Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog

A short sale, which is when a home is sold for less than what is required to pay off the mortgage, is more complex than a regular sale and takes longer to complete. How long it takes depends on many factors, but about six months is a common rough estimate from professionals with short sale experience.

When someone takes out a loan for a home and its value drops to less than what they owe on the mortgage, that's called having negative equity or being underwater. As long as the monthly mortgage payment is affordable, negative equity is not the end of the world. You can just keep making payments and eventually you should have equity from paying down the loan and/or appreciation of the property.

But when a hardship such as a loss of income has left a homeowner unable to pay their mortgage, they don't have the option of waiting. In situations like that, getting rid of the home in a short sale can be better than going through foreclosure, as it keeps them in control of the process, can be less damaging to their credit, and may allow them to become a homeowner again in less time.

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are a few of their stories.

Every week we obtain loan modifications for our clients with a variety of loan servicers. You can see these results as they are announced on Twitter (#loanmodwow) or Facebook. Here are some of our results from this week with Carrington:

Carrington

Our Carrington client was an astounding 98 months and $200,000+ past due on his mortgage. He was in an active foreclosure case and facing summary judgment. Now he has an in-house trial loan modification plan with lower interest rate, $969 lower monthly mortgage payment, and $323,930.01 principal forgiveness!

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released a document that gives homeowners information on what to do when they're facing foreclosure or can't make their mortgage payments called “Homeowner's Guide to Success: What To Do If You Can't Pay your Mortgage.”

The HUD guide is short, but contains a lot of useful information for homeowners who are in foreclosure or in danger of falling into foreclosure. If you're having trouble with your mortgage and don't know what to do, HUD's guide is a good place to start learning about what options are available to you.

The guide includes a glossary of terms, a financial worksheet, and advice on where to go for more information. But it also includes some specific advice on what you should do.

The terms of some mortgage loan modifications include deferment of a portion of the money owed, which is not paid back in monthly payments like the rest of the loan. Rather, the deferred amount is put to the side when a loan is permanently modified, where it accumulates no interest.

When the loan matures or the home is sold, the deferred amount has to be paid back in one balloon payment.

When a loan modification includes a deferment it is typically for the amount the borrower is past due, which includes fees, and can be tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are a few of their stories.

Every week we obtain loan modifications for our clients with a variety of loan servicers. You can see these results as they are announced on Twitter (#loanmodwow) or Facebook. Here are some of our results from this week with Carrington, Ocwen, Caliber, M&T Bank, Freedom Mortgage, and Bayview:

Caliber

Our Caliber clients were 53 months and $81,198.06 past due on their mortgage with a foreclosure sale date set, but we helped them get a three month in-house trial loan modification plan with $183.84 monthly savings!

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are a few of their stories.

Every week we obtain loan modifications for our clients with a variety of loan servicers. You can see these results as they are announced on Twitter (#loanmodwow) or Facebook. Here are some of our results from this week with Selene and Ditech:

Ditech

Our Ditech clients were 53 months and $80,522.01 past due on their mortgage with foreclosure started on their home, now they have a permanent in-house loan modification with 3.75% lower interest rate (from 7.75% to 4.0%) and $329.04 lower monthly payment! 

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here is one of their stories.

A recent client of our law firm, who I'll call Ms. Garcia to protect her privacy, nearly lost her home in Hudson County, New Jersey after she fell behind on mortgage payments to SLS following the death of her husband.

In June of 2015, Ms. Garcia was served a with a foreclosure summons and complaint, which meant that she was being sued and was the defendant in a civil lawsuit. This is the way it works in states with a judicial foreclosure process. The plaintiff (the party suing) was HSBC.

By June of 2016, an order of summary judgment had been entered, which meant that the lender could request a Writ of Execution, and a sale date to auction off her home at anytime.

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are a few of their stories.

Every week we obtain loan modifications for our clients with a variety of loan servicers. You can see these results as they are announced on Twitter (#loanmodwow) or Facebook. Here are some of our results from this week with Nationstar, Shellpoint, Wells Fargo, Ocwen, and Ditech:

Nationstar 

Foreclosure was started on our Nationstar client after she fell 12 months and $12,421.52 past due on her mortgage, but we helped her get a fresh start with a three month in-house trial loan modification. If she keeps up her payments, we hope to have her in a permanent modification by Easter!

Our Nationstar clients were $28,107.72 past due on their mortgage payments, but now they have a final loan modification with the entire past due amount deferred and monthly savings of $224.03 (24% reduction)!

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are a few of their stories.

Every week we obtain loan modifications for our clients with a variety of loan servicers. You can see these results as they are announced on Twitter (#loanmodwow) or Facebook. Here are some of our results from this week with Bank of America and Carrington:

Bank of America

Our Bank of America client was 12 months and $8,486.93 past due on her mortgage, but now she has a final in-house loan modification. Their monthly mortgage payment dropped from $695.00 to $335.00, which is a 52% decrease! We will continue to represent them and make sure that Bank of America dismisses the foreclosure lawsuit.

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners, here is one of their stories.

Being really, really, really far behind on your mortgage doesn't necessarily mean that you can't get a loan modification and keep your home. A recent client of our firm is a good example of this. To protect his privacy, I'll call him Mr. Shroff.

Mr. Shroff lives in a nice home, currently valued at about $1 million, in Hilsborough County, FL with his wife and son. He is self-employed. A downturn in his business caused him to fall behind on his mortgage during the recession in 2009.

Eventually Mr. Shroff's financial problems cleared up and he was able to make payments again, but by then, his mortgage servicer, Ditech, wouldn't let him make payments. They wanted him to pay all of the missed payments plus fees, which ended up being an astounding $191,140.06. He didn't have that much cash, so he stayed in default.