A St. Charles residential contractor gave up on waiting for building to rebound and retired to a small carpentry pension and social security. I prepared his Chapter 7 bankruptcy so that he could strip away all his other debt and try to hang onto his home. I then submitted a mortgage modification request to Chase/EMC and they very generously modified his subprime loan into a prime loan and cut his payment by 50%. There is now no question he will be able to afford the payments going forward and enjoy retirement as a homeowner.

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It could be as low as 2% on a 40 year amortization. Your modified payment will depend primarily on your Current Income. Therefore, lower income means lower rates. Interestingly, the traditional risk variables that would ordinarily determine your interest rate when applying for a loan are turned on their head with the Making Home Affordable (MHA) loan modification program. Can you imagine going back a couple years and having a banker say to you, “We could give you a lower rate if you were delinquent or even if you just made less money but it appears that you can afford to pay more than your neighbor so that’s what we are going to charge”. Homeowners that are interested in benefitting from MHA shouldn’t put off applying for the home-equivalent of “Cash-for-Clunkers”. The auto industries 3 Billion dollar bucket of money is almost gone and mortgage servicers have really gotten their act together on participating in MHA so even the much larger 75 billion dollar bucket will tap out. There are gotchas within MHA guidelines just like there were with Cash-for-Clunkers but qualifying candidates should come out of it with a payment at 31% of their gross income even if that means a 6 month delinquent borrower gets reset as low as 2% on a 40 year amortization! If you want to see if you may qualify for a MHA loan modification then contact your mortgage servicer, a real estate attorney or use the free online evaluation at: www.illinoismortgagemods.com

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A Geneva man received $5,000 “Cash for Keys” to hand over the keys to his home rather than fight foreclosure. The house had been on the market for a long time with no serious offers and was worth far less than the mortgage loan amount.

Have you experienced a reduction in income? Has your mortgage rate adjusted up? Have you gotten so far behind that you can’t catch up but could make future payments at a lower rate if your loan was reset? Are you just in a really lousy subprime loan and would like something better? It is possible to seek a loan modification on your own directly with your lender or through a government counseling center. That should be easier to do but the fact is that it isn’t. Many of my clients have tried to do it on their own and were frustrated. By all means don’t even consider paying anyone a large upfront fee to seek a loan modification on your behalf however, I do recommend that you consider using a real estate attorney that requires only a small retainer and charges for obtaining loan modifications and not just for applying for them.

Most of my clients seek mortgage modifications but if you just want out and are looking to not walk away empty handed then maybe one of these other solutions would make more sense for you. Use the free online evaluation at www.illinoismortgagemods.com to see what options are available.

Johnloutier (Real Estate Attorney licensed in Illinois)& Mile Sullivan, more info http://illinoismortgagemods.com/

A new home buyer with perfect credit, a large down payment and plenty of income might qualify for 5.5% on a 30 year fixed mortgage whereas a current homeowner with terrible credit, no equity and reduced income can qualify for as low as 2%. Hey, no one said life is fair. There are many people who can benefit for the MHA program. Have you experienced a reduction in income? Has your mortgage rate adjusted up? Have you gotten so far behind that you can’t catch up but could make future payments at a lower rate if your loan was reset? Are you just in a really lousy subprime loan and would like something better? It is possible to seek a loan modification on your own directly with your lender or through a government counseling center. That should be easier to do but the fact is that it isn’t. Many of my clients have tried to do it on their own and were frustrated. By all means don’t even consider paying anyone a large upfront fee to seek a loan modification on your behalf however, I do recommend that you consider using a real estate attorney that requires only a small retainer and charges for obtaining loan modifications and not just for applying for them. Whichever route you choose, the lenders for Making Home Affordable all have the same guidelines and will need to review the same documents. Gather your 2008 federal tax return, last 30 days paystubs, last two months bank statements, be able to express your hardship in continuing your current mortgage payments. If you are self employed then the 2007 tax return may also be needed and a year to date profit & loss. The website referred to above has a H&R tax preparer registered with the IRS on staff (In addition to a Real Estate Attorney) so preparing past due returns and a current profit & loss can be done quickly.

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We achieved our first mortgage modification in April of 2008 and have now successfully worked on behalf of our clients with most major lenders. Please contact us ASAP so that we can review your situation and determine whether the “Making Home Affordable” program is likely to be available to you. Our attorney can be retained for only $500 upfront with any/all remaining funds due AFTER a loan modification has been offered to you. Do not pay ANY upfront loan modification fees to ANYONE that isn’t an attorney licensed to practice law in Illinois. Retain an attorney and pay for results!. Falling Behind? Don’t Wait! If you are currently delinquent, have experienced a reduction in income or are going through savings to keep up on the mortgage then act now

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If you don’t Qualify or just Want Out!

Not everyone wants or will qualify for the “Making Home Affordable” program. If your home is worth seriously less than what you owe or you have other non-mortgage debt that is making keeping the home undesirable then there are better solutions for you. The most common other loss mitigation resolutions are: Short-Sale, Deed-in-Lieu and Forbearance. Not keeping the home can mean walking away from the debt, income tax relief and even receiving cash-for-keys! Please submit the same free online evaluation at www.illinoismortgagemods.com or just call them at 630-687-5012.

The first loan modification that I did was for myself in 2007 and I have been assisting homeowners ever since with this sometimes frustrating process. You absolutely can successfully get a loan modification on your own and anyone who tells you differently has an eye on your wallet. That said, it will be very frustrating, even all-consuming, to try to complete this process on your own. The lender is willing to work with you and the government even has free loan counseling but your best advocate is someone working on your behalf, not the lenders or for some non-profit. I don’t mean pay a large upfront fee, don’t do that. I suggest hiring a real estate attorney with a small upfront retainer that only charges for success and not submissions. If you hire a third party to represent you then you should expect the lender to recognize the third party agreement within 48 hours. The lender should also acknowledge receipt of a full loan modification submission with 48 hours of your providing the third party all the requested documentation. You should contact your lender directly even after hiring a representative (Trust but Verify) and make sure the rep has established a relationship on your behalf and has submitted a FULL MODIFICATION PACKAGE promptly. Be very alarmed if your representative suggests intentionally getting further delinquent on your mortgage when you can in fact pay. The Making Home Affordable program can provide payment relief for borrowers that have NEVER been late. Lastly, these modifications no longer take that long so 2-4 weeks is now a reasonable response time, if your rep is telling you something different then your file is just sitting in the pile.

The clock is ticking on this 75 Billion dollar government subsidy so don’t wait to apply and get impatient if nothing seems to be happening. This program will end sooner than you think and many homeowners that continue to make their agreed payments are plenty jealous to see others get bailed out while they are on the hook. If you think you might qualify for the generous program then at least do the fee online evaluation. This is the opposite of a normal refinance. In this program- Bad credit is good, low income is better than high income, delinquency is better than timely payments so now you will qualify if you would normally be turned down.

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A West Chicago man that lost his foreclosure hearing and had a sale date scheduled is still in his home after not making a payment for 24 months! His lender is Countrywide and once I got his file into the loss mitigation department they cancelled the sale date. There are now working on qualifying him for the Making Home Affordable program and he is likely to keep his home. He is capable of making payments going forward but can’t make up the 24 months past due. I have been able to help clients avoid upfront forbearance payments on all my loan modifications so 24 months without a payment is really 24 months without a payment!

The MHA program is the first real loan modification program that is making worthwhile modifications whereby homeowners come out of it with a payment they can afford. These modifications are proving to have a much lower re-default rate than previous half-hearted efforts that amounted to not much more than forbearance plans. Those stingy initial loss mitigation efforts resulted in such high re-default rates that the notion of continuing to modify mortgages at all became in serious doubt. Thankfully, the MHA program came along with a balanced view of lender, investor and finally HOMEOWNER interest in mind.

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Almost every lender/servicer cautions homeowners against paying third parties to assist with their loan modification applications. Every participating lender in the Making Home Affordable (MHA) loan modification program is capable of working directly with their borrowers to process these applications without third party assistance. There is also free government loan counseling help for homeowners that are struggling to work directly with their lenders. On the other hand, many of my clients first tried unsuccessfully on their own and were then surprised at how much quicker and better the results were when I was advocating for their application. I have a Bartlett client that was told he did not qualify for a MHA loan modification by both his servicer (National City) and a government counselor. I was able to get him into the MHA program in less than a week. I was able to get a Des Plaines client a mortgage modification with Washington Mutual on their rental home in Florida even though rental properties aren’t even included in the MHA program. Whichever route you go, make sure not to pay large upfront fees and that loan modification charges are for obtaining a loan modification not submitting your application. In Illinois, make sure that any upfront fees are for retaining a real estate attorney. Homeowners that are interested in benefitting from MHA shouldn’t put off applying for the home-equivalent of “Cash-for-Clunkers”. The auto industries 3 Billion dollar bucket of money is almost gone and mortgage servicers have really gotten their act together on participating in MHA so even the much larger 75 billion dollar bucket will tap out. If you want to explore retaining a real estate attorney to process your mortgage modification application correctly then use the free online evaluation at:

www.illinoismortgagemods.com

Examine the list of 37 servicers we know are participating. Your mortgage may also qualify if Fannie or Freddie own it. American Home Mortgage Servicing, Aurora Loan Services, Bank of America, Bayview Loan Servicing, CCO Mortgage Services, Chase Financial, CitiMortgage, Citizens First Wholesale Mortgage, Countrywide Home Loans, Farmers State Bank, First Bank, First Federal Savings and Loan, GMAC mortgage, Green Tree Servicing, Home Loan Services, IBM Southeast Employees Federal Credit Union, Lake National Bank, Mission Federal Credit Union, MorEquity, Mortgage Center, National City Bank, Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial Corp, PNC Bank, Purdue Employees Federal Credit Union, RG Mortgage Corp, Residential Credit Solutions, Saxon Mortgage Services, Select Portfolio Servicing, ShoreBank, Technology Credit Union, Wachovia Mortgage, Wachovia Bank, Wells Fargo, Wescom Central Credit Union, Wilshire Credit Corp.

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