I don’t know why it’s taken me 4 days to post this on here. I think I’ve just been absorbing it. I’ve been working with our mortgage company for a year on applying for a home loan modification. Being self-employed, it’s hard to know what number they mean by “net”. Before the self-employment tax? After the home office expenses? Our tax person tells me they don’t even take any of these things into account, and there is no standard definition of “net”. And that no one she knows has been approved for a loan mod.

Once I gave them a number and they said we had a 2k surplus. The next time I gave them a number after taxes and write offs and they said our only option was to proceed with a short sale, that we can’t afford the house. In June I gave them a number right in the middle and they said we could apply.

After 2 months of faxing them the same things over and over, I got a letter Tuesday that they are taking $600 off our mortgage payment, and waiving the two months we owe and all the late fees. Our housing payment is now 30% of our income! The next payment isn’t due until Sept. 1st, but I sent it in that day, and now our next payment isn’t due until October. Anything we receive now can go toward catching up on other things, and the dentist for the girls. We are very confident that the worst is over. For the first time in 2 years, we don’t feel under water, we are afloat!

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