Continuation of previous post. Based on our second mortgage holder’s policy, we are ineligible to refinance, even though the “Making Home Affordable” plan would allow us to refinance if we owe 105% or less of the value of our home. We understand that our family is in a position that is much better than many other people who have lost jobs, and we are grateful that we still have jobs. However, we do not understand why we are being denied the opportunity to take advantage of a plan that would help us repay the debt that we owe. We are not asking for a “handout” and we do not “want something for nothing.” We are trying to be proactive instead of reactive and, unless we are able to do something now, (instead of waiting until 2014 when the balloon payment is due) we will most likely be looking at foreclosure. It saddens us to think that in five years, our family will be homeless despite our attempts to prevent that from happening.

When my husband and I purchased our home in 2004, we obtained an 80/20 split mortgage. This allowed us to avoid paying mortgage insurance, which would save us money. The second mortgage has a low payment, and a “balloon” payment due ten years from the purchase of our home. At the time of our purchase, we planned on making extra payments on our second mortgage so that we could pre-pay on the balloon and eliminate the need to come up with a large lump sum at the end of ten years. What we did not anticipate is that we would not be in a position to make extra payments. My husband has been at the same job since 1983, and until 4 years ago, received an annual raise. His annual “longevity” check was eliminated this year and our health insurance deductible increased by more than 500%. In addition, he is required to take off 6 days this year without pay. Because of decreased income, inflation, higher fuel prices, and higher insurance rates, we have been unable to make any extra payments. When we learned about the “Making Home Affordable” plan that would allow us to refinance our home to a lower interest rate, we were excited. According to that plan, we would be able to refinance our primary mortgage to a lower interest rate, and would then be able to afford to make the extra payments on our second mortgage with the money we would save on the first. Since our current mortgage holder was not cooperative, we decided that we would go with a different bank. When we spoke to someone at that bank, we were informed that our second mortgage holder would have to “subordinate” to our primary mortgage holder in order for the refinance to take place. When we called the second mortgage holder, we were informed that they would subordinate only if we had 10% (or more) equity in our home. Because of the decrease in home values, we currently owe more than the value of our home. Based on our second mortgage holder’s policy, we are ineligible to refinance, even

The program shouldn't be called hope for homeowners it should be called NO HOPE FOR HOMEOWNERS. Good luck Meg! I hope it all works out for you!

i am a single mom. i am going through the hope program for help. i tired to refinace and i was unbale to do that,so i starting looking into modify my loan,but i mortgage company does not modify. i tried very i could to save my house the mortgage compay foreclosed on the 18th of may. well the hope program is going to talk to my mortgage company to see of they can reinstate my mortgage. but after reading all this commnets what hope do a have. as it is hope has already missed two call conference with my lender. i was told that a conference call would be made on thursday at 11 am i never recived the call from hope. so i called the advisor and he told me that he had not made it on time to work and then he had a meetting to go to. so again he scheldule a call for friday at 10 am i never got that call either,so again i call him again on friday and tells me that he was in a meeting again. once again that call to my mortgage company has been set for tuesday the 26 of may. so i will wait any see what happens. my mortgage company would not work with me as far as my payments were concerned. they are also very rude not only to me but to two modification companies that call them. belive me a regret ever having bought my house from a company in texas which used to obra homes,they are no longer building but they still collect our mortgage. it wasn't until 2 months go that i found out this company did our mortgage as more of owner finance type. i just pray to god that i my able to deal with what comes next. tried of stuggling and arguing with the mortgage company. so far one has been able to help. i work have worked all my life, and the government has my help me out. there are people that are here illegal( from mexico) and they get all the help they want and don't even have to work. i know i see where i live. 90% of them are in housing programs for free. i think it is so unfair to the american people. i will post a comment again and let you know how it goes.

I agree with this page. I sent in a hardship letter back in Feb 2009 and now it is may 15 and still no answer from the bank. My husband lost his job he used to be in the constrution field. These so called programs that they have out there are the biggest joke I have ever heard of. They promise false hope to people that really need help. Its all a scam. I blame the banks for all the forclosed homes out there. There not willing to work out anything. Something needs to be done quick. By the time this reccession is over there will be nothing left. I had hope for so long and that is out the window. Please expose this spam. False hope is not good for anyone. Accorded to my bank Florida and michigan are seeing the less amount of help for there houses. This doesn't make any sense to me.

And I thought my family was the only ones that have been cheated. We went to hope for homes in Nov of 2008..my husband and I were told by citi residental we had no choice to take the 9% at a fix rate becasue we are lucky we dont have to pay 12 or 11% any more. And because my husband can afford it....afford what we told him .. my husband retired as a city worker after 35 years and becasue of our home he had to find work agian..When we went back to hope for homes, they told us they did what they had to do and we should just take what we got ...the only thing hope for homes did was knock on citi residental door... the door, we as home owners could not do..we could not get through to the litgation dept, we were told they did not have one. So what good is hope for homes, they were not good. Hope for homes are not good for anyone! Everyone is right here!! Mr. Spencer, Hope for Homes is a joke...we were forced to take the 9% or Citi Residential was going to forclose on us. When we did sign the papers in Feburary of 2009, we then got shipped and solded off to American Home Loan now we are back where we stared making my payment at the end of the month just before the 30th so it does not get reported on our creidt report and now agian getting charged a 89.00 late fee. This will never stop..and once agian those people at Hope for Homes ...one question ..HOW do they sleep at night? Thinking they help us home owners. Mr.Spencer, the only thing they did is just take the information and related to our mortgage company, hope for home just gets your HOPE up..nothing good comes from it.. We can't afford it, we can't afford anything.

I have been calling CountryWide for 6 months now..USELESS! I have the classic BS loan! the 80/20. I know (according to the gov't) I qualify for the "plan" with my FHA loan that adjusts. I bought a house that I COULD AFFORD, but losing jobs, and more medical bills - it's getting tough. They have repeatedly said, "just keep waiting" they are waiting for more details. Today I called again and now its C.W. that just hasn't implemented the plans! Of course I don't qualify for any of their "financial hardship" plans or any modifications...I highly doubt any of this will do anything!

These banks and mortage companies are getting billions of dollars from the government. They are pretending to provide assitance to homeowners who lost their jobs. So that they can continue to get government money. If Hope for homeowners and the mortgage companies were providing programs than why are so many people still losing thier homes. Why not make it simple and provide real government grants to the laid off worker instead of billions to banks. and if you got behind due to job loss provide a forebarence on the late payments until you can begin making your payments again. There are simple solutions if they really wanted to stop this forclosure madness. Instead they provide this gathering of financial information through a Hope for Homeowners program. They ask you what you are buying, what you spend on groceries, if you have cable and interent, how much you owe on your cars and what they are worth. This gives the bank knowledge if they assest to come after you for. They ask you if you have items of value such as coin collections. This is information of assests they can use if you happen to file bankruptcy it is all recorded and given to your mortgage company. This all gives them even more amunition to come after you. It is really sad people are desperate for help and instead we are being shammed once agian. This needs to be exposed for what it is. Can you find one person that has been helped by this program? It is nothing more than personal and financial information gathering by the mortgage companies!!!!

Mr Spencer, The Hope for Homeowners is a smoke screen. It is nothing more than the lenders paying these people to get information from you so they can forclose even faster. I called them yesterday because I lost my job in Sept and was without work for 6 months. I am back to work but making much less money. So I am behind 2 payments with Indy Mac bank which by the way is now run by the government. I made a payment on March 13th and Indy mac still sent out what they called a field inspector to my home to look at its condition. They said to make sure I was still living here. If I wasn;t I sure would not have made a payment. Back to Hope for Homeowners please uncover this farst and put this in the news. You call there a person asks you all your finacial information it takes about an hour. They tell you they are funded by the motgage companies. At the end they give you a website mmiphases.com they tell you there are grants there you can apply for if you are no more than two payments behind. I went to that website it says sorry there are no grants available and asks for more financial info. There is no helpfull information in that website for someone losing their home due to unemployment. Hope for Homeowners also sends you to a website makinghomeaffordable.com once agian a waste of time. This website asks you a few questions then tells you you do not qualify for loan modification unless your payment is 30% higher than your household income. There is no hope for homeowners the mortgage companies are more agressive than ever. That hope for homeowners is just smoke and mirrors to make the American people laid off believe the government is doing something to help us. It is truly a waste of any ones time to call them. and It may get your home forclosed even faster. They give the recorded conversation to your mortgage company they are working together to get personal and financial information out of the homeowner. Please please expose this sham.

Doomed to fail!? well hell yes! it was never going to make it! but the well to do, will get all the help they need! just look at all the money they get! look at what they get just for asking for it! but God help us if we can't pay our home loan or if we have to pay for our MED's! I'm a 100% disabled VET. if I spend the $250.00 to $500.00 a month on my wife's med's I can't pay my home loan!? but if the rich ask for $10 mill. they get $15 mill.???? where's all the help for people that need it? I can't pay all my bill's can you??? if some one cares who? and where is the money? and all the help? Some one is getting it? But it's not we the people that need it? where is all the money that we need? can some show us? If one of gets sick then we can't pay our bill or for the med's. then come's all the other bill's? If this is help? then GOD HELP US!!!!!!