Hi all,
Just wanted to post a quick re-cap of the options that were laid out for me during my recent phone call with Flagstar Loans. Put my duplex into forbearance at start of COVID and as I am gearing up to move out of forbearance I wanted to assess my options.
I spoke with four different representatives and received four different responses. The first agent told me I had three options pay off the entire overdue amount, take on a payment plan for the overdue amount, enter into loss mitigation (essentially a loan mod). The last two of which would result in a negative credit score. Deferment would not be an option for a property regarding a home or investment property only auto loans, personal loans, and HELOCs. After getting to a question about how much of a negative credit hit I was bumped up to another agent.
This agent informed me that I had the same three options but none of the options would result in a negative credit hit. Further, the loss mitigation aka loan mod would not require a credit check and would allow me to take advantage of a lower interest rate possibly and would only involve the remaining balance of my property. After asking more detailed questions (can't recall what in particular) I was bumped up again.
This agent stated that he was in collections and that I had the same three options and on top of that partial claim. What a partial claim was is a no interest loan that is set to side and due on sale of the property or at the expected date of the mortgage being paid off completely. Obviously a very interesting option for myself so I asked some more questions and then requested something in writing or via email and was then escalated again.
I was transferred over to an agent on the COVID task force who said their were actually six options! All four options laid out by the agent were correct but there are three different types of loss mitigation. The loss mitigation would require a hard credit check and I cannot recall the details for those but one was with and one was without a partial claim attached. All were looking to result in a manageable monthly payment. The partial claim she expressed was a result of it being a government loan and in particular an FHA loan. It seems like each agency that gives out loans has a different mechanism for this.
Spent about an hour and a half on the phone and was not on hold for long. Definitely something to do if you did take on a COVID forbearance during this time. Just thought I would share so that folks could dive in to their own lenders policies!