Am I too late?

[Joel Fraser]

Where to begin... We have 2 mortgages with Avelo (Now Litton). 320,000 on the first and about 130,000 on the second.. The house is now worth around 400,000 in this market. I live on Long Island, NY. About 2 years ago we had done a debt consolidation with Aames home loan (stupid mistake that we rushed into) That ate up the equity in our home and we were talked into taking an adjustable loan on the bigger mortgage cause we can just re-do it in a year. No problem. Yeah right... About 3 months later our loan is sold to Avelo.. Everything seemed ok.. We were making our payments each month but things were tight. Then about 9 months in we got a letter from our insurance agent that the homeowners insurance was cancelled for non-payment. The same week we got a letter that taxes were not paid either. These were both in escrow with the mortgage. After 3 weeks of arguing with Avelo they paid everything up and apologized. 3 days later I get the letter stating due to the mistake of not collecting escrow for the last 10 months my payment will increase by almost $500. Needless to say I can't handle that payment now. We also got good news that my wife was pregnant with our second child. Now money will be even tighter. I contact Avelo to ask for some help with the payment. I explain I will be unable to make this payment. I was essentially told too bad.. 2 months later we found out the baby would be born with Down Syndrome. Now my wife will be unable to go back to work for at least the first year. The mortgage payment became impossible to make. by 6 months she was on bed rest due to medical issues and out on disability. Disability refused to pay her and that became a different fight. I went through the hardship letter with Avelo along with the financial breakdown. Sent everything in. Waited 30 days and started calling to get some answers as now my payments were being sent in later and later. I tried to send partial payments so it wasn't one big hit and had checks sent back to me refused. I finally got someone who found some notes on my case and said they have no record of my hardship paperwork and that I should redo it and send it in again. I explained that It's now 60 days later and she said sorry we do'nt have it and asked if there was anything else she could help me with today.. (I had some unpleasent things she could do and she heard most before she hung up). I re sent my paperwork and stayed on top of it speaking to people alomst everyday asking for updates. finally almost 45 days later I got a very pleasent sorry can't help you. I asked what exactly she wanted me to do? I said I cannot pay the full amount and you won't take partial payments. She said I can try and file again in 30 days. Now my son was born 5 months ago and we have exhausted everything. We have no savings, retirement, nothing. I had done everything I could to save this house including not paying another bill. I paid for mortgage (when I had full payments) gas and electric. That's it. I now have numerous debt collectors calling for credit cards and other loans that a year ago i could have handled. I spoke with a bankruptcy attorney and that looks like the way we are going. I love this house but I can't see any way we can stay here. I would like to try and sell the house I guess in a short sale but I don't believe Avelo would take it. Now that Litton has taken over I'm not sure what their policies are but I can't go through all this again. My health is being effected as well as my wife's.. We have a daughter and new baby son to worry about. I guess a fresh start is really what we need. That's my too long story.. I guess i just want to know that there isn't something I can do that will make this easier... I hate feeling like a piece of garbage that is walking away from obligations. This is just not my personality. We made some aweful financial decisions that were compounded by the bad market and a really lousy mortgage company. Thanks for taking the time to read this and any advice you could give me. I wish I had found this site 12 months ago.-MikeyBiggs