When I see an article in my local paper that is filled with inaccuracies and bad advice, I am especially motivated to comment and rectify the inaccurate information. I see inaccurate reports on the mortgage modification crisis every day. I write about those inaccuracies everyday.
Currently, the only efficient way to get a mortgage modification (or short sale, even) is to do it yourself. No third party negotiator can get anything done you can’t do for yourself. The banks have learned that they can sandbag anyone they choose, which is just about everybody. They want your house, which should be evident with the current ‘foreclosuregate’ scandal.
You need two tools to ensure your lender/servicer pays attention to your mortgage modification application. You need the REST Report. The REST Report, among other things calculate the Net Present Value,or NPV, for your house. This number tells your investor (in addition to your servicer, who is sandbagging you) whether to modify or short sale.
Next, you need to mail every supporting document, along with the REST Report, certified mail, return receipt requested. That way you have proof that your servicer and investor got the package. They can’t say you never sent the documents. Your lender will not lose a certified package. This prevents your lender/servicer from foreclosing on you “by mistake.”
Karen Harkin, a major source for this article, is in the business of offering new mortgages, not mortgage modifications, nor negotiating short sales. Choosing mortgage modification or short sale is not dependant solely on whether a distressed mortgage is ‘underwater’ or not.
To correct Harkin; the first decision in considering a distressed mortgage should be the emotional one: In a perfect world, what do I want? As a distressed mortgage holder, do you want to keep the property or liquidate the debt and relocate? After that is answered, then a rational course of action can be pursued.
Karen Harkin suffers under the same treacherous mis-information of the national banking lobby as the rest of the majority of the government and press. Housing counselors are no more successful than individual homeowners in negotiating beneficial, affordable mortgage modifications. The highly marketed mortgage modification services of RMPBS TV station KRMA are 10% successful in their efforts.
Some of that miserable 10% includes ‘trial modifications,’ which are yet another unnecessary invention and stalling technique of HAMP (Home Affordable Mortgage Plan) and banks. There is no excuse for them.
The evidence nationwide is quite clear: Lenders and especially loan servicers are resisting mortgage modification applications as hard as they can. It is that servicers make more money on a foreclosure than a mortgage modification or short sale. Short sale efforts by individual real estate agents and distressed homeowners are demonstrated hugely ineffective also. The banks and servicers use a formula for calculating a beneficial mortgage modification (for them) that they will not share with housing counselors, investors, individual homeowners, or inexperienced attorneys (NPV). REST Report arms the distressed homeowner with the same calculations the lender/servicer has.
Researching Wells Fargo for distressed mortgage options is like inviting a personal identity thief to go Christmas shopping. Their record in providing beneficial, affordable mortgage modifications is abysmal. The same for the other 39 national lenders under the TARP plan from a year ago. I talked to one prospective client last December that obtained a monthly mortgage modification payment of 50% of her new, stable income. Hard to believe that Wells Fargo offered that with a straight face.
In 2010, the application process for a mortgage modification and short sale will be identical. If the distressed homeowner prioritized a mortgage modification and that proves not possible or beneficial, then a short sale will be an easy switch. The REST Report distinguishes the two.
The informed and distressed homeowner should understand this above all: Foreclosure should not be an option. Likewise for bankruptcy. (The one exception is significant medical debt. A bankruptcy counselor would be the expert source here.) There is nothing more detrimental to future credit than these two ‘options.’ Both are avoidable by a distressed homeowner who chooses to be pro-active and not a victim.
Please take note of the one, single sentence in the article: “Mortgage modification is for homeowners struggling with mortgage payments because of a high interest rate (even an adjustable rate) or lower income, mortgage principal refinancing is more appropriate for people who have lost value on their home.
For my Colorado readers, I close with this state-specific observation: The Colorado Department of Regulatory Affairs (DORA), without legislative knowledge, took the singular step of requiring that the most successful mortgage modification attorneys also obtain a Colorado mortgage brokers license. This had the effect of discouraging the accomplished national attorneys so as to have them abandon Colorado as a place to do business. This action just served to make this project a do it yourself loan modification.
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The internet being what it is, certain search terms need to be empahasized so that you can find the best information. The REST Report is best classified as loan modification software, or mortgage modification software. It’s claim to fame is that you use it to calculate Net Present Value exactly the way the banks do, using the same software. It is best used as a do it yourself loan modification or do it yourself mortgage modification. For some reason, loan modification 2010 and mortgage relief 2010 are popular search terms.
This YouTube video says it all. Go here: target="_blank">How to Get A Beneficial Loan Modification Now Please ‘Like’ the video, will you? That makes it easier for others to find.
Click to read more about your Do-it-Yourself Mortgage Modification REST Report
Read it here
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Originally posted 2009-12-14 23:48:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
