Many recent articles from local news stations have steadily condemned the loan modification industry.  I do in fact agree with some things.  However, I am sick of the broad generalizations, the accusations, and the “red flags” from many news reporters with no actual knowledge of the subject.  They massage certain situations to make it look as if you can trust no one.  The people you cannot trust are the banks themselves.  A person in this situation must have someone without emotional attachment to the home and professional knowledge to assist them if they want the best end result.  I am done with reading all of the bad news stories about people getting screwed.  I know that my company has helped many people in bigger ways than the homeowner thought possible and I don’t see any big write ups about us.
 
This “great” advice from these articles tells people to do it themselves or to use a HUD approved program.  You would be shocked and amazed if you saw the number of people who come to us and are more than willing to pay for services because they are sick of the never ending waiting game with these free services.  They come from some HUD approved program understanding that you get what you pay for.  A supposed “expert” from one of these programs even went as far as to say that a gambling addiction can be considered a hardship.  Gambling?  Really?  Oh, that is if they have the problem under control now.  How do you determine that?  Is it really responsible for someone who will spend their mortgage payment on a few games of black jack to own a home?  Is that good, sound, responsible advice?  What about not only taking a look at if it can be done but if it should?  Maybe that person could invest that extra $500 they save a month by renting,  into some therapy?  Pulling the wool over our eyes on what is really going on out there is what got us here in the first place.  We would not take on something like that, it does not make sense unless there is some good documentation to back it.
 
In some other “great” advice about doing it yourself they said that you must get a hold of the home retention or loss mitigation department.  They are not usually the ones that make the decisions, at least not the big, fat, juicy ones that cut your mortgage payment in half.  Very few people have any success working on their own.  And when you look at the fact that we usually get people a mortgage payment that would be $300-500 a month less than if they had gone at it on their own, and they more than recoup their costs in a year.  Another do it yourself tip of the day was to call the bank every other week to make sure things are moving along.  That is a great way to make sure that your foreclosure is moving along.  We check on a file with the bank every three days. There are thousand of these things going in to the bank.  If we do not call, then the file does not stay on the top of the pile.  It is forgotten.
 
I understand that the media thinks that they are helping people, but I am going to suggest that they do what we do in our modifications.  Look at all of the picture, from birds eye view.  Get the entire perspective of what is going on, and then bring the costs and benefits of all choices.  They are leading people down a path of over opinionated failure by putting out these articles.  I would invite them to come to our workshops and find out what is really going on before they write another article about this industry.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.