Our WAMU story

[Joel Fraser]

Hi everyone,I am a long time lurker- mostly because I forgot my log in info :)Anyway, we have been in our current situation since Oct 2006, when we refinanced one bad loan with HomEq for another with Fremont Investment and Loan ( now owned by Washington Mutual). Due to bad financial advice in 2001- we have gone from credit scores of close to 800 to God only knows what- because I don't want to even know, nor do I care, it really doesn't matter at this point. Barely keeping our heads above water, both husband and i working 2 jobs, I approached WAMU in Dec 2007 when i knew I would be losing a contracting job of $1,000 a month. And of course got the answer I have seen so many times here before- they couldnt help us as long as we are current on our payments. I could not believe it so i called back 2 more times and was told the same thing. In March of this year a personal friend who is a CEO of a small local bank offered to do a short refinance for us, WAMU would not even negotiate because we were current on payments....sigh..... Offered an unmaneageable modification and we just said ok, we will mail them the keys- enough is enough- we have been living like this for almost 7 years.So in April, we stopped making payments- I decided my family cannot live like this anymore and it is just a house ( albiet we have lived there for 17 years)Cut to today- Sheriff showed up at the door and said sale date is 12/4/08 and gave us papers. Our friend the banker said to sit tight, this is a normal process and many banks are not even motivated to negotiate short sales, short refi's, whatever- this "early" in the process.Our house has gone from an appraised value in Oct 2006 of $330,00 to May 2008- $225,000!!!(Realistic sales price in todays market might be $215,000 or so) We already over 100,000 under. We think there may have been some appraisal fraud because I find it hard to believe a home could drop that much in 18 months.So, for over a year WAMU has made 9.99% interest and the damn thing was set to readjust to 11.5 %!! Our payment is 2,592.00 no escrow or ins!!! Our banker has offered WAMU $165,000, and they have proceeded with foreclosure...... not good business sense, but then look at the situation they are in- surely not by using good business sense!Anyway, I have been reading here for awhile and I am so glad to see we are not alone. Even though it is sad to think of potentially losing our house- and again it is the memorries like others have said- everything will work out ok in the end and we will be all be fine and together. I have to keep believeing that! The mortgage industry has made enough money off of my back these past few years, and I am exhausted trying to keep/improve a credit score that will never happen anyway due to debt/income ration- which will not change no matter how much we make payments on time, because we can only do the minimum- we will NEVER get ahead. (Now I read where potential employers check credit and that makes me nervous as hell to seek other employment!) Wish us luck- we are on our way- wherever we end up! Lisa in MN