Can’t Pay Your Mortgage? Don’t Pay a Fee For a Loan Modification Until You Read This!
If you are having trouble paying your mortgage or afraid you might be in trouble once your adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) resets, you are probably noticing advertisements all over the place for people or companies claiming they can help you get your loan modified.
Before you pay anything to anyone, make sure you have the real scoop on loan modification. Here’s what you need to know:
1. What is loan modification?
Loan modification means your lender has agreed to reduce your interest rate or stretch out the length of your loan, thereby reducing your payments. This reduction can be a permanent reduction or it may be a short-term reduction. All of the terms of a loan modification are negotiable.
2. Can you negotiate your own loan modification?
Yes, you absolutely can negotiate your own loan modification. If you have the time and energy to focus your energy on this and you feel confident in your negotiation skills, give it a shot on your own before paying someone else to handle it for you, by all means.
3. Should you pay someone to negotiate your loan modification for you?
If you do not have the time or do not feel confident negotiating your own loan modification, you can hire someone to negotiate on your behalf, but make sure you take my guidance on this before you do.
There’s a lot of companies springing up and jumping into the loan modification market. In many cases, these are the same unscrupulous mortgage brokers who put you into your loan in the first place. Do not pay anyone other than a lawyer to negotiate your loan modification!
I’ve seen many companies representing that they are lawyer-backed or lawyer-associated. These are not lawyers. Do not pay them to negotiate your loan modification.
In some cases, we are seeing people pay up to $5,000 to one of these companies just to have the company send out a single letter to the lender requesting loan modification, get denied and say “Sorry we couldn’t help you. Good luck!” and then you are stuck in the same situation you were before, but with even less money. That’s the last thing you need.
4. Who should you hire to handle your loan modification?
You should hire a lawyer who has experience reviewing loan documents and negotiating loan modifications and has a proven track record in the financial industry.
You see, in many cases the loans were not issued properly and a lawyer who knows what to look for in the loan paperwork may find defects that can be used as leverage points in the negotiations.
Plus, your lawyer is in a fiduciary relationship to you. This means that your lawyer must act in your best interest, not his or her own, or your lawyer faces losing his or her bar license. These fly by night loan modification companies have no real risk if they screw you over because chances are they will be out of business within the next three years anyway. Not your lawyer.
5. Should you pay upfront for loan modification services?
You should only pay upfront for loan modification services if you are working with a lawyer or someone licensed by your State to accept upfront payments for loan modification. And, you should find out if there is a guarantee program available in case the loan modification is not successful and what your responsibilities are under the guarantee.
6. How much should you expect to pay for loan modification?
Loan modification handled by a reputable lawyer Personal Family Lawyer is likely to run you between $3,500 and $5,000. There are companies offering loan modification services in the $1,500 or $2,000 range, but these are the ones to look out for because oftentimes homeowners are finding that these are take the money and run kinds of places. If you have paid upfront to a loan modification company and they were not able to obtain a modification for you, do talk to a qualified lawyer who handles loan modification Personal Family Lawyer and they may be able to get the funds you paid to the loan modification company back for you.
Written by Alexis Martin Neely, mom, writer, speaker and Personal Family Lawyer. Alexis makes it super easy for your family to talk about and plan for sticky subjects like money, death and taxes. Get Alexis’ humorous, enlightening, and often quite revealing “Family Wealth Secrets” at: www.FamilyWealthMatters.com.
A Plan for Getting Your Investment Portfolio Back On Track
If you have any money in the stock market at all right, now, you are probably concerned about the losses to your investment portfolio. The Motley Fool has recently issued a report called You Can Do It, Rebuilding Wealth After the Crisis. This report gives tips on assessing the damage to your portfolio and gives constructive suggestions to implement going forward so that you can rebuild your wealth.  You can download a copy by using the link below.
Possible Effects of Obama’s Presidency on Your Finances
Mike Patton, a fnacial planning professional with the firm of Integrity Wealth Management, LLC, has posted the following article where he summarizes some of the changes we may see with the new administration.
http://integritywealth.us/obama_presidency.pdf
Use the link above to download the article, which addresses potential changes to the estate tax and income tax rules that may be made by Obama’s administration. Only time will tell if any of these proposals come to fruition. But now more than ever it is a good time to make sure your own financial plan is in place, so that you can maximize any opportunities to build and protect your wealth.
Is it Better to Buy a Home, or Rent?
Conventional wisdom says buy, but depending on your particular situation, and how long you plan on staying in the house, renting may be the most financially sound option. Check out this calculator and article from the New York Times. The calculator takes into account transaction costs, and costs of owning a home, such as repairs and improvements to give a realistic assessment of how the costs of owing a home compares to renting one.
You also should consider that when you rent, there is less of a temptation to spend money decorating and improving your home. Of course, money isn’t the only consideration, and there are other reasons to buy, such as the pride of ownership, and the comfort of knowing your home is yours (or at least yours and your mortgage lender’s), which the calculator doesn’t factor in.Â
Try the calculator out, it adds some logic to a very emotional decision.
Helpful Forms for Executors and Succession Representatives Available Online - FREE
When a loved one dies, there are numerous details that need to be handled. These include things like cancelling subscriptions, notifying insurance companies, and notices to creditors. Although handling a succession in Louisiana is probably not something you want to undertake without legal assistance, you can save money on legal fees by handling some of these administrative matters yourself. My virtual law website, www.Louisianawillforms.com, offers the following estate administration forms at no charge:
- Cancelling of deceased subscriptions
- Notice to creditors of death
- Notice of Homeowner’s insurance company of death
- Notice to stop social security payments after death
- Request for Death Certificate
- Request for Life Insurance Claim Forms
- Request for Life Insurance Proceeds
The online website allows you to prepare these forms online quickly and easily, and legal advice is an email away. If you need help with a Louisiana succession, and are trying to minimize costs by handling some of the leg work yourself, visit www.LouisianaWillForms.com today for more information.