One year later

One year later we are still here in our house. A Central Oregon saga continues for us and many other homeowners who struggle in this current economy and are bewildered by the whims of the banks! We did not get our modification of course, who has? What would they be modifying anyway? The mortgage company informed us over a year ago that they do not reduce principal to current value. They called several times and informed us that we were denied again (for the 5th time) because we were denied the first time... now does that sound logical? Does this make sense? Nope. They were the ones encouraging us to continue to apply for a loan modification.


In the mean time, back in January 2011, a friend sent me some information about a special program through the Oregon Homeownership Stabilization Initiative (OHSI) Oregon Affordable Housing Assistance Corporation. Oregon was given ten million dollars from the federal governments Hardest Hit Funds to help Oregon homeowners in the "hardest hit" areas prevent foreclosure. These funds are our tax dollars at work. (This remark must be read in a sarcastic voice) We all know that our tax dollars bailed out the banks and the mortgage insurance companies that backed our upside down loans so there is no real motivation to work with the homeowner by giving them a loan modification because if they foreclose the loans are covered through the mortgage insurance on the homes. All win win for the banks and not the upside down homeowner, but that is an entirely different story.

The program would give the homeowner a $20,000 loan that would be paid directly to their mortgage company as mortgage payments for up to 12 months or until the funds ran out. During the 12 month program the homeowner would be required to take classes on finance and credit, etc. and stay in contact with the local non profit hired to administer the program.

I of course, applied. I figured, what the heck, I had all my paperwork in order because I had been filling out loan modification paperwork over and over for a year and a half, how hard could it be? Neighbor Impact was chosen to administer the program and when I went in to my application interview the interviewee was very impressed that I had all my documents in such pristine order. At this point I could potentially hire myself out as a professional loan modification specialist.

Of the 15,000 Oregonians who applied for this assistance, ours was one of the 5,000 that were chosen in a lottery for final review. I found this incredible since according to the documents, my monthly income is half of what our full monthly house payment should be. We were chosen as one of the 348 families in Deschutes County to receive this special loan. I was shocked and amazed that we had been chosen but also thankful because it way buying us time.

As a member of Legal Shield, I faxed the loan documents to our Oregon Provider Law Firm for review. According to the attorney that reviewed the documents, the stipulation on this "loan" stated that if we stayed in the house for 5 years, the loan would go away, if we gave up the home by a short sale or foreclosure before then, we would be liable for any amount of "equity" earned over and above the current mortgage. Since we have a current debt on the house (first and second) of almost $800,000 I think we were safe to assume that there would be no ''equity'' in the home to worry about.

The documents were signed in April and finally in July the first payments, pro rated back to April, were sent to the mortgage company. By September, it was all over. Because our mortgage payments are so high, we got six months of payments out of that $20,000.

I did the program because I could, but the reality is, it is a very small band aid that is being put on a problem that is much larger then anyone can possible imagine. Do we make any more money now then we did a year ago? Nope, working three different businesses’ I am making about the same as I was a year ago. Could I do more? Yes, I am working on that but have not been able to significantly increase my income to the point that I can afford to catch-up the over $70,000 in back payments and start making a monthly mortgage payments. How many other people in Deschutes and Jefferson Counties are in the same boat?

So, what are we doing? Believe this or not, we got a letter from the mortgage company in September that offered to give us funds to move if we put the house on the market for a short sale. I called my Legal Shield Provider Attorney, had them review the program and they gave me the go ahead. The attorney I spoke with said that there was nothing they could see that would cause me any problems and that if it really works, let them know. The fine print on the back stated that the house had to be listed by October 4th. I called my BNI Chapter Realtor, Julie Moe with Cascade Sotheby’s International Realty and she put me in contact with Jordan Haase, the Cascade Sotheby’s short sale expert. She listed the house and sent the docs off to the mortgage company ASAP. Since that time, we have reduced the price from $500,000 to $429,000 and shown the house 6 times. Except for one phone call, and one letter letting us know that they are in communication with our realtor, we have not heard a peep from the mortgage company. We are also not yet in foreclosure. The only explanation I have for still being here and potentially having one more gardening summer is the grace of God.