There have been many posts about the bailouts and the mortgage loan programs.

However most of these have been:

A)Do I qualify? and What are the government details?
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/904770

B)Limited to one bank's special:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/914382

C)Political rant:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/904770

So I would like to hear some experiences with people refinancing under the "Making Home Affordable" (makinghomeaffordable.gov) program only. Do not post if you had a traditional refinance. There are plenty of threads available for that.

My Experience:
I have a duplex in Ohio that is classified as an investment property. Under USAA's guidance (https://www.usaa.com/inet/ent_utils/McStaticPages?key=advice_mor... they are accepting investment properties.
My stats:
100K/yr with DW.
705 Middle FICO score
Fannie Mae owns the loan
$165900 purchase price
Current: 87% LTV 1st mortgage (originally an 90/10 10/1 ARM) @ 5.65%. Loan resets in 2015.
Wanted: 30 yr fixed mortgage @ lower interest rate.

Called USAA and asked to do a refinance. Rep. stated I had to have >70% LTV to qualify. I stated I wanted to use the new "making home affordable" program. She then asked for an application fee to proceed. Like a good FW'er I paid my $350 app fee on my Driver's Edge card. Afterwords she stated the fewest points I could have were 4.75 and the most was 8. Needless to say, I was shocked. Since I had paid for my fee, I decided to proceed just to see the interest rate.

They went through the process and passed the loan through their underwriting system. Then my application came back from Fannie's computer as rejected. The loan rep. thought this was odd and immediately talked to her supervisor. Apparently the supervisor stated there are 456 different exceptions, and they couldn't tell me what they were or more specifically why I was rejected. I don't know the sup. was being facetious or not about the number. Given my solid inputs, they both couldn't see any reason for the rejection.

Anybody else have a similar experience with a Fannie/Freddie computer rejection? Or can shed some light on my problem?

Warning for USAA members: When calling, the person who you first talk to is NOT a loan rep. I think the volume has them pulling people from other departments to help. Don't believe what they say because the currently have no guidance on the "making home affordable" program. Ask to speak to a loan rep.

I think we're going to hear a lot more stories like this. I called my lender (First Horizon Home Loans) and asked about refinancing after being turned down by two other lenders who pulled a bait and switch on me. ("Oh yeah, we'll just have to bump you up to another product if your LTV comes in over 80%." And by "bump you up to another product" you mean you can't do anything but take my application fee and the kickback from the appraisal...despite my repeated requests for full disclosure of terms...but I digress...).

Anyway, FHHL gave me the run around about the Making Home Affordable (is that even English?) plan and told me to call back and ask about "Phase II" in a week. So I called back in a week and apparently the memo about "Phase II" didn't get around to everyone yet (did I really expect them to know what the hell I was talking about with "Phase II?"...I think they were playing a joke on me...and it was probably pretty funny from their perspective). Eventually, I was told to call back again later (next week) but when I asked about the rates for Phase I I was told they were "low 5's with an origination point." WTF?!?! What a GD racket.

Thanks a lot Captain O! I hope you got a nice boost in your approval ratings farking over the honest tax payer again.

Long story short, appears to be a collosal bureaucratic mess designed to make politicians look like they care.
</rant>

EDIT:

Loan info:
Home Value: $480k
Loan Amount: $433k
LTV: 90.1%
Location: Southern California
Reason for refi: Want lower rate.

If you live in one of the Fannie or Freddie "jumbo conforming" areas be sure to press this issue with the folks on the phone. Escalate the call to someone who can think for themselves and go "off-script." Conforming loan limits DO exist for values greater than $417k contrary to what the CSR may insist on the phone.

More retarded loans. Just want we need right about now.

"making homes more affordable" --- IN YOUR dreams.

If you want to make them more affordable, quit robbing the taxpayers to pay for this garbage and let home values FALL to the ground!
That's how you make them more affordable. Not by refinancing JUNK!

I have been in contact with Country wide (now BOFA) from the beginning. From there computer generated number my home is now worth $260,000. I owe $276,000 on my first and $60,000 on me second. The first thing I was told was that they could refinance my first to 105% LTV of their generated number at a rate of 5.25% and I believe one point. I then called back a few days later and was quoted and interest rate of 7.25% because the total loan amount is over 105% of the homes value. He also said call another number and tell them to lower my interest rate on my second but I haven't attempted that yet because I believe they will ask for a hardship and my only hardship is my wife and I lost 10% of our pay. As of now I have done nothing.

My first is currently at 6.25% and my second 8%. I wanted to refinance to get a lower rate but because of my homes value dropping so much because of a divorce and foreclosure in the neighborhood I don't think I will be able to take advantage of the lower interest rates.

That interest rate is higher than my current one. I think this hole setup up is just BS.

Note that today's local paper said only 1 person has made it through the program, with 51 others pending. The program is going to be rejiggered so it actually works. I can't seem to find the article online, unfortunately.

Not deterred by getting my 1st mortgage rejected, I called and asked about my second mortgage. Apparently USAA's new rules have higher rates (9.5%) for loans <$25K. So even if I qualified it wouldn't be worth it.

Currently there is a big issue with second mortgages. Essentially, if you used a 1st and 2nd mortgage to purchase your home with bank X and try to refinance the 1st under the MHA program with bank Y's better rate, closing costs, etc., bank X has to agree their 2nd mortgage gets paid secondary to bank Y's 1st mortgage if the loan goes south. This essentially guarantees bank X will get nothing in foreclosure, and therefore I doubt any bank would agree to this. Thus, the only way for people with 1st&2nd mortgages to get a MHA refinance is to go through their original lender since they own risk on both loans. Unfortunately, if you original lender sucks like ahoodlum's and gidd169's then you instantly hit a brick wall. In my case, I don't blame USAA because it was rejected by Fannie Mae, and they didn't give me any runaround. They also refunded my non-refundable application fee .

Apparently the Obama Administration has recognized this problem and are working on a fix. See: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/04/more-details-on-making-home-affordable.html However I don't think they've narrowed this jell-o to the tree yet.

Assuming the economy doens't suddenly improve and rates stay low, I think I'll wait to see the details on the second loan program. If what mannyv said is true, then there are still some wrinkles to work out.

Please continue to post experiences. If there are any Freddie/Fannie employees out there, please identify yourself so we can gain some insight.

I've called BOA twice in the last month and just like the previous poster they said I'd receive a call "within 2 weeks". Still nothing.

I'm waiting a little also to start this process. I'm with Indymac. My loan is about $330k/30 year at 6.375%. My home value according to Indymac is somewhere between 280 to 310k using their computer model. Indymac is refusing to provide any detailed answers on this program other then GO ONLINE and fill out their application. Someone from another dept will call you back in 4-6 weeks. You can ask for that dept number but last time I dialed that number, it was over an hour wait and I still couldn't get through. Gave up for now.

Kind of a side thing -- What I found though if you call in to make payment over the telephone, they will now very quickly waive that $20 lame fee they usually charge. Indymac has a cutoff online payment date and after that date, they charge a $5 online fee. So what I've been doing is just waiting until the 2-3 days before the final cutoff date for payment and call in to make the payment.

personally i tried and failed multiple times - this whole refi program is BS (ive wasted over 1k on fees, appraisals, etc.. only to be told i dont qualify [this is AFTER being promised i qualify under the situation i described. what a bunch of snakes!]). beware of refis.

i think its better to try loan modification.

My Situation :
Current LTV : 93% based on zillow
Banks: Bank of America
Products: No Fee Mortgage Plus ( No PMI)
Called BOA on March and April and told that they will callback within 2 weeks. Nobody call back.
Called again on April 29 after reading the news about BOA now accepting home affordability refinance.
They said that phase 1 of the program is for only those that don't have PMI while my loan is actually has PMI, but my PMI is paid by BOA.
Ask me to wait for phase 2 with without any date to expect.