is there *anything* I can do to help?" Believe me, it's sincere.

So if you find yourself in this situation, or one like it, don't forget your friends. It's amazing how supportive, helpful, and caring people can be when they are given the opportunity... don't shirk your responsibility to give them that opportunity. It's scary, but the reward shocks you in its generosity.

-=C=-