Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog

Jake Sterling

Jake Sterling is Amerihope Alliance Legal Services' Homeowner Liaison. He helps to bring awareness and teach homeowners about foreclosure defense and options to save their homes.

Loan Modification Success: Incredible SPS Principal Reduction

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 5,000 homeowners, here is one of their stories.

Aside from the infamous "subprime mortgages," one of the major contributors to the foreclosure crisis was banks giving out home loans at unfair terms. Many homeowners simply couldn't afford their homes once the economy slowed. One homeowner had experienced problems with getting on top of his loan for years; his entire situation changed when he spoke with us.

This homeowner hadn't paid on his mortgage since around the start of the mortgage crisis. In fact, he hadn't paid his mortgage for six years. In addition to being over $150,000 behind on paying his $2,000 monthly mortgage payment, our homeowner was paying an astronomically high 9.34% interest rate. Somehow, he had managed to stay out of foreclosure during that time, but he knew that wouldn't always be the case. That's when the homeowner retained (hired) us to help him modify his home loan in June 2013.

Weighing the Consequences of Foreclosure, Short Sale, and Loan Modification

Which has worse consequences, a foreclosure or a short sale? Are there any consequences that come with mortgage modifications? Here's what your realtor and bank won't tell you.

Facing Foreclosure? Don't Hide it From Your Partner

By Ralph R. Roberts, RISMedia Guest Columnist

Loan Modification Success: Nationstar Principal and Payment Reduction

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 5,000 homeowners, here is one of their stories.

What would you do if you were emerging from the shadows of bankruptcy, had already lost one of your cars to repossession, and your house was now in danger of being foreclosed? If you're like this couple, then you fight back.

Emerging From The Shadows

We met this married couple when they retained (hired) us in late 2011. They couldn't afford to pay their $2,600 mortgage payment and were several months behind.

The Foreclosure Process in Pennsylvania [Infographic]

Foreclosures are never pretty. They destroy a homeowner’s credit. They ruin a neighborhood’s sense of closeness. When you or someone that you know is in financial trouble, you feel like you’re living in a nightmare. The purpose of this post is to assist homeowners in understanding the process in this unfortunate circumstance.

Facts About HAMP and How It Has Changed to Create More Loan Modifications

know-the-guidelines-hamp In 2009, President Obama introduced the Home Affordable Modification Program (also known as HAMP). The program was designed to help struggling homeowners either to refinance their mortgage or modify their existing mortgage. The program was designed with incentives to the servicers/mortgage lenders and homeowners. However, many servicers were not seeing the program through, and as a result, many homeowners experienced multiple obstacles in getting a HAMP loan modification.

HAMP adapts to protect homeowners from foreclosure

The HAMP program, unveiled in 2009, was considered by many to be a failed experiment (in part due to the servicers lack of participation and implementation of the rules as well as many stringent program guidelines). Due to many failed modifications, in June of 2012 the Obama administration unveiled HAMP Tier 2 in an attempt to provide assistance to struggling homeowners. Tier 2 came with some much needed eligibility changes.

Mortgage Basics: Understanding the Lingo

By Barbara Pronin, RISMedia Columnist

With home prices languishing and mortgage interest rates still at historic lows, this may be the year you will want to buy your first home. But getting a mortgage can be a daunting process, especially if the terms associated with getting a loan are new to your vocabulary.

Free Loan Modifications - Part 3: Are Hope Now and NACA Your Best Choices?

This is the final installment in a three part series about free loan modifications. You can read Part 1: Free Loan Modifications: Hope Now and Part 2: Free Loan Modifications: NACA Know How?

In Brief:

Hope Now, NACA, and other free loan modification services have helped thousands of homeowners.
There are 3 main drawbacks to these free services.
These companies can't help you the way a foreclosure defense attorney can.

Are Homeowners Being helped by Free Loan Modification Programs Hope Now and NACA?

Loan Modification Success: BOA - SPS Principal Reduction

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 5,000 homeowners, here is one of their stories.

A single, mature homeowner was attempting to get her home loan modified and was having issues with Bank of America. She had been involved in an auto accident with an uninsured driver which had created financial difficulties, which eventually led to her not being able to pay her mortgage on time. Even though BOA had promised to help the homeowner, they strung her along for over a year, and the homeowner was now being threatened with foreclosure. This homeowner was paying a mortgage payment of over $2000 monthly with a high 9.375% interest rate, and was over $20,000 behind on her mortgage. Once she hired Amerihope Alliance Legal Services, her entire situation began to change.

Free Loan Modifications - Part 2: NACA Know-How?

This is a three part series about free loan modificaitons. See last week's article: Free Loan Modifications - Part 1: Hope Now Alliance

In Brief:

NACA started as a grassroots homeowner advocacy group.
Like Hope Now Alliance, NACA has ties with the big banks.
Homeowners are better off using other methods of foreclosure defense.

NACA's Story

The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, or NACA for short, is as different from Hope Now (the subject of our last blog post) as can be. NACA started in the late 1980's as a local grassroots organization in Boston. It worked in concert with local trade organizations and unions to help rehabilitate neighborhoods and change housing laws, and the results of its work created positive ripples for homeowners throughout the United States. NACA continued to expand into a national entity into the mid 2000's, and forged agreements with most of the USA's top lenders to create favorable situations for homeowners in need. NACA even took the step of creating their own "fair" mortgage for homeowners, which was backed by the same big banks that NACA had signed agreements with.