My Story With Homeq SUCCESS!!

[Mike]

Here is my story: My husband and iIbought our first house in May 2003, for $390,000. We put alot of work into the house and completely redid the inside. Our kitchen is now a gourmet kitchen with top of the line appliances, we added a half bath, and we totally opened up the floor plan. As a result, our home increased in value. It appraised for around $630,000. We decided to refinance in March 2005. Our mortgage broker told us we could get money by refinancing for a higher amount. We ended up refinancing for $545,500. With the extra $ we were able to pay off the bills from remodeling. The loan we got is an interest only ARM, set to adjust in April 2007. The initial rate was 6.7. It was eventually sold to Homeq, who has our loan now. Our broker told us that he would help us refinance before it adjusted. In November 2005, our first daughter was born almost a month early, and I was in charge of paying bills at that time. I totally forgot about everything (as did my husband), and I paid almost all our bills late for about 2 months (not our mortgage, that was automatically deducted from our account). As a result our credit scores took a nose dive. We started trying to refinance a year later in December 2006. The same mortgage broker said to wait a while for some reason I don't remember. We called him to try to refinance a few months later, and he said our credit scores were too low, and there was not much he could do. At this point we should have called someone else, but this guy was a relative of a family friend, and we had known him for years and trusted him. In April 2007 our loan adjusted from 6.7 to 9.7. Since our mortgage was paid automatically, we forgot to change the amount to be deducted, and paid the 6.7 amount. Homeq called us a few days later to tell us that they had not recieved payment. We told them it was automatically paid by the bank, and they said that the wrong amount was paid, and they do not accept partial payments. We paid the correct amount, but by that time it was late. Now our credit scores, which were not that bad at the time, REALLY took a nose dive!! Our broker told us to forget trying to refinance now, and to try after a year after we raise our credit. We contacted several other banks and mortgage companies since then, and all have said no for various reasons. In Oct 2007 our loan adjusted again to 10.7 (which was HORRIBLE!!!!!). and in April 2008 it actually adjusted DOWN to 9.7 again. Our credit scores are better, but not great because to afford our mortgage for the past year we took out an unsecured bank loan, and have pretty much maxed out our credit cards. We have also borrowed money from my parents more times then I can count. We have not been late on our mortgage since that one time, but any reserves we once had are long gone. My husband owns a retail store, and business is down, so he is not making as much as he was. We also had another daughter in March 2008, so I have been out of work for a couple of months. I work per diem so I don't get paid for time off. I start work again next week.Here are our mortgage payments (including Property Taxes):6.7%--about 4300/month9.7%--about 5500/month10.7%--about 6000/month Also, since the real estate market is not what it used to be, our house is pretty much worth our mortgage (not lower I hope!!). This is a big reason for getting turned down for refinancing. I called to inquire about a FHA/HUD loan earlier this week, and the guy mentioned I should try to get a loan modification. Until this man mentioned it, I never knew this was even possible! I called so many banks/brokers in the past year and not one person told me of this option! Last night I found this site when i googled "Hardship letter" to get an idea about how to write one. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!! Especially from people who have dealt with Homeq!!