After my husband lost his job the second time when the company laid off 50% of the workers, we were in real trouble since we had 2 homes to pay for. While it would have been nice to just get rid of one, because of our custody situations, we would have had to decide which of our children we would no longer see. Not a choice we were willing to make. Our mortgage on our main home was our largest expense so we immediately contacted our mortgage holders to see what we could do.

We knew we would begin having a problem paying our full mortgage and all of our living expenses, which would lead us down the road to foreclosure and filing bankruptcy. We needed a miracle to stop the process and we hoped a mortgage modification would do the trick. This was literally the month Obama announced his mortgage modification programs so we were hopeful. Our first mortgage was lowered about $600 until they decided whether or not we would be approved for the modification. Now here’s the scary part. If we weren’t approved, we would owe all that back payment AT ONCE and if we couldn’t pay, we would face foreclosure.

We called the bank every month to see where we were in the process, and every month we got the same answer, “it takes a long time but you are still in the process, call back next month.” While you are in modification you are behind on your mortgage and you remain in the collection process. See the modification department doesn’t talk to the collection department or the foreclosure department, so you continually have to deal with collection calls and eventually foreclosure proceedings. We were in the modification process trying to avoid foreclosure and bankruptcy for 18 months when we thought the bottom was finally going to drop out.

Part 1 – Filing bankruptcy, a true story
Part 2 – Loan Modification
Part 3 – Foreclosure
Part 4 – Judgment