Approximately 250,000 families enter into foreclosure every 3 months due to delinquent home loan payments or delinquent property taxes. Each of these homeowners has one thing in common: they have to make the decision of whether or not to fight for their home. However, if you want to fight the foreclosure and keep your home, it's time to find a foreclosure defense attorney. Here are some reasons why:
Self-employed people earn a higher income on average than people who receive a regular paycheck, but they can have a harder time getting approved for a mortgage. They can also find it more difficult to get approved for a loan modification if they fall behind on their mortgage.
Some lawyers might tell you that you can't get a loan modification if you're self-employed. That's just not true. You can. However, it will most likely add more work to a process that already takes a lot of work.
The reason getting and modifying a mortgage is more difficult for self-employed people is that their income varies more than salaried and hourly workers and they don't have the pay stubs or W-2s that make it easy for banks to verify earnings.
Having your application for a mortgage loan modification accepted typically means being required to make a series of trial modification payments to prove you're able to pay your mortgage again. Passing that test means you're most of the way to your goal to a permanently modified loan.
But, even after making trial modification payments, some homeowners are still denied a permanently modified mortgage.
Here are some reasons that could happen:
If you're having problems with your mortgage, it's a good idea to communicate with your bank to see if you can work with them for some sort of agreement to stay out of foreclosure.
Your bank can choose to give you an unemployment forbearance that temporarily suspends your mortgage payments because of a job loss, for example. Or, if you're already behind on your mortgage payments due to a hardship, you may be able to get a loan modification that reinstates your mortgage with a more affordable payment.
Loan modifications are the only option many homeowners have to keep their home. The terms of the loan, such as the length of the loan, the interest rate, and the principal balance can be changed.
Loan modifications are a life saver for those who get them. Unfortunately, many Wells Fargo borrowers end up disappointed when they don't get the results they're looking for after trying to deal with the bank on their own. And Wells Fargo has a reputation as one of the most difficult banks to work with for a loan modification.
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.
Everybody needs help from professionals sometimes. That's especially true for people trying to save their home from foreclosure. Despite many homeowners best efforts, they're not able to get the results they want on their own because they lack the knowledge and experience needed to do so, and the consequences of failure are unacceptable. So they seek outside help.
That's the case with a recent client of ours who retained us to help them avoid foreclosure. To protect their privacy, let's call this couple the Livelys. The Livelys have a home in Bronx County, New York and they fell behind on their mortgage payments in August of 2013.
Solo Loan Modification Attempt
Since they wanted to keep their home, but didn't have the massive amount of cash ($91,251.00) needed to reinstate their loan, the Livelys applied for a loan modification which, if successful, would have gotten their loan back to normal and eliminated the threat of foreclosure. They submitted an RMA (Request for Modification Assistance) to Ocwen, their mortgage loan servicer.
A loan modification is the only thing that keeps the homeowners who apply for it from losing their home to foreclosure. It permanently lowers their monthly payment to an affordable portion of their income and enables them and their family to continue living in the home that they know and love.
So, given the work it takes to apply for a loan modification, the cost of hiring an attorney, and the prospect of foreclosure, you'd think that no one who has been approved for one would fail to follow the simple instructions for finalizing the agreement. But it happens all the time, and it prevents or delays the final approval of a modification.
Some problems in life are too tough to handle on your own. They're too complex and are outside of your areas of expertise. To address those problems you have to get help from someone who understands your issues from the inside out. Nowhere is that more true than for homeowners facing foreclosure.
But how do you even know what type of help you need, what options to pursue, and who to turn to? Many do it by trial and error...
So your mortgage payment has become more expensive than you would like it to be, and the house isn't worth what it used to be.
What are your options to improve things?
It depends on the specifics of your situation and what your goals are. If you want to keep your home, you can try to get the monthly payment lowered to a more affordable level. There are a couple ways to do that. Two of the most common are refinancing and loan modification. But which is right for your situation?
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?
If your loan modification was denied, don't worry: you're not alone. Loan modifications may be one of the hardest things to get approved without the assistance of an experienced attorney. After denial, your next step will depend on the reason why you were denied and where your home is in the foreclosure process.
