It seems pretty standard to require homeowners requesting refinancing or loan modification to write a hardship letter. Don’t let a little letter get in your way of requesting a more reasonable/affordable loan.
Here are a few resources to write your letter:
Hardship Letter, Questions to Answer – From the Unity Council
Sample Hardship Letter and Tips – I am Facing Foreclosure blog
This a template based on OUR Hardship Letter
– but know that we have NOT yet been approved for a loan modification! So the success rate is unproven.
[Your Loan Company]
[Their Address/Fax #]To Whom It May Concern:
We write to apply for the opportunity to renegotiate the terms of our mortgage and would like to be considered under the government’s new “Making Home Affordable” plan. We bought our home at [address of your home] on [date of purchase]. At the time we were a newly married couple with two stable, full-time jobs [change this sentence according to your situation at time of purchase]. We secured a loan for [amount of loan]. In hindsight, we know that we were given a loan and interest rate that was much too high for us.
Since then, [two] major life events have changed our ability to afford our mortgage: [add life changing events here].
These are a few facts to illustrate the severity of our financial situation.
• In 2008 our debt increased from ___ to ___.
• Our income for 2007 was ____ in comparison to our income in 2008 which was ____.
• About ___ % of our gross monthly income goes to pay our mortgage and related costs.
• Our net worth as a couple is _____ .At times we feel that the best financial option we have is to sell our home. In this kind of market, we know that this would be impossible. Our home, according to Zillow.com, is worth about [amount listed on Zillow]. Our home has lost about [percent]% of its value.
We have tried our best to continue mortgage payments and be faithful to our financial agreement, but we cannot do this much longer. We are accruing more debt each month [and/or other troubles you may have]. We do not want to foreclose and are asking [your loan company] for an opportunity to renegotiate the terms of our mortgage or another reprieve.
Please consider our request. We thank you for your time and hope that we can keep our family’s first home.
Sincerely,
[Your names and signature here]
2 responses so far ↓
Pearl M. // April 16, 2009 at 11:09 pm |
This is a great letter to use as a guide to help homeowner’s to construct their own letter with their set of circumstances.
Julie Riegler // April 17, 2009 at 6:33 pm |
Finally! It looks like the central Florida market is picking up….of course, who can resists these depressed prices? Great deals, great financing, great incentives…