Consumer complaint received 2017-08-10
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE LLC (NY)

The aftermath of a divorce left me struggling to make my payments as credit card balances increased and reserve cash decreased. Additionally, I was told in XX/XX/XXXX that I would have a tax bill this year roughly $ XXXX. After the divorce I was left with a condominium we purchased in XX/XX/XXXX in the  XXXX, XXXX, metro area. We paid $ XXXX for the property but the value at the time of the divorce was about $ 160K. At the time I was making just enough to make the payments if we rented the condo and I did not want to ruin a credit score in the XXXX if I could at all help it. My company also relocated me to XXXX NY so the only choice I had was to rent the property and utilize the rent payments to supplement my own. However the two mortgages, condo fee, and property management fee was close to {$700.00} higher than the market rate for the rent. I was able to continue making payments until the ARM of the first mortgage began to increase while at the same time still trying to adjust from a household income of two down to one. At the beginning of this year I knew there was no way I could continue. I had maxed out three credit cards ( $ XXXX ), I had depleted all liquid assets, and the news of the impending tax debt was too much. I called my realtor and asked her for options. She recommended a short sale. At this point I had already missed a payment on my first mortgage and was likely to miss the next payment along with a payment on my second mortgage. I began to receive the phone calls from the companies. Of the times I was able to answer ( I can not be on the phone much less discuss sensitive personal matters at my job ) the only thing the other person on the line would do is demand that I make a payment. When I tried to explain that I just did not have the money to do that, they would keep pressuring me and asking why I could n't. Therefore I stopped answering the calls. I was already depressed enough that my credit had taken a dive, I was just at a loss for the way the representatives treated me. I talked to my realtor and she told me she would do everything she could to make the short sale work. She reached out to the creditors, pulled in a consultant, and even went so far to solicit help from a state representative all in an effort to stop foreclosure proceedings. She even had a buyer offering market value for the property with a signed contract in hand! Sadly, I received the phone call from her this week that the property was, in fact, foreclosed and she apologized profusely because she was not able to assist any further. She mentioned how difficult the lender of the first mortgage was to work with and that she had handled many short sales in the past but this was the most difficult of her career. I read through the requirements lenders are supposed to take and I am appalled at the lack of follow through with the lender on the first mortgage ( the lender on the second mortgage was much more receptive to assist ). When I answered the phone calls, never did anyone on the phone offer me loss mitigation steps. The representatives instead made remarks and were unpleasant with bad tones in their voices when I tried to explain that I did not know when, or if, I would be able to make payments again. Letters that I received from the lender were difficult to decipher and the subsequent attorney letters were even more confusing. I have never missed a payment on either of these mortgages from the first payment in XX/XX/XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX. I had near perfect credit. I was good about paying off my debts and I am a man of my word. But this experience has broken me. I do not think I will ever want to own, even if I could get a loan, another property after all that this has put me through. I am exhausted, depressed, and simply sad at the way this bank refused to help.