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Loan Modification

Many Americans in Home Loan Limbo

The number of Americans in mortgage limbo keeps growing.
These are the people who are far behind on their payments but are still waiting for their loan servicer to start the foreclosure process. LPS Applied Analytics, a research firm in Denver, reported that 3.4% of U.S. households with mortgages – or around 1.9 million – are [...]

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Why Loan Modifications Take So Long and What to Do

Q: I went under contract to buy a house six months ago. This is a short sale, and I understand that multiple lenders are involved. But I have been more than patient. What can I do?
I can’t seem to get anyone to listen to me. Don’t the banks want this to work out?
A: I’m sure [...]

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Few Getting Loan Modifications

Only a tiny percentage of troubled homeowners have received permanent modifications under President Obama’s foreclosure prevention plan, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the $75 billion effort.
Fewer than 5% of the trial modifications on loans owned or guaranteed by Freddie Mac were converted to long-term adjustments as of Sept. 30, according to the mortgage finance [...]

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Counseling Helps Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure

Troubled homeowners who receive housing counseling are 60 percent more likely to avoid foreclosure and have their mortgage payments lowered significantly than borrowers who navigate the process themselves, according to a study to be released Wednesday.
The study, by the D.C.-based Urban Institute, examines the effectiveness of the government-funded National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program, established in [...]

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Government Foreclosure Plan Causing Much Confusion

For help she turned to “Making Home Affordable,” or MHA, the Obama administration’s program to help homeowners facing financial hardship, refinance their mortgages and avoid foreclosure.
For the Shrauners, it sounded like the perfect solution: a chance to cut their payments and keep their home.
But it wasn’t that easy. They would soon find that confusion over [...]

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Philadelphia Knows How to Protect Homeowners

In most American cities, that probably would have been the end of the story: another home turned into distressed bank inventory by the national foreclosure crisis. But in Philadelphia, under a program begun last year to try to keep people in their homes, Mr. Hall entered the courtroom with a reasonable chance of hanging on.
Under [...]

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Barney Frank Going to Bat for Unemployed Homeowners

“These are people who are very responsible, very thoughtful. They got a home, it’s above water, they’ve got equity, but they’re unemployed, and you can’t afford mortgage payments on unemployment,” said Frank, D-Mass.
Rep. Barney Frank said Monday he is pushing a proposal to use some of the interest the government collects from the financial industry [...]

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Colorado State Investigating Loan Modification Firms

Division of Real Estate investigators are looking into how loan modification companies charge clients. Charging up front for services that haven’t been rendered is against state law.
“We have dozens of investigations going on right now into loan modification companies for the very same issues that are presenting to this family,” Urban told CBS4.
They also warn [...]

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Nevada Loan Modification Company Files Suit Against Law Makers

A law firm active in Henderson and Las Vegas is suing the state over rules requiring licensing of non-attorney employees working on mortgage loan modifications.
Cogburn Law Offices LLC filed suit last week in Clark County District Court against the Department of Business and Industry, Division of Mortgage Lending.
Court records indicate the law firm won a [...]

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Can a lawyer “really” help you with a loan modification?

Should homeowners who want to obtain a loan modification from their lender hire an attorney to help them achieve that goal? Attorneys say their services can be helpful, but lenders counter that such services are an unnecessary expenditure of money that would be better applied to overdue mortgage payments.
“Lawyers can be and have been very [...]

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The Faces of Loan Modification

“This went on for months,” she said. “I would return their calls saying I was undergoing a mod. They would say they didn’t know anything about it and to call their loss mitigation department. I would call loss mitigation and they would say that yes, my records showed I was under the three-month period and [...]

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No Mortgage Help for the Unemployed

There’s no help out there for people who are out of work and are just trying to hold on to their homes,” said John Schmitz, 62, of Thornwood, who has been unemployed from the world of finance for almost a year and has nearly exhausted his pension to keep current on his mortgage. “It’s so [...]

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Monitored Mortgage Workout (MMW) Program Introduced in California

State Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, wants to allow homeowners who have been served a notice of default to enlist the help of a state-appointed monitor to negotiate lenders with the goal of lowering monthly payments.
The mortgage mediation bill, CA AB 1588 titled the “Monitored Mortgage Workout (MMW) Program” would mandate mediation between borrowers and [...]

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Trial Modifications Are Criminal

The Obama administration is busy touting the burgeoning success of its mortgage modification program. Unfortunately, it’s a farce: Out of one side of his mouth, the President touts a dedication to the besieged middle class, while from the other, lauds a loan modification program which steals money from struggling homeowners in favor of banks – [...]

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Homeowners Not Happy With Government Housing Fix

Trillions spent on propping up banks, buying mortgages, tax credits and new programs designed to lower payments and prevent foreclosures. And yet a new survey from Move Inc., the parent of Realtor.com, says Americans are growing increasingly dissatisfied with how Washington is handling the housing mess.
The October 2009 survey found that the federal government’s approval [...]

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Video: US Treasury Loan Modification Program Debated on CNBC

The Treasury Dept. is out with its loan modification status report. Officials claim the rescue program is on track, but is there something they’re holding back? Susan Wachter, of Wharton; Howard Glaser, a mortgage industry consultant; and CNBC’s Diana Olick discuss.

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Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. leaders in loan modifications

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) — Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. lead the pack of U.S. banks modifying home loans to troubled borrowers under the Obama administration’s main foreclosure prevention plan, the Treasury Department said.
Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, began 88,968 trial modifications, or 40 percent of its eligible mortgages, under [...]

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4 New York Homeowners Sue Aurora Loan Services

NEW YORK — Four New York City homeowners have filed a lawsuit charging they were denied access to a federal home-refinancing program.
The plaintiffs are homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens who have mortgages serviced by Aurora Loan Services.
They are charging that Aurora denied them access to the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program without valid reasons.
That [...]

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All those ’slime bag’ subprime borrowers and deadbeats who walked away

It usually goes like this: At a dinner or party or funeral (seriously), someone learns that I’m in real estate and walks over to chew the fat about the market. They go on and on about “all those ’slime bag’ subprime borrowers and deadbeats who walked away from their houses,” the resulting crash in the [...]

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The Great U.S. Property Robbery Of The 21st Century

Given losses like these, White said he was “perplexed that lenders and their representatives were resisting reducing principal when they modify loans.”
His data shows how rare it is for lenders to reduce principal.
The foreclosure paradox: Foreclosures breed foreclosures. Cutting you a deal to keep you in your home is a win-win-win, the lender would keep [...]

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California DRE Looking Into 1,3000 Loan Modification Scams

“These people were taking advantage of people at the end of their ropes,” said Davi, speaking at the O.C. Coastal Chapter of the Women’s Council of Realtors. “And they are so prevalent.”
Many scam artists see the issuance of a desist-and-refrain order as a cost of doing business, Davi said. Often, they’re able to reopen under [...]

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Wells Fargo Plays Kick the Can With Pick-A-Pay Mortgages

This isn’t Wells Fargo, this is Hells Fargo!

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Wells Fargo & Co.’s (WFC) strategy for modifying its billions in troubled Pick-A-Pay mortgages looks a lot like a game of kick-the-can-down-the-road.

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Nevada Loan Modification Company Approved List

Here is a list of Nevada firms still eligible to offer loan modifications. This was posted on the Nevada Division of Mortgage Lending’s Web site site and will continue to be updated. Illegal Loan Mod firms who were announced yesterday here are no longer authorized to conduct foreclosure prevention services and are given 10 days [...]

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Dennis Kucinich: ‘Hey, you took care of Wall. St. Why didn’t you take care of Main St?

Foreclosures are “hurting families, marriages and lives,” McCoy says.
Georgia leads the country in bank failures—a majority being small community banks. Westmoreland says that little banks are getting hit unfairly, with a widespread ripple effect.
Yet, there’s little indication at the moment that Congress will act anytime soon to stem more foreclosures. Kucinich acknowledged that with Congress [...]

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30 Nevada Loan Modification Companies Face Closure

Nearly 30 loan modifications companies will be shut down Tuesday for not following a new law.
The Nevada Division of Mortgage Lending is closing the companies because they failed to meet their obligations to get a minimum $75,000 surety bond. The bond is a provision meant to protect consumers who may have been hurt by the [...]

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Homeowners: “Hey Congress, Get Off Your A**” – PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION

If you are a homeowner and want to unite with other homeowners fighting to save their homes, please sign the petition below in order to help us help you.
Divided we fall and united we stand!
By Richard Zombeck, the members of LoanSafe.org & Huffington Post:
So, while the banks, servicers, and lenders are waiting for American tenacity to kick [...]

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Florida Regulators React to Loan Modification Complaints

With hundreds of Floridians filing complaints about troubles with their lenders over home mortgages, state and federal officials say they’re ramping up efforts to improve the process for borrowers who need a loan modification.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum’s office said it is spending $4 million over two years to fund free legal services to homeowners [...]

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FICO Says New Loan Modification Reporting Will Not Affect Credit Scores

Jasmine Bendon of Ventura says her FICO scores dropped from the mid-700s to the low-600s after her lender put her on a trial modification and reported it as a partial payment. On the plus side, the trial modification has cut her monthly payment by $1,300.
New reporting plan
Starting today, lenders have a new, more benign way [...]

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California Attorney General Brown’s Letter to Banks & Loan Servicers

The foreclosure crisis continues to plague California homeowners who are trapped in mortgages with exploding monthly payments. While the economy is beginning to improve, homeowners desperate to save their homes have seen little relief. And analysts predict that foreclosures will continue to worsen, particularly as Pay Option ARMs begin to recast.
Economists estimate that about one [...]

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Loan Modification Numbers are Fantasy Land

Mortgage expert and one-time Fannie Mae Chief Credit Officer Edward Pinto says a claim made by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner that 500,000 homeowners have entered the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is ridiculous.
In fact, he says, the program is rapidly becoming: “I will pretend to modify your loan if you pretend that you [...]

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Hundreds of Florida Homeowners File Complaints Against Their Mortgage Servicers

The Attorney General’s Office has logged 452 complaints about Bank of America, Florida’s largest mortgage lender, concerning mortgages and loan modifications. With its acquisition of Countrywide Financial last year, Bank of America had almost 82,000 mortgage loans outstanding in Florida worth $15.3 billion in 2008, according to National Mortgage News.
Next largest is JP Morgan Chase, [...]

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Video: A Trip in Loan Modification Hell

Sometimes loan modifications can be a real pain, others believe that trying to get a loan modification is a form of hell on earth. This video shows you why they lose faxes constantly and who is really in charge of the banks.
Watch this video and decide for yourself.

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Unemployed and Trying to Save the American Dream

SPRINGDALE — Homeowners who lose their jobs and collect unemployment income now have a better chance to modify their mortgages, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
Until recently, unemployment income was not utilized when calculating a loan modification, leaving distressed homeowners with few options.
Because income is the basis for mortgage modification or loan qualification, unless a [...]

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Homeowner Told to Stop Making Payments by Mortgage Servicer

When MC lost his second job he had trouble affording his $3,000 mortgage payment. He called his mortgage holder, Flag Star Bank, asking for a break, but the bank told him there was nothing it could do for him unless he skipped payments and submitted a loan modification package.
Can you tell where this is going? [...]

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Government Wants School Children and Homeowners to Spot Scams

And it is one of the first places targeted in the homeowner education campaign launched on Monday by government agencies, local leaders and housing advocates to stop scammers preying on desperate borrowers nationwide.
Officials do not know how many scams have been perpetrated among millions of American families who have lost their homes or face foreclosure. [...]

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Man Fights Chase Mortgage After Wifes Death

Little said he mailed paperwork to JP Morgan Chase seeking a loan modification, but that the bank said he did not qualify. He will be three months behind on his payments in November.
Chase officials said they could not discuss Little’s case specifically because of privacy laws, but that the bank has sent him more papers [...]

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Nevada Loan Modification Companies Still Think it’s the Wild, Wild West

What if you had a home modification law that everyone ignored? In its 2009 legislative session the State of Nevada passed a law requiring loan modification companies to be licensed. The law, which recently took effect, not only required a license but the companies were also required to post a $75,000 surety bond. It seemed [...]

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Government Loan Modification Numbers Way Off

Mortgage expert and one-time Fannie Mae Chief Credit Officer Edward Pinto blasts the claim that 500,000 homeowners have entered into HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program).
Based on comments being made by industry participants and program results to date, HAMP is rapidly becoming: I will pretend to modify your loan if you pretend that you will make [...]

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Lack of Good Lawyers Adding to the Foreclosure Crisis

Unlike similar legal fields such as bankruptcy, foreclosure is rarely a full-time practice and is often handled by real estate attorneys or legal aid services agencies. Still, more than 3 million property foreclosures were filed in the U.S. last year; South Florida is expected to see more than 150,000 this year compared to fewer than [...]

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Obama’s Plan is a Particular Disappointment, Consumer Advocates Say

The relative failure of Obama’s plan is a particular disappointment, consumer advocates say. After spending hundreds of billions of dollars in bank bailouts, the administration proposed a plan that would pay mortgage servicers for successfully modifying eligible delinquent home loans. Investors that owned securitized mortgages that were modified would get paid, too. Most importantly, distressed [...]

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5 reasons why loan modifications are not happening

1. Why servicers foreclose when they should modify: The National Consumer Law Center takes a look into why loan servicers – the people who actually control most mortgages – aren’t helping home owners when they should. The report goes into a fair bit of depth over 60 pages. The report says that “servicers remain largely [...]

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Loan modification scams continue in Nevada

Boxes of complaints have poured into the state’s Business and Industry Department on people scamming homeowners out of thousands, claiming they can help modify loans but instead never do a thing.
“Weed out bad actors. When you put requirements in place, a lot of them will drop off, hopefully, because they have no intention of operating [...]

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Do Loan Servicers Really Prefer Foreclosures?

At the start of the foreclosure crises, personal finance experts urged struggling homeowners to contact their lenders if they started to fall behind on their mortgages. The lenders want to do everything they can, homeowners were told, to avoid a foreclosure.
Now, the experts aren’t so sure that’s the case.
Consumers who have jumped through a frustrating [...]

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Cheaper to foreclose than offer loan modifications

New Report Describes How Little Noticed Incentives Prompt Banks to Deny Relief to Homeowners
BOSTON, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Why have several recent programs designed to encourage loan modifications failed to slow America’s
still-worsening home mortgage foreclosure crisis? A new report from the
National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) discloses that mortgage servicers -
including many large banks – have [...]

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The media loan-modification program

But I made a call to Select Portfolio Servicing anyway and left a message. A staffer called back, but only to ask what the questions were and to relay them to a higher-up.
Shortly after that, Nido’s attorney sent me an e-mail.
“I don’t know what you did but I’ve got an offer from SPS (Select Portfolio [...]

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