Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog

Can You Go on Vacation If You're in Foreclosure?

Even under the best circumstances, everyone needs a vacation to get away from the grind of regular life, recharge their batteries, and spend some quality time with their loved ones. If you're behind on your mortgage or in foreclosure, you could probably use a stress-relieving vacation even more.

But is it appropriate to go on a vacation when you aren't paying your mortgage?

It depends on your particular circumstances, and what kind of money you're going to spend on your trip.

People generally don't stop paying their mortgage unless something went seriously wrong with their finances and/or life. We hear their stories all the time, and they're often tragic. Loss of income, cancer, divorce, and enormous debt burdens are all common for people who default on their mortgage. Nothing good causes a person to stop paying their mortgage.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Monday, July 25, 2016 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] loan modification, foreclosure, personal finance

Many homeowners find that something strange happens when they stop paying their mortgage: nothing much. After missing payments they get letters from their bank telling them that they have to pay up or else lose their home. They don't pay because they can't, but still nothing happens for a long time.

Some homeowners go many years without making a payment, falling behind by tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, and yet their house isn't sold at a foreclosure auction, the sheriff doesn't tell them to vacate the premises, and they're not thrown to the curb. Sometimes the collections calls even stop!

However, just because nothing seems to happen doesn't mean that the gears of foreclosure aren't turning or that the bank forgot that your loan isn't performing for them. Rest assured that they haven't forgotten about you and the money you owe them.

Illinois Couple Gets Trial Modification After Being 16 Months Past Due

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.

In 2008 an Illinois couple, who we'll call the Petersons to protect their privacy, purchased a home in the Chicago suburbs with a $216,464 loan from Citi Financial. By March of 2015 they had stopped making the $1,077 monthly mortgage payment because they could no longer afford it. By September of 2015 they were justifiably concerned that they would lose their home to foreclosure and hired Amerihope Alliance Legal Services to help.

Step One: Submit Loan Modification Application

Since the Petersons wanted to keep their home, getting a loan modification was the only hope they had to accomplish their goal. When approved, a loan mod will reinstate a loan and return it to normal servicing. Modified mortgage loans usually have a lower monthly payment and sometimes reduced principal as well.

We submitted the Peterson's modification application to their lender but weeks later, and while the application was under review, they were served a complaint letting them know they were in foreclosure.

Step Two: Answer Foreclosure Complaint

We responded to the complaint for our client, letting CitiFinancial know we intended to fight for our client to avoid foreclosure and keep their home.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Thursday, June 16, 2016 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] loan modification, successful loan modifications, foreclosure

The amount of debt American householdsowe on their mortgages increased in the first quarter of 2016 to its highest level in four and a half years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Quarterly report on Household Debt and Credit.

Delinquency rates, however, continued improving and remain at low levels, according to the report.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Wednesday, June 15, 2016 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] loan modification, foreclosure, mortgage debt

Are you financially secure? What do you think the odds are that things will be worse in the near future? Is the country about to repeat 2008?

Those are the questions on the minds of many Americans who are afraid the economy is poised to enter a recession.

A recession is defined as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale retail sales."

According to a recent Business Insider article, economists and stock analysts have had to address worry about a recession a lot this year. People are feeling insecure, and parts of the economy have been slowing down.

So are we in a recession, or about to be in one?

[fa icon="clock-o"] Tuesday, May 31, 2016 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure, foreclosure grief, foreclosure crisis, recession

On Tuesday, May 2, 2016 a Manhattan federal court convicted Dionysius Fiumano of “orchestrating a massive mortgage modification scheme through which he and his conspirators defrauded more than 30,000 American homeowners out of a total of approximately $31 million,” according to Christy Goldsmith Romero, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP).

Dionysius Fiumano, aka “D”, and his co-conspirators oversaw a sales staff of 65 telemarketers and managers from 2011 to 2014. Fiumano was the general manager of sales at Vortex Financial Management, Inc, which was also known as Professional Marketing Group (PMG), and Professional Legal Network. The company was based in Irvine, California and claimed to offer mortgage modification services.

PMG operated somewhat like a legitimate company, buying leads that gave them the contact information of homeowners who were behind on their mortgage payments and in danger of foreclosure and trying to get them to buy their "services."

[fa icon="clock-o"] Monday, May 23, 2016 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] loan modification, loan modification help, foreclosure, loan modification fraud

Yes, it is too late to save your home when you've received a writ of possession. To learn why, let's look at what it is.

A writ of possession is a court order that the sheriff will place on your door notifying you that you have to get yourself, your family, and all of your belongings out of your home after it is sold at a foreclosure auction or repossessed by the bank. The sheriff will come back 24/48/72 hours after posting the writ of possession to execute the writ, which is code for kicking you out.

It doesn't matter if you have nowhere else to go. At this point it's too late to do much.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Friday, May 20, 2016 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure defense, life after foreclosure, foreclosure, writ of possession

In the first quarter of 2016 the U.S. saw less foreclosure activity than in any quarter since the fourth of 2006. But New Jersey continues to struggle with a foreclosure rate that's much worse than the national average.

Nationwide, one in every 459 homes in the country had a foreclosure filing in the first quarter of 2016. But in the garden state it's one in 216.

According to RealtyTrac's Foreclosure Market Report the only state with more is Maryland with one in every 194 housing units having a default notice, scheduled foreclosure auction, or bank repossession.

Southern Jersey and Atlantic County are struggling particularly hard.

Are You a Victim of Predatory Lending?

What Exactly Is Predatory Lending?

[fa icon="clock-o"] Monday, May 2, 2016 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure, predatory lending

Texas police are accusing Christopher Brian Colbert of murdering Robert Shumway then pretending to be him to sell his house.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Friday, April 29, 2016 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure, foreclosure grief, news

Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog

Can You Go on Vacation If You're in Foreclosure?

You Could Be In Foreclosure And Not Even Know It

Illinois Couple Gets Trial Modification After Being 16 Months Past Due

Step One: Submit Loan Modification Application

Step Two: Answer Foreclosure Complaint

Mortgage Debt at Highest Level in 4 ½ Years, Delinquency Falls

Are We Headed Toward Another Recession?

Largest Loan Modification Scammer Ever Found Guilty in Federal Court

Is It Too Late to Save Your Home When You've Received a Writ of Possession?

New Jersey Number Two in Country for Foreclosures

Are You a Victim of Predatory Lending?

Texas Man Kills Victim, Impersonates Him to Sell His House

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