This blog was started a little over 8 months ago with one purpose. To promote massive loan modifications. My blog was actually the only website on the internet that disseminated information about loan modifications to the media and to consumers.

8 months ago, a loan modification was like a white elephant. Rare, never talked about and rarely will you ever see one with your own eyes.

Times have changed and since then it has been all the rage in the media. The day I saw President Bush on TV talking about loan modifications, I knew that I made one of the best decisions of my life to start these websites and since then, the popularity of the “loan modification” has grown in leaps and bounds.

Today it has gone a step further and a step in a direction that I have been calling for the last 3 months.

Fox Business:

“Reducing the rate of preventable foreclosures would promote economic stability for households, neighborhoods and the nation as a whole,” Bernanke said. “Although lenders and servicers have scaled up their efforts and adopted a wider variety of loss-mitigation techniques, more can, and should be, done,” the Fed chief said.

One of the suggestions Bernanke made was for mortgage and other financial companies to reduce the amount of the loan to provide relief to a struggling owner. “Principal reductions that restore some equity for the homeowner may be a relatively more effective means of avoiding delinquency and foreclosure,” Bernanke said.

The facts are that thousands of Americans are saying, “Take this house and shove it, I aint paying you no more!” Their walking in droves from their homes that are more than under water. Hell, their sitting at the bottom of the ocean and Countrywide would have to hire  Jacques Cousteau in their loss mitigation department for deep sea expeditions to contact borrowers in the deep sea  housing wreckages that sit on the ocean’s floor.

More from Fox:

With low or negative equity in their home, a stressed borrower has less ability — because there is no home equity to tap — and less financial incentive to try to remain in the home, he said.

Bernanke acknowledged this idea might be a tough sell to lenders. Lenders, he said, are reluctant to write down principal. “They said that if they were to write down the principal and house prices were to fall further, they could feel pressured to write down principal again,” Bernanke said.

Still, Bernanke suggested such longer-term permanent solutions may work better than shorter-term and temporary ones, where the distressed homeowner could find himself in trouble again. “When the mortgage is `under water’ a reduction in principal may increase the expected payoff by reducing the risk of default and foreclosure,” he said.

To date, permanent home mortgage modifications that have occurred have typically involved a reduction in the interest rate, while reductions of the principal balance of the loan have been quite rare, he said.

“Measures that lead to a sustainable outcome are to be preferred to temporary palliatives, which may only put off foreclosure and perhaps increase its ultimate costs,” Bernanke said

Lenders last year were on pace to initiate roughly 1.5 million home foreclosure proceedings, up from an average of fewer than 1 million new foreclosures in the preceding two years, the Fed chief said. More than one half of the foreclosures started in 2007 were on subprime loans givens to borrowers with blemished credit histories or low incomes.

The housing collapse dragged down home values, especially clobbering these subprime borrowers. Many were left with mortgages that exceeded the value of their homes. They were further socked by low introductory rates on their adjustable mortgages resetting to higher rates, making their monthly payments difficult or impossible to afford. Problems in the credit markets have made refinancing a mortgage harder.

My prediction is that in the next 2 years that in order to keep people from walking from their homes, that we will see significant balance reductions during the loan modification process. I suspect in California we will see $100k-$300k reductions in the near future.

That is the only way to mitigate further damage to the housing market!

1:05 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. Welcome to the White House. I’m pleased to sign a bill that will help homeowners who are struggling with rising mortgage payments. The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 will protect families from higher taxes when they refinance their homes. It will help hardworking Americans take steps to avoid foreclosure during a period of uncertainty in the housing market. I want to thank members of Congress for getting this bill passed. I appreciate it very much. It’s been a joy working with you.

 I thank my Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson; and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Alphonso Jackson, for taking the lead in helping people stay in their homes. I particularly want to thank the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Max Baucus; Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan; and Senator George Voinovich of Ohio, for sponsoring this legislation. Read the rest of this entry »

These comments are in response to an anti-homeowner article by Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune tittled, “Democrats may commit the real mortgage fraud”. 

These are the voices of the American people, that you rarely get to read in these self serving articles by so called journalists.

Submitted by JJK;

Of course when corporations bankrupt after paying CEOs millions to do so, they walk away paying 10¢ on the dollar and all you hear are crickets.

Submitted by Robert Hotchkiss;

It is truly amazing the hypocrisy of conservative financial writers. When the rules change in favour of the wealthy they never question the justice of it. But if they change in favour of the poor they call it theft.

For example a wealthy person buys an apartment building with rent controls. They have paid a price that reflects those controls. They lobby the government to get rid of the controls the property value rises immensely on the backs of the renters. But you won’t here commentators such as Chapman call this theft.

A company lobbies politicians to ease environmental regulations. The company makes a huge profit but thousands have to pay huge amount of medical bills for asthma. Hundreds of children die. But you won’t see Chapman calling this theft.

The bankruptcy law is changed so that companies that new perfectly well that they were issuing loans that could not be repaid get a much large amount of money from their bankrupted clients. But you will never see Chapman call this theft.

Companies require consumers to use arbitration instead of the courts. Because all companies do this the consumer has little no real choice. Since companies win up 98% of arbitrated cases. This is a direct transfer from victims of fraud or in the case of Blackwater persons who have claimed to be gang raped. But Chapman will never call this theft.

Doctors want immunity from law suits. When the patient doesn’t have enough to pay for treatment doctors claim that medicine is just a business. But when doctors create horrible harm through negligence they want to be exempt from the laws of business. But Chapman will never call this theft.

For conservatives when money passes from the wealthy to the poor it is always theft. When it passes from the poor to the wealthy it is always justice. Read the rest of this entry »

Since day 1 in running this blog and my forum, I have been alerted and have personally experienced the abuses that homeowners are suffering at the hands of their lenders or servicers.

Uncaring employees, rude employees, unanswered phone calls, multiple lost faxes and paperwork, over charges, unexplainable charges and the list goes on. My goal is to expose these abuses and the truth of what really is going on. I am asking anyone to please submit your story of dealing with your lender or servicer. Whether it is good or bad, please share with others, so we can all fight together for change. I would much prefer to expose the good stories, but those have been very far and few in between.

Here are some lender stories from homeowners this week;

1. alohajai November 25th, 2007 at 1:04 am

   Is there any potential that the Governor will try to get other companies (such as Option One Mortgage Corporation in Irvine) to work with their borrowers? We have tried and tried to reach them to fix our rate, but to no avail. Now that we’ve stopped paying (since our rate went up this month) they call 2-4 times/day. But it’s always offshore personnel (who seem to be in India) and they can never give us to a Home Retention Specialist. We’ve just about given up. Read the rest of this entry »

We don’t always hear about successful stories where someone fought back against their lenders and was lucky enough to avoid foreclosure with a loan modification.

Our forum at LoanSafe.org has had some recent homeowner success stories and I wanted to share one with you all here on my blog. I hope to report on more stories like this in the near future and I encourage anyone that needs help to please join our forum and we will help you in any way we can.

Homeowner story submitted by TxAngel;

Thanks Moe for this forum..I had no idea about anything and this place taught me so much!

Hello all!

Well it’s finally over! We got our loan modified and fixed for the next 7 years.

We can afford the payments and taxes are included. We sent in our good faith money, saved our house money each month so we’d have it, and signed the contract and fed-exed everything and we got our confirmation letter.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lobbyists Hope Bush Rate-Freeze Plan Prevents Democrats’ Bankruptcy Proposal on Home Loans

December 05, 2007: 06:23 PM EST

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - A White House plan asking lenders and investors to freeze interest rates on troubled mortgages could derail a Democratic proposal giving bankruptcy judges the power to force loan modifications.

Lobbyists for some of the biggest home lenders and some institutional investors in securities backed by mortgages are signing up for a Bush administration plan aimed at averting foreclosure on up to 1.1 million home loans. Some in the industry believe success of the administration’s plan will cause political momentum for the Democrats’ “cramdown” proposal to fizzle. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a sad reality of business. Yes, you taking a mortgage out on property is “business”.  These homes are backed by contracts not feelings. You break that contract, then the big bad wolves (lenders) are going to come take your home.

Forget about you fighting in Iraq for freedom, justice and against terrorism. Forget that you are injured from fighting a war for the US.

You owe us money and we are going to foreclose.

I get comments sometimes that ask why I have negative posts on my blog. The facts are that if you saw what I did every day, the emails, the calls and cries for help. You to would be a little cynical when you hear the same sad stories over and over.

I report the truth and the facts. End of explanation for my “reality” posts. If anyone wants to read BS and propaganda, then I suggest they leave this blog ASAP. If there is good news for homeowners and the American people then I will report it.

“For Here We Are Able to Follow the Truth Wherever it May Lead” - Ben Franklin

Submitted by a US Veteran and a Homeowner: 

michael whitebean

I am disabled and a vet of the marine corps. my wife is the only one working. Still countrywide will not help!!! refinance us. WHY!!!

help me!!!!! please!!!! countrywide is robbing me> I have a 13percent arm and they will not refinenace me. My home is now in foreclosure.

Sacramento, California - Governor Schwarzenegger Discusses Ways to Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure in his radio address.

Hi, this is Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with another California Report.

Thanksgiving was Thursday and all across California, people gathered in their homes with friends and family to share a meal, give thanks and build memories that last a lifetime.

But in too many of those homes, the Thanksgiving holiday was saddened by the threat of a mortgage foreclosure.
A survey last week said that 7 of the 16 metropolitan areas with the nation’s highest foreclosure rates are right here in California. And by the way, another half million Californians have sub-prime loans that will jump to higher rates in the next two years, so they are feeling this pressure too.

To lose your home in a foreclosure is an emotional crash that can take years to overcome. It devastates families, hurts neighborhoods and depresses our economy, which is a big reason why our state revenues have taken such a big hit. Read the rest of this entry »

I often get asked if it’s possible to obtain a loan modification and avoid foreclosure? The answer is a definite maybe. It depends on several factors because you have to qualify to do so and it’s not like qualifying for a mortgage. They are qualifying you to see if it’s worth taking your home or is it better to do a loan workout with you.

Sad but true reality!

It’s a known fact that dealing with your lender when your are late on your mortgage can be very difficult and frustrating. Trying to get through the maze of operators, transfers and rude people is almost impossible. It’s as if the system they have in place is meant to do what it does to people, make them give up in frustration and just walk away.

I know this because I deal with lenders and servicers daily. I am a trained professional with 9 years of experience in all aspects of real estate, mortgage and loan workouts. I’d like to think that my skills tend to be on the expert side.

You would assume that these lenders would hire highly trained professionals to handle their loss mitigations and collections when dealing with hundred’s of thousands of dollars on the line with each phone call, but in most cases that’s far from the truth. 

Their attitude and demeanor is as if they are lawyers and that they hold your life in their palms. They may not be lawyers but they do hold the keys to saving your home.

So how does one go about dealing with their lender? The answer is really quite simple. Make a game plan on how exactly you are going to approach them. These people are trained in minimizing loss for their company and they get paid to by getting the most amount of money out of you as possible or declare that your case is un workable and foreclose on you. That is how they mitigate loss. If you understand this, then you’ll know that you have to approach them and all conversations very carefully. Everything can and will be used against you.

Don’t think for one second that they are there to help you save your home. If you do that then you’ll just end up blowing up on whoever is handling your file and maybe blowing your chances of saving your home. It’s a game of cards and their the dealers. You never know what card your going to get and this may be the biggest gamble of your life.

Have all your ducks is a row before you call and be in a good mood. Be prepared to be fake and nice.(even though you would like to tell them off). Make sure all your financials are together.

Oh yeah, don’t talk with collections. If you are transfered to collections, be asked to be transferred to the loss mitigation department or home retention department. Don’t give collections any of your personal information or tell them what you are trying to do. Just give them you social, loan number and address. If they try and badger you, tell them your lawyer is on the phone and he advised you not to tell them more than that. Trust me, it shuts them up every time. Get everyone’s name, extension employee number. Take meticulous notes of all calls or record them and tell them you are recording them.

If all else fails, seek out a third party to handle this for you. There are many non-profit and for profits that are very experienced in loan modifications and loan workouts.

Don’t give up and fight to avoid foreclosure and save your home!

Below is a list of lenders that are actively helping people:

AMC aka Ameriquest, American Mortgage Home Investment, American General, Amtrust Bank, Aurrora Loan Services, Bank of America, Banco Popular, Bear Stearns, Chase, Citiwide, Countrywide, Downey Savings & Loan, Fannie Mae, Fifth Third Mortgage, Freedie Mac, Homecomings, HUD, FHA, First Horizon Home Loans, Flagstar, GMAC, Greenpoint, HSBC, Impac Funding, Indymac, ING Bank, Litton Loan Services, Motgage It, M&T, National City Mortgage, Option One, Residential Capital, Saxon, SCME, Suntrust, Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, US Bank, VA, 1st National Bank of Arizona.

Please share your stories and comments on your dealing with any of these lenders or serivcers.

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