My income has dropped substantially, as it is tied directly to the financial markets. With all of the press coverage and "Lip-Service" the current administration is giving in relation to keeping homeowners in their homes, and the policies they are passing, I decided to look into it further.
After investigation, I learn my loan is owned by Wells Fargo, not Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. This means any modification will be by the bank, not the Government.
I called into the number on my statement and spoke with a representative regarding my eligibility. After many financial questions regarding income and expenses, it was determined that I may qualify. A packet was being sent to me to complete.
The packet was received in short order. I had already gathered the required information; pay stubs, tax returns, and other income sources. They only asked for the past month, however, to more accurately show my decline in income, I provided pay stubbs for the past year. This information was overnighted via Fed Ex at an expense of around $40.00.
This is where I initially began getting frustrated, as it took almost 3 weeks for Wells Fargo to receive, view and scan the documents into the system. I had ready many horror stories concerning their losing documents and having to re-send them multiple times. I remained patient and called in 2-3 times per week to stay appraised on the progress, noting names, times and length of conversations, while all the time remaining calm and patient. Listen closely, they take notes on everything and my feeling is it doesn't do any good what-so-ever being rude and/or volatile on the phone, particularly, when you are trying to get their help! It is VERY likely you'll be frustrated and be told different things. Don't get advasarial, just take copious notes.
After the 3 weeks of being in limbo, my file was finally assigned a negotiator. You have no access to this person, and for good reason. (There must be literally thousands of modification requests happening right now, and if they were available to speak with the system would be bogged down). It took another 2 weeks with the negotiator until a decision was made. To my complete and utter surprise, I was approved for a modification and the paperwork was in the mail. The paperwork came in via UPS overnight with a pre-paid overnight return envelope.
Through the entire process, I continued to make regular payments. Those payments go into a special "suspense" account and to my knowledge doesn't negatively affect your credit. I checked my credit throughout the process and have found no adverse information from Wells Fargo to date. I have ready different things regarding payments. My feeling was not to let my credit go south as if this doesn't work, I may have to look at alternate financing.
Result: My loan interest rate was lowered over 2% points to close to 4% saving me quite a bit of $ each month. After 5 years, it begins go up and caps at 5% for life of loan.
Reflection: As I said, I read many negative reports on loan modifications from many companies. I almost guarantee you'll be frustrated at times, but the results could be life-changing for you. Stay calm and remember you're not the only person in the queue.
I felt compelled to write this positive experience after reading so many negative complaints. I thank all those at Wells Fargo for helping my family and myself.
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