Chase Bank and The Widow: A Success Story
I occasionally go to dinner with a few other widows in my area. I am not a regular attender as for me it's best to move on from these kinds of labels and limitations. I have become good friends with one of the ladies in the group. We share a similar outlook on our futures and our efforts to design it now that we are alone.
Early this year, she confided in me that she could not afford to keep her home without her husband's income. She knew that I had experience in short sale listings and could I help her as well.
I did some research and found that she had 2 loans with Chase Bank. Chase is one of the easiest banks to work with, I've found, so this was encouraging. But as we spoke longer, she does have income from some self-employment jobs and it's regular over the course of a year. Very much like what our real estate income looks like. She might be able to modify her loan.
She loves her home, so in February, we sat down together with the forms and filled them out. Immediately Chase assigned a consultant to work with her on the process. This consultant called every week to make sure she had turned everything in, to follow up on missing information and to keep her apprised of the process.
Monday she called me to let me know that she had a couple large envelopes from Chase. She was shaking and nervous....could I come over and open them?
I ran right over and found a wonderful package awaiting her. The second trust deed was forgiven straight out and her first trust deed was modified to half the previous payment. They accomplished this by reducing the principal a bit and by fore-bearing a chunk to the end of the loan. Of course the loan period also started again at 30 years, but she happily told me that if she bought a new home it would be the same thing.
Whether this is the best situation for her in the long term? Not for me to say! What I do know is that Chase Bank made this process easy, kept in touch along the way, and it resulted in a widow keeping a home that was dear to her.
Well done Chase Bank!
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