House Refinance Center
Mortgage Loan Modification Can Stop Foreclosure
The Truth About
Mortgage
Modification

Home Affordable Modification Program
(HAMP) was created to help homeowners who
are facing financial difficulties with the
payment of their
mortgages, get a loan
modification.
The result of the modification
should prevent foreclosure.

Only your mortgage servicer will be able to tell
you if you are eligible for a loan modification.
However, you should carefully consider these
facts.

  • You must be the owner-occupant of the
    property.
  • The unpaid balance on your mortgage
    must be equal to or less than;
1 Unit:    $729,750
2 Units:  $934,200
3 Units:  $1,129,250
4 Units:  $1,403,400
  • Your first lien mortgage was originated
    on or before January 1,2009.
  • Your monthly mortgage payments
    including, taxes, insurance and
    homeowners association fees, must  be
    greater than 31% of your monthly gross
    income.
  • You have a mortgage payment that is not
    affordable due to a financial hardship.
    You must be able to prove the hardship,
    for example, a medical emergency, or
    reduction in income.

If you have a first lien, as well as  a junior you
can still apply. However, the modification
applies only to the first lien. Before you contact
your mortgage servicer, have your paperwork
in order. These documents include:

  • Most recent income tax return.
  • Information about your assets and
    liabilities.
  • Recent pay stubs or pay statements.
  • Information about the junior lien if you
    have one.
  • Credit card balances and the minimum
    monthly payments.
  • Information on other loans, such as car
    loans, student loans and any loans you
    might have co-signed on.
  • A letter explaining why your mortgage is
    no longer affordable.


Remember that you do not have to pay a loan
modification fee or a past-due late fee  if you
are behind in your mortgage. Borrowers who
are behind in their mortgage payments and
are having financial difficulties seldom have
extra funds. If you are behind in taxes, your
servicer might offer you the option of adding
the amount to the new modified loan, or paying
the amount upfront.

Borrowers are encouraged to contact a HUD-
approved housing counselor to help them
understand all their options and to create a
viable budget plan. The number to reach a
counselor is
1-888-995-HOPE (4673). If you
have already missed one or more mortgage
payments and have not spoken to your loan
servicer, call them immediately.

HAMP expires on December 31,2012.
Bank Of America Feeling
The Pressure Of Defaults

More homeowners are walking away from their
mortgages in greater numbers than the bank had
expected. More than 31% of foreclosures in March
were add the thousands of homeowners that tsunami.

However, we must give credit to
Bank of America for
identifying the problem and for being proactive and
aggressive on loan modifications. This is exactly
what the administration wanted from the Home
Affordable Modification Program.

The bank is willing to attack principal reduction head
on. This is before messing with lowering the interest
rate, and playing with extending the term of the
mortgage.

Why is the bank stepping up now and doing
something meaningful? Profit. The bank has come to
the realization that homeowners are living rent free for
over 14 months. The bank is not getting a rental
payment or a mortgage payment. And to make
matters worse they are stuck with paying the fire
insurance and the property taxes. You definitely would
not want these to lapse.

What does all this mean to a homeowner who has a
mortgage that is underwater? Make sure all your
paperwork is in and that you are seeking a loan
modification. Then wait for the bank to contact you
with a deal.

If you decide to
stop paying the mortgage, save the
mortgage payments you will need this money later.
And finally, seek legal advice from a qualified real
estate attorney. You need to find out if your mortgage
loan is a
recourse loan, or a non-recourse loan. You
also need to establish whether or not you have to pay
income taxes on any part of the
loan that is forgiven
or canceled by the bank.
Too Many Trial
Loan
Modifications
Being Canceled
Under HAMP

Trial loan modifications under the Home
Affordable Modification Program
continued
to be canceled at alarming rates. For data up
to July 2010, active trials were 255,934.
However the cumulative cancellations were
616,839.

Upfront verification of borrowers' documents is
one of the reasons the cancellation numbers
are so high.

Another reason is the failure of borrowers to
make the
mortgage payments during the trial
period. Even with the modification, borrowers
are still finding it difficult to make ends meet.
The median back-end (DTI) after the
modification is at a staggering 63.5%. Not
many homeowners can stay afloat for a long
time with such a high DTI.

Lumped into the cancellation figures are
borrowers who were ineligible because they
already had a debt-to-income ratio below
31%. Maybe the Treasury will do a better job
in the future and give us a break-down of the
reasons for cancellations.

The
permanent modifications are providing
relief for thousands of homeowners. In July
there were 37,000 permanent loan
modifications. This translates into a payment
reduction of 36% or more than $500 per
month.
HAMP guarantees a lower mortgage
payment for the first five years. The total active
permanent modifications were 421,804.

Since the program began there have been
12,912 permanent modification that were
canceled.

Eligible delinquent loans stood at 3,076,060.
While the eligible delinquent borrowers were
1,456,363. These numbers confirm what many
experts were saying for the last year, "HAMP
has to do more".
Bank of America Mortgage
Modifications Slow
Bank of America government backed mortgage
modifications were slow in August. BofA completed
only 3,600 permanent loan modifications under the
Home Affordable Modification Program.

BofA completed 10,000 modifications total
modifications under
HAMP is only 79,800. This
should stem the tide of foreclosures.

There are over 72,000 trial modifications in the
pipeline for August, down from 84,700 in July.
Hopefully, this should keep the permanent
modifications over 3,000 each month.

There is definitely a slow down in permanent
modifications, both under HAMP or under lender
sponsored programs. There are several reasons for
the decrease in modifications.

In April, the U.S. Treasury began asking lenders to
obtain full documentation of a borrower's financial
position. The change slowed the number of
approved loan modifications. In the past, banks
would take some of the information verbally, or not
at all. This practice has lead to a high default ratio.

The concern we have is the gap in modifications
between HAMP and bank sponsored programs.  How
can the Bank of America complete over 600,00
mortgage modifications using their in-house
program, and only complete 10,000 under HAMP?

Bank of America still remains the industry leader in
mortgage modifications. BofA is also leading in the
recently introduced second lien modification
program (2MP) as well as HARP.
Help Is Available For
Loan Modifications
Ask for help if you fall behind in
your mortgage payments. There
are agencies available to help
you.
Watch the video.

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Mortgage Modification
Getting a mortgage loan modified by a
lender is like winning the lottery. You
have a shot, but it is a long shot. There
are two hurdles that always seem to trip
up homeowners.

The first is the mountain of paperwork
that a lender asks for. Just when you
think that you have submitted everything,
he wants something else.

The second hurdle is the lender losing
your documents. So be prepared to fax
information two or three or four time.
Sending the documents by courier
doesn't help. It costs money which you
don't have and it just proves that the
document was delivered.

Watch the slideshow.