Can we refinance our 30-yr fixed conventional mortgage into a 30-yr fixed FHA mortgage to lower our rate?

To lbennett who said: "I don't understand. How is a house you SOLD in 2009 responsible for a Bankruptcy in 2010? How is it a second lender required you to put a seperate property, one that your were current making payments on, into that Bankrupcty? Why wouldn't they reinstate the mortgage?"...We sold our old house in October of 2009. It was a short sale: we were able to pay off the first mortgage, but we were only able to pay off about 70% of the bridge loan when the house closed. The bridge loan lender signed the paperwork agreeing to the short sale, however in December of 2009 they filed suit for the remaining balance on the bridge loan anyway. We were unable to pay the money (or we would have done it when the house sold in October!), so we filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy (included some credit card debt and one of our 2 cars with it, as well), on the advice of an attorney. The discharge was granted on 3/31/2010. Our current property was NOT supposed to be included in the bankruptcy - but neither us or our attorney could get the big bank lender to agree to a reinstatement of the mortgage loan on our current house - therefore, it is listed on our credit reports as included, even though we have been paying that mortgage ON TIME (no missed or late payments) since day one (we closed on our current home 3/31/2008). It was maddening! To this day, that big bank (even they have all the records showing we have never been late or missed a payment through all of this) refuses to even talk to us about refinancing our loan due to the bankruptcy. I have NO idea why they would not reinstate the mortgage....it made sense to us that it would be in their best interest to do that (seeing as how we could technically just "walk away" from our current property and mortgage without further penalty), but we love our house and plan on staying in it forever.We have had no further issues with our credit, other than we do not want to open a bunch of credit cards we don't need. We have a regular credit card (not pre-paid or anything) with a large, well-known company that we have had for almost 2 years that we use regularly and pay the bill off every month in full. We have paid off our other car loan in full (on time, no missed payments ever), and our credit scores are listed as "Fair" or "C" grade - we are between 660-720. So, I don't understand why all the lenders I've talked to refuse to work with us as soon as they hear "bankruptcy" or see it on our credit reports - none of them listen to our situation or dig any deeper to find out the reasons, etc.! We have even been contacted outright (no solicitation on our part at all) twice by a couple of big lenders, who ask us if we are interested in a refi, but all I have to do is mention the bankruptcy and they immediately go into "can't help you out for at least 4 years or more" mode - and I'm sitting there thinking "but YOU called ME!"

Thanks for the info. lbennett - that was helpful! We will see if we can find a local broker, like you suggested. Here's hoping!To "William" - the first mortgage on the house we sold was paid in full at the sale. The short sale was because of the 2nd mortgage (or bridge loan, as it was called) that we could not pay in full - 70-75% of that loan was paid off, the rest was supposed to be written off by the bridge loan lender (different from the first mortgage on the sold house, which was with a big bank) - so the first mortgage loan reflected as "paid in full" and was not listed as a short sale, foreclosure or anything abnormal. Even the bridge loan (2nd mortgage) was"paying as agreed" on our credit reports until the bankruptcy discharged (it was an interest only loan with no payments until the house sold).....it was SO strange! The sale date on that property the bridge loan was associated with (and was the main reason we filed the bankruptcy) was actually 10/20/2009 - but again, it did not show any derogatory information. About 2 months after our bankruptcy discharged the bridge loan itself was REMOVED from our credit reports entirely, never having been listed as defaulted or anything because the lawsuit was stopped due to the bankruptcy - they never got a judgement or anything. The issue we are having is that the big bank on our CURRENT mortgage refused to allow us to reinstate the mortgage on our current home, thus it was included in the bankruptcy even though we have never been late or missed any payments since the loan originated - you would think they would have wanted us to reinstate, but whatever. Bottom line is that the current loan, even though it is current with no missed or late payments, no longer reports to our credit reports and simply shows "included in Ch. 7 Bankruptcy" - even though we pay it every month. The big bank that owns the loan knows this, they can just pull up our mortgage account and see all the on-time payments each month - but they still won't give us the time of day (note they acquired our loan just after we closed on the house - it was sold by the broker who handled the sale, who I would never use again, or I'd just call them - but they suck). So, it's just some unfortunate events & lazy employees at the big bank who won't do a little listening to our situation that is causing all this mess. That and the housing mess that started in 2008, of course.Thanks everyone for the advice! We'll go find some local brokers to chat with that have decent customer reviews.