Here is a Windows Media player (.wma) file you can listen to!!  Great stuff!!  Then look at the side panel under the Loan Modification Pages to see more postings in this category and start to help yourself pull yourself back up by your bootstraps!!

After listening to this go to the right side bar and enter “loan modification” into the search field.  This will bring up all many postings in this category.  Also on the left sidebar look down to several spots where the file name starts with Loan Modification and then also look if there are sub posts or pages under that and read up on them as well.  This way you’ll end up being able to get the most out of your experience searching my blog for loan modifications!!  I also have some articles as well, let’s face it the site is full of loan modification data, but listen to this first!

You can also exit back out of the blog and go to the main website http://www.foreclosurefreedomnetwork.com and see some more videos on this subject!

Simple Steps for Loan Modifications Part 1 of 2

Now you can read along with the Windows Media File if you like!

This is Part One of Two in a Talk with Connie Saunders about simple steps for doing loan modifications.

Connie Saunders is a licensed California Realtor and a Certified Loss Mitigation Consultant.  She has also worked with lenders for 20 years and has a comprehensive understanding of the loan modification process, including how to stretch the envelope.  Connie is here today to share some tips on how to get a loan modification though on your home, if your current payments are too much to bear.  So Connie you’re not just a ‘Johnny come lately’ you have 20 years experience with lenders.  Let me ask you:

Q. Do you have any opinions on how this Country could pull itself out of the current Mortgage Crisis?  Do we have to tighten our belts or pull on a few bootstraps?

A.     Basically yes!  It’s bootstrap time, but there are two simple solutions to the Mortgage Crisis, in my opinion.  First, the government helped create the situation by allowing the money flow to unqualified sub-prime borrowers to begin with and they knew they were subprime.  The Real Estate market is an ever-evolving complex structure completely dependent upon supply and demand but There are time proven successful strategies banks have used for 50 years to keep this system well balanced.  But in the beginning of this Century Fannie and Freddie began to relax the rules and introduced/ or approved many bad loan products for Sub Prime borrowers.  To handle it is simple, let’s print some money and loan it to people who ARE qualified to pay it back so that we can get more buyers and make the interest low enough to help some of our credit worthy but troubled home owners be able to get into a better terms on a  re-finance.  Lenders know how to qualify buyers and at least during this emergency they should go back to ensuring buyers really are qualified.  The second and more basic way to solve this is to work to help homeowners to keep their homes where the workout solution is a better deal for the lenders than to foreclose.

Q. The lenders don’t want all that inventory.  Do you have any advice for    our listeners on how to get a loan modification?

A.       Yes.  First and foremost, it’s important to educate yourself on the process.  Even if you are using an attorney or other expert, the better you know the needs the better prepared you will be to get the best workout solution you can get.  For instance a lot of lenders do want to help people but some of their negotiators aren’t as educated as you, the homeowner, can be on what is a workable solution for you.  Because of this lenders are guilty of causing “unreasonable search and seizure of homes” violating the 4^th Amendment, by the way, failing to accept loan modifications that will help a person stay in their home and give lenders a greater return on investment than foreclosing.  This is backed up in detail in California Senate Bill 1137, for instance, which passed in July of ‘08.  Many States are beginning to fight back against this by the way, lender illogic, and so is the US Congress, Senate and our new President.   Now we just need to get the Lenders to cooperate with logic and reason and in all fairness I’m seeing some lenders are starting to offer much better workouts today than last year, not all, but some.  I highly advise all to visit my website and blog, where it has a great deal of information on ones rights and how to stress the logic and reason of your workout and get the best workout for your loan.

Q.    What is your website Connie?

A.      It’s (www.foreclosurefreedomnetwork (that’s one word).com) .

Q.     You say www dot foreclosure freedom network dot com?  Listeners’, you may want to write that down.  So let’s say you’re now educated on this subject; what’s the first thing you should do?

A. Well, you need to first see if you qualify for a loan modification.   It’s vital to be completely honest.  Any ‘fudging’ will likely be discovered in the process, so it’s also pointless to try to fudge, and would likely kill the deal if you submitted this.  On my blog you can get a Financial Form that will help you to total up profits and losses so that you can easily see your bottom line once all income and expenses are considered, save that and then adjust the income or expenses and see the new bottom line.  Be sure you are entering in monthly amounts for annual expenses like property or income taxes.  Do this until you adjust the bottom line to a slight plus!  This is where you will need to be to get the loan modified, in terms of lender viewpoint.  If these figures don’t force the principal balance of the mortgage down too far, you can reasonably request this reduction!  And you have a good chance of getting this through as long as you are educated on the subject, what to say and do, and when.

Part of this is to get an estimate on the Current Market Value of your home.  You can either ask a Realtor to help you or do it yourself by going to a website called www.zillow.com .  When there, enter in your property address and it pops up with an estimate of Current Value of your property that’s usually fairly accurate.

Q.          You say Zillow.com?  Is that right?

A.        Yes, Z I L L O W    dot   COM, no idea what that means.  So now you have your Current Value and will need To translate this into monthly dollars (principal and interest payments) to put on your financial form.  I use the free mortgage calculator that’s available at www.mortgage-calc.com.   Calculate what the monthly payments would be for a 30 or 40 year fixed loan at ‘the Current Market Value’ of your home using various interest rates to determine strong arguments for the workout you will be proposing.

Q. Let’s talk about the Office of the Controller of Currency.  I hear they are reporting 51% of all new loan modifications last year didn’t work out and are again in default, is that correct?

A. That is correct.  It’s a scary figure and that’s why people really need to educate themselves and take responsibility for their own condition and be their own boss on this!  And keep in mind it’s the homeowner who must approve the workout and sign for a modification, so they do have a choice and it’s not just this workout or “the highway!”

Q.    Thank you Connie for your help for our listeners out there.  Can some of them call you if they have any questions?

A.        Yes, they can call (877) 333-4506.

Q. That’s 8 7 7 3 3 3 4 5 0 6, correct?

A.          Yes, I welcome any listener’s questions and will try to assist them.  If it looks like it’s going to be more than a few minutes though and they do want my continued personal help and guidance, not just my website and blog, I do charge a small fee, but it is only after the loan is modified!

Thank you Connie and all our listeners.  We will be back soon with a part two in this series.