Verified Loan Modification Results
January 23rd, 2010 by adminA retiring Chicago city employee had her home loan with CitiMortgage modified to 2 percent on a 40 year amortization and granted a two month payment holiday to rebuild reserves. Her husband has social security and a small pension but She was facing a large drop in pay as her retirement date of June 30, 2009 was fast approaching.
She would be receiving a pension at only 40% of her prior pay and she didn’t have enough social security quarters to draw her own benefit. They had never been late on their mortgage so making a case for not being able to afford it might look opportunistic. I was very reluctant to take on this client because 31% of their future combined income was so low that I just couldn’t imagine CitiMortgage coming through for them so I advised that they try to sell the property while I made their plea for Making Home Affordable (MHA) with CitiMortgage.
They had listed their home with a local realtor and weren’t able to get any bites even at what they owed so this was a scary situation all the way around. I have only the highest regards for CitiMortgage loss mitigation department because they were willing to work on preventing a train wreck rather than watch idly by. This was a fairly aggressive loan mod application because our client maintained her perfect credit and headed off future problems by contacting us in advance of her drop in pay. See www.illinoismortgagemods.com to read more typical results.
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.
Verified Short Sale And Deed-in-lieu Results
December 2nd, 2009 by adminA Saint Charles man sued his lender (First Franklin) for improperly trying to foreclose on his second home. First Franklin agreed to a Short-Sale along with debt forgiveness for the $180,000 loss that First Franklin absorbed at closing. The homeowner also walked away with $20,000 at closing that was disclosed in the sales contract and settlement statement to lender, title company and buyer. The entire credit history of the foreclosure was removed from the homeowners credit history. If there is a problem with your loan there may a surprisingly positive solution available.
A Saint Charles man also sued First Franklin for Truth-in-Lending violations on the mortgage for his primary residence. He additionally defended against foreclosure with several mortgage fraud allegations. The foreclosure never moved forward. The other lawsuit settled out of court in a fully disclosed settlement that resulted in the homeowner offering the Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure and walking away with $33,000 while the lender suffered a $350,000 loss. The homeowner had no tax liability for the debt forgiveness due to the Mortgage Debt Relief Act.
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.
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.
