I was not given the greatest of news today when I called the mortgage company and started discussing the options available After endless - and I do mean seemingly endless - questions about whether I'm living in the home, planning on staying in the home, on and on, income this - stuff I have already answered to these people 3 times in the last month, we got down to brass tacks.
Well, first, she put me on hold for 20 minutes. Not an exaggeration, I was on hold for a LONG time while she was reviewing my file. When she came back on, she told me HAMP would only help me by reducing the monthly payment by $100.
I had a lot of questions. Why? Based on your income and that the amount you pay for the house will be no more than 31% of that. It is, as always, based on GROSS income, not the amount you are taking home after all the deductions. This, I think, is a load of BS. Taxes, health insurance, I mean, a lot is taken out before I get my pennies out of it, but, that's the way it's structured.
I asked again why such a small amount, does it not reduce my interest rate? NO. HAMP does NOT reduce your interest rate if it is a FHA loan, which mine is. I'm at the lowest rate I can get through FHA at the "current market rate", I found out today, presuming I was being told the truth. I do not, however, presume anything when it comes to these lenders and all the crap that has come out about them over the last 2 years in how they are dealing with their customers.
Okay, dear lady, WHAT, exactly DOES HAMP do? I mean, seriously. They reduce the principle amount of your mortgage to the level that it brings your payment to 31% of your income. That which is left over - the amount over that - is put as a lien against your home, or something similar to that, according to this lady, held by the FHA. It is interest free, but has to be paid off when you sell your home or if you are going to pay it off.
I was completely unimpressed,because, the last time I did the modification, it dumped thousands of more dollars onto the loan for "fees" and junk. She then started to talk short-saling. It's kind of a bad word-term with me, because I have thought through the potential with that: lose your home, move onto a rental property, lose your dogs, ponds, lifestyle basically. Where am I going to live? A rental house? An apartment? Wherever it is, it is on someone else's terms, not mine.
Her final "option" was to pay up current the account. Whatever, lady, I have played this game for a while now, I understand that as long as I can keep making the payments, even if 2 months behind, your company isn't going to come throw me out. I didn't say that, instead I had more questions. I got to the point where I said I would have to think about it. HAMP is nothing like I expected it to be from what I have read. Why it isn't explained in much greater detail so that a person considering it will know in advance what it is about, I have no clue.
About the time we were going to disconnect, I wondered, how much IS administrative fees going to cost? Nothing. Your loan modification, yes, you are going to have fees dumped onto your loan, with this, nothing. That changed my mind instantaneously. But then I was told it would start the clock fresh: 30 years all over. Hmm, 3 years lost, not that much.
Somebody correct me if I am not seeing something here, but what have I got to lose? No money for fees - or anything - added to the loan. 30 years, okay, I lose the 3. But, I am now paying interest on a loan 25k less than what it is now. The lien is interest free and will stay that way indefinitely. The house CAN be sold, trust me yes, I asked, with that lien on there, it just has to be paid off at time of sale, ie: monies paid to purchase the house. I stay on the property, I pay more than $100 less per month because they didn't have stuff on there that I am paying out every month, which affects the reduction, but I don't know how much yet, I see no down side to this.
Here's something else, though. The lady across the street has cancer and wants out of her house. She can't sell it, no-one has the money to pay cash for it. It's an old mobile home that needs work. Yup, I have done that work before - all of it actually - including tearing down paneling type of walls and replacing it with drywall, tearing off metal roofing and putting on huge patches, all kinds of stuff. Been there, done that. The only thing I don't like is that house probably has aluminum wiring, the same s*** that burned my other house down.
Have to finish this some other time. I was talking on the phone with the widow of my deceased friend - yes I called her to find out how she's doing and though she is doing better, the conversation got to intense levels. I can't finish this entry in the same frame of mind that I started it, so it is finished.
ben
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Wednesday 1/12/2010
I wrote this entry this morning, submitted it, half of it disappeared. Sorry for the fragmentation, but I usually do NOT re-write entries ad today is not going to be any different.
On her Facebook wall, she was bragging that there is only one other person - at level 527 I think she said, above her on her list. I'm at level 355 currently. She is a newer neighbor and apparently doesn't know my competitive nature. I was not only peeved at Zynga for giving her that incredibly unfair bonus bonanza, I was also getting a bit peeved at this woman going around bragging about all of this. NO WAY should have Zynga EVER given her THAT much points for the issue she was having. Maybe a couple of levels worth, but that many?
Sunday, after I got whatever else done and not feeling well anyway, I spent a couple of hours leveling up, passing her and leaving her in the dust by 2 levels above her. I fully expected her to level up even more and by the time I got home yesterday, she was up 4 levels above me. Lol. I leveled up 9 levels yesterday, passing her and leaving it at 2 above her.
I was shocked this morning to find that I am STILL 2 levels above her. I mean, how do you compete with a person that doesn't work, apparently has nothing else to do in life but play one single game? Sometimes, you just play it out for a while and see if you can get them to back off, ie: you have played the same game they are in leveling up, they quit the race and go back to normal game play.
I doubt that has happened yet with this woman and if it goes on too long, I will back off myself as I have plenty of other stuff I would rather do than sit on a computer playing a game all day long. Still, it's fun to make a person eat their words, lol.
In fact, speaking of other things, my new hummingbird feeder came in the mail yesterday!! And she's a beauty!! It is made with copper, it's absolutely gorgeous. I want to hang it right in front of one of the windows so I can have an up-close view of any hummingbirds that might come to enjoy it's fake, man-made nectar.
Well, they love that stuff is all I can say and they are still fighting over the feeder I already have out there. Hopefully, this will help to alleviate some of that problem. This feeder is huge but only has 3 portals for them to feed off of. Which is okay, usually don't see more than one at a time anyway, if another one comes to feed, they end up flying off in a bird-fight and one comes back while the other might be seen in a fence a bit away.
Tenants. Always issues with tenants, yes? Whatever. The Army Reservist is currently 12 days past due on rent, hasn't spoken a word about paying it and I am assuming must have blown her money on her Christmas trip home to Alabama. That's just nice. Lovely even. Not a single word about the rent and we have talked several times since she got home. I have no choice but to leave a friendly notice. If that gets no response, a blunt, legal-type notice after that. I leave it up to the tenant to talk to me about the rent, I shouldn't have to go running around after these people asking them where the money is.
So, the reversal in this is the other female tenant who is always behind, she showed up while I was at work yesterday, left money under the door in my bedroom and got almost caught up. It's a strange world, I'm telling you.
G'day.
ben
........for clarification's sake, the first part of my "comments entry" disappeared into cyberspace, even though it originally showed that it had posted. I don't have time to rewrite it and probably will only add enough to make the first part of this posting make sense.
ben
ben
Umm, but I was discussing a situation in Cafe World where a neighbor was given enough Cafe Points to level up 27 times instantly, which put her ahead of me. So, as is my want, I spent the last 2 days shooting her bs all over the internet down. Not by saying anything at all about it ot her or anyone else, but by being a thorn in her side and continuing to level up quite a lot for the last 2 days in getting ahead of her, until she gets ahead of me, back and forth it goes.......
ben
ben
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