As many gentle readers of this website may know, my family is experiencing a bit of a crisis right now. My husband is ill with lung cancer. Dealing with all that entails, there is a very real financial aspect of having a family member who is gravely ill. 
As a result, I will be exploring a mortgage modification. I suspect this information will be of use to many of my readers, so I decided to write about the experience. Hopefully, my readers will benefit from my mistakes as well as my successes.
My mortgage is with Bank of America. Initially, we secured our loans through Countrywide, but with the downfall of Countrywide, they were bought out by Bank of America. So, this “journal” of my experience will involve only the communication with Bank of America. Experiences with other lenders may vary.
I made my first phone call before Christmas. That proved singularly unfruitful. I kept pressing the option to talk to someone about mortgage modification, but every time I pressed the correct key, the recording said, “I’m sorry, there is no one available to help you at this time. Please return to the automated system.” So, I called back and pressed the key to talk to customer service. When I got a customer service representative, I explained what happened. He said it was not surprising. Many people reported that, even if they got through to the department, they were on hold for 40 minutes or more! This gentleman then gave me several phone numbers that would take me directly to the Hardship Department.
Today, I called one of those phone numbers. I was on hold for twelve minutes before I got a “live” person. She did a preliminary pre-qualification of my circumstances to make sure that my situation met minimum guidelines. It was determined that our situation does qualify, so she transferred me to another representative who works specifically in the Modification department. I was on hold for another 7 minutes. The next rep took me through the same set of criteria as the first rep. She drew the same conclusion and deemed us, preliminarily suited for some sort of modification. There will be a packet of information sent to us, including an affidavit regarding my husband’s health situation which we will need to have notarized, and other forms pertaining to our hardship situation (i.e. request for bank statements, tax returns, etc.). We are told to expect those in approximately 45 days. They also indicated that there would be a temporary reduction of our monthly payment in order to alleviate the immediate situation while our file is being reviewed.
Because the rep talked so fast, it felt like she was reading this disclosure. And, upon further questioning, she didn’t really seem to know how the rest of the process will work. At this point, I will assume that I will confer with an employee more educated about the process than she in the future. That was the end of my conversation. I then called my friend, Carrie Guarrero at Cornerstone to ask for some educated feedback. She mentioned that I should see if there was an automated way to expedite the procedure. So, I’ll call back tomorrow to find out if there is an online way to submit the information they require.
While these kinds of procedures are uncomfortable, frustrating and somewhat scary, in many instances, it is absolutely necessary to face the harsh truth. I’ll put in my next entry once I submit the paper work. It will be informative and interesting, as well as helpful to understand how this whole process works. It will make me a better educated REALTOR®!
Susan Hofflander is a seasoned real estate professional, providing real estate consultations for home buyers and sellers in the Twin Cities since 1994. Susan specializes in homes for sale in Lake Calhoun/Lake Harriet, Minneapolis, Plymouth, MN, Minneapolis Western Suburban Cities and Downtown Minneapolis Lofts.
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