In the face of foreclosure

Facing foreclosure on her home of six years is stressful enough, Susanne Reimann says.

But that stress has been multiplied over several fruitless months of trying to apply for lower house payments with her bank, her constant calls only garnering conflicting and evasive responses from the company, the Coeur d'Alene woman said.

A month away from foreclosure, she regrets her patience.

"If I'd realized what was going on earlier, I would've just done it (sold my home)," said Reimann, 42. "I'm not sure what my next move is."

Reimann started to get behind in house payments around March, she said, after being laid off from a teaching position and taking a new job at Head Start that paid $9,000 less a year.

"That's a big chunk out of my income," she said.

The house payments of $1,100 a month were too much for her salary, she said.

So she applied for a loan modification in July, after filing for bankruptcy, in hopes that a lower payment could help her hold onto her house on North Belleville Drive.

"Since day one, I said, 'I would like to keep my home if I can. If I can't get a home loan modification, I'll just sell it,'" she remembered. "I thought, 'If I don't get it, I should have plenty of time to put it on the market.'"

When she followed up with Bank of America to confirm her application was in order, staff said they would let her know in a couple weeks.

Not hearing back in that time, she called the bank.

And called. And called.

Every time was the same, she said. She was put on hold for up to 40 minutes, transferred from department to department, and told eventually that her application was in review and she should call again in two to three weeks.

It went that way for months.

Then she received a notice that her home would be foreclosed at the end of February.

"I called and said 'Does this mean I wasn't qualified (for the loan modification)?'" she said.

No one had an answer, though one employee said her application was incomplete and she should have received information about that.

When she finally asked in person at a local branch, she was told that her application was fine. But she might not hear an answer until up to two weeks before her foreclosure.

"I said, 'I can't sell my house in two weeks,'" Reimann said.

She asked her Realtor, Marshall Mend of Marshall Mend Realty, to get involved.

His luck was no better.

"I've spent at least six hours on the phone. Probably closer to a dozen hours. And most of it was on hold," Mend said. "The trouble is, you're always talking to somebody else. One guy told me I could call him back at a number. When I called, one time I got Tennessee, the next time I got Costa Rica."

He expects it would take six to eight months to sell Reimann's house at market price, he said, adding that it was worth about $250,000 pre-recession and about $180,000 now.

"At least they could give her an option. 'This is what we can do,'" he said. "To tell her nothing is wrong."

Bank of America spokeswoman Britney Sheehan said the bank's departments confused Reimann's loan modification application with her paperwork for a different program.

The confusion led to delays on both, Sheehan said.

"Neither moved forward. The mortgage modification was never reviewed," Sheehan said this week. "The bank certainly apologizes for that."

Bank of America will be contacting Reimann soon about starting the review, Sheehan said.

"Obviously we want to work with our customers when they need our assistance," Sheehan said.

Processing loan modification applications is so complex, she added, there is no typical time frame.

Barbara Leachman, housing director with the Community Action Partnership Agency in Lewiston, said she witnesses struggles like Reimann's often, and with all banks, not just Bank of America.

"It's good for everybody to keep people in their houses, and yet we struggle so much to make that happen," said Leachman, who helps individuals work with lenders on house payments. "It's even very frustrating for me, and yet I don't have a house on the line. I get very frustrated at being put on hold, always being called by somebody else, getting hung up on by the lender, being asked for the same document 10 times."

The key is sticking with it, she said, adding that less than 10 percent of her clients end up losing their homes.

"I'm actually usually very surprised if a lender ends up taking back the house," Leachman said. "Most times, in the long run, they're going to work with people."

Folks who need help with house payments can contact Community Action Partnership in Coeur d'Alene at 664-8757.

Leachman also suggested visiting makinghomeaffordable.gov.

Reimann was frustrated to learn her case still hasn't been reviewed.

The bank recently asked her to send more information, she said, the same she submitted six months ago.

She is prepared to rent if she loses her home, she added.

"I'm not saying feel sorry for me, because I'll sell my home. Just don't tell me it (my application) is in review for how many months now and then tell me my house is in foreclosure," Reimann said. "It's just been a horrible experience."