Foreclosure question.

[Camelot Farms]

We recieved a foreclosure notice in the mail last week. The day before DH's cashout of his 401 came in the mail of course...

I called the bank to pay off the amount owed. It was significantly higher than I anticipated...3600.00 in fact.

*gulp*. The $3600.00 is an attorney fee for the foreclosure. The bank states that we must pay that fee in addition to the back payments in order to take it out of foreclosure. I am panicked now. If they dont foreclose, why do they need an attorney and why do I have to pay for an attorney if they arent foreclosing.

And logically...if I cant pay the mortgage, how in the heck am I going to pay them additional $3600.00. Seriously.

Can anyone explain this? Know of a loophole? Advice? Help! =/

 

[chicksbestfriend]

Quote:
Hope I am not too late in responding to your post, first of all, I am sorry to hear that you are in this situation; I found myself in that same situation in 2004. It doesnt have to turn out to be a hopeless situation. I am not sure what bank or lender you are working with, but did you talk with the supervisor of deliquent accounts and explain the hardship that you were experiencing? To my knowledge, most if not all lenders, have a hardship program and they put your loan into forebarance for several years, where you are only paying off the interest during that time, and it allows you to keep your home. Most banks and lenders will not tell you about this program even if you are sharing your hardship with them, but once you ask, they will discuss that program with you. One of the down sides of it, your monthly payment rises slightly after the forebarance loan is up. Thats what happened with me. For several years, I only paid the interest on my loan so I could financially get caught up, and what that did, added several years to the length of my loan since I was not paying on the principal. Worked out, because I wasnt planning on moving and was able to save my home.

Do you have enough equity in your place to take out a second quick mortgage or refinance the loan with another lender? You can probably get an ARM alot easier and quicker, adjustable rate mortgage, through a second party lender, not a bank. But within 2 years, you need to quickly get out of the ARM as your monthly payments will rise each year, and you are basically just paying interest to the loan, no principal. I dont like to think of it as throwing money away, though that is exactly what you are doing.......... but you can also claim all that interest you pay on the ARM on your taxes, so your tax liability is very low or disappears during that time. The only good thing about an ARM in desperate times, it buys you time to repair your credit from the deliquencies, but at a higher cost. The rates are slightly higher, but they are eager to loan to at risk properties that have equity. They dont have anything to lose, only to gain, know what I mean? When I sold my property and went to purchase my next one, I also had to do an ARM to build my credit back, then went to Wells Fargo to refinance the ARM within two years. They *Wells Fargo Mortgage Company, not Wells Fargo the bank) were wonderul, didnt have to pay any points or closing costs, they added it in to the borrowed amount, and I was able to close in less than 30 days. I have been on my new property for the past 4 yrs.

I am sure that their is an attorney fee included in the amount that you will have to pay because the lender already contracted to retained them to proceed on the foreclosure, so they owe the lawyer money whether it continues or not. I also had to pay the attorney fees and there was absolutely no way around it. With pushing of the lawyer, you can get them to push the date back, but not for a prolonged time. I would call them everyday, several times a day to give them status of how much money I had and collected and how much longer I needed, day by day, and I guess they had sympathy for me and pushed the date back. Your situation needs immediate around the clock work to save your property. The amount that I had to come up with was just under $13,000, I begged and borrowed money from everyone to help me save my house, and by Gods grace, a little from here, a little from there and was able to get the exact amount needed and everyone was paid back overtime. To those who lended me the larger amounts, I commited my income tax returns to them with a ball park figure of my return based on the previous year return and they gladly helped me out. Again, see what you can do to delay the process and get into their hardship program, dont delay. By the way, couldnt DH have taken out a loan against his 401K to pay the debt vs cashing it out? In emergencies, I always use to borrow against my 401 and its interest free and the payments or return to the account were always minimal? Its like borrowing your own money. See if he can return the money and borrow against it. Try contacting you local legal aide society to get an attorney to help you. (if you are indigent, the services are free, good lawyers volunteer their time, its a requirement of the bar, or if you have income, they charge a fee on a sliding scale). Worse case scenerio, find a cash buyer and try to move it quickly. Once they foreclose, it takes forever to get any money owed you from the remaining proceeds, alls they care about is getting their hands on what is owed them. It definitely leaves one in between a rock and hard place for sure, especially with the times we are facing now. You will be in my prayers for sure. On a positive note, foreclosures, at least in Hawaii are not moving, and the banks are willing to work with people on saving their houses because they are sitting on alot of properties already, so for one to buy some added time looks hopeful.

 

[Goose and Fig]

If you can handle a ton of paperwork- call the bank and tell them you want to start the modification process. Now is a really good time to do it- and it will make the payments easier on you down the road. It can also stop any proceedings against you.

I can't believe they are trying to tack the attorney fees on there already- something is fishy about that.

 

[WingingIt]

If it was the first notice of intent to foreclose, I'd be REALLY surprised if there were legal fees involved already. More likely that's a form letter they send out. I'd call back and ask to speak to someone else higher up. Good luck.

 

[Camelot Farms]

Thanks all.

We had tried the modification thing and thats how we ended up in an even worse position.
I did all of their paperwork, got them all of thier documentation and then waited to hear from them. They had told us that they were overwhelmed in that dept and it could be a while til we heard anything. So, we waited. After 3 months, I called them to get an update on where we were in the queue and was told that our info was outdated. Gah!!!!! They wanted all new info at that point. Well, the new info knocked us out of qualifying for their save your home orogram. Ugh!

We had falled behind while DH was out of work. Thats the info that they got the 1st time....when we were poor. Now that he is back to work, our finances look good on paper so we dont qualify for the program. Its insane.

Its just crazy. I understand that we owe them the back payments and I am fine with that. I just dont see how they can charge me for an attorney fee that hasnt even done anything other than send me the letter saying that my house was being auctioned on August 18th.

Just out of curiosity I googled the attorney and sure enough my house is on the 'for sale- foreclosure' list with a date of August 18th and an amount for the deposit required to purchase the house.

I am going to bite the bullit today and call the bank and see if I can work something out on the attorney fees. It makes my head ache thinking about it.

 

[usschicago1]

I read this all but i have no idea how to help. But goodluck in these hard times

 

[chuckzoo]

Quote:
Although it makes your head ache you have to do it and follow up on it ASAP. I am a Realtor and often things like this happen (not saying in your case) because people do not communicate with the lender. My best advice is to KEEP CALLING regardless of how busy they say they are. Each time you call it is recorded in the file. It is that record, showing that you were diligent in trying to get your situation worked out, that will be in your favor in the end. Make sure you have their toll free number so when you hang on for a bit it is not on your dime. Make sure you get the name of the person you spoke to and keep your own record of the calls you have made, you may need this later.

Good luick!

 

[ranchhand]

Be strong.

 

[Camelot Farms]

OK...I called the lender. The agent/specialist that I spoke to NEVER mentioned the 3600.00 for the attorney.

I told her that I was calling to clear up our account and get it out of foreclosure. She was very pleasant and helpful.
She gave me all of the info that I needed and DH is at the bank right now wiring the amount.

I asked her twice if this was all that I needed to do...did this include ALL of the fees that were required? She replied yes to both. And gave me her name and employee number in case there was an issue.

I will call the bank tomorrow to see if the account was cleared and I will be calling the attorney to make sure that he got the memo. (trying for some humor...lol)

I realize that I should have been more direct and just said 'hey, do I owe you money for the attorney', but I chickened out and pulled an ostrich in the sand maneuver.
I know...wimpy move.

The agent/specialist notified me of a new program that we may qualify for that would lower our interest and freeze it for 5 years. AND she explained that once I filled out the packet that I needed to call EVERY week to stay in touch with the process....something that no one has ever bothered to explain before. The foreclosure date is set for August 18th so I have plenty of time to send them the attorney fee if it becomes an issue. Heck. I can drive it to him if I have to. I have the 3600.00 if it comes down to it. But lets face it, I could buy alot of chickens with 3600.00...

I have to try to laugh...its that or cry. =/

Thanks again everyone!

 

[easttxchick]

Good for you! Praying that now that you have settled with them the attorney fees will disappear!