Upcoming Foreclosures

ARM Loan - Lost house before government stepped in - anything we can do?

We lost our house in February of last year about 6 months before the government decided it needed to start helping out. We were with Countrywide and it got to a point were they just wouldn't help us. We couldn't afford to do another loan mod and have our payments go up in addition to the adj. rate increases. We had already done that once before when we had to escrow our property taxes (they weren't originally). Then because we owed more than the house was worth they wouldn't refinance us. Now all these homeowners are getting help keeping their houses and we have a foreclosure on our credit!! It is really frustrating when 400,000+ people are in the same situation we were and now they are the ones getting help. Is there anything we can do to alleviate the impact this situation has had on our credit? Sorry this was so long, any help you can provide would be great. If you can't help please don't respond. You have no idea how we got in the situation we did, the curcumstances around it or why our only choice was an ARM loan to begin with. We could afford the original payment and was given some real bad information and advice from the mortgage broker.

Public Comments

1. Sorry to tell you this, but you're screwed. You've been foreclosed on and there's no going back, despite the government bailout and plans to help people stay out of foreclosure. No, it doesn't seem fair that so many other people in your exact situation are possibly going to avoid foreclosure (and the hit on their credit), when you had nothing available to help you out. And, I feel your pain. I have 3 mortgages (primary residence and two rental properties). However, none are upside down and I have no trouble affording the payments. Still, it would be nice for the government to help me out. But, I did it the right way. I didn't spend beyond my means. I didn't max out my mortgages with adjustable rates to go buy toys, take lavish vacations, buy expensive cars, etc. So, I played the game right, and what do I get for it? Nothing. While some greedy knucklehead bought a home he couldn't afford, maxxed it out in 2005, bought nice cars, sand/water toys, vacations, and basically pissed it away. And, now my taxes are going to bail him out, while my country's economy - and the world's economy, for that matter - spirals out of control. I guess I could consider myself fortunate to not be very affected by this latest economic crisis. But, I would say it wasn't so much luck, as it was by design.
2. Why should the government help you with the mortgage you obviously couldn't afford they didn't sign the loan documents you did now take responsibility for your actions.
3. unfortunately, not. the damage has been done. you have that foreclosure on your credit reports and it will be there 7-10 years. only thing that you can do now is keep your credit low and pay off any unpaid balances. even if you were in foreclosure now, i don't think that it would have mattered. from what you wrote, countrywide did try to help you. they did not just drop the hammer and kick you out. what happened here is that you did not educate yourself on the mortgage process. you used an ARM to buy more of a home than you could afford. i'm not saying this to judge you...i'm telling you this because you have an opportunity to teach your children to do better in their own future. make the right choices from here on. edit: nobody here was judging you. at least, i wasn't. i understand that things happen, but what help would anybody on yahoo answers be able to give you? any help in this situation would have been before foreclosure, not after it. and don't listen to these scamsters that will tell you that they will have some magic solution to fix your credit. the only thing that is going to fix this is time and responsible credit use. i understand this is frustrating, but it's the truth. bad advice from brokers is what got a lot of people into this mess. i was a loan officer for two years and saw this time and time again. we were told to push ARM loans on people that i personally knew could not afford the note when it adjusted. however, i wanted to keep my job, so i complied. that's the thing...the broker won't care 5 years after the note is signed when then note readjusts and the payment doubles. he will have collected his money. i always would try to tell people to get informed about it.