homeq loan mod

[Joel Fraser]

Hellomy name is mike and this is my situation;my loan is (ugly) 156k@ 10.05% 40 yrs amortorized on 30yrs. so it has a balloon payment for last payment of 110k. i pay $1347mo approx $20 is principal .it's fixed for 3yrs and has 6 months interest in prepay penaties(appro 8k). for the first 2 yrs(july 2009) my fico at loan origination was 609 it is now 675. i was going to try an fha secure loan @6.62%@30 yr fixed i felt paying the prepay was ok cause i would save approx the same amount in the first 18 monthsof the new loan. but unforunately my appraised value is now apprx 140k not the 180 i need to refi fha secure. (i need a new roof.) also this yr i have experienced a reduction of income. i am in retail sales commission and my pay went from $2600 every 2 weeks down to about $1500 net pay my girlfriend also contributers $650 a month to house hold bills.Iam current on all payments . i was one of novastars last customers i had a lien on my house for 5k (old repo auto loan)we had negotiated a release of lien $3150with the lien holder .un beknown to me it was a partial release and in feb 2008 this collection atty was taken more action against me.and penaties and interest i now owed $4100. after trying to contact novastar and the title company to no avail as to why they did not protect me from this. i started paying this collection agent $100 per month and out of the goodness of his heart he will not charge me any more interest.my loan has been sold to homeq. so i contacted them and asked if they would drop the prepay if i could refi (NO).so in order to save money i canceled my escrow acct.(approx $270mo).and started researching loan mods and came to website for hopenow so i called and i gave them all my info july 29th. they went over my expspenses and income and said i would be a good canidate for a loan mod.that they would forward a recomendation to homeq and if i dont here from my servicer in 2 weeks to call them and keep callling.from all these post i read you must know how surprised i was when homeq called me within 36HRS. so i faxed homeq everything they had asked for ie taxes,insurance,paystubs etc etc.made a few follow up calls with jenna in loan mods and she had called me this morning.and said they have a mod for me and they are ofeering to change the rate from 10.05% to 7.6% with escrow it will change my payment from $1511 to approx $1255 pending approval i asked her to fax it to me said she cant until its approved.thens its up to me to sign it. i told her i want 30 yr fixed she said they cant change the terms just the rate for (5 yrs).if i sign this it's basically an almost interest only for five yrs cause of 40yr amortorization.i dont know where the econmy will be then at some point banks are going to recover in five yrs 9% might be a good rate. why should i invest in a new roof (its leaking)and pay off the lien if im not rewarded with gaining equity my home. my ?'s are 1)is thier any way for me to know what thier servicing agreement is with the investor?2.is this where i start negotiating with them?3. what are other peoples experiences with this?4. if i sign this mod will it preclude me from seeking any further relief from the housing bill?thankyou in advance for any advice any 1 hasunclmikl