We purchased our home Feb 2007 and paid $214,000. My husband had terrible credit at the time and the only loan we could qualify for was a 5 year arm at 9% interest. We pay all interest, no principal. We never thought anything about this loan. We thought we would just re-finance in 5 years, have enough time to repair his credit and have 5 years of great payments.. Little did we know the housing market crashed along with the job market. My husband works in the construction industry in Las Vegas, which in my opinion was hit VERY hard. He still has a job but isnt working enough to pay bills. As of last month, I could not make our house payment.
Yesterday I recieved a letter from Bank of America (our lender) saying that if we did not make pay $3500 by Jan 2 2010 they would start foreclosure proceedings!! I’m at a total loss! I dont know what to do!
I called them this morning and they said that we quailfy for a new modification that just came out but it only saves us $100 a month! They put me through to the modification specialist, but I was not prepared to talk with them and I had no information for them.
My questions is, in your opinion, do you think we will qualify for modification?? I called in a few months back, before my husbands work got really slow and they said I was not elligable. I really have no options. We had a $20000+ drop in income this year.. Any help would be great!!
It isn’t possible to tell from the information you provided whether or not you will qualify for a loan modification. There are typically two factors that your lender will evaluate when deciding whether or not to offer a loan modification, and exactly how to modify your loan.
The first is that there must be a legitimate and demonstrable financial hardship. From the details in your question, it definitely appears that you meet the financial hardship criteria.
The second factor is the financial analysis. Your lender must be convinced that you’ll be able to meet your financial obligations after they modify your loan because they don’t want end up in the same situation down the road. The lender will take into account your entire financial profile - all of your current income and monthly expenses, in their decision.
There is, however, a third consideration which may significantly improve your chances of getting a loan modification - a real loan modification… not the $100/month savings that the bank offered you. And you’ll never hear about this factor if you’re dealing directly with your lender. That third consideration is whether there were any violations of federal or state laws in the origination, servicing, or collection of your home loan. You see, a very large percentage (upwards of 75%) of home loans (especially sub-prime and no documentation loans) originated between 2001 and 2007 contained violations. Many of these loans contained multiple violations. Any such violations that occurred in your loan can be used as leverage to get the lender to modify your loan, or offer a much better loan modification than they would have otherwise. For this reason, I recommend that anyone considering a loan modification first get a forensic home loan audit.
The #1 goal of the forensic loan audit is to determine whether there were violations of federal and/or state laws in the borrower’s home loan. If any violations are found, the homeowner’s modification request has added legal strength during negotiations. Basically, what happens during the forensic loan audit is that all of the homeowner’s loan and disclosure documents are thoroughly reviewed by experienced underwriting, fraud, and compliance professionals, who are searching for any violations in the following areas:
RESPA – Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
TILA – Truth in Lending Act
Individual state violations
The forensic loan audit is designed to bring any such violations to the forefront, thereby providing the loan modification negotiator (or homeowner) with some legal leverage that can be applied during the process to possibly ‘turn the tables’ on the lender, and give the homeowner the upper hand. Obviously, your lender is not going to perform a forensic loan audit on their own loan and let you in on any violations that they may have committed.
You have to remember, despite what you hear from the media, the government, and from the mortgage lenders, a loan modification is not a set process, it is a negotiation. Every lender is different, and every homeowner situation is different. And no matter how friendly, courteous, and helpful the lender’s loss mitigation representative may seem on the phone, that person is NOT on YOUR side, and is NOT looking to create the best possible modification for YOU. He or she represents the lender, gets paid by the lender, has his or her performance reviewed by the lender, and it is his or her job to make sure that any agreement reached is the best possible agreement for the lender and its shareholders.
For homeowners who are considering a loan modification as a possible option to keep their home, we provide 2 invaluable tools: First… a forensic loan audit – to uncover any predatory lending violations which can be used as leverage. And second… a financial analysis – to determine upfront whether a loan modification is a viable option for them, and to help them understand how the lender may evaluate their request.
Again, we provide these services ABSOLUTELY FREE OF CHARGE, and with NO COMMITMENT on the part of the homeowners. That way, homeowners can determine whether pursuing a loan modification may be their best course of action, without spending a dime on fees or services.
If you’re seriously considering pursuing a loan modification, and would like to obtain a free forensic loan audit, financial analysis, and professional opinion on whether a loan modification may be the best choice for you, please send me an e-mail through my yahoo profile, and I will get in touch with you.
