Loan Mod Suggestions & Tips needed

[Joel Fraser]

Hello all, I was up very late last night browsing these forums and trying to learn all i can. My wife and i are like many others these days we are seeing the tough times. Here is our story. We moved to Iowa an bought our first home in June of 2006. We were first time home buyers, and need to find a home and move in fast. This was because of the jobs that we were offerd. We were offerd positions and salary that was 3x what we were making when we lived in missouri. We knew that our credit was less than perfect but we were told that since we were making such good money we could buy a home anyway. We mistakingly went through a mortgage broker. This broker literally killed my credit score so bad that when we were at closing he stated that i could not be on the actual mortgage but i would be on the deed to the house. We went with a high intrest rate 12.2% ( because of our past problems) knowing that we could possibly refinance in a couple years. Well after we closed and moved in, my position was cut and i was jobless. We have struggled since then. I have had a couple low paying jobs since then but they have not worked our for my favor. Last year we even tried starting a business, but that has sence failed as well sinking us deeper in this hole. Our current lender is Saxon Mortgage, we are about 6 months or so behind currently. This past summer we were set up on 2 seperate repayment plans. Our normal payment is just under $1400, the first payment plan was around $2000 and the second was $2200 a month. It seemed they were just sitting us up to fail as we could not even make the normal $1400 a month, but the saxon person that my wife spoke to each time stated this was the ONLY way for us to keep our home. About 3 weeks or so i got a call from First Universal Lending. Telling us about their program and how they could help us with our situation and get us a modification. We we decided that we would go with them. They took out their $300 fee on 10/3/08 and i faxed in all the required forms to them on the 6th. Since then i have not been able to speak with anyone. I have not even gotten a call from our account mgr (CJ) verifying that they recieved the materials. I have spoken with Saxon twice this week and they state that they have recieved nothing from First Universal. As i was browsing this site last nite i found the 1888 HOPE line and decided to give them a call. I spoke with Nora for over an hour. After which i drew up a letter and emailed and faxed to First Universal terminating their services. and Demanding our $300 back. Which of course i dont believe we will ever see. I know this is a long post and hope not too many fall asleep reading this. But we are just looking for some advice on what to excpet, should do, or whatever. I am currently an Independant insurance agent, as i was an agent several years ago. I am stillin the learning process but we now do see a light at the end of the tunnel, but are afraid of loosing our home. Brad