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Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives
[March 16, 2010] by Foreclosure Help
Filed under: Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives

Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives is a program that will be rolled out for homeowners on April 5, 2010.

The HAFA Program is a directive from the United States Treasury Department for borrowers that do not qualify for HAMP, does not accept the HAMP Program or fall out of the HAMP Loan Modification Program.

The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA Program) was created as a supplemental directive to the HAMP Program that will pay homeowners and servicers incentives for doing a Short Sale or Deed-in-Lieu. The short sale option is one we assist homeowners around the nation and have contacts to be sure your case is handled by professional realtors. Both the Short Sale and Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure are alternatives to stop foreclosure and the length of time a servicer has to endure not to mention the expenses. The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program will help to preserve the home values by shortening the time a property is vacant and will reduce the opportunity for vandals to enter the property. The short sale option also provides a better outcome than a foreclosure sale for homeowners and servicers.

Contact us for by clicking the link Short Sale Help or call 877-968-5337. We work with trained professionals that understand the foreclosure process and it cost homeowners nothing the banks pay for the service.

Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives requires participating servicers (lenders) to develop a written policy that will define the scope and make a determination on with whom and how the plan will be implemented. There are certain factors to take into account the amount of loss the servicer will be taking, the conditions of the local market, how the borrower has been in the past to work with and how much time before the foreclosure sale date.

A servicer is required to try to qualify homeowners for the HAMP Program (retention) before the HAFA Program is taken into account. The servicer must utilize every retention option including setting up for a Trial Loan Modification Program before they are evaluated for the HAFA Program.

Basic criteria are:

The mortgage is in default or an imminent foreclosure situation
Must be primary residence
The loan must have originated before 1/1/2009
the UPB (unpaid principal balance) must be less than $ 729,750.00
the mortgage payment (including taxes and insurance) must be over 31% of gross income

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Help Me Stop Foreclosure
[January 30, 2010] by Foreclosure Help
Filed under: help me stop foreclosure

We are contacted by many homeowner that need help. We give them options to stop foreclosure whether a short sale, loan modification, refinance or deed-in-lieu. Below are some contacts that have reached out for help. We are able to help many.

Stop Foreclosure in Atlanta
Foreclosure Help in Georgia
Would like to see about getting loan modification help in order to reduce my interest so that I can lower my monthly mortgage. I have been struggling to pay my monthly mortgage since my daughter has gone to college and do not want to lose my home but if I can reduce my interest rate and monthly payment it will make it much easier. Also there are homes in foreclosure
around me and the value is continuing to decrease.

Stop Foreclosure in Myrtle Beach
Foreclosure Help in South Carolina
County: Horry
not sure about the back payments, we were with countrywide home loans who sold to bank of America home loans, we have been trying to get a modification or refinance for a year now, keep getting runaround, have had no paperwork sent about loans or modification trying to get, have been denied modification, cannot find out why, can never talk to the same person, no one seems to know whats going on. Now they tell us there is a sale date Feb. 1rst. We don’t know what to do, this seems like a violation of the truth and lending act. We have sent all necessary info including, hardship, finances, and check stubs, tax return, just cant get anywhere with these people and they kept telling us to wait, might be 3 months each time and now they are saying, we want to keep our home and have had total unprofessionalism and delinquencies from bank of am. Bank of America home loans formerly, Countrywide home loans – home loan refinance in foreclosure foreclosure help with Bank of America

Foreclosure Help in Orlando
Foreclosure Help in Florida
County: Orange
I was laid off from my job and was it was a 50% reduction in my income. I was not able to keep making payments on my home.

Stop Foreclosure in Chico
Foreclosure Help in California
County: Butte
I am 3 months behind in mortgage payments. Two weeks ago I received a letter of default in the mail. I paid $830 via western union to the mortgage company on January 3 and they declined to accept the money. It is stilll sitting at western union. Since they declined to accept the payment I am now 4 months behind. My situation hasn’t changed and my mortgage company is GMAC Mortgage. How can I stop foreclosure

Stop Foreclosure in Cordova
Foreclosure Help in Tennessee
County: Shelby
I’m experiencing some financial hardship at this time my husband no longer works and most likely will not be returning to work because of he is mentally incompetent from a severly mental breakdown and i;ve had to quit one of my jobs to help take care of him, h-90e is dong much better now, but. we are in this financial hard ship become of it. I’m only asking for borrowed timed until I can get back on my feet financially. I love my home and desperately do not want to loose it. I’ve applied for part time work and began to work full time at my primary job, which alone would be able to cover my mortgage. presently i just need some time, time, time to get back financially stable, 60 days max. thank you. help on foreclosure

Stop Foreclosure in Naranja
Foreclosure Help in Florida
County: Miami-Dade
I got hurt at work and fell behind because I took time off to heel.Yes, I’m better but still I am 2 months behind and they are talking foreclosure.Please help me right away. Foreclosure help with Countrywide Mortgage Company has my mortgage, stop foreclosure

Stop Foreclosure in Dover
Foreclosure Help in New Hampshire
County: Strafford

I was struggling to make payments on my loan. I would be a little later and later each month till where a month had lapsed me, I was on the phone with Saxon mortgage and they had started me on the modification loan and told me to wait to hear form a person who was going to check to see if i lived in my home that woman came nearly 2 months later and i called to see where things were with my loan to find out they had sold my loan to Ocwen, i have not been able to reach a representative on the phone ever! and the website will not allow me to download the form!! i am ready to make a payment a month ago and I would like to make my interest rate stay the same instead of adjusting, I am feeling more able to pay my mortgage at the lower interest rate and would like to get this squared away so my credit score isn’t ruined! I am frustrated! please help me. My lender was Saxon mortgage then with out realizing it, in the middle of my modification they sold it to Ocwen and I haven’t been able to reach them by phone at all. Ocwen foreclosure help and Saxon foreclosure help

Stop Foreclosure in Miami
Foreclosure Help in Florida
County: Dade
My work in the Georgetown SC area came to a big slow down. I have sought work out of state looking for Contracts in the Building field. I am a Residential Builder and need more work to keep up with my obligations. My wife’s work is going well but we are hurting due to lack of building in South Carolina. I am continuing to work out of state until South Carolina economy picks up and more work comes in.

Stop Foreclosure in San Diego
Foreclosure Help in California
County: San Diego
Was 2 months behind – had called bank to see if there was any options in reducing payment. They said unable to help since I was under 2 months. Now it’s 3 months since they return my check. Mortgage company is not very helpful. The customer service people was not polite and had given me an attitude. I would like to keep my property since I don’t have another home. I have been trying to staying afloat paying the mortgage and other bills by taking depleting y savings. Not sure what to do next. Nothings changed. Plan on calling them again 1/16 and see what they can do for me. My lender is M&T Bank.

Stop Foreclosure in Los Angeles

Foreclosure Help in Los Angeles
County: Los Angeles
Back in June of 2009 my husband lost a contract that would of prevented us for being in foreclosure. Our payments are substantially high being 2300 dollars a month. So we sought for a modification threw our mortgage holder Wells Fargo. Who essentially has dragged this process out for at least seven months. Now with the foreclosure process commencing shortly on our loan. Our desire is to stay in our home. Well Fargo home mortgage has held out a carrot of remodification on our home mortgage since June of 2009. They told us to hold off on paying until loan modification was approved. I believe it was never their intent to modify our loan in the first place. And now we are seven months behind threatening foreclosure. I have asked numerous We need Wells Fargo foreclosure help times if we should pay something even though it wasn’t the full amount. Their response was no and to just wait. Now waiting has caused foreclosure and damaged my credit standing seriously.

Stop Foreclosure in Virginia Beach
Foreclosure Help in Virginia
County: Tidewater
Over the last several years I have been asking for help due to fluctuating income, I have not worked at my profession of supportive caregiver due to health problems of my own, Hashimoto’s disease with the complication of having had thyroid cancer previously and a second surgery in 2005 to remove thyroid tissue. I filed for divorce from an immigrant who only wanted his green card, this cost me $ 3000. I filed the necessary paperwork with the Citifinancial office in Rhinelander,WI.in order to secure a loan modification over 3 months ago. Now they say they need an appraisal …What is going on? foreclosure help with Bank of America

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Loan Modification Programs – Are they Helping
[December 28, 2009] by Foreclosure Help
Filed under: Loan Modification Problems, loan modification help

The latest programs by the government programs to assist to stop foreclosure for homeowners keep their homes are not adequate addressing the current foreclosure issues and will only delay foreclosures, this has been and is a new report from the Congressional Oversight Panel which is bipartisan.
The reports showing how effective the Obama program Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), reveal that the HAMP program does not address major factors that are expected to drive foreclosures in coming months, including scheduled resets on payment option adjustable rate mortgages and interest-only mortgages, and rising unemployment rates, which the report says appears to be one of the biggest factors driving foreclosures.

The report, released on Friday, came out one day after the Treasury Department announced that the Making Home Affordable Program had reached a major milestone one month early, achieving a level of 500,000 trial loan modifications begun by the first of October. However, the report notes that even if the program achieves its goal of modifying 3-4 million mortgages, that will be less than half of the estimated 10-12 million foreclosures predicted to result from the current financial crisis.

The report did say that the benefits of the $42.5 billion foreclosure modification program are likely to outweigh the costs to taxpayers, however. An estimated one mortgage in eight is current in default or foreclosure, according to the report.
Cites concerns with scope, scale and permanence

The report cited three major concerns with the administration’s foreclosure avoidance program as it currently stands. First, it said the scope of the program is too narrow, appearing to address the foreclosure problem as it stood six months ago instead of today, noting in particular rising problems with unemployment and mortgage resets the program was not designed to address.

Second, the report says that the scale of the program is inadequate to address the current foreclosure crisis, noting that foreclosure starts are outpacing loan modifications under the program by a 2-1 ratio. It questions whether the program will be able to slow down the foreclosure crisis and moderate its impact on the economy even if it manages to achieve its targets for loan modifications.

Third, the report questions the permanence of the solutions offered under the program, questioning whether the loan modifications will put homeowners into a long-term stable situation. It notes that for most homeowners, their loan modifications will expire after five years, after which their payments will rise. It also points out that reducing mortgage payments for many homeowners will actually result in greater negative equity, which has been associated with increased rates of default.

The bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel was created to oversee the expenditure of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds authorized by Congress in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA).

We continue to field call from homeowners that are looking for foreclosure help

Loan Modification in Port Orchard, Washington
I really don’t know how we got so behind other than I was sick during the summer and I had no sick time left, then we had family that needed help so we helped them, We can afford to make the payments, our lender is Kitsap Credit Union and we need forclosure help

Loan Modification in Beaverton, Oregon
Became unemployed in Feb 2009 could no longer afford payments now I have a full time job and would for a company to help me negotiate a lower payment and get up to date I have no equity in home and no second mortgage. We have really had problems once we became unemployed and keeping up with daily expenses

LOAN MODIFICATION HELP in COLLIERVILLE, TENNESSEE – SHELBY COUNTY TENNESSEE
HAD BABY WITH A HEART AILMENT S WAS OFF WORK FOR 8 MONTHS, FILED BANKRUPTCY WAS UNABLE TO KEEP UP WITH ALL PAYMENTS BECAUSE OF THE SIZE OF THE ARREARAGE. BANK OF AMERICA (FORMERLY COUNTRYWIDE) HELP SAVE MY HOME FROM FORECLOSURE

Short Sale Help in Old Saybrook, Connecticut – Middlesex County
House has been on market for over a year. 6 months with a agent and agencies then we changed agents and agencies still cant sell. selling on our own not. All other houses in area selling but not ours. We had a automatic payments done through accounts at banks. plus the wife did not work during the summer. keeps helping her family rather then pay our bills.

Foreclosure Help in Wilton, New Hampshire
I was married got divorced, lost my job, got a new one then went back to old job for 9 months then lost my job again. I have had a roommate since my divorce and she lost her job at the same time. got a job that was to be 40 hours turned out it was only part time I now have a job that is 40 hours but room mate still is unemployed. I have tried to work with different people to save my house and I only have lost money that I didn’t have I now have a full time job and the company is beneficial. I need help with forcloseure in NH

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Short Sale Help
[October 7, 2009] by Foreclosure Help
Filed under: Short sale not behind in payments

The answer is yes, the bank will allow a short sale if you are current, contact us for help

As you have seen all over the news, foreclosure have skyrocketed. There are many options available and mortgage companies are overwhelmed with work. No matter a loan modification or a short sale help is needed it is taking time.

City: Chicago
State: Illinois
Foreclosure help in Chicago
County: Cook
Pay cut 20% to 49% since Jan 2009. Tried to work out a loan modification with Wamu/Chase, but no response. Attorney & I signed release to allow negotiations. Instead, I received copy of motion to lift stay so they can begin foreclosure proceedings. Trying to sell home to get out from under, but if no sale, we want to stay. Current monthly is $1600 on 4 7/8% 15 yr; want to get to $1200. I am in a SNAFU Wamu/Chase holds 1st, 2nd and LOC
Stop foreclosure

City: Peru
State: IN
I need short sale help
County: Miami
After my divorce in 2008 i became delinquent on my payments..when i contacted the mortgage company i was told to send the balance in full and if i was unable to do that any partial payment would be returned to me. I have been making regular payments since August and those payments have been applied to my account but i was told last week i am in pre-foreclosure with no sale date yet..Would love to refinance my home and keep it or sell it but i don’t want to lose it. I went from having two incomes to one after my divorce and i now work two jobs and I have people living in the house paying rent and I send that as the mortgage payment.

City: Raleigh
State: North Carolina
foreclosure help in Raleigh
My wife and I moved to South Carolina about two years ago. She had been promise a job here, however it did not workout. In the mean while I lost income due to our move and also lost the income of a second job I had. As a result our monthly income decreased. Yes, to some degree. I have recently paid off many of my other bills. So now I can begin to focus primarily on the mortgage. Beneficial, help me modify my loan

City: Thomasville
I need short sale help
County: Davidson
Husband left me will all debt…he filed bankruptcy…forced to pay back all his/mine creditors
No change…work/pay will pick up considerably in the next 8 weeks

City: Woodstock
State: Ohio
County: Champaign
we own another home trying to sell it had financial difficulties this summer getting back on our feet but need help now. lost job lost child support payments and had my check garnished for medical bills yes child support is back and med bills paid off

City: Belleville
State: Illinois
will the bank allow a short sale if I am current
County: St. Clair
I am active-duty and was transferred to Tucson, AZ in June 2008. My family and I have had the property for sale with no luck. My wife lost her job and no family and or friend support in the area. I had to move them to Albuquerque, NM where I am awaiting transfer. Although we are not in any default – our financial situation is very difficult. I have to pay the mortgage on the home, I have rent in AZ, and will be incurring rent for my family in NM. This is becoming excruciatingly difficult. I do not want to default on any payments as we are young and don’t want our credit affected. We have lowered the home price $50k over a 22 month time frame. Every month which goes by — we are very close to not being able to pay. We have a 2nd on the house through USAA.

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who can modify my loan
[September 30, 2009] by Foreclosure Help
Filed under: who can modify my loan

The first thing you should do before you try a loan modification with your servicer, research loan modification laws that pertain to your state. Many of the laws influence your ability or inability to get your loan modified.

If you are in default and want to keep your home, you need to know the loan modification laws in your state. The loan modification laws will let you know if it is possible to get a loan modification. The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) otherwise known as the Obama Plan helps homeowners from the United States apply for a loan modification if they are have experienced a hardship. However, many states have different laws affecting a loan modification and different lenders have different guidelines to get a loan modification. You need to know them in order to know how to qualify.

Each state loan modification laws generally outline who is able to assist in obtaining a loan modifications. Finding the laws is not an easy task, but it is important to be familiar with them because they will determine an approval or denial.

Lenders have investor guidelines, not laws, and the servicer is required to follow the guidelines. You must fit these guidelines if you want to get your loan modification. In many instance these are the factors that determine whether or not a loan modification is possible:

The unpaid principal balance of your mortgage

Payment history, have you been paying on time

Credit Rating

The property value to measured against mortgage balance

Your financials

Servicers have to be strict about the investor guidelines. Many laws have been put into place because of the amount of fraud in the loan modification industry. Homeowners who are facing foreclosure with no way out – often trust any agency that offers them foreclosure help. These fraudulent companies charge an upfront fee that can be into the thousands of dollars. Find a member of the BBB to help stop foreclosure.

Beware and do not do business with a company that is not a member of the Better Business Bureau

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Help with a Loan Modification
[September 22, 2009] by Foreclosure Help
Filed under: Help with a Loan Modification

Unfortunately, the attempts by the Obama administration and the financial institutions to curb the housing foreclosure disaster, homeowners are not getting through to the banks because of delays and lack of staff in order to modify loans and still hundreds of thousands are losing their homes and put on the street every month.

The mortgage companies are swamped with requests and are not able to keep up with the work loads since they started processing the Obama “Making Home Affordable Plan”. Some mortgage companies late on implementing the plan are backed up against the wall with requests. We have been successful at helping homeowners acquire a loan modification. The Obama plan requires homeowners to pay 3 months of payments to create a history of ontime payments to be able to process a loan modification.

Although, there are a multitude of reasons for default the problem is a simple and the banks are the bottlenecks and banks can not modify loans fast enough to keep up with the rising tide of foreclosures on the books. The reality is if the banks wanted it to work they would figure it out and streamline the process.

No matter the situation the banks are urging patients and homeowners with the threat of losing their hiomes are not willing to wait. We have developed a plan that takes the stress off of the homeowner and offers weekly updates on communication with the banks representatives and negotiators working the files. The banks have gotten much bad press in the last years and are really trying to figure it out. Unfortunately, some are losing their homes in the process.

For about the last 4 years banks had their own loan modification processes which in some instances included lowering payments by lowering interest rates, term extensions, and in very rare instances reducing principal to get the property value in line with current housing prices. These plans have tkaen a back burner for the Government Loan Modification programs.

The Treasury Department is heading up the Government Loan Modification program and has not commented on any inquiries and criticism that are aimed at the banks and will soon release data on the sucesses of the Making Home Affordable plan. They are saying there are more that fifty thousand loan modifications in process.

The Bankruptcy attorneys are really bad mouthing the banks and do not offer any encouragement to homeowners that there are programs available. They are taking on more cases than ever before and claim banks are not offering loan modification assistance.

The issue is the serious lack of staff to handle to flood of loan modification that are being received daily.

As a loss mitigator in the retention department (saving homes) for Washington Mutual in the past, I know first hand that negotiators may push out 3 or 4 loan modifications a day but receive an additional 6-8. As a negotiator the files build up and it is impossible to work the loads required. The problem is finding qualified staff that can handle the load and understand the process.

Losing paperwork and the time it takes to process a loan workout is a big issue and having to refax papers because they are old or because paycheck stubs and bank statements are old is a real hassle and hiring a company to handle this for you is a huge stress relief. You may ask yourself “who can I trust to help with a Loan Modification” be sure the answer is affiliated with the Better Business Bureau. We have helped many and can help you get a loan modification.

Listen to these numbers Bank of America has 7,400 phone representatives that are focused on home retention that are taking about 80,000 calls a day. That only equates to a bout 10 calls a day, when I started on the phone in retention for Washington Mutual I was taking more than 50 calls per day. Bank of America has made more than 48,000 potential offers in the HAP program (Making Homes Affordable Program) and now has more than 18,000 homeowners making plan payments in Government Loan Modification trial period.

Be sure if you go it alone you understand the processes and if you hire a professional loan modification company you select one that is a member of the Better Business Bureau and an additional layer of comfort is working with a company that has negotiators on staff the worked in the bank in the past as a negotiator.

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Mortgage Modification
[August 28, 2009] by Foreclosure Help
Filed under: Mortgage Modification

There are Millions of homeowners in default across the United States that are currently at risk of losing their home to foreclosure. The reality is it is a tough economy, a horrendous housing market, and millions of borrowers in loans that they really can not afford. There are loan modification options available, with the President Obama’s $75 billion “Home Affordability Modification Program” HAMP that allows struggling homeowners the chance to lock in a fixed rate loan modification. Below are some details of the Home Affordability Modification Program, and how you can qualify.

The opportunity is there but remember that once you apply you can not reapply later, and the plan is a government initiative funded by Obama’s “Housing Stimulus Plan” and targets homeowners needing help to stop foreclosure. With the rise in the number of foreclosures across the country, and the housing prices dropping this is playing a part in the suffering economy. The governments hope is that the plan can level the foreclosure rates, and help millions of homeowners stop foreclosure.

Millions of homeowners are eligible to take advantage of the mortgage modification plan for themselves, not everyone qualifies for the “Housing Stimulus” plan. Only homeowners who are able to meet all of the requirements for eligibility will be able to get a mortgage modification. There are also some investors owning loans that do not allow a loan modification.

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Options to Stop Foreclosure
[August 18, 2009] by Foreclosure Help
Filed under: Foreclosure Options

stopping a foreclosure is almost like stopping cancer – the sooner you get a grasp of it, the better your chance of getting assistance.

In the early stages of the default process, homeowners may still have options outside of loss mitigation they have only missed a payment or two and are still receiving calls from the collection department and far from foreclosure. As the homeowner gets further behind the foreclosure process moves along, the amount of the delinquency and the attorney costs will start once a demand letter expires and the servicer files a foreclosure notice. It is important not to ignore calls and financial problems or the foreclosure process will extend to sheriff sale and eviction.

At the very moment you are not going to make your mortgage payments contact us for foreclosure options. We will explain the options to stop foreclosure . In many instances and depending on the investor that owns the loan homeowners that have lost their job or some other type of family hardship has happened. We have been able to give homeowners time to help get their lives back in order and stop foreclosure.

If you wait to long and if you are facing foreclosure, fees and cost start to add up such as attorney cost . To stop foreclosure only gets more difficult so facing foreclosure right away is the best option.

Lenders and foreclosure help
Stopping foreclosures is what the lenders want to do right now, say the people in he know. Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and some other lenders that service loans have stepped up their efforts and have all attempted to boost loan modifications and reduce the number of foreclosures that will ultimately end up in REO or Real Estate Owned as it is called and that is just more houses on the books.

Homeowners need to seek foreclosure help fast. The sooner a connection is made between loss mitigation company and the homeowner that wants to stop foreclosure, the more likely to stay in the home with a loan modification.

Mortgage banks and investors aren’t just doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. Workouts look better from a public relations standpoint and usually cost thousands of dollars less than full foreclosures and home repossessions. They also keep lenders from having to slog through the foreclosure process, which in some states can drag on for a year and a half or more. Regardless of lenders’ motivations, the trend toward increased workouts means borrowers have a much better chance today of avoiding eviction than in the past.

“Put yourself in the bank’s shoes,” says Mory Brenner, a Pittsfield, Mass. attorney who works with borrowers in foreclosure. “The person has missed one payment or two payments and you know in your state that if the thing goes to foreclosure, you’re going to be looking at getting no payments for a year and a half and at the end of the year and a half, now you’re going to have to market a distressed property.

“Are you going to want to help the borrower make their payments? Absolutely.”

The workout wheel starts turning once a borrower payment becomes 16 days late. The servicer will try to get in touch with the customer at that point and figure out a way to bring the payment current. After the first payment becomes 30 days delinquent and the next month’s payments look to be in jeopardy, collection attempts get more and more serious. By about 90 or 100 days, the servicer will refer the mortgage to an attorney or other representative, who will initiate the formal foreclosure process.

Alternative treatments
During these few months, the servicer will offer the borrower two primary options to cure the mortgage — a repayment plan and a loan modification. With a repayment plan, the company agrees to tack, say, half the amount of the first missed payment onto each of the next subsequent two payments. These plans provide some breathing room for borrowers with short-term financial problems, such as expensive car repairs that make it too difficult to pay the mortgage for one month.

In a more serious case, the customer may have already missed two or three payments and owes a couple thousand dollars in lender legal fees. The servicer will still try to arrange a repayment schedule. But the borrower will likely have to pay a third to a half of the delinquent amount upfront, and then pay off a portion of the remaining balance each month for a year or more.

“In a repayment plan, the borrower agrees to do a payment and a half, a payment and a quarter, etc., for whatever number of months is needed to make that loan current,” says Fannie Mae’s Smith.

Loan modifications go a step further and they’re designed for customers that can’t afford repayment plans. In a modification, the servicer actually adjusts the terms of the loan to make it affordable. It may lengthen the amortization schedule or lower the interest rate to cut the monthly payments, or roll the past due amount into the loan and re-amortize the new balance so the borrower can pay the additional debt back over time.

If the customer has a more serious financial problem, such as a longer-term job loss followed by rehire at another company that pays much less, alternatives still exist. The servicer may agree to help the borrower get rid of the house via a pre-foreclosure sale. In more dire circumstances, the servicer will agree to a “short sale.” In such sales, the lender lets the borrower sell the house for less than the outstanding loan amount, takes the proceeds and forgives any remaining overage. Banks are willing to do so because they often lose less on these deals than they do in foreclosures.

Some companies may consider a “short refinance,” too. With these, the lender agrees to forgive some of the debt and refinance the rest into a new loan. That way, it still gets more money than it would by foreclosing. One last way to bail out of a home before things get really ugly is a “deed in lieu of foreclosure” agreement. The borrower surrenders the property deed to the bank and it sells it.

“If he has no prospects and there’s no way he can save his property, getting with someone who can help him sell it as quickly as possible” is the best choice, says Michael Drawdy, first vice president at Countrywide Credit Industries Inc.’s mortgage division.

If all else fails …
Consumers who can’t use any of these methods still have some choices. A debtor who can afford the normal monthly mortgage payment, but can’t afford to make up the delinquent amount and legal fees because the lender is proposing a relatively stringent repayment plan, may want to consider filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Doing so temporarily halts the foreclosure process and can force the mortgage lender to accept a more borrower-friendly repayment plan, such as one that grants five years to repay the amount in arrears rather than one or two.

Borrowers who just need some extra time to sell their homes, on the other hand, should consider refinancing via a “hard money” loan. While they have very high rates and fees, the loans, usually from private individuals, can give people the couple extra months they need to find buyers. Most banks will be more than happy to take cash no matter how close it is to the foreclosure sale too. If a relative steps in with $10,000 to bring the loan current, a borrower can usually just hand it to the lender and go back to business as usual.

“The banks are happy to do it,” says Brenner, the attorney. “Remember, they don’t want your house. The bank just reinstates the loan back to the old terms, takes all the arrearage, all the legal fees, all the late fees and they pay it off and you get back on track.”

While all this sounds simple, borrowers shouldn’t be lulled into complacency. Lenders want your money. Just because they’re negotiating with you, it doesn’t mean they won’t turn around and foreclose if that’s the way they lose the least money.

“Around the 90th to 120th day is when the loan is reported to foreclosure and from that point on, two things are going on simultaneously. It’s sort of a ‘good cop, bad cop’ ” routine, says Phil Comeau, vice president for servicing and billing operations at Freddie Mac. “The foreclosure department is moving as quickly as possible to get to the foreclosure sale and the loss mitigation department is working with the borrower to try to do a workout. If the workout can be done before the foreclosure sale takes place, then everybody wins and the workout is done. If that can’t be done, the foreclosure sale is held.

“It’s sort of a race to the finish line.”

Following the same logic, customers should try to negotiate the best deal they can get without feeling guilty. Someone whose property has fallen in value below the mortgage amount because of a neighborhood decline, for example, should consider pushing for a short sale or short refinance rather than a repayment plan. That way, the borrower doesn’t pay more money than necessary. Nevertheless, the best way for consumers to get out of foreclosure without racking up extensive legal bills and ruining their credit histories is to start working on a solution before their problems get out of hand.

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Loan Modification Scammers
[August 12, 2009] by Foreclosure Help
Filed under: Loan Modification Scams

Shirley Smith was concerned because she had an upcoming mortgage payments that was going to be short. She saw a television commercial from an attorney that claimed they could do a loan modification. The company was a California based company that has been claiming to stop foreclosure anywhere with a loan modification.

When Shirley called, a representative told her the company could almost certainly get her mortgage rate lowered significantly. Perry hesitantly followed the representative’s instructions to stop paying her mortgage, and she scrounged up the company’s hefty fee: $3,000.

“That was a lot of money,” she said. “But I felt confident that they would help me.”

They didn’t.

Thousands of desperate homeowners across the country have turned to for-profit companies that promise to stop foreclosure and gain loan modifications. The vast majority of the companies, regulators say, are con artists who take large upfront fees and do little, if anything, for home-owners.

“It’s one of the most despicable crimes you can commit,” said R. Scott Palmer, chief of the Florida attorney general’s mortgage fraud task force. “It’s taking the last penny a consumer has and on top of that they lose their house and their credit.”

Many of the loan modification companies attract customers with company names that are similar to government agencies and or direct mail that looks like documents from the mortgage companies. It is unfortunate once a homeowner comes to the conclusion that they have been scammed it is late in the foreclosure process and sometimes with many lenders it is too late.

Last month the Federal Trade Commission started a law enforcement initiative involving over 25 state and federal agencies. The effort is to combat the widespread foreclosure scammers that are taking money from homeowners and not helping stop foreclosure.

“Homeowners nationwide are becoming victims of these foreclosure help scams,” said Frank Dorman of the FTC.

In the state of Georgia, the Consumer Affairs in the Governor’s Office have already opened eleven cases researching Georgia based foreclosure help rescue companies — they have opened eight civil cases and three criminal cases.

There have been nine cease and desist orders in the last 3 months involving the foreclosure help companies by the Georgia Department of Banking.

In the state of Florida, has become on of the nations most aggressive battlegrounds for fighting foreclosure help companies, the office of the attorney general are investigating 81 foreclosure rescue companies and reviewing 86 other companies promising a loan modification. In Florida foreclosure help companies can not accept upfront fees so that is the law being broken and companies are being prosecuted.

In a case last month in Florida a company called FHA All Day was taken down (unbelievable name). This company was doing over a million a month contacting homeowners nationwide via telemarketers and direct mail. They even used Barack Obama’s voice to convince homeowners to sign up fore foreclosure assistance.

There are a few companies that will work on the behalf of consumers, law enforcement officials stated these companies are rare. Be sure they are members of the Better Business Bureau.

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Orlando Loan Modification
[August 4, 2009] by Foreclosure Help
Filed under: Loan Modification in Orlando, Orlando Loan Modification

A loan modification is a process that many homeowners in Orlando area are currently going through to save their homes from foreclosure. The foreclosure process is a tough time in life and one of the worst scenarios for your financials and credit. It takes many years to recover your credit after going through a foreclosure. Doing everything possible to save your home is key to not ruining your credit for years in the future. You are not alone, the state of the economy has impacted many homeowners and you probably know someone else in the same situation. Along with job losses, the contracting of the US economy has made this a very troubling time for many homeowners needing help to stop foreclosure in Orlando and the US. The US government has taken steps to allow for more homeowners to stay in their homes but at the same time the mortgage companies are bogged down with loads of homeowners that are trying to get a loan modification in Orlando. The mortgage companies are overloaded with loan modification applications and if they do not hire more assistance many homeowners will not have an opportunity to stop foreclosure.

The government has taken a proactive role and even run ads on TV as a public service announcements to make the public aware of the loan modification options available. Again, if the mortgage companies do not take a more proactive role and hire more representatives homes will be sold at sheriff sale. As a home retention consultant for Washington Mutual a few years ago I know what it takes and the language needed to fight through the bogs of files and get a loan reviewed for a mortgage modification. The government is steering homeowners to nonprofit organizations but they are either overwhelmed or not skilled at the loan modification process, i am not sure. We have homeowners coming to us after being denied a loan modification and we have educated on the process. Our educational information is top notch and we teach homeowners how to get their loans modified.

We speak to homeowners daily as well as the mortgage companies assisting homeowners in obtaining a better payment to stay in their homes. We are committed to educating and helping homeowners stop foreclosure and save their homes.

We have assisted homeowners in getting a loan modification with Wilshire

we have helped homeowners and educated on Loan modification with Chase

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