[Scott howell]

I was laid off in mid october and have a mortgage of $5k/month. Including living expenses and credit card bills, I take a big hit every month. I usually don't take financial questions public, but I see people posting personal shit here (sleeping with their cousin, asking for a job after being laid off, porfolio advice, you name it!) and they get some pretty good and honest advice.

What I really want to do is to get the bank to restructure my loan (forgive part of the loan and/or lower my interest rate). I've been trying to contact them with not much success. They are not interested in dealing with me. I've been told that because of my credit score (800-840 depending on agency), my bank see me as a low risk in defaulting on my loan because I care too much about my credit rating (in this case it's true).

In order for the bank to talk to me, I have to stop payment on my home mortgage. If I do this, I will incure a $150 charge. If I don't pay by the 15th, my non payment will be reported to the credit agencies and that will lower my fico score.

The way I look at my situation is this:
* I no longer care that much about my credit rating. I don't need a loan to buy any more homes or cars.
* I want to take advantage of the fact I'm unemployed and use that as a bargaining chip

I've faxed and contacted my lender about foreclosing to get them to talk to me, but no one has contacted me.

So I recently stopped my autopayment on my mortgage. 1/2/09 was my payment date and I am offically late on my bill for the first time ever. In a few days I will get dinged a late charge of $150 and besides being reported to the credit agencies, I'm not exactly sure what will happen next.

I'm hoping my lender will contact me about restructuring my loan.

I don't really want to foreclose, I just want to have my loan restructured.

Give me some advice guys. I've never done this and am not sure if I'm screwing myself in the long run.

I can either do this and still have money in the bank or keep paying until I run out of money and then foreclose. It makes sense to do the former and procede with foreclosing while I have cash in the bank.

During foreclosure, can I stop the process? (perhaps I get a job by then)

Is it possible they will NOT restructure my loan?

Is this stupid?

Scott

[NoKids]

i dont know how long the bank will give you before they evict you from the house, maybe a couple of months, but i'm sure if you skip a few payments they will be willing to talk to you. it's the same with credit cards, as long as you are making your minimum payments they wont negociate a lower interest rate, but once you start missing payments their retention department will talk to you.

make sure you have a really depressing sob story to tell them, and cry your eyes out on the phone! it helps!

good luck!

[I335]

So let me get this straight... You bought a $1mil home and you're coming to a car forum on the internet full of young car nuts looking for financial advice? What kind of job did you lose that allowed you to get a mortgage that large anyhow? Or did you get a 7 year fixed rate mortgage on a $300K loan? Regardless, I'd recommend consulting a financial guy - not a speed-freak car forum...

[RBBMWE46M3]

The first thing I would do before I did anything would be to......FIND ANOTHER JOB!!!!

[TofuTurkey]

Originally Posted by Scott howell

I can either do this and still have money in the bank or keep paying until I run out of money and then foreclose. It makes sense to do the former and procede with foreclosing while I have cash in the bank.

I'm definitely not an expert, I've only got less than a year's experience, so what's below cannot be worth more than 2 cents:

o Assume I want to keep my home. Having a high credit score helps in dealing with banks.
- If no bank wants to talk, and I cannot maintain my payments, then I cannot keep my house.
- If some bank works with me (i.e. I get a restructure, lowering rates won't help that much I think), it will be more helpful if I can show that I continue to make the payments when I am able to (they will ask for available financial resources). I mean, if they ask me why I'm not making a $100 payment when I have $2000 in my bank, I don't think I want to say, "That's so my bank is forced to talk to me." I guess also that means I have some more time to get a job, and empty my bank account slower in the meantime. I will need to decide the maximum amount of time I will continue to make my full monthly payments (and keep my score high), and if I can't get help from anyone in that time, I cannot keep my house.

o Assume I cannot keep my home (foreclosure). I can either
- Move to a smaller house, with less payments. Unless I can buy the smaller house outright, I will need a loan. Which means I need a good credit score.
- Move to a rental apartment. In this case, credit score is less important, so I can just walk away from my loan.

Summary
o decide how long I want to keep looking for better loans
o at the same time, decide whether I want to rent or move to smaller place if things fail, and act accordingly
o in the meantime, continue payment to keep my credit score high
o if nothing works, rent, credit score can go crash.

[I335]

Originally Posted by damadama

He came asking for advice. I don't think everyone here is young/dumb/a speedfreak/whatever (that's not to say you can't find examples of that). If you think the majority of 335 owners are young speed nuts.. well all I can say is remove your head from your own ass cuz theres plenty of older guys on here that make buckets of money.

Not sure why you are calling folks here dumb - I never said anyone was dumb. I didn't say anything derogatory about the members here at all. Truth is, most folks on this board are young speed freaks - pretty much the definition of a car enthusiast. I just happen to be one of the older ones myself (will be 50 in the not too distant future). So please stop calling folks here "dumb" and lighten up a bit. So far, I think I've given him the best advice - see a professional financial guy as I agree, he came here looking for advice. So your advice is to look for an older guy here on this car forum who has buckets of money? An older guy making buckets of money is automatically a smart financial person so he's better off here? That's like saying if you've had lots of surgeries, you're qualified to give surgical advice. Maybe if I go to a 7 series forum I'll be able to find some good surgical advice cuz most of those guys are probably even older and have had lots of operations...

[///Mandy]

Originally Posted by NoKids

make sure you have a really depressing sob story to tell them, and cry your eyes out on the phone! it helps!

good luck!

*tsk tsk* I really hope you're joking because that is not true. I've worked in a Collections Department for a lender before and I have heard everything and anything. We still had to do what we had to do.

OP, I work for a lender...too bad I just saw this thread now as I'm about to step out, but I will be coming back to this thread.
One thing I would like to say though is, you should never, ever, ever toy around with your credit score (even if you think you may not need it down the road). Life situations happen, we cannot foresee that. How do you know that down the road you find a job that gives you less pay (and this is the only job offer that has come to you after many months) and will need to lease/finance a car, or take out a loan for a personal reason.

[I335]

Originally Posted by damadama

I'm not calling anyone dumb. Your tone was condescending, and almost seemed to imply that you will not be able to find any good advice from this forum. This is a shared forum between not just the 3-series folks but everyone on bimmerpost, and given that most people able to pay for such cars have a decent head on their shoulders and some financial responsibility, I think its safe to say you may find some helpful input even if one hasn't been in that situation before. Read my post, I didn't in any way say go find a rich guy with buckets of money to get advice from, I just said that there are plenty of them on these boards as you seemed to imply wasn't the case.


Not to mention I'm sure we have oodles of Business Finance/MBA/Bankers that make complicated financial decisions every day professionally...

Fair enough - truce? BTW - I didn't mean to sound condescending at all...

That said, I still think the best thing for the op to do is to seek a professional's help as you never really know for sure who you're talking to on an internet forum...

...so when he's in real financial trouble and the bank asks who the hell gave you that advice? he won't say "someone on e90post..."

[ukthunderace]

How far upside down are you on your house? have you considered short-sell instead of foreclosure? You may take a loss, but it may save some of your disposable income in the long run.
If you can sell, find something that is a bit more reasonable to buy...or rent for a while and look for another job.
Whatever you do, don't game the system and throw the sob story. Integrity is surely worth more than a credit score.

[mpimping]

call a real estate lawyer or loan mod company.

[J BONE]

Not an expert at all on this subject but some good advice has been given. I would not mess with your credit. One bad move can put you in seroius trouble for a long time. Have you tried contacting another lender to soo what interest rates are? It is hard to refi I would think without having a job. What I would do...file for unemployment and start looking for another job. As a matter of fact, I would look for two jobs. Sell the things you can, like cars, boats, etc. You will def take loses on those things but it is better than throwing in the towel per se. I am not sure what kind of equity you have but look at that. I hate saying this, but you might be better cashing out some of your 401k or IRA. Can't believe I am saying this as this not a good idea, but giving you situation, it would probably make sense. Contact a finicial advisor and talk with your accountant. Best of luck to you. Don't give up, probably the best advice I can give. Keep your head up bro, it will get better!!

[NoKids]

Originally Posted by ///Mandy

*tsk tsk* I really hope you're joking because that is not true. I've worked in a Collections Department for a lender before and I have heard everything and anything. We still had to do what we had to do.

I'm not joking at all. I work in collections for the government. When someone tells me they cannot pay, i can either be a dick and proceed with legal action or i can put their account aside and try to make another arrangement a month down the road. I have the power, so if i hear a really sad story i'm going to be more lenient than if the taxpayer gives me attitude.

[darkcloud]

I do some work in the foreclosure field. You shouldn't want being foreclosed on your house by any means. It's a horrible process that isn't much fun at all. Not to mention it stays on your credit score for years like filing bankruptcy there are many other issues involved. Turning your FICO score around in a few short years just won't happen like you think.

You'll have Process Servers knocking on your door serving you foreclosure documents, banks calling to harass you, numerous Attorneys calling and mailing to handle your case and people contacting to buy your home from you for partial of what you owe. So if you think you'll just slide into foreclosure and the bank will magically call you to rework the loan you have another thing coming. They'll likely check their options first (sell the loan/home, evict you, etc.) before reworking the loan with you.

Best option would be to find a job, any job to help you. Manage a Wendy's for shits sake. Anything to assist in making your payments so you're not paying out with nothing coming in. Sell your 335i for a cheaper car. Rework CC debt. Foreclosure should be your absolute last resort.

Also, have you tried refinancing your loan??

[ukthunderace]

going back and looking at this, I am wondering if this is a troll post.

[Speedtrap]

Looks like Scott is not posting any more... come on be real; even if your bank does not want to talk to you on the phone, and if you are that desperate, can you not walk into the bank and see the bank??? Woud you sit on your ass trying to make phone calls???

[1cleanm6]

Hey buddy how upside down are you on your house?

If you arent too upside down try to sell, and use the money in the bank to pay the rest back.

also im sorry to hear about this man....it sux

[chuck92103]

Next time by a home you can afford rather than one you can qualify for.

Then you will have money saved for the lean times.

If you got laid off and already have to foreclose that means no savings.

[Jred22]

Woah, who fucked there cousin?

[PLAYON]

Originally Posted by Jred22

Woah, who fucked there cousin?

Spool

[Jred22]

Originally Posted by PLAYON

Spool

Hahaha, i've got some reading to do.

[UCSBMW]

pm'd

[Hawkeye]

Am I the only one that thinks 5K a month is a lot? How about get a house you can afford instead of making the bank take a hit for you.