Loan Modification Help Center- Home Loan Modification Help

With the economy and real estate continuing through their agonizing corrections, millions of homeowners find themselves in financial distress due to the purchase of their home combined with excess consumer debt as a result of slowing work environment. There are as many different circumstances as there are families that are causing millions of people to go to bed each night worrying that they could lose their homes to foreclosure. The most common problems that homeowners are facing currently are upward resets in their interest rates, declining home values, and unemployment. While unemployment presents a tough predicament in terms of a loan modification, the people subject to resets and declining values are those that a modification can help by stopping a foreclosure and providing a framework to families in their homes.

Homeowners finding themselves behind on mortgage payments are commonly called by their lenders to discuss the current situation. If, after this discussion, the lender feels that the homeowner will be able to make payments in the future they will often propose a short term modification solution. Homeowners should never enter these conversations without professional representation as the initial offers are usually some sort of brief respite from payments followed by a balloon payment or a payment plan which actually raises monthly payments until the missed payments are caught up.

An attorney driven loan modification, on the other hand, will force the lenders loss mitigation department to analyze your situation in order to modify your loan into something that the bank and yourself can agree upon. There are many factors in the formula to reduce the monthly payments for a homeowner. They include lowering and freezing your interest for the life of the loan, extending the maturity of the loan, and/or reducing the principle owed on the mortgage – especially when the property is significantly under water. Another factor might be the deferral of missed the payments and interest to the back side of the loan so that the homeowner is no longer months behind. During the process a loan modification attorney will also analyze your loan documents and your financial situation. Should they find predatory lending practices; further savings can be realized due to the banks’ reluctance toward lawsuits and negative public relations surrounding problem loans.

It’s one of major differences between an attorney driven loan modification and one done via any other avenue. An attorney versed in mortgage law will be able to sort out predatory lending violations in your loan documents and use them for leverage in the negotiation of terms in the modification. Where that leverage is applied depends on where the violations occurred. If an appraisal was overstated an attorney might demand a principle balance reduction if you are upside down, an interest rate reduction if there was a misrepresentation on interest rate disclosure, or a combination of remedies if there were multiple violations.

Additionally, an attorney who has operated in the modification field for an extended time will be well- versed with what each lender or servicer wants and what they’re willing to give during the process. The familiarity with the team on the other side of the table can greatly reduce surprises and smooth the process considerably.

What many homeowners don’t realize when they decide to take on a loan modification without professional assistance is that they’re literally betting their homes that they can execute a loan modification with terms that they can sustain over the long term. As many homeowners have found, what many lenders offer as a loan modification provides little or no relief at all. For those in the position to contemplate a loan modification, the cost of hiring an attorney is negligible relative to what’s at stake and the savings which can be realized when an experienced attorney takes the wheel.