THREE YEAR FORECLOSURE

by Tasha
(Lawrence, Ma.)

When my husband lost his business and became ill shortly after, I also lost my job. This was 4 plus years ago. We maxed our credit cards to pay our mortgage and bills, when that ran out we fell behind on our mortgage, at one point we owed them 15,000.00 between late fees, attorney fees, foreclosure fees. It took 2 yrs for my husband's diability to be approved, I was hired at minimum wage. We still owe back payments. We've been denied the Hamp program 3 times. We're applying again for the 3rd time for a traditional loan modification, it seems as though they're stalling, we are scraping by to make the payment of 1554.00, relying on fuel assistance and foodstamps, never able to save a penny. My question is are they stalling to get the money we owe and then just proceed with the foreclosure? How many times, can we apply for a modification? How long can we be in foreclosure? Please help we can't afford an attorney. Sincerely, Tasha.


Mortgage Modification Answer:

Hi Tasha,

I'm truly sorry to hear about your unfortunate hardships and that your loan modification has been taking so long -- causing you to believe that your lender is only stalling to get as much money from you before they actually finalize the foreclosure.

There is no way to know what your bank's intentions are. The only thing that anybody can do is to take a look at all your hardship and financial situation, and then look at your bank's loan modification guidelines to see if you indeed qualify.

Banks have been widely criticized for stalling and not having any urgency in helping homeowners in financial distress. Statistics also show that homeowners attempting to do their loan modifications and negotiations on their own have gotten poor results.

I'm assuming that your bank has started foreclosure proceedings and have been issuing extensions and postponements as long as you are making payments according to a repayment plan? By the way, the bank can do this indefinitely until they feel, for whatever reason, they want to go ahead and finish the foreclosure So it is crucial for you to get control of driving your loan modification to closure sooner rather than later.

I don't have any details of your financials so it would be hard to determine whether or not you would be a good candidate for your bank's in house or traditional loan modification program.

At this juncture, since you are not getting anywhere with your lender, I would recommend enlisting the help of a reputable professional loan modification company to help you.

Since you mentioned you do not have the money to hire an attorney, fill out the short pre-qual form here so you can get a good assessment of your chances from a company who doesn't charge upfront fees and a proven success record. This company helped a personal friend of mine who had been trying on their own with the help of her brother who is a real estate and mortgage broker himself for over a year, with no success and multiple denials from their bank. She had been diagnosed with cancer and her husband's work hours had been cut. This company successfully negotiated a loan modification approval within four months of re-application because they have the experience and knowledge to navigate and negotiate with the bank.

If you would like to talk to me further and in private, contact me here and leave your tel# and I will be more than happy to call you to discuss further.

Keep your chin up. You are not alone.

All the best,
Grace