Saturday, February 21, 2009
Loan Modification - First Universal Lending
I have never been compelled to blog before, but i cant seem to get the attention of anyone who can help me... so i figured the best i can do is try to help save someone else from going through what i went through. This company called me up out of the blue and said they had some information i was having trouble with my mortgage. (I'm in Florida and LOTS of us were/are). They told me i'd been prequalified for a loan modification. When I asked where they got my name they were evasive... "oh, we get our 'clients' names from several different sources" and then started asking me all these questions about my mortgage, credit cards, etc., so apparently they had no information besides public records. So then this girl, who was probably reading off a script, got kinda flustered when i pushed that issue, and put me on the phone with a manager.
The manager was pretty convincing though as far as explaining about what they could do for me, very knowledgeable,and it sounded good. ;o i checked them out with the BBB; they had a b- rating, which is supposed to be good.
So anyway i was told they'd remove my negative equity, and get me a lower fixed rate, which is all i wanted but nobody would refinance me even though i'd stayed on time paying the mortgage for 3 years - my credit rating wasnt bad, but you just cant get a loan these days. And I'd have a much lower monthly payment.
Here's the 2 catches: they basically told me not to pay the mortgage while they were doing the modification, and the late payments would get wiped out, no penalties, fees, etc... and they said it would take between a month and maybe 4 months at the most.
SIX MONTHS LATER I'm still paying them $550 a month and they're stalling me, and i'm getting letters from indymac, and THEN i get a foreclosure notice! Like they didn't do a THING.
And the bank wants $6400 from me to modify the loan or they're going to take my house.
Long story short, I had to hire a lawyer to stop the foreclosure and do the same thing i paid First Universal Lending $3300 to do, modify my loan, and getting a refund from these guys is like getting blood from a turnip, I kept getting the runaround, from this guy Troy Levy and Diana something and a few other "department managers," and one really nasty little girl named Stephanie (My original rep just disappeared) So I filed complaints everywhere and I find out the State Attorney's office has about 15 complaints against them and the complaints are piling up at the BBB, too.
Bottom line: be CAREFUL who you deal with! Get everything in writing, and don't get sucked into some indeterminate month-by-month payment plan.
I'm still in my home and it looks like it will all work out - I already got an offer from Indymac after about 6 weeks thru my lawyer and i can live with it - so the PROGRAM works - but First Universal Lending definitely doesn't.
The manager was pretty convincing though as far as explaining about what they could do for me, very knowledgeable,and it sounded good. ;o i checked them out with the BBB; they had a b- rating, which is supposed to be good.
So anyway i was told they'd remove my negative equity, and get me a lower fixed rate, which is all i wanted but nobody would refinance me even though i'd stayed on time paying the mortgage for 3 years - my credit rating wasnt bad, but you just cant get a loan these days. And I'd have a much lower monthly payment.
Here's the 2 catches: they basically told me not to pay the mortgage while they were doing the modification, and the late payments would get wiped out, no penalties, fees, etc... and they said it would take between a month and maybe 4 months at the most.
SIX MONTHS LATER I'm still paying them $550 a month and they're stalling me, and i'm getting letters from indymac, and THEN i get a foreclosure notice! Like they didn't do a THING.
And the bank wants $6400 from me to modify the loan or they're going to take my house.
Long story short, I had to hire a lawyer to stop the foreclosure and do the same thing i paid First Universal Lending $3300 to do, modify my loan, and getting a refund from these guys is like getting blood from a turnip, I kept getting the runaround, from this guy Troy Levy and Diana something and a few other "department managers," and one really nasty little girl named Stephanie (My original rep just disappeared) So I filed complaints everywhere and I find out the State Attorney's office has about 15 complaints against them and the complaints are piling up at the BBB, too.
Bottom line: be CAREFUL who you deal with! Get everything in writing, and don't get sucked into some indeterminate month-by-month payment plan.
I'm still in my home and it looks like it will all work out - I already got an offer from Indymac after about 6 weeks thru my lawyer and i can live with it - so the PROGRAM works - but First Universal Lending definitely doesn't.
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