If you are behind on your mortgage payments and think you need the help of a professional, you'll find that there are no shortage of attorneys willing to take you on as a client. But, there are many different types of attorneys with different experiences, resources, and points of view. For example, a law firm specializing in intellectual property law probably would not be the best choice if you need foreclosure defense and loan modification help, any more than an ear, nose, and throat doctor would be the best choice if you need surgery on your knee.
One of the fundamental principles of capitalism is that, if there are a sufficient number of consumers who wish to purchase a product or service, a market will be created to sell it to them. If there's money to be made meeting some need or want, whether it's real or imagined, vital or not, some entrepreneur will provide it and try to turn a profit. We're all grateful that farmers meet our need for food, and Hollywood meets our desire for entertainment (sometimes), and we're happy to hand over our money for those things. But there will always be some entrepreneurs who are intent on making money by deception, or by taking advantage of consumers who wish to purchase a miracle.
You can't fix a problem you don't know you have, and foreclosure is a very serious problem indeed. Home loans are valuable investments for a lender, and you can bet that if you stop payment on yours, you will be hearing from them asking you where their money is and if you intend to catch up, and eventually telling you to get out so they can sell the property to someone else.
If your home is underwater (worth less than what you owe on it), and you've tried and failed to modify the terms of your loan or come to another agreement with your lender, you may be wondering if it's wise to continue making payments on the property. Is there a way out?
Few people have been more universally hated throughout history than tax collectors. They take your hard-earned money, but it always seems like too much for what the government they represent provides in return. It's a story as old as civilization. Nobody likes paying taxes.
Americans love to envy the lavish lifestyles of celebrities when they are on top, and to witness their fall from grace. Despite having tremendous wealth and the love and admiration of millions of people, movie stars, musicians, professional athletes, and other famous or infamous people, have found themselves in the same situation as many regular Americans. That is, unable to make their mortgage payments and threatened with foreclosure by the bank.
Foreclosure is a major crisis for the people who experience it. It's something you never thought would happen, otherwise you would not have taken out a mortgage loan. You may feel that you need the help of an attorney, but deciding what type, and who among them you should hire is no easy task.
If you're concerned about your mortgage, you may have done a web search for MERS and found that the top results are for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. That MERS probably isn't worth worrying about if you don't live in the Middle East. But the other MERS, the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, is an important part of the problems surrounding fraudulent foreclosures, robo-signing, and the housing crisis.
The Mortgage Electronic Registration System is an entity created by the real estate financing industry to allow them to transfer mortgages notes privately, avoid paying local registration fees, and allow a market in mortgages to operate effectively. With MERS, the mortgage notes are stored in a privately-held electronic database, not on paper in a public office. Every time a mortgage is bought and sold, MERS makes an electronic record of the transaction. No matter who really owns the note, MERS remains the “legal assignee."
Times are tough. The effects of the recession and housing crisis have left you in a less-than-ideal financial situation, and now you're having trouble making your mortgage payments. You may be thinking about trying to get a loan modification to lower your interest rate, or you may be worried that a foreclosure is in your future. You know that if a loan modification is successful, your monthly payments could be reduced to a more manageable level. You also know that your chances of getting a loan modification approved without an attorney are slim, but you don't know if you can afford an attorney.
Alternatively, you may think the result is a forgone conclusion, and that there is no point in paying an attorney to tell you what you already know, that you're going to lose your home.
Editor's note: This article was originally published March 2013, and has been updated in August 2015.
So you've recently had your loan modification denied and can't figure out why?
You’ve handled tax forms; you’ve filled out car applications, job applications, and credit card applications. And a loan modification is just another application. Are you thinking to yourself: How hard could it be? Unfortunately, a loan modification might be the hardest thing to get approved without the help of an attorney.
Ask yourself this question: Do you know your DTI “debt to income” ratios? Your Net Present Value (NPV) and how to structure it?
What about organizing and keeping track of all of your final loan modification papers to ensure that nothing is left out?
