Stop Foreclosure Answer

If you have been reading my Blog, you know that I regularly emphasize that anyone facing foreclosure get the help of a lawyer or an expert in the foreclosure field to represent them. I do not encourage them to deal with their mortgage company on their own.

Today I want to tell you one reason and that has to do with loan modifications.

Anyone facing foreclosure is only familiar with their particular circumstances. They know that they are unable to make their mortgage payments. They frequently are not able to review their financial picture and determine what shape they are in financially. All they want to do is to save their home and they will do almost anything they have to save it.

When they contact their mortgage company to see if there is anything that the company can do, the mortgage company is going to get much information on their income and debt. However, the person to whom they talk is going to review it from the company’s perspective and not the perspective of the person facing foreclosure.

The representative from the mortgage company may recommend a plan to reduce the monthly mortgage payment and modify the mortgage but that may not be the best one for the person facing foreclosure.

As I have researched modifications which have been made in the past, I have seen that the majority don’t work. That’s because the modification was not right. Within a short period of time, the person facing foreclosure finds that the new monthly mortgage payment is still too high for them. They fall behind on the payments quickly and are right back facing foreclosure again.

Why is getting help from a lawyer or an expert better? As part of their job, they are going to review the finances of their client in detail. They are going to look at all of their bills and their monthly income. They are going to determine how much of a mortgage payment they can really make.

They will act as their representative with your mortgage company. In their discussions with the mortgage company, they will let their representative know how much of a monthly mortgage payment their client can afford to make. They will also explain how they arrived at that amount.

Most likely the representative from the mortgage company will accept what they offer because of the review that they have done. Their client will find it easier to make the payment. The chance of the client falling behind on the monthly mortgage payment again decreases. The mortgage company benefits because they don’t have to go through with the foreclosure.

So again – don’t represent yourself if you are facing foreclosure. Get a lawyer or an expert in the field to represent you.

Much Success,

Mark Elkins

I suggest that you sit down as you read this. What am I about to tell you is really troubling.

I just did some research. I went back and looked at the number of foreclosures in the United States on a yearly basis since 2005.

In 2005 there were 850,000. In 2006, there were 1,200,000. The number increased to 1,300,000. That almost doubled to 2,300,000 in 2008. Over the four years from 2005 through 2008 the total number of foreclosures was 5,650,000.

We all have been hearing about how severe this crisis is. Let me tell you – the predictions are that it is going to get much worse.

They are predicting that in 2009 there will be 2,400,000. Analysts at Credit Suisse, a financial services group, have predicted that in the four years from 2009 through 2012 there will be 9 million foreclosures.

Let me repeat that – 9 million foreclosures. That is almost double the number of foreclosures from 2005 through 2008. We thought that the number of foreclosures in 2008 was high and that the number would most probably drop. Boy, were we wrong.

Is the system going to be able to handle the volume? Are the new people who will be facing foreclosure going to be able to get the help they need to fight it and save their homes? How many people are going to fall through the cracks and lose their homes because of an overwhelmed system which can’t handle the volume?

As I think about this, I realize that in the next four years, it is going to be crucial, yes – crucial, for people facing foreclosure to get help from a lawyer or an expert in the field as soon as the process starts. Otherwise, they may get lost in the process and lose the home the most desperately wanted to save.

If you happen to be facing foreclosure or feel that you may become a victim of it down the road, start to do the work today to save your home. Check in your area to see which lawyers are the best at fighting foreclosure. Find out the names of the best experts at loan modifications. Talk to them. Choose the one you are most comfortable with and ask them to represent you.

Much Success,

Mark Elkins

I am sure that you would agree that this foreclosure crisis is causing all types of havoc here in the United States. Many people facing foreclosure are fighting to save their homes. Various people and organizations are doing what they can to help them.

Mortgage companies have victimized some people. People, organizations and government officials have come to their aid. County sheriffs have even stopped evictions.

Churches and organizations have made mortgage payments for people facing foreclosure. They also have put on seminars and training which helps people who are facing foreclosure know what options are open to them.

Community organizations are representing people who apply for a loan modification. Lawyers are volunteering to represent people who were deceived or victimized by mortgage companies and loan officers when they got their mortgages.

What we haven’t seen yet is any organization start to put all the resources available in one place to help people facing foreclosure. No organization is pulling together what is working in different areas of the country.

This is still a grassroots effort. However, I can see the day coming where there are organizations which know all that can be done to help people facing foreclosure save their home. These will be like one stop shops where a person facing foreclosure goes and finds out exactly what they need to do to save their home. The organizations then either provide the help themselves or refer the person to the lawyer or expert who can do this.

I don’t know when we will get to that point but it is coming.

Much Success,

Mark Elkins

Earlier this month I read a story which really had an impact on me. It was about how people, a credit counseling service and politicians helped a Man suffering from Cancer and his family save their home from foreclosure. His mortgage company was inflexible. However, many people they didn’t even know jumped in to help the family out.

Let me tell you about it.

A man in New Hampshire, Angelo Kontarinis, has cancer of the kidney. He was diagnosed with it in 2007. By the fall of 2008 the cancer had spread to his lungs and brain. Angelo had been an adjunct professor at an art institute. As his disease progressed he had to stop working.

As you can see the cancer now is in advance stages.

Angelo and his wife contacted their mortgage company, Taylor Bean and Whitaker. They had not missed any mortgage payments. They knew that with all of their expenses and with Angelo unable to work, they would not be able to continue to make them. They wanted to work with Taylor, Bean and Whitaker to modify their mortgage.

The people at Taylor, Bean and Whitaker told them that their company would not consider modifying their mortgage payment until they missed the monthly payment for three months. Angelo and his wife fell three months behind on their payments.

They then found that the mortgage company would not even talk with them. For five months any time they were in touch with Taylor, Bean and Whitaker, the company’s representatives were rude to them. In late April of this year the Kontarinis family received a letter from an attorney. The letter indicated that their home would be auctioned off on May 8.

Angelo and his wife figured that they and their children were destined to be homeless. After he became aware of his cancer, Angelo has found a forum on the internet for people with cancer of the kidney, their relatives and friends and doctors. He found that on that forum he could get advice, support and encouragement.

He decided to let the people on the forum know that his home was being auctioned off. So he posted a message about it. He didn’t realize the support that he would get.

The people on the forum jumped in to help out. They called and emailed Taylor, Bean and Whitaker over and over again. One person called the company about 21 times. Angelo’s supporters also got the office of a Consumer Credit Counseling Service and some of the politicians in his area including a state senator involved.

On a Thursday night at the end of April Angelo and his wife were shocked. A case manager for Taylor, Bean and Whitaker called them. In 10 minutes this case manager modified their mortgage lowering their interest rate and monthly mortgage payment. The new payment is one they can make. All of this was done over the phone and in 10 minutes.

When I read this story, my heart went out to the Kontarinis family. Angelo’s condition is severe. He did not have to endure the added burden of possibly being foreclosed on and having to move. I wondered if the anxiety he was experiencing from this aggravated his cancer.

I was glad to see how people most of whom he did not know came to his aid and went to bat for him with Taylor, Bean and Whitaker. They were the ones who were instrumental in getting the mortgage company to change their position and to modify the mortgage.

The way Taylor Bean and Whitaker handled this right from the start is disgusting. They should have never treated Angelo and his wife the way they did. Rather than being rude they should have been empathetic. They could have gotten all the information they needed much earlier and modified the mortgage much earlier.

The sad thing is Taylor, Bean and Whitaker is not the only mortgage company that acts this way. Similar complaints have been made about other mortgage companies. I am sure that you have heard similar stories on radio or television. You may have read about them in the newspaper, a magazine or on the internet.

This is one of the reasons I recommend that people facing foreclosure get help from a lawyer or an expert in the field. They know what these mortgage companies are doing and know how to deal with them.

Anyone facing foreclosure should not have to experience anything like this.

Much Success,

Mark Elkins

On April 28, the Obama Administration addressed one of the shortcomings of the Making Home Affordable Modification Program.

The original program was announced in early March.  In this program the interest rates and the monthly payments for people facing foreclosure are reduced on first mortgages so that people can save their homes.

It is estimated that up to 50% of people facing foreclosure have both first and second mortgages on their home.  .One hole in the program was that it did not address the problem of these people facing foreclosure who also had second mortgages.

This shortcoming was addressed with the addition of the Making Home Affordable Second Lien Program on April 28.  This new program states that when a first mortgage is modified under the program, the second mortgage will automatically be modified too.

There are two types of second mortgages.

One is a fixed second mortgage where the monthly payments are for principal and interest.  These payments are fixed.  Under the Making Home Affordable Second Lien program, the interest rate on these mortgages will be reduced to 1% for 5 years.  After that the rate will rise to the rate on the first mortgage.

The other type is a Home Equity Loan.  On this loan the monthly payment is interest only.  Under the new program the interest rate will be reduced to 2% for 5 years.  After that the rate will rise to the rate on the first mortgage.

I am just giving a general overview here of this latest addition to this program. There are more detailed guidelines on how this works.

I believe that this new second lien program will help more people facing foreclosure protect their families and save their homes.

Much Success,

Mark Elkins