home loan question for lawyers

[Daehawk]

I have a question...I should have asked a week ago. Im due at bankruptcy tomorrow to see what they tell me.

Basically my wife owned the house and land. She...dont think we...took out a home loan on it a decade or so ago. I remember this. It was with Citifinacial. She had credit life insurance on it. If something happened then it was to be paid off. That hand written note in her will to me states the same. But something went wrong and I have no idea what.

Citifinancial is no longer in my town or the next one. The person I was to speak to is gone. I call them 1-800 and Im told it was sold or transferred to either Onemain or Bayview. I cant get any info from either. Bayview appears to be a loan collection agency. Its part of the bankruptcy. They wont talk until I send them proof of my wife's death. Im holding off until the bankruptcy meeting tomorrow.

Our estate and wills lawyer is working to have it all put in my name per the will. What Im trying to find out is where did that credit life insurance stuff go? IS there any way I can get rid of this loan once bankruptcy is over or before? And if not is there a way to lower the monthly payment now that Im alone with limited income as a disabled person. Oh and will I be charged fees?

I refuse to refinance. Thats a headache and a hell I wont step into. Im hoping the bankruptcy will be hardship discharged. We've been in since 2015 and only have about 7 months left. But the house payment will continue. Unless I can find some way to save it all.

I hate talking about this online. Donna never would. But Im lost and alone now. My little smart girl is gone.

[Zarathud]

You (somehow) have two lawyers. Talk to them.

[Moliere]

As your internet lawyer I advise you to sell everything you own and buy Bitcoin.

[Scuzz]

You (somehow) have two lawyers. Talk to them.

This.

[Daehawk]

You (somehow) have two lawyers. Talk to them.

This.

I have a bankruptcy one from when we got it. I have a wills lawyer. He doesn't charge to talk only do something. He made our wills in 2008. Which i need to change. But he is als ogoing to get the wills followed and stuff into my name. Its $800. He will let me pay over time.

[Zarathud]

You have maybe one asset and two sets of legal issues which could cause you to lose it. Any legal advice you get over the internet is worth what you pay for it -- nothing.

You may (or may not) have a ticket to owning a substantial asset. And you're just learning how to write checks and balance a checkbook. You are in over your head.

Like dealing with your grief, you should be talking to a professional. OO can help, but seriously do not try to figure this out on your own. I don't mean to be harsh, but you can't afford to get this wrong.

[Alefroth]

Is the estate lawyer starting the probate process? Is the bankruptcy solely in Donna's name? You might be best off liquidating her assets to pay off the debts.

[Daehawk]

I paid him a small payment to start it. Not heard anything . Been a couple weeks. No the Bankruptcy is in both our names. Me then her on the signatures.

I might be able to get the BR dismissed on a hardship dismissal. But that house payment that used to have credit life on it and doesn't seem to now still looms. Wish I could get it cut in half and the time doubled. Theres like 5 years left at $447 a month. If I could get it to $225 per month for 10 years that would be fine and dandy by me. But I will NOT refinance. And because of the house I cannot change the Chapter 13 into a Chapter 7 or lose the house. We wanted to pay our bills off. Close. May still have to..somehow.

[TheMix]

Things like:

I refuse to refinance. Thats a headache and a hell I wont step into.

And:

But I will NOT refinance.

Make me shake my head. I have no idea what you are thinking of, but you couldn't be more wrong. I've refinanced 4 or 5 times on my loan. None of them were remotely difficult. 15-30 minutes discussing it on the phone followed a couple weeks later with someone showing up to my house with papers for me to sign or initialize. Maybe another 30 minutes. I can't remember all the specifics now, but I'm pretty sure most or all of them were no cost - i.e. I did not have to pay anything to refinance (including adding to the loan).

Unless you mean that in your specific case, due to the bankruptcy, refinancing is exceptionally complicated. However, you really need to keep in mind that these people are professionals. And they are the ones that deal with sorting it out, not you.

[pr0ner]

Wish I could get it cut in half and the time doubled. Theres like 5 years left at $447 a month. If I could get it to $225 per month for 10 years that would be fine and dandy by me. But I will NOT refinance.

How can you expect to go from 5 years/$447 a month to 10 years/$225 a month without refinancing?

[Daehawk]

hypothetically if damage has occurred between the original loan and now it would be a hell I cannot do. Its a very old home.

[TheMix]

hypothetically if damage has occurred between the original loan and now it would be a hell I cannot do. Its a very old home.

Scratching my head. I'm not sure what you mean. For one of my refinances I did have to get a new appraisal. But I never had to get the house inspected again. I suppose some obvious damage could affect the overall worth, which in turn would affect how much the loan was worth. But it would have to be extremely bad. You say you've only got a short time left on the loan. Which suggests that you've mostly paid it off. Unless your house is now only worth an extremely small amount (don't forget the value of the land), it's unlikely that there would be any significant effect. After all, you aren't trying to take tons of cash out. Besides, you are under no obligation to do the refinance once you contact them. You can back out any time if it's not worth it. But calling and having a 30 min conversation doesn't cost you anything other than time (well, in your case, some minutes on cell plan).

[LawBeefaroni]

hypothetically if damage has occurred between the original loan and now it would be a hell I cannot do. Its a very old home.

You desperately want to cut your monthly payment in half and you're fine with doubling the remaining term. The best path, and it's a fairly simple one, is a refi. Like Mix says, it's worth at least the phone call or online application.

Don't throw up your own roadblocks. Let someone else do it if they're going to happen.

[Daehawk]

I found an old calendar journal or my wifes. I think it was home insurance time. She worried herself sick it appears. I had no idea. Over and over....Man came and looked ta house for insurance. Then after that over and over Hope no one else comes. No others should come. its over.

[Smoove_B]

While not entirely helpful, I can only state that my recent (almost a year ago) refinance process was completely different than the refinance I had in 2011. Back then they rolled by the house by car (if that) and signed the paperwork. This last time the bank sent an appraiser and that dude went through every single room in the house, opened closets, went into the basement and garage and walked the property. He took photos of everything, including all four sides of the house from the outside. He commented that it's a completely different world now and banks aren't messing around. Maybe it's my part of the country or maybe it's my lending agent. Regardless, it took me by surprise.

[TheMix]

Huh. The time I had it done, it was because it had been "too long" since the initial appraisal. The other times they were willing to use the previous appraisal value.

I suspect in his case a lot will depend on the how much he still owes, what he's trying to refinance, and what the market is like in his area.

[Smoove_B]

We refinanced for a lower interest rate and the outstanding loan amount is significantly lower than the appraised (and taxed) value of the house. The appraiser confirmed like 4 times that we weren't taking out an equity loan and he was genuinely surprised at the amount of hoop-jumping we had to do. I can say that based on looking at homes (and following the local housing market) in our area over the last ~2 months, there does seem to be a significant number of homes in foreclosure and/or people that used their homes like an ATM. Again, it could just be a NJ thing (or a general NY/NJ thing), but things are bananas out there.

[Lorini]

State laws can be active here which is why you should keep depending on your lawyer.

[Scuzz]

We recently had Chase Financial offer to refinance our mortgage for free. We now pay $288 a month. At our age I see no freakin reason to hurry to pay the thing off. And the balance (and previous payment) was so low before that any tax write off was long gone anyway.

[Daehawk]

BR lawyer said a lot. Ill do it the quick short way as I can. .basically Dont pay my BR payment or house payment for a month or two. Just keep my money while he works on it. Also get it all in my name. He is setting it up so the house loan place will talk to me. Once its all good (going to cost me $750 up front from the estate lawyer who did our wills. Thats cheap here........Once done the BR lawyer will remove the house payment from the BR filing. He can also remove any bills that were strictly my wifes. I cannot get a hardship closure because I have equity in my home so it stays at 100%.

So my BR payment will go down way lower and I pay it off in a few month..I hope. Once house is in my name I deal with Bayview the house loan place...Im not refinancing Im loan modification. I will go through my bills, my debts and my income. They will lower the payment and extend the time....not sure how much yet.

The interest on this damn loan is 11%. So since my wife took it out in 2009 and we pay $447 a month it was originally $38k and is now after 10 years $25. The interest is going to kill me. They may change that in the loan modification.

Also was told my $88 a month home insurance is too high. Find a way to lower it or try a new company. I think it went up in 2011 after the tornado damage and we stuck with them. No idea.

So in the end I wait a month or two and pay no one. Then I get the loan out of the BR and get some stuff removed from the BR too that were my wifes. The I lower the loan payment. So maybe Ill make it. He said by skipping a couple payments they are more likely to work with me too. Im scared but Im not the pro.

[Zarathud]

This is why you talk to a lawyer. I would charge you $500 for the deed, so don't be surprised if $750 is just to start.

[Daehawk]

Lawyer fee is $440.....Clerk court fee is $220 or so..little more I think. Plus I paid a $60 fee for something. He doesn't charge me anything for phone calls or to come talk in person. Only for retaining for something. My sisters friend had one that charged $50 every time she spoke to him. Just a block down. Could be worse.

My wife picked people and places and things for a reason.

[LawBeefaroni]

The interest on this damn loan is 11%. So since my wife took it out in 2009 and we pay $447 a month it was originally $38k and is now after 10 years $25. The interest is going to kill me. They may change that in the loan modification.

11%? That is really high.

[Daehawk]

Ya I know right. I had no idea. Its nuts. Maybe in changing it they will lower it. I have no idea.

I told my sister since half my income is gone maybe they'll lower my payment by half to $225. I can hope. She doesn't think so and thinks I might save $100 or $125 bucks. Thats better than nothing but Im hoping for better.