How would you like to slash your mortgage payments by 10% … 20% or even 50%? Then you may want to consider asking your lender for a loan modification. If you are one of the millions of American families these days unable to make those monthly payments, it is definitely an option to consider.
Maybe you’ve heard the term loan modification, but you aren’t exactly sure what it means. Mortgage modification is a permanent change to your loan agreement designed to bring your payments down to a manageable level due to some sort of long-term or short-term financial crisis.
There are several ways in which a mortgage can be altered in a modification:
1. By extending the life of the loan. Let’s say that you are five years into a 25-year mortgage and you suddenly become disabled. Maybe you have enough income to keep your house as long as you can lower your monthly payments. Your lender may be agreeable to extending that 25 year loan to a 40-year term in order to get those payments low enough for you to afford.
2. By lowering your interest rate. Adjustable subprime rate loans have gotten a lot of people into trouble in recent years. As interest rates skyrocketed, so did their payments, leaving many unable to keep up. More and more lenders are now realizing the benefit of offering these homeowners a lower permanent rate in order to keep them in their homes – and up-to-date with their payments.
3. Forgiving late payments, penalties and interest. If you are one of those homeowners who fell behind on your mortgage payments due to a job loss, only to discover that the penalties, interest and late fees were adding up faster than you could pay them once you got back on your financial feet, you may qualify for forgiveness of these add-on fees through a loan modification.
4. A partial loan forgiveness. It’s not very common, but sometimes lenders will forgive a portion of a borrower’s loan if they believe the homeowner can keep their account current in order to avoid foreclosure.
Of course, knowing the different types of loan modifications available is only the first step in the process. Here are a few other things you must consider when seeking this type of mortgage help:
·Whether or not your loan qualifies for modification. In the past only loans held by the original mortgage lender qualified for modification. That rule is slowly changing, however, making this option available to more borrowers than ever before.
·There are no laws requiring a lender to offer modification assistance, no matter what the circumstances. Approval is under the sole discretion of the lender. No one can make them do it.
·Modifications are much easier to get than refinancing or new loans. Depending on the lender, the process can be much easier, involving far less paperwork and financial information. Some don’t even require that standard income/debt ratios be met as long as you can prove that you can handle the new payment.
·Loan modifications are not new loans! They are a change to an existing loan.
·Although there are some small fees required for a modification, there are no standard closing costs associated with loan a modification.
There are companies who deal with loan modification, but often don’t bring any results. Often the services cost thousands of dollars which people can’t spare. The solution is Do It Yourself Loan Modification. One such kit is 60 minute loan modification. It provides all the forms and teaches you how to grab the lenders attention for best results. Its a must have for people who are struggling to pay their mortgage and are in dire need of help.
