Posts tagged as:

Mortgage Help

Why Loan Modifications Take So Long and What to Do

by Moe Bedard

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

by Moe Bedard

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

by Moe Bedard

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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The Faces of Loan Modification

by Moe Bedard

“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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Video: US Treasury Loan Modification Program Debated on CNBC

by Moe Bedard

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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Government foreclosure plan is working, but how good is the question

by Moe Bedard

The number of homeowners getting help from the government’s massive foreclosure program is growing, according to data released Tuesday, but it is unclear how many of these borrowers might still lose their homes.
Under the effort, called Making Home Affordable, lenders are paid to lower a borrower’s mortgage payments. The program has struggled since its launch [...]

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

by Moe Bedard

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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Unemployed and Trying to Save the American Dream

by Moe Bedard

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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Man Fights Chase Mortgage After Wifes Death

by Moe Bedard

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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Homeowners Continue to Walk Away in Droves

by Moe Bedard

He stopped paying the mortgage, basically forcing the lender to take the condo off his hands through foreclosure.
“I was able to pay off all my credit cards,” said Duque, who is biding his time in the condo, waiting until they come and evict him. “In a way, it was the best thing that happened to [...]

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Banks and Delinquent Borrowers: The Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost

by Moe Bedard

Never mind that Bank of America seemed to think it was “entitled” to tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. Now the bank suddenly thinks that other people being “entitled” is such a bad thing? Who set the example?
The article also cites a disturbing trend:
On a recent morning, Tiffany Palmer was on the line with a [...]

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Linda woman fights bank so she can stay in her home

by Moe Bedard

They don’t have to worry about whether they’ll lose their homes, Linda resident Mary Carter said.
Former executives with the Bank of America and Countrywide, once the largest mortgage lender in the nation, who were involved in the financial crisis that first made national headlines last year, are safe from sharing her status.
Their homes aren’t threatened, [...]

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Life after the bubble: From American dream to American nightmare

by Moe Bedard

A year has passed since the peak of the great financial panic of 2008. Regulators and analysts alike spent much of September pontificating about the economy’s regained stability.

Debt: Life in Oregon after the bubble

Thanks to a multitrillion-dollar bailout, much of the financial sector has regained an uneasy equilibrium. Some banks that seemed on death’s door [...]

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Banks abuse borrowers

by Moe Bedard

The Government Accountability Office – GAO – in July found that the Treasury was short staffed and had hired only half of the employees necessary to monitor the loan modification program.
Taxpayer dollars bailed out the banks from bankruptcy, now they’re back on track to pay out big bonuses while at the same time they are [...]

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Mortgage relief hard to come by

by Moe Bedard

Orion Wisness tried to control his temper as a Wells Fargo representative delivered the bad news: No, Wisness did not qualify for a new federal program that would give him a break on his monthly mortgage payments.
Five months had passed since Wisness, 35, lost his job at a Minneapolis law firm and asked to enroll [...]

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Shadow Market Part IV: Trying to Get a Loan Modification in Phoenix

by Moe Bedard

Too far underwater to refinance her loan, Ms. Parry says she began seeking a loan modification from Citigroup Inc. in June 2008 and ran into continual delays. So far, she says, she has submitted financial information and documentation for her request at least five times.
Sometimes, Ms. Parry says, she has been told that the bank [...]

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Mortgage-modification program questioned, protested

by Moe Bedard

Protesting near the National Constitution Center, where a congressional panel yesterday tried to gauge the progress of homeowner-rescue programs, Aponte said his lender had agreed to modify his mortgage, then had withdrawn the offer.
“They said that without a job, how could I pay even that?” Aponte said. “They’re right, but it isn’t fair.”
That opinion was [...]

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Small details sometimes hinder help on mortgages

by Moe Bedard

The community groups said disparate banking practices and inefficiencies have led to delays in approvals, clogged the pipeline, curtailed the success of loan mod programs.
Eileen Fitzgerald, chief operating officer of NeighborWorks America, said it can take as long as two hours to reach a mortgage servicer. Some homeowners send in documentation, but are asked to [...]

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Chasing assistance

by Moe Bedard

Elliott and her partner, Joanne Hexom, have filed five different applications over the past nine months asking JPMorgan Chase to modify the terms of their mortgage and lower their monthly payments.
The answer has been the same every time: No.
That response has infuriated Elliott and countless other borrowers struggling to hold onto their homes. They wonder [...]

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Low expectations for new loan help program

by Moe Bedard

Dial back the pie-in-the-sky projections.
Last month, the Obama administration launched a program to help homeowners with loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration. About 850,000 FHA borrowers are behind on their payments or in foreclosure, yet the program will assist just 45,000.
The effort targets homeowners who were ineligible for the government’s other loan modification plans. [...]

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Mortgage modifications make things worse for some

by Moe Bedard

Tens of thousands of financially strapped homeowners who have asked lenders to lower their mortgage payments are instead winding up with higher monthly payments and larger debts on their homes.
Homeowners who were hoping for lower payments are discovering to their dismay that lenders roll late fees, back taxes or other costs into the principal, sometimes [...]

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The Loan Modification Swindle

by Moe Bedard

A person’s eyes can only have the wool pulled over them for so long, right?
Am I right to say that a civilized society can only be asleep for a certain amount of time before they wake up and realize that they have been suckered?
I am telling you that nothing really has changed too much from [...]

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When to Refinance Rule of Thumb

by Moe Bedard

Mortgage refinancing appears to be an attractive option for homeowners because of its various advantages which are plenty. However, there are several not-so-obvious disadvantages that you may not be aware of.
Thus, there is a need for some kind of refinance rule of thumb to make sure that you really get what you had hoped for.
Rule [...]

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Help, I need a foreclosure bankruptcy loan!

by Moe Bedard

The first thing that you need to understand is that there are no foreclosure bankruptcy loans available right now. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but no lender will  touch you for about 3 years at the least.
But it is definitely not the end of the world because you can get [...]

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The Federal Reserve Implements Loan Modification Program

by Moe Bedard

The Federal Reserve’s Ben Bernake sent a letter to the Senate Banking Committee announcing a new loan modification program to help keep struggling homeowners in their homes. The program will be applied to whole owned mortgage assets that it aquired in the recent Fed assisted JPMorgan Chase’s purchase of Bear Stearns and support of insurance giant AIG.

The Bear Stearns portfolio is worth approximately $27 billion and it is not clear how much of the $27 billion is tied to residential mortgages. AIG assets include a $20 billion portfolio of mortgage backed securities (MBS) and a $27 billion portfolio that includes securities that are backed by mortgages.

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Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley voices support for anti-foreclosure bills

by Moe Bedard

Under the measure, owner-occupants with risky mortgage features such as interest-only loans or loans with short-term introductory interest rates or adjustable rate mortgages, would be offered a loan modification based on the home’s current value.

“Our legislation also provides a safe harbor for creditors who comply,” she said. “In other words, we can be the bad guy to get these loans modified in a way that makes sense for everybody.”

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Fannie & Freddie Offer More Carrots (Cash) for Servicers to “Try” and Entice Them to Help Struggling Borrowers

by Moe Bedard

Cash is king and when it comes to helping people in need, cash seems to light a fire under people’s arses to make them help a little bit more than they would if there were no cash incentives involved.
This is the “new” American way, right?
The facts are that it costs a servicer more money to perform some type [...]

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Principal reductions that restore equity for the homeowner may be more effective means of avoiding delinquency and foreclosure,” Bernanke said.

by Moe Bedard

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 [...]

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Remarks by FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair to the Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network State of the Valley Conference, San Jose, Calif.

by Moe Bedard

Press Release from the FDIC
It is truly a sign of unusual economic times when a group of high tech leaders asks a bank regulator of all people to speak to them.
But bank regulation – or perhaps I should say weaknesses and holes in our bank regulatory structure — lie at the heart of our current [...]

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Need Help With Your Mortgage or a Loan Modification?

by Moe Bedard

By Moe Bedard 
If you have been looking for mortgage help or assistance with a loan modification, then you have came to the right website for safe and accurate information. This blog and our forum at LoanSafe.org was created for the sole purpose of assisting homeowners who are struggling with their mortgages to find the “real deal” [...]

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Can’t Refinance? How About a Loan Modification?

by Moe Bedard

It’s no secret the people across the nation are stuck in their ARM mortgages and can’t refinance. I talk and converse with these people every day. Many are just trying to avoid foreclosure and save their home. But many are losing the battle daily and the need mortgage help right away..
There has been a lot [...]

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Loan Modifications are Given the Green Light by the SEC

by Moe Bedard

The Securities and Exchange Commission has decided that servicers of mortgage-backed securities can start immediately performing loan modifications of subprime loans that may be headed for foreclosure without suffering adverse accounting consequences.
This is great news to borrowers that are trying to stop foreclosure because the SEC controls how and what loan servicers can do in [...]

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