Step 6

Then, things really started to get stressful, if not downright wierd.  A meeting was set up in Muskegon for our convenience for April 16th at 4PM.  Our Housing Counselor did not show up as required.  Then, the bank's lawyer said she was surprised to see us for the meeting because we had filed for Bankruptcy.  We did not.  They could not readily say why they thought so but later explained:  their secretary was working on a split monitor screen with our names on one side and some bankruptcy stuff on the other side.  Well,  its an explanation.
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As a result of thinking that we had called off the meeting, they did not have our file with them.  They still invited us in to a room anyway and called the bank.  A Brenda, of the bank, did have our file right in front of her as she had "just gotten" our Financial Information Packet (sent two weeks earlier).  Brenda the bank said, over the speaker phone:
1.  That we did indeed qualify for the Obama Plan.
2.  That we had the 'required two hundred ($200.00) dollar cushion'.  This bank requirement is not required for the Obama Plan.
3. That the monthly house payment, "calculated 'under' HAMP" would be $1,620.00.  By the way, HAMP is an acrynom for Home Affordability Mortgage Program.  HAMP is the Obama Plan.  Banks don't like to use that term, the Obama Plan, so they say HAMP. 
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When we asked the Brenda to explain how she came up with that figure she said that she put "all the figures into the computer and pressed 'Enter'.  I asked her why we were getting a monthly payment equal to 55.67% of our monthly income instead of the 31% of the Obama Plan.  Brenda the bank said that the 31% was "merely a target".  This target which is "merely the target", can be reached by 90% of all Obama Plan applicants.  Don't let that statement of the bank, "the 31% is merely the target" fool you.  If your Housing Counselor says that you meet the qualifications for being in the Obama Plan, stick to the 31%.