It’s little bit confusing which one to try first when you face the hardship and you have the monthly mortgage payment to pay.  You get lots of advices from everywhere or even if you search on Google,  you will find lots of different suggestions.  Well, It all depends on your current financial situation and your decision whether to stay in your house or to sell it.

I know some home owners who had asked me the same question – “Should I do loan modification or short sale?“  So, I have created a small video where you can see me explaining about loan modification and short sale.

I hope the above video helps you to decide which one is good for you according to your current situation. But if you have further questions or need my help to decide which might be good for you(loan modification or short sale), then please don’t hesitate to contact me at 510-366-9405 or email me.

Currently, there are many lawyers who are helping help homeowners to modify their mortgage, well, do you think that all lawyers are good in helping homeowners with their loan modification? The answer is, No, not all lawyers are good in helping homeowners in loan modification.

I just read one article today in kansascity.com that one homeowner contacted the United Law Group for his loan modification and paid upfront $2,000 for their service and they even promised that they will delay his foreclosure with “forbearance” but they failed to do that also and the homeowner hired another lawyer to file bankruptcy. He got lucky that bank agreed a new payment plan and saved his house. But, not everyone is getting lucky at that last moment of facing foreclosure.

The California State Bar is investigating more than 400 lawyers who are suspected of ripping off thousands of homeowners nationwide.  I think that recent foreclosures attracted many lawyers to get into this side of business to make more money.

One of friend’s coworker contacted an attorney to do the loan modification and they asked to pay upfront $3,500 which she couldn’t afford and they suggested that “miss your payment in order to pay their fees”.  I think that is unethical advice to miss the monthly mortgage payment in order to pay the lawyers fees. 

The sad thing is these lawyers don’t even check whether the homeowner can even qualify for loan modification or not, they just get their fees and give promises that they can modify their loan, but in reality, you cannot promise that the bank will modify the loan or not or what kind of modification the homeowner will get.

There are certain criteria in order to qualify for loan modification, so check those qualifications with your lender, lawyer or experienced real estate agent before you work on your loan modification process.  If you do not qualify for loan modification then check other alternatives like short sale.

My advice to homeowners is that, you need to check any reference or lawyer’s background before you even begin working with them for your loan modification. Ask them “how many loan modifications did they complete successfully” and ask for reference and give them a call to check how the lawyer did their loan modification and what kind of modification did they get.   You can also work directly with your lender without paying any fees to anyone to modify your loan. Many homeowners are getting success working directly with the bank to modify their loan.

Let me know if you have any questions on loan modification, you can reach me at 510-366-9405, I would be happy assist you.

If you are doing loan modification and not getting any response from your loan modification company then you better check whether that company is still around or not.

The new law which passed requires the loan modification company to get $75,000 surety bond.  This bond is to make sure that these loan modification companies do their job and this also protects the homeowner. If these companies do not keep up their promise to modify the loan, then there’s a provision where home owners can get their money back.

According to lasvegasnow.com, 30 loan modification companies will be shut down on 11/3/09 for not following the new law. Under the new law, if the company operates without license then they can face criminal charges and fines.  Elisabeth Daniels with the Department of Business and Industry says companies that failed to comply will be forced to stop operating.  She said “They will have 10 days to show they have stopped business, closed up shop and that they have refunded the customer what they owe to them based on contract that they have with customer homeowner”

I’m sure this new law will change the way these loan modification runs their business and many homeowners can be protected from these scammers.

Homeowners who are facing difficulty and cannot pay your current monthly mortgage payment then contact your bank directly for loan modification.  You don’t have pay any dime to these loan modification companies since you can do it for free by contacting your bank. Don’t wait too long to do anything to avoid foreclosure.

If you are in bay area and would like to know more about loan modification, short sale or to sell your house then you can call me at 510-366-9405, your bay area short sale specialist and I would be happy to assist you or call me even if you would like to say hi to me.