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=-

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.

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=-

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=-

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=-

My first reaction upon receiving the notice last week was that there was so much that needed doing. I kind of went a little crazy, which is not a long drive for me.

First thought? Oh, man, we have a lot of stuff to pack and store if we're going to lose the house in 4 weeks. Ordered a PODS container. Small or medium? Heck no, gimme the big one, and I'll need it in 4 days.

Second thought... Oh, that's a great time to sort. I'll need a roll-off dumpster to take care of the 11 years of accumulation that we don't need to lug around anymore. So I ordered one online... dumpstersource.com. Go figure.

Third thought... Wow, we're going to need containers. After a quick perusal of the plastic containers available, I settled on standard cardboard boxes. Smartpacksolutions.com. Now I felt like I was doing something!

My wife wasn't as excited about it when she got home. I showed her the note - We had been expecting something for quite some time, but it still came as a shock. Suddenly, my flurry of activity and pride at doing something just ... faded. We ended up going out to dinner and talking about what we'll do next... It turns out, the biggest PODs container isn't really that great an idea. I called an cancelled it.

We will still be sifting through our stuff, streamlining. We actually have done a pretty good job of that as we go along. It sometimes gets messy, but we don't have a whole lot of useless junk hanging around.

Unfortunately, I'm not someone that likes to do things halfway, or just good enough. When I clearly see the goal, I grab all the tools I can reach and head for it. It usually ends up taking longer and costing more than it needs to.  In this case, I had ordered more tools than I needed.

So we now have a dumpster (delivered at 8 am this morning) and a number of boxes heading toward us. We'll begin packing and sifting, just in case our deadline comes and no modification has been negotiated.

-=C=-

In those three minutes someone had come and posted a notice on our door. Duct taped. I remember being struck with the myriad uses for duct tape...

Reading the notice, it was from an assignee of our lender. The assignee was basically informing us that our house was to be sold at auction on the front steps of our county courthouse. I dunno, that sounded soooo... Little House On the Prairie to me. Anyway, we have a little less than 4 weeks to vacate the premises, it said. It also said that we should contact our lender to review options.

I've said it before, I'm going to say it again. We in no way want to transfer the blame that we rightly own. That is not what this blog is about... it's more about stepping out of our own situation and sort of looking at it from the outside... and presenting what we see to you. Our reader. You're probably the only one. Bottom line, we are not interested in painting anybody as "the bad guy". We took the loan, we were unable to keep up with it... that's the long and short of it.

Having said that, I do want to highlight the sometimes maddening little annoyances with our lender. I don't know if these things are by blunder or design, but they sometimes make my eye twitch. Just for the record, our lender is Litton Loan Servicing.

This morning, I got up bright and early - right after Litton opens their doors. They're in Central time zone, we're in Pacific... So I got up at 6 am to try and get them on the line. My previous attempts to reach them have resulted in being routed to a voicemail box, and no call returned. So I resolved to call them every hour today until I got someone on the phone.

I was a bit disappointed, to be honest, when I got someone on the first try. That's something new. Not that I *really* wanted to call them every hour... But there was a bit of perverse satisfaction in the notion that I was ready to. Yeah, I know, it's childish.

The people that I spoke with were cordial enough... but I can tell over the phone that they're ready for a long day of dealing with some pretty pissed off people. You know that sound in the voice, when someone sounds like they're just waiting for you to cork off and say something offensive, rash, or otherwise unpleasant? That was the tone in their voice.

I think I've only ever been frustrated enough to utter profanity at an agent once in my lifetime. It was not to this company, I was about 22, and pretty hot headed. Now, 20 years later, I like to think I'm beyond that. Fortunately, I did not break that streak here.

Anyway, I was asked the loan and address information for verification. Then transferred... then asked all the information again. That kind of inefficiency sort of annoys me, but I get over it easily. What really annoys me is the big time wasters. Like when they say yet again that "your best option is a loan modification. Let me ask you a few questions..." These are the same questions they have asked us every time we have called since some point last year. Each time they tell us that it will take up to 90 days to process the request for a loan modification. Each time we hear nothing from them, whether positive or negative. When we call to ask them about it, they say... "Oh, we have no record of that request. Would you like to answer a few questions to start a new application for a loan modification?"

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

We went so far as to fax them information - bank statements, income information, etc in November. Heard nothing. Even sent them stuff via certified mail. Heard nothing. Continued to call to find out about it... "It can take 90 days, sir..." So we wait until January.

Once President Obama took office, they would not talk to us until the details of his foreclosure relief plan were released. This was due to happen in the first week of March... So from January until March, they still wouldn't talk to us.

From March until now, call them, leave a message (never actually getting to a human). No response. Then the notice appears on the door. Hey, they are still there! And this time I could talk to a human! It's almost, as my wife observed, as if they would prefer to wait until you're getting notices taped to your door before they talk to you. It makes sense if I'm permitted to take a jaded view; people are pretty frantic by that time, and willing to agree to almost anything.

To make a long story interminable, we now have yet another request for loan modification and the associated income and expense information has been given them. Again. And we have up to 90 days to find out if it went through.

Wait... We have to be out in less than 4 weeks... but the 5th or 6th request for a loan modification can take up to 90 days. Nope, the math doesn't work for me, either. When asked about this disparity, the response was "Wait until a week before the foreclosure date and call us back. We will let you know if you can be extended while we review the application." Wow, talk about a schedule that doesn't leave me with many options...

I work in technology and business computer systems. Does anything really take 90 days anymore? I mean, aside from building a skyscraper or an aircraft carrier?

So what do we do? All I can tell you is what we are doing... We're currently looking for a rental property within about a 15 mile radius of where we live. There seems to be a large number of them. It's not too difficult to explain our credit situation to prospective landlords / landladies... sadly, many people are in it. We have to continue forward and give ourselves as many options as possible... and if that means that we rent a place while we are still being reviewed for a loan modification... we will have to do that.

Hey, thanks for reading. :) It's therapeutic to vent - hopefully you can derive some value out of it.

-=C=-

I had already been well established in IT, having done it in various iterations for 10 years by this point. We contacted a realtor and started looking.

As it turns out, I had completely underestimated the amount of house we could afford. I had guessed that we wanted a home in the $150,000 range. At the time, they were not impossible to find, but they generally needed a lot of work. Our realtor was not quite happy with that limit. It is not because he wanted more commission - he is an incredibly ethical guy - but he steered us away from some places that needed a LOT of work. Thank you, John. :)

One evening, we received a call from John. He sounded a bit excited as he began to describe a house that was just a bit out of our limit, but would be an excellent buy. He invited us to a walk-through. We were curious, so we went to investigate.

He took us about 2 miles from where we were staying with my wife's parents. It was an 1800 square foot California Ranch Style home on an acre. There were trees here and there, no carpet on the floor, and the place was about half painted. It was clearly in the process of being prepped for sale. John told us that the house was not yet on the market, but would be soon.

"What do they want for it, John?"

"Ummm, I think about $220k, but we can make an offer."

"I don't think we can afford it!"

"You can afford it. We'll make a lower offer."

We went home that night, a bit terrified but excited. Could we really afford that much? John sure seemed to think so, and he was certainly more experienced in this than we were.

We thought and prayed about it for a day or so. John contacted my wife at work, saying that he needed a decision; the place was going to go on market, and we needed to get an offer in there as soon as it went in. We had already discussed it in great detail, so we put up this offer; stop work on the house, get it to where it will pass a VA (Veteran's Administration - I'm a US Navy veteran) inspection, and we'll offer $200,000.

The counter came back at $203,000, but my wife was unable to reach me at work; she approved it on her own. I'm glad she did, we might have missed the opportunity.

The offer was accepted. Much to the seller's dismay, after the paperwork was faxed back and forth, they started getting unconditional offers for any acre lots in our town for $240,000. They felt like they had left nearly 37,000 on the table; but the documents were signed, and we dared not do anything to disrupt escrow or give them a reason to back out of the deal. We did pretty good for a couple of unsophisticated first time buyers. John was a great asset on our side, and worth every bit of the commission he decided not to take.

Interestingly, we found out later that the seller had picked up the property in a foreclosure sale. That's a jagged little bit of irony that's twisting in me even as I type this.

The monthly payment was a little bit more than we were prepared for. We had not been accustomed to shiny things, so foregoing them in favor of home ownership was no big deal for us. We had land, each other, and enough money for food on the table and some simple pleasures. We were good.

More history later. ;)

-=C=-

There are many factors that have brought us to this point; I will be detailing them to some degree with each article that I write. I will also be writing about the experience, what's going on, how we feel, how we are reacting. I haven't yet decided if I will include names and such... I may just leave names out of it in order to maintain some form of anonymity. Then again, this is a topic which people usually try to hide in embarrassment; I'm tearing the lid off and blogging about it.

It's my hope that this train wreck will be picked apart, analyzed, and used to build better trains in the future. I'm hoping this gets to you in time to keep your train on the tracks. :)

While this topic is pretty heavy, I warn you this; I am very prone to leaning on my humor when times get a bit rough. If my humor is a bit irreverent, or makes you wince, I apologize in advance. No harm is intended, it is just one of my primary coping mechanisms kicking into high gear. Maybe I should warn you more that I'm not nearly as funny as I think I am. In any event, you're warned.

Finally, a word about what this is not. It is not an attempt to make myself appear blameless, or to paint anyone else as evil, questionable, or contrary. I simply want to recount the events, and let you decide for yourself what you think of me or the other characters in the story. More importantly, pick out the mistakes that I have made (there are plenty to choose from) and use what you see in this story to avoid a similar outcome.

With that, I am looking forward to writing; I hope you are looking forward to reading.

-=C=-