Real Estate News

Very often, when someone contacts a loan modification attorney they really do not understand how the foreclosure process works or how to stop it. People who do not understand foreclosure proceedings are often scared, timid and unwilling to do what it takes to stay in their homes. Many think that if they just ignore their lenders, they will go away. However, inaction is not any way to respond to a potential foreclosure. The only way to mount a successful defense to foreclosure proceedings is to know how the process works, and talk to the loan modification attorneys who know how to stop it.

Foreclosure Process

The first step in the foreclosure process begins when a lender files a “Notice of Default” with the county recorder. This often proceeds a period of non-payment by the borrower, meaning the homeowner is defaulting on the loan by not making payments. This notice is mailed to the borrower and any other affected parties. This is in no way the end of the process; in fact, up to five business days before the trustee’s sale, the borrower can pay off the default amount plus any addition fees and/or fines and stop the foreclosure process. Obviously, very few people can simply cough up the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars it would take to pay this amount.

The second step comes ninety days after the Notice of Default is recorded. A “Notice of Sale” must be posted on the property and in one local public location, such as a library or town hall. The Notice of Sale is also published once a week for three weeks in a newspaper of some sort in the area. The Notice of Sale must clearly state the date, time and location of the sale, as well as the property address, the trustee’s contact information and any other pertinent information.

Step three usually occurs about four months after the foreclosure process began. The Trustee Sale Auction is held as a public auction at the time and place designated by the Notice of Sale. It is conducted by the lender’s representative, almost always an attorney, and the successful bidder must pay immediately with cash or a cashier’s check. The lender often bids in the amount of the balance due plus costs. If no one else bids (which is usually the case these days), the property reverts to the lender.

Contrary to popular belief, the lender or bank you got your mortgage from does not want your house back. The entire foreclosure process costs the lender far more than it is worth. The lender is not only losing money on the four months you aren’t paying your mortgage, but will most likely lose money paid to the attorney who runs the auction. A loan modification attorney can help you avoid foreclosure and stay in your home. Both you and your lender are interested in you keeping your home, and a loan modification attorney can help you avoid the headache, heartache and embarrassment of a foreclosure.

Visit us at http://www.loanmodificationhelpcenter.org/ or call 800-359-6941.

Legal Disclaimer

The information contained herein is provided for general information and advertising purposes only and is not intended to convey a legal option nor legal advice for any particular case or situation. Nothing in this article shall create an attorney-client relationship. Nothing sent to this law office via e-mail shall constitute an attorney-client relationship. Nothing contained in this article shall be construed to be a guarantee or prediction of result. Prior results are provided for general information purposes only and do not guaranty, warranty or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. Results achieved depend on individual circumstances and not everyone will qualify or be successful in restructuring their mortgage loan.

Is your current mortgage payment (Including property tax and insurance) more than 31% of your income? The governments “Making Home Affordable” program is incredibly generous, the home equivalent of the “Cash for Clunkers” program.

We (At www.illinoismortgagemods.com) have achieved mortgage payment reductions of over 50% for clients that were never late on their mortgage- they had just experienced or were about to experience a reduction in income. This includes clients that had their new mortgage payments calculated and reset based on their impending pension income rather than current employed income!

There are 37 lenders participating in the “Making Home Affordable” program and working with them makes predicting an outcome easier however, we have also achieved mortgage modification for Non-participating lenders (Including West Suburban Bank and Key Bank). We achieved our first mortgage modification in April of 2008 and have now successfully worked on behalf of our clients with most major lenders. Please contact us ASAP so that we can review your situation and determine whether the “Making Home Affordable” program is likely to be available to you.

Our attorney can be retained for only $500 upfront with any/all remaining funds due AFTER a loan modification has been offered to you. Do not pay ANY upfront loan modification fees to ANYONE that isn’t an attorney licensed to practice law in Illinois. Retain an attorney and pay for results! Please either submit the brief free evaluation request or call us at 630-687-5012. Falling Behind? Don’t Wait! If you are currently delinquent, have experienced a reduction in income or are going through savings to keep up on the mortgage then act now

Regardless of where you are at financially, it is almost never too late to avoid losing your home to foreclosure. Qualified loan modification attorneys know that while it is easy to lose hope and fall into a place of inaction, you have many tools at your disposal.

Options

Contact your existing lender and see if you can get a forbearance, a payment plan or a deed in lieu of foreclosure. A forbearance is an agreement between the lender and the borrower that reinstates the delinquent loan through the payment of a lump sum or a schedule of payments over a period of time. A payment plan is similar to forbearance; in some cases, the lender may agree to a short term payment plan if you can prove you’ve had a hardship (loss of a job, medical bills, etc.). A deed in lieu of foreclosure is a voluntary transference of title to the lender. Most often, this is used as a last ditch effort by the homeowner to avoid the negative consequences of foreclosure.

The problem with all of these options is that they require a great deal of cash on hand, something you most likely do not have available. Foreclosures can be a challenging situation because most people facing foreclosure are not simply lazy people who forgot to pay a bill, they are hardworking people who are facing some sort of financial crisis. These might be options if you have $10,000 or $20,000 on hand, but odds are you do not. With a deed in lieu of foreclosure, the ultimate problem is you no longer own the home, and so now you’ve lost any equity in the house and you are not in control

Other options include refinancing, although that depends upon your credit history which could have taken a massive hit from your financial problems. If you do not have an outstanding credit history, or if your financial challenges are more than short term, a refinancing probably will not happen. A short sale is an option, although there is no guarantee that the lender will forgive whatever debt remains from the short sale. There is also always bankruptcy, but there are so many challenges before, during and after a bankruptcy that it can be a complete waste of time. A bankruptcy will stay on your credit history for up to a decade and provide nothing but headaches during that time. Even afterwards you can face financial challenges, career challenges and legal challenges stemming from the bankruptcy.

Quite possibly your best option when facing foreclosure is a California loan modification. A loan modification is a change of the terms of the original mortgage loan; the change could be to the interest rate, the length of the mortgage, the principal balance, the late fees or some other part of the original agreement. To get a loan modification, you can attempt to deal with the lender yourself or hire a California loan modification attorney to negotiate on your behalf. A loan modification attorney will often get a quicker response from a lender because he or she will have the law on their side. A lender will consider a loan modification when foreclosure is eminent and the borrower’s income has been decreased, but if the borrower will be able to keep paying the mortgage at a lower monthly rate.

Visit us at http://www.loanmodificationhelpcenter.org/ or call 800-359-6941.

Legal Disclaimer

The information contained herein is provided for general information and advertising purposes only and is not intended to convey a legal option nor legal advice for any particular case or situation. Nothing in this article shall create an attorney-client relationship. Nothing sent to this law office via e-mail shall constitute an attorney-client relationship. Nothing contained in this article shall be construed to be a guarantee or prediction of result. Prior results are provided for general information purposes only and do not guaranty, warranty or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. Results achieved depend on individual circumstances and not everyone will qualify or be successful in restructuring their mortgage loan.

A retiring Chicago city employee had her home loan with CitiMortgage modified to 2 percent on a 40 year amortization and granted a two month payment holiday to rebuild reserves. Her husband has social security and a small pension but She was facing a large drop in pay as her retirement date of June 30, 2009 was fast approaching.

She would be receiving a pension at only 40% of her prior pay and she didn’t have enough social security quarters to draw her own benefit. They had never been late on their mortgage so making a case for not being able to afford it might look opportunistic. I was very reluctant to take on this client because 31% of their future combined income was so low that I just couldn’t imagine CitiMortgage coming through for them so I advised that they try to sell the property while I made their plea for Making Home Affordable (MHA) with CitiMortgage.

They had listed their home with a local realtor and weren’t able to get any bites even at what they owed so this was a scary situation all the way around. I have only the highest regards for CitiMortgage loss mitigation department because they were willing to work on preventing a train wreck rather than watch idly by. This was a fairly aggressive loan mod application because our client maintained her perfect credit and headed off future problems by contacting us in advance of her drop in pay. See www.illinoismortgagemods.com to read more typical results.

A St. Charles residential contractor gave up on waiting for building to rebound and retired to a small carpentry pension and social security. I prepared his Chapter 7 bankruptcy so that he could strip away all his other debt and try to hang onto his home. I then submitted a mortgage modification request to Chase/EMC and they very generously modified his subprime loan into a prime loan and cut his payment by 50%. There is now no question he will be able to afford the payments going forward and enjoy retirement as a homeowner.

It could be as low as 2% on a 40 year amortization. Your modified payment will depend primarily on your Current Income. Therefore, lower income means lower rates. Interestingly, the traditional risk variables that would ordinarily determine your interest rate when applying for a loan are turned on their head with the Making Home Affordable (MHA) loan modification program.

Can you imagine going back a couple years and having a banker say to you, “We could give you a lower rate if you were delinquent or even if you just made less money but it appears that you can afford to pay more than your neighbor so that’s what we are going to charge”. Homeowners that are interested in benefitting from MHA shouldn’t put off applying for the home-equivalent of “Cash-for-Clunkers”.

The auto industries 3 Billion dollar bucket of money is almost gone and mortgage servicers have really gotten their act together on participating in MHA so even the much larger 75 billion dollar bucket will tap out.

There are gotchas within MHA guidelines just like there were with Cash-for-Clunkers but qualifying candidates should come out of it with a payment at 31% of their gross income even if that means a 6 month delinquent borrower gets reset as low as 2% on a 40 year amortization! If you want to see if you may qualify for a MHA loan modification then contact your mortgage servicer, a real estate attorney or use the free online evaluation at: www.illinoismortgagemods.com

Almost every lender/servicer cautions homeowners against paying third parties to assist with their loan modification applications. Every participating lender in the Making Home Affordable (MHA) loan modification program is capable of working directly with their borrowers to process these applications without third party assistance.

There is also free government loan counseling help for homeowners that are struggling to work directly with their lenders. On the other hand, many of my clients first tried unsuccessfully on their own and were then surprised at how much quicker and better the results were when I was advocating for their application. I have a Bartlett client that was told he did not qualify for a MHA loan modification by both his servicer (National City) and a government counselor. I was able to get him into the MHA program in less than a week.

I was able to get a Des Plaines client a mortgage modification with Washington Mutual on their rental home in Florida even though rental properties aren’t even included in the MHA program. Whichever route you go, make sure not to pay large upfront fees and that loan modification charges are for obtaining a loan modification not submitting your application. In Illinois, make sure that any upfront fees are for retaining a real estate attorney. If you want to explore retaining a real estate attorney to process your mortgage modification application correctly then use the free online evaluation at:www.illinoismortgagemods.com

The auto industries 3 Billion dollar bucket of money is almost gone and mortgage servicers have really gotten their act together on participating in MHA so even the much larger 75 billion dollar bucket will tap out. There are gotchas within MHA guidelines just like there were with Cash-for-Clunkers but qualifying candidates should come out of it with a payment at 31% of their gross income even if that means a 6 month delinquent borrower gets reset as low as 2% on a 40 year amortization! If you want to see if you may qualify for a MHA loan modification then contact your mortgage servicer, a real estate attorney or use the free online evaluation at: www.illinoismortgagemods.com