I Short Sale Helps again: Struggling Chatsworth family won't lose home

By Tony Castro, Staff Writer, Daily News - Los Angeles

It was one piece of bright news in what has otherwise been a rough decade for Avinoam and Rachel Hen.

The Chatsworth couple were on the verge of losing their home to foreclosure this month - after suffering previous tragedies in recent years that included the deaths of their two children a few months apart, a vicious Rottweiler attack on Avi and the collapse of his automotive business.

But now the couple has learned that they will be able to stay in their home for the foreseeable future because their lender approved a loan modification, after initially resisting any changes.

"I feel that a great weight has been lifted from us," said Rachel Hen, who had been emotionally overcome at the prospect of losing the home that she has turned into a virtual shrine to the two children she lost in tragedies almost eight years ago.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage canceled last week's scheduled foreclosure sale of the Hens' home and is in the process of finalizing the loan modification documents, said Raffi Tal, the real estate solutions specialist who has been assisting the Hens.

"Wells Fargo showed that it was human," Tal said.

The decision to halt the foreclosure process was actually made by an unidentified private lender that was responsible for the loan and had imposed almost impossible-to-meet guidelines, officials said. Wells Fargo was administering the loan on behalf of the lender, a common industry practice.

"The loan terms have been modified, and the Hens will be able to remain in their home," said Wells Fargo spokesman Kevin Waetke in an e-mail.

The possible loss of their home culminated a series of tragedies the Hen family has experienced in the last eight years.

In 2002, their 25-year-old daughter, Victoria, was fatally shot in a terrorist attack at the El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport. Their son, Nimrod, 18, died a few months later of injuries suffered in a car accident.

While still mourning his children's deaths, Avinoam was viciously attacked by a stray Rottweiler. He broke both hands, required 120 stitches and was on disability for nearly a year.

Later the family's automotive business went under, and the Hens refinanced their four-bedroom house to cover mounting expenses. When their new adjustable rate mortgage reset and their mortgage payments soared by 50 percent, the Hens found themselves unable to keep up. At that point, the loan was for an amount more than $100,000 greater than the depressed value of their house.

Bankruptcy soon followed, and over the past year Wells Fargo denied a series of requests for a loan modification.

What made Wells Fargo and the private investor change their minds?

According to the Hens and Tal, the turning point was a March 17 Daily News account detailing the Hen family's tale of personal woe and tragedy that brought pressure.

Tal said the Hen case underscored the national home foreclosure crisis in the country, coming three years after the housing bubble burst.

Roughly 3.4 million homes went into foreclosure last year, up from 1.2 million homes in 2007. More than roughly 8 million homeowners are at risk of losing their homes in the next two years, according to John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

As of Friday, the Hens were still awaiting the documents with the details of the loan modification. But they anticipate the new mortgage will be closer to the $2,000-a-month payments they had sought instead of the more than $3,000-per-month imposed by their adjustable rate under the old agreement.

"I am jumping up and down with joy," Avinoam Hen said upon hearing the news.?