Financial Resource

Six years ago, I bought a house over my head. The reasons are muddled and uninteresting, but like you I needed the economy to just keep moving along. No changes. No surprises. Just let me live the American Dream. My payment was ,900. That’s part of the ‘muddled”, but its for another article.

Anyway, I should tell you that I am a Real Estate Broker, A Home Builder and a Loan Originator. I really do know what I’m doing when it comes to buying and selling homes and investment property; helping with loans and closing deals. Friends and sometimes guys I don’t know come to me for advice on real estate and mortgages. I am an expert. At least in my opinion.

But, about 3 years ago, my industry began to come apart at the seams. My income just sort of drifted down. The whole way down, I kept thinking we would, as a country, come roaring back. Sound familiar? You know where I”m headed.

About 3 years ago, I began to have more and more late payments on my house. Then a year ago I only made 3 payments. I made a payment every time my house was a couple of weeks from the sale at the courthouse steps. To get a “reinstatement” means to pay up all of the past dues; interest; penalties; and legal fees. Each of my payments was ,000 or more. I somehow kept getting it done, just in time.

All of those years of making ,900 payments and I was in danger of losing my home and disappointing my family. Actually, “disappointing ” is not the word. If you are even reading this article you know what I was feeling.

Earlier this year, my income went to nearly nothing. I was facing foreclosure again, only this time I wasn’t going to catch up ,000. I needed to consider how I was going to “STOP MY FORECLOSURE AND SAVE MY HOUSE”. Again, it was my industry and I am very experienced, but I didn’t want to deal with the Lender myself. I know that you have read that you shouldn’t use loan modification consultants, but I think that is stupid. You shouldn’t use a bad consultant, you should use a good one. But, that is true in any industry. You should use a good lawyer instead of a bad one. Especially if you are in big trouble. I was in big trouble and I needed someone who knew more about Lenders and all of the new loan modifications than I did.

I chose an old acquaintance of mine, who has been a loan officer for years. We had also worked together for years. She was getting beat up by the economy too. She had begun to help others get their foreclosures stopped and the modify their loans into something that each could afford. It turns out that it can be done. But, the Lenders are all so screwed up and overwhelmed in this economy, that it takes a diligent professional program to get your deal pushed through. Even with my experience, I was intimidated by the process and I wanted her to talk to the lender for me. I could do it myself and so could you. But, we might say the wrong thing and mess it up. I wanted no part of negotiating for myself. I hired her to help me.

Hear is kind of how it went, the simple description:

1. I signed a paper allowing her to talk to the Lender on my behalf.

2. She got the Lender to suspend my foreclosure while we applied for a loan modification. This means to change my loan around to where it is more fair and affordable. We did this in 2 days which is good, because we started with 3 days to my court sale date.

3. For the next 2 months my consultant called the Lender twice a week. Nothing new happened on my deal because the Lender was overwhelmed with trying save thousands of loans. I started at the bottom of the pile. Meanwhile, I made no payment for 2 months.

4. Every 2 weeks the Lender would send a letter requesting me to fill out something and sign it. Eventually, this happened 2 or 3 times per document. My friend, the consultant, took careful notes, so that later we could prove that we were doing everything asked. With the lenders today, different departments are not in communication with each other. You could be working with the modification people and have another group send your loan to a law office for foreclosure. It happened 3 times to me. You have to check over and over with all departments. Sheesh.

5. After 2 months, during which I made no payments, I got a letter from my Lender enrolling me in a trial modification program. I had to make 3 reduced payments on time for 3 months in a row. My payment was reduced by 0.

6. I made all 3 payments on time. Then, nothing from the Lender for 6 weeks. I made another payment “just in case”.

7.Then I got my final Loan Modification in the mail. I originally had an ARM, which means my interest could adjust, or change. My loan started with 2% interest for 2 years; then 3% interest for another 2 years; finally it went to 4.5 interest and became fixed for 25 years. I hadn’t made a payment on time for 2 years, but I was getting a chance to start over. With a better deal that rich people could have gotten 2 years ago. I’m going to pay it one way or another.

I say all of this, because i read all kinds of warnings that you should do your communication with your lender yourself. You are advised to contact the HUD “help line”. Yes that’s right, let’s call the government for help. Didn’t they get us all into this in the first place.

I believed, so much that others need help too, that I am forming a partnership with my consultant to use my experience help troubled borrowers to “Stop Their Foreclosures and Modify Their Loans”. I think I can get in a new business where I save my house and help others save theirs. It can’t get any better than that.

If you are comfortable with doing it, then by all means, negotiate yourself with your Lender. But, if you feel like I did. Then find someone with good references, interview them and if you can get a good comfort feeling, this is the time to team up and get your house loan back to current with better terms.

Please visit the site concerning stopping foreclosures and getting Loan Modifications at:

www.mortgagepaymentmodifications.com

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