Had a home for sale in 2006. Realtor and Mortgage Broker said that I could finance 100% of new home under an 80% regular mortgage with Countrywide and a 20% balloon mortgage with Countrywide until my other home sold. I did this with the understanding that I would pay off 15% of balloon mortgage when 1st home sold and refinance all into a standard mortgage, non-variable rate. Was told this would be no problem as I qualified for a $200,000 mortgage when I had both homes. 1st home sold and contacted Countrywide to re-do mortgage. Was told that I could not do this — the loan was too new — this was 4 months after I took 2 loans. Contacted again at 6 month mark and was told I did not qualify to refinance — debt-to-income ratio too high (now, remember, I had 2 homes mortgaged to start with — was now down to 1!!). Contacted realtor and mortgage broker — surprised? Long story shorter, after 1 1/2 years of trying to pay double payments on the 2 mortgages, had to file bankruptcy. Contacted Countrywide after owning the home for 1 1/2 years and asked if I could return the home in lieu of foreclosure, to stop bankruptcy. Was told yes, I could do that. Was sent paperwork to complete — completed all information and faxed back to Countrywide within one day. No response. Called repeatedly and was repeatedly asked to resubmit paperwork. Had not made a mortgage payment since May — this, by now, was September. Continued to receive late notices and continued to contact Countrywide as, in May, I assumed I would turn over the home, so I was renting property.in April, filed bankruptcy to get rid of the home. Countrywide has NEVER responded to written letters (mailed certified mail and received by them), 100's of phone calls, etc. Terrible to be put in this position and get no response. Basis of this complaint is to warn people NOT to take on a second mortgage on the promise of refinancing — COuntrywide and other banks lent money that could not possibly be repaid and now look at the massive amount of homes they own! Look at their CEO, purchasing these homes at pennies on the dollar. I wanted to keep my home & live there for many years — sunk money into renovations/repairs, only to have it basically ripped off from me.
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