The Home Mortgage Preservation Program is now Turbocharged enough to help high Los Gatos mortgages hopefully.
In May the government stepped up the pace to modify mortgages to stave off the 10–12 million potential foreclosures looming on the horizon. This was to be done first, by allowing homeowners to qualify for modifications on a temporary basis. 650,000 homeowners are now in that process.
However, only 2000 have been approved for modifications through the program.
Request Loan Modification .PDF
Chase Loan Mod Docs .PDF
GMAC Financial Statement .PDF
“We now must refocus our efforts on the conversion phase to ensure that borrowers and servicers know what their responsibilities are in converting trial modifications to permanent ones,” said Phyllis Caldwell, the newly appointed chief for the Treasury Department’s upstart Homeownership Preservation Office, in a statement released Monday.
The MakingHomeAffordable.gov Web site will include links to all required documents and an income verification checklist, as well as explanations of how the trial and conversion processes work. The Homeowner’s HOPE Hotline, at (888) 995-HOPE, will provide direct access to housing counselors
The temporary modification idea was meant to allow the homeowner time to submit documentation the lender would review to potentially grant an approval. This has caused much anxiety on the part of the participants as evidenced in the following quote.
“Now it’s up to the banks to do their part to convert borrowers to permanent modifications,” said Michael Barr, an assistant Treasury secretary. “Servicers to date have not done a good enough job.”
We just don’t know what penalty the participating lender is facing if they do not comply with the pressure. Without proof of substantial numbers of permanent modifications there is a real sense that this will just be another case of hot air.
This will lead to MORE foreclosures that may well have been prevented if the homeowner had time to seek out alternatives like a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure.
“If we don’t see a big increase in the permanent modification numbers, then there’s something seriously wrong with this program,” said Alan White, a law professor at Valparaiso University. “I can only assume the number is appallingly low.”
The Treasury Dept. began to publish reports naming those institutions that were lagging which proved to increase the numbers of temporary modifications from 235000 to 650000 by the end of July.
It is likely there will be another attempt to list their names if the number of permanent modifications does not rise soon! Not quite Turbocharged.
There are new guidelines, now in place, that servicers are not going to like very much.
This is directly from the HMP press release …
Top servicers will be required to submit a schedule demonstrating their plans to reach a decision on each loan for which they have documentation and to communicate either a modification agreement or denial letter to those borrowers. Treasury/Fannie Mae “account liaisons” are being assigned to these servicers and will follow up daily as necessary to monitor progress against the servicer’s plan. Daily progress will be aggregated by the end of each business day and reported to the Administration.
If you or someone you know needs to get on board, forward this link to them. http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/index.html
Here they will find…
- Links to all of the required documents and an income verification checklist to help borrowers request a modification in four easy steps;
- Comprehensive information about how the trial phase works, what borrower responsibilities are to convert to a permanent modification, and a new instructional video which provides step by step instruction for borrowers;
- A toolkit for partner organizations to directly assist their constituents.
I think this is a mess that still needs cleaning up… and I am hear to watch ‘em.
State Bar prosecutors took action last month against five more lawyers under investigation for loan modification misconduct, bringing to 14 the number of attorneys who have resigned or been placed on involuntary inactive enrollment since creation of the bar’s Loan Modification Task Force in April.
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