On Not Giving Up: We Got Our Loan Mod!

A few of you might be aware that, for the last few years, we’ve been trying to get a loan modification. Our story can be found herefor those of you who may have interest in reading about it.

Well, here we are. The final chapter. Hopefully, this will never become an ongoing saga or trilogy. Although, this would NOT make a good trilogy because there is no love triangle or dead people involved.

After all our campaigning online, we were finally hooked up with a gentleman named Rueben. He was our advocate. And let me tell you…he really was. This man WANTED to help us. And, alongside our attorney Ken Gross of Thav Gross which is a firm located in Bingham Farms, MI…our trial loan mod period of 3 months was put into action. By the way, for those of you who live in Michigan and are having troubles with your mortgage company, contact Ken Gross. He’s the bomb ditty. He CAN help. If you aren’t in Michigan, contact HSI Trust http://hsitrust.org/ and ask for Michelle. It’s a pretty awesome non-profit formed to help people who are in the same sort of process we were.

The third and last modification payment was sent in on April 2nd (the 1st was a Sunday). I was a nervous wreck because of all the recent stories I’ve been hearing; a new wave of foreclosures, bigger than the recent one, is being predicted. I figured, based on all of our past dealing with Bank of America, we’d be one of the new statistics. I know, I should have been more optimistic but for this particular thing, positive was outweighed by negative.

I was receiving emails and DM’s from various people telling me not to get my hopes up, that Bank of America will never modify us and that they were just stringing us along to keep me quiet. So, I did what any nervous person would do and I sort of half-believed what I was being told.

In the meantime, my husband and I would walk around our house talking about all the things we’d like to do to update it…slowly, of course. After everything we’d say, we’d end it with an “if”. IF we get modified. IF we don’t lose our home. IF. IF. IF.

We held our breath. Which, we had been used to doing because this whole Bank of America fight has been going on for over 3 years. I could probably swim from one side of Lake Michigan to the other without coming up for air at this point. OK, exaggeration.

We stayed in contact with our advocate from Bank of America. Rueben Dunn. I LOVE THIS MAN.

And today, when I wasn’t even thinking and doing anything other than Smart Savvy Social work, my doorbell rang AND…the stupid dogs were crazily barking. Which…drives me insane.

Fed-Ex delivered a thin little package.

FROM: Bank of America.

I ripped it open. Even though it was addressed to my husband. The whole “what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine” law came into play here.

I took the papers out.

It was like I had received a college acceptance letter.

We were approved.

FINALLY.

For our PERMANENT LOAN MODIFICATION.

I danced around the house.

I called everyone I knew.

I posted to every social media platform that I’m a member of.

The payment is perfect. The interest rate is TINY. It’s a step program but the highest the interest rate can go is under 4% which…hey, we’ll take it.

We get to keep our house.

Phew. Because the thought of packing up all this crap was daunting.

We are, however, tied to this house. Forever. The loan mod makes it very unattractive to try to get out of it. But that’s ok, we bought this house thinking we’d live here for all eternity. Now we basically have no choice. Whatev.

There is a moral to this story though. And, those of you who know me are well aware that I’m not a back patter on my own account.

I’m patting my own back right now.

Because I REFUSED to be a statistic. And I took action.

Which goes to show you, if I can do it…if I can use my blog and social media platforms as a springboard to save my house…

YOU CAN TOO.

Don’t take no for an answer. Don’t take those bank notices as the final word.

FIGHT.

Use all your resources. Ask for favors. Beg people to broadcast on behalf of you. Don’t EVERY SHUT UP. Don’t EVER QUIT. Call attorneys until you find one who is capable of handling your matter. Hit up every blogger and beg for RT’s. If you aren’t a blogger, you are guaranteed to know at least one…(hello, I’m a blogger and you’re reading my blog right now). Talk to the media.

Get your cause out. Tell EVERYONE your story. Someone WILL listen. Someone WILL HELP!

Somehow I was able to start the ball rolling positively in order to save our house. Somehow, Bank of America saw that I wouldn’t let them tell us know.

And…

I feel like we won. Because, it’s been a fight. It has. A long, drawn out battle.

Our corner won.

I mean, maybe it was just dumb luck. Or maybe Bank of America has a certain percentage based on a certain day based on a certain quarter…who knows…

It doesn’t matter.

They let us win.

We won.

Either way, we are here to stay.

I want to thank everyone who helped me get our cause noticed…because I feel like that BIG TIME helped.

Thank you to our attorney, Ken Gross.

And…thank you to our dude at Bank of America because he showed that they have a tiny human side over there.

To those of you who are fighting…

Don’t give up! You CAN win too!

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