
According to First American CoreLogic, nearly one in five American homeowners owes more on their home than it’s worth. And nearly 1 in 10 is behind on their payments. There is help out there, but knowing who to trust is no easy task. In the first of a special three-part series, we’ll help you decide if your mortgage mess is one you can clean up yourself.
“It started off at 12-hundred-fifty a month and from there it shot up to almost two-thousand and we had just gotten paperwork where it would have gone up to twenty-four-hundred, so we knew something had to be done.”
-Lois Overstreet, Homeowner
It’s a story repeating itself nationwide every day… and it usually starts with a call to the lender.
“I made several calls with the lending company, I was basically on the phone with them every week.”
-Lois Overstreet, Homeowner
And that’s the right idea. If you’re trying to clean up your mortgage mess by yourself, step one is making contact with your lender. Step two: gathering your paperwork, and writing a hardship letter.
“You’ve got to tell your story, back it up with supporting documentation and you’ve got to tell it in three paragraphs or less.”
-Michael Sichenzia, Dynamic Consulting Enterprises
But even with your ducks in a row, most lenders aren’t responsive. There’s simply too many problem mortgages and too few people at the bank to solve them.
“Unfortunately when you call the bank these days, your not getting an expert either, you’re getting someone who was just put in that job to handle the enormous amount of phone calls. They’re given a script and told we want to screen as many calls as possible.”
-Michael Sichenzia, Dynamic Consulting Enterprises
So when it comes to modifying a mortgage, going it alone is kind of like doing your own taxes. Possible, but not easy. And that’s why so many people do what the Overlooks did… turn to pros for help.
“We didn’t want to end up like a lot of people we knew that were in trouble, they felt there was no hope. But we knew there was something out there and we were determined.”
-Lois Overstreet, Homeowner
And that determination paid off: with the help of a pro, they got their mortgage modified to make it affordable. Who did they use and how did they pick them? Those things we’re going to explore on Friday.
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