Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog (8)

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week of 10/5/18

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are some 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 Bayview and Freedom Mortgage:

Bayview

23 months and $41,642+fees past due on their mortgage (which had been previously modified) with a foreclosure sale date set, we helped our Bayview clients get a three month trial loan modification plan with a fresh start!

Florida Foreclosure Defense Law Firm of Mark Stopa, "Stay In My Home", Files Bankruptcy

One of Florida's biggest foreclosure defense law firms, Stay In My Home P.A., has declared bankruptcy. The roughly 4,000 clients of the firm will need to look elsewhere for legal services.

Mark Stopa, the founder of Stay In My Home, P.A. and a high-profile attorney in the field of foreclosure defense, is under criminal investigation for alleged “equity skimming”, which is a type of mortgage fraud.

Over the summer of 2018 Stopa was indefinitely suspended from practicing law for violating professional conduct rules. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement raided his offices, seized his firm's computers, and froze its accounts. With no way to make payroll “most of the attorneys and staff quit” the firm, according to an article in the Tampa Bay Times.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Friday, October 5, 2018 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] florida foreclosure attorney, Bankruptcy, foreclosure

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

Ocwen

Yes! 50 months and $40,562 past due on her mortgage, we helped our Ocwen client get a final streamline loan modification with $118.02 monthly savings and $34,975.66 principal forgiven!

10 Years After The Financial Crisis, Don't Forget Foreclosure Victims

September 2018 marks the 10 year anniversary of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the event that signifies the start of the financial crisis in many people's minds. You remember the financial crisis, the worst since the Great Depression, the one that almost destroyed the economy? That one.

Everyone has an opinion about the crisis and how they would have responded to it if they had been in charge. You'll hear people say that they wouldn't have bailed out the banks and the government should have done this or that, and it would have been better that way, and blah, blah, blah.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Friday, September 28, 2018 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure defense attorney, financial crisis

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

Mr. Cooper

Our Mr. Cooper client was past due on her mortgage and in active foreclosure with a sale date scheduled. Her loan had been previously modified, but we helped her get a three month trial loan modification plan with $105 cheaper monthly payment!

Should You Use Retirement Money To Pay Your Mortgage And Avoid Foreclosure?

Not having enough money to pay your mortgage means making some tough choices. One choice that some homeowners find themselves pondering is whether or not they should take money from their retirement savings to make their mortgage payments.

Taking money from your retirement account is a big decision with serious consequences. Whether it's a good or bad idea for you depends on how much retirement savings you have and what's causing you to have trouble paying your mortgage.

When Spending Retirement on Mortgage Makes Sense

Taking a withdrawal from your retirement account to pay your mortgage could make sense if you have a ton of money in your retirement account and are experiencing a temporary hardship caused by a one-time expense.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Wednesday, September 19, 2018 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure, retirement

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

Loan Care

7 months and $15,052 past due on their mortgage, we helped our Loan Care clients get a 3 month FHA trial loan modification plan with $197.15 cheaper monthly payment!

What Bills Should You Pay When You're in Foreclosure?

When you fall behind on your mortgage payments, you don't instantly lose your home to foreclosure. It takes time for the legal process to play out. In 2016 it took more than 1,000 days on average to complete foreclosure. That's nearly three years, which is a long time to be living in your home without paying your mortgage.

While you're living in your home sans mortgage you will continue to have other bills, but money could still be tight, and your credit's in bad shape.

If that's the situation you're in, which of your remaining bills should you pay?

Pay Your Utilities

You are not going to be able to live in your house without electricity or plumbing, so you should continue to pay your electric, gas, water, and sewage bills even when you're not paying your mortgage.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Thursday, September 13, 2018 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure defense attorney

As if falling behind on your mortgage payments and being at risk of losing your home to foreclosure wasn't bad enough, it also costs you extra money in the form of fees, which make it even harder to get your mortgage back on track.

Being charged fees for not having enough money to pay your mortgage can feel like adding insult to injury. You didn't have enough money to pay the regular mortgage payments, now they add fees to that! Wonderful.

Unpleasant as it is, there's no getting around incurring some fees when you default on your mortgage. Your mortgage contract states that you will be charged fees in the event that you do not pay your mortgage in full and on time.

The amount of your missed payments, which include principal, interest, taxes and insurance, will make up most of the money you owe after defaulting, but the fees are nothing to sneeze at. Let's look at what some of them are.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Tuesday, September 11, 2018 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure defense attorney, foreclosure fees

Homeowners who fall behind on their mortgage sometimes lose their home to foreclosure because they fail to do simple things that could help them save their home. It's not that people don't want to save their home, or are stupid, they just don't have the knowledge and experience to understand how important it is to do some things and not do others.

Our law firm is very experienced in helping homeowners who are experiencing foreclosure. We've been in business for 10 years and have helped more than 7,000 homeowners stop or avoid foreclosure with a loan modification. So, we've seen every mistake that homeowners can make when they get into trouble with their mortgage. Here are some of the most common mistakes to avoid if you don't want to lose your home:

1. Not opening your mail

When you fall behind on your mortgage, you will receive important information in the mail. Your bank is required to send you a default letter/notice of intent to accelerate that tells you you will lose your home to foreclosure if you don't remedy the default. If you aren't able to avoid it, you will eventually be mailed a notification that a foreclosure sale date has been scheduled.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Saturday, September 8, 2018 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure, foreclosure defense attorney

Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week of 10/5/18

Bayview

Florida Foreclosure Defense Law Firm of Mark Stopa, "Stay In My Home", Files Bankruptcy

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week of 9/28/18

Ocwen

10 Years After The Financial Crisis, Don't Forget Foreclosure Victims

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week of 9/21/18

Mr. Cooper

Should You Use Retirement Money To Pay Your Mortgage And Avoid Foreclosure?

When Spending Retirement on Mortgage Makes Sense

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week of 9/14/18

Loan Care

What Bills Should You Pay When You're in Foreclosure?

Pay Your Utilities

What Fees Are You Charged in Foreclosure?

5 Ways To Lose Your House

1. Not opening your mail

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