A Nony Mouse
Yuma,#2General Comment
Wed, October 19, 2011
Not FDA, USDA. Sorry, acronyms.
AdrianneS
Yuma,#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, October 19, 2011
Your complaints are unfounded. I have been on both sides of the fence, both as a collections agent and as a homeowner who got foreclosed on, and never once did I blame my mortgage company for my failure to make payments.
1. Any mortgage company you deal with will expect you to live up to your contractual obligations. If you think VMF is ugly and mean, try dealing with a full spectrum company that deals with site-built homes. They make VMF look like cupcakes.
2. The rep that gave you the info for United Way, etc was trying to HELP you. It sounds like you have too much PRIDE to go out looking for help, and just expect everyone to give you what you want. The world doesn't work that way. There are no groups or organizations that will help you with your mortgage payment, so she was showing you where you could get help for things that you need to enable you to keep up with your all responsibilities, without having to put anything off. Asking for help is a lot easier on the phone than it is in person, but suck it up! If you can't afford everything, somethings got to give. If you can have a necessity provided for you or available at a lower cost, why not? Do you not buy things on sale? There is no shame in getting help from the United Way or DSS or anywhere else you can. What is more important: your family or your pride?
3. VMF, like any mortgage company, has to accept any payment sent in a guaranteed form unless it is for a chronic delinquent account that has a stop payment, usually reserved for accounts that have an active notice of default, pay one month when due for two for months on end, or bounce checks. Bottom line, if you have half a payment this week and you'll have the other half next week, do it, whether you have permission or not. Just make sure you send it guaranteed, like as a moneygram or western union. Do not send personal checks, and do not expect them to take a phone payment, it's not going to happen, and they can send partial check payments back. Don't expect them to like it or make it easy for you, but they have to deal with it. As long as you make the whole payment inside the month you are due for (as in have October paid by October 31st) nothing catastrophic will happen. You will have a late payment on your record, but it really doesn't do anything until you get past the 30 day mark.
4. They will call you every day if you are late, starting on the day your payment is due. Legally, they can call you multiple times a day as long as they don't talk to anyone or leave a message, and caller ID doesn't count as a message.
5. Refusal to deal with your mortgage company will result in a rep being sent to your home. This is common practice across the board for all mortgage companies. The fact that a field rep came to your home makes me think that you were farther in the hole than you are letting on, as they are usually not authorized until an account is more than 60-90 days delinquent. If you refuse to answer the door, or if you are not home, the field rep will knock on your neighbors doors, trying to get a message to you. Again, this is standard practice and not unique to VMF. If you don't want a field rep at your home, deal directly with the mortgage company openly and honestly. And if they send one out anyways, be prepared for foreclosure to start, because he is likely doing the legal inspection of the home.
6. If your son-in-law falsely identified himself or failed to identify himself on YOUR phone, there is really nothing a VMF rep can do. There is no retinal scanner on a phone to make sure they are talking to the right person, and they have to go with what they are told by the person they are talking to. At the same time, mistakes happen. What is defined as protected and not protected is really a grey area, and some reps do give out more info than they should.
7. The financial situation you are in sounds like a long-term one, and the delinquency is likely to reoccur if something goes wrong. Going back and forth with VMF is not going to get you anywhere if no one is willing to explore other opportunities. Now is the time to be proactive, while you have the loan in good shape! Most companies won't help you unless the loan is up to date. Have you asked about loan mods? If the house is tied to the land, look at refinancing, especially through HUD or the FDA's rural program if you qualify. Get on the section 8 waiting list, VMF accepts it! Take the help that is there, you've paid into it. If none of those are options, you may realistically have to look at selling in the future. Short sales are always a better option than foreclosure, with much less credit impact. Get a full statement from VMF, and expect to be stunned by how much principal you still owe. The best way I can explain how these loans work is like a see-saw: at the beginning of the loan, you are paying next to nothing into the principal, it all goes into interest. As the loan progresses, you pay less and less into interest and more into principal, until toward the end of the loan you are paying virtually no interest. If you are on a 20 year mortgage, you aren't going to see a significant drop in the principal until about year 13-15.
Not everyone at VMF is your enemy. You will normally be dealing with the same rep for a few months, then get assigned a new one. If you have a rep that you deal well with, ask if you can keep them! There are some EXCELLENT reps at VMF who will bend over backwards to help you, as long as you are willing to help yourself. They can't argue your case for extensions and mods to management if you don't give them the info to do so. Having your rep on your side will get you a whole lot farther than alienating them.