Mortgage Relief America
2550 North Federal Highway, Ste 10
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33305

 

 

 

Phone: 1-800-THAT-MESS
Fax: 888-528-3493
Click HERE to email for relief

What is a Loan Modification?
Changing the terms of the note to either lower the interest rate, mortgage balance or length of loan to lower payments which ultimately helps the borrower to stay in their home by making the payments more affordable.

Do I qualify for a Loan Modification?
A large percentage of the loans today may qualify for a loan modification. If you don’t have enough equity in your home to refinance and your high interest rate is making it difficult to make the payments, or if you had an adjustable rate that adjusted and makes it harder to make your payments, or if you lost your job and got behind and had to take a lower paying job and now your mortgage payment is unaffordable, you probably qualify. Speak to one of our representatives and they can tell you if you fit the criteria.

If I am behind in My Mortgage, can I still get a loan Modification?
Yes, as long we can satisfy the lenders requirements of income and hardship. They require a hardship letter explaining why you need to modify your loan and income to verify that you can afford the new terms.

Someone said you have to be 90 days behind to get a loan modification, but that would ruin my credit. Do I have to let my mortgage get behind to qualify?
No! They are probably referring to the HOPE program, but lenders are modifying loans that are not behind as long as you can prove hardship and that it is a good possibility that you could lose your home to foreclosure if you don’t lower your payments.

I had my loan modified once and couldn’t keep up. Will they give me a second chance?
Possibly. Prior to our recent rush on loan modifications, lenders tended to help by putting past due payments on the end of the mortgage and letting you catch up. But often times people got behind again as it didn’t solve the true problem. They couldn’t continue to pay the higher amount and got behind again. I believe if it was a circumstance that showed hardship and an ability to pay with a lower interest rate, they would consider a second modification.

I have been served with foreclosure papers. Am I too late to do a loan modification?
Based on how far along you are in the foreclosure proceedings, you may have to be referred to our attorney’s to stop the foreclosure and work on a loan modification.

If I don’t qualify for a loan modification, do I have any other options? If so what are they?
If you can’t afford to stay in your property, our real estate team would look at doing a short sale for you. A short sale is where we find a buyer for your home and the lender approves a sale price less than you owe. In some cases you can stay in your home as a tenent and possibly buy it back down the road. Another option would be for our attorneys to work out a deed in lieu of foreclosure for you. This basically saves the costs of the foreclosure proceedings and hands the bank the deed back.

Is loan modification only for owner occupied properties? I have investment properties that I am behind in and I was told they wouldn’t qualify. Is that true?
Although the intent is to save people from foreclosure and keep them in their homes, the truth is that foreclosures mean a loss of money to the bank, especially in a declining real estate market. Banks are not in business to own real estate, they are in the business to lend money. So, my answer is banks are looking to modify anything that makes sense to keep the properties from going into foreclosure and them losing more of their asset base.

What benefit is there to using your services rather than dealing directly with my lender?
Try calling your lender! Once you have been on hold for an hour and the “phone clerk” on the other end tells you that you do not qualify for a modification after looking at their check off list and making that determination on the two or three questions they asked you, you will start to see the benefit. Let’s assume that you do get through and they say that they can help you. Are you going to negotiate the terms that work for you? Do you know how? If you have a couple of choices, do you think they will choose the one that benefits them or you? When I get sick, I hire a doctor to make me feel better. When my car breaks down I take it to a mechanic and pay him for his expertise. I may be able to stop the noise, but I probably can’t fix the problem. Unless you are familiar with lending and the mortgage and real estate industry, I can promise you that you are not doing the best job for yourself.

I have been told that my other options might be a Short Sale. Can you tell me what this is and how it would benefit me?
When you owe more than the property is appraised at in todays market, you most likely will not find a buyer to pay more than what the property is worth, therefore a short sale would take place. This gets you out of the property and the lender may take less than what you owe on it. They probably will put a deficiency judgement against you for the balance, so you may want to speak with our attorneys before making that decision.

I have been told that I should file bankruptcy. How does that help my situation, and how would that benefit me?
Filing bankruptcy would stop the foreclosure and allow your attorney to negotiate a modification with the lender. It is usually used to stop foreclosure proceedings. It is best to speak with an attorney to see if this is a good decision for you.

What is your success rate in doing loan modifications?
Understand that loan modifications have been in existence forever, but only recently have they been a popular choice of stopping foreclosures and helping people to stay in their homes. We have had an almost perfect success rate so far. Our team has been in the real estate and mortgage industry in excess of 100 combined years, and the same with our attorneys. We have demonstrated years of experience dealing with lenders and having the knowledge to do it effectively.

The government advertising that I have seen says that I can modify my mortgage for free. Are your services free? If not, what are your fees?
You can contact your lender on your own, and there is no up front fee. The bank gets the money from the interest you pay! We charge a “low fee” of $495 to get started and $1500 when the modification is accepted by you and the lender. You may save yourself $200 per month where we will save you $400 per month as an example, and that means a huge savings over the years compared to the small amount we charge.

If you charge a fee, when do I pay? And what happens if you are not successful with my loan modification?
There are costs involved in doing your loan modification so we like to charge part of our fee up front that is non-refundable. But instead of offering a money back guarantee, we only charge you when the job is done.

What do I need to do to get started?
Contact us at the email address on our website or phone us and we will send you a check list of items to get together to get started.

How long will the process take?
It has been taking 30-60 days from beginning to end.

Why would you be more successful in negotiating my loan modification with the lender than I would? What can you do that I can’t?
Our team consists of prior bankers that know what the lender wants to see in their package and knows how to negotiate on their level.

How long has your company been doing loan modifications?
Our team has over 100 years of combined experience in Banking, Mortgages, Real Estate, Law, and this all pertains to loan modifications.