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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
Many homeowners are reducing their living expenses and applying those savings to their monthly mortgage payments. Others are seeking a mortgage loan modification, which can be a lifeline for any homeowner faced with foreclosure.
"It's critical that homeowners understand exactly what they can afford because a loan modification that is ultimately unaffordable hurts everyone," says Michelle Jones, Senior Vice President of Counseling for Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) of Greater Atlanta. "We help consumers create a lean, sustainable budget that will support the family's housing costs."
Here are some simple steps that many homeowners have taken to help qualify for a loan modification:
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.
This client hired our law firm when her investment property was facing foreclosure. Her daughter and grandchildren were currently living in this house. The client had fallen six months behind on her Wachovia/Wells Fargo mortgage, but at the conclusion of our services, Wachovia had forgiven her mortgage completely. Here's her story:
In Brief:
In the wake of the foreclosure crisis, it's no surprise that there have been many "foreclosure rescue" schemes- some illegal and some legitamate- that have victimized homeowners in foreclosure, such as what that we've covered here and here. This has been especially true in states such as Illinois, Florida, and New Jersey, where the mortgage crisis was and is still at its worst. While the government has made an extensive effort to reign in illegal schemes, the government has never made a legitimate effort to change its own foreclosure recovery program for the better. Although Hope Now Alliance has assisted hundreds of thousands of homeowners, the question will always be "what if". What if it was more efficient? What if it offered homeowners better solutions? What if it wasn't bankrolled by the large banks? No one will ever know.
We often receive questions from our readers about the Foreclosure Process in Illinois.
Below are 5 common questions about foreclosure in Illinois.
Remember, if you have a question you can leave it in the comments below, or contact our law firm at 877-882-5338 us for a more private matter.
From a reader in Bloomington, Illinois
The new foreclosure law in Illinois affects you because it protects you from a wrongful foreclosure.
It's no surprise that Bank of America has been taking advantage of homeowners for years. Now that we past the halfway mark of 2013, let's look at a few Bank of America loan modification problems that have come to light this year.
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 Florida homeowner was facing a very difficult living and family situation, and was having trouble paying his $1,753.08 monthly mortgage payment to Wells Fargo. By the time he retained our law firm in the summer of 2011, he was years behind on his mortgage and over $40,000 past due, although a foreclosure lawsuit had not been initiated on his home. Our firm negotiated a trial loan modification within a few months. However, upon completion of his trial modification, Wells Fargo denied the homeowner a permanent loan modification, then filed for foreclosure on his home.
Amerihope Alliance Legal Services is a leading loan modification and foreclosure defense law firm with attorneys licensed in 5 states. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners fight back and keep their homes.
Our goal is to provide valuable information to help homeowners who are trying to obtain a loan modification or to stop foreclosure. You may schedule a free consultation at any time.
