Mortgage and Real Estate Blog

When it comes to following foreclosure news, one of the things that you’re going to hear about the most involves loan modifications and the opportunity to keep home owners who are struggling in their homes. The challenge, of course, is that not everyone takes loan modifications seriously.

Part of the reason for this is that they are only looking into those loan modification programs that are talked about on the news - those that are focused on providing hope, but little else. A bigger part of the reason, however, is that they are not fully aware of what can be done to ensure that a loan modification benefits the homeowner rather than the bank.

In other words, the reality is that not everyone who hears about loan modifications in relation to foreclosure news are going to take the option seriously. Rather than seeing that there are realistic options available (provided, of course, that home owners are able to explore their options and focus on working with someone who can help them to reach their goals), those who don’t take the option seriously only consider the horror stories.

As a result, if you are looking at foreclosure news and you’re thinking about what can (or can’t) be done to keep you in your homes, one of the things that you are going to want to do is simple: you’re going to want to make sure that you aren’t ignoring any of your options. Loan modification can help you to stay in your home; you just need to be sure that you are getting all of the support that you need.

While the hot topic lately hasn’t been the foreclosure crisis - the H1N1 flu and the bank stress tests, the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act passing the House and Middle East tensions have taken priority - there has been a fair amount of foreclosure news that’s been made available. In addition to widening reports of the depth of the foreclosure crisis, there was a vote in the Senate that could help to stop foreclosure.

While the Senate bill is not a sure fire end to foreclosure, there are some key functions that should be noted. An overwhelming majority of Senators (91 for, 5 against) voted to make it easier for homeowners in trouble to refinance their loans. In order to make it possible and to ensure that the lenders are willing to participate in the program, the legislation focuses on reducing the fees banks pay to the FDIC to insure deposits.

The logic behind the legislation goes something like this: banks will be more willing to refinance mortgages at a lower rate if they are assured that they will have fewer losses in other areas. By cutting expenses related to insuring customer deposits, the Senators believe that the banks will be more willing to cut troubles homeowners some slack.

While nothing has been done to allow a bankruptcy judge to lower payments for a homeowner who has fallen behind given the economy, the hope is that this legislation will make it easier for some people to stay in their homes. This legislation, coupled with another bill that would enhance the number of FBI investigators who are looking at mortgage fraud, will hopefully have a positive impact.

It’s been more than a year since foreclosure news is something that’s been a part of our collective conscience, and yet is seems as though it’s something that still doesn’t make as much sense as it could to a lot of people. After all, there are still a number of people who think that foreclosure is something that can’t happen to them (for that matter, there are still some home owners who haven’t fully recognized that their own properties have lost value).

When you look at foreclosure news, it’s a good idea to determine whether the news that you are reading is based on national data or local data - and, if it’s “local,” you’ll need to make sure that it’s local to your area. You’ll want to look at the angle of the story - is the discussion about the homeowners, about the banks, about scams that are taking advantage of those who are facing foreclosure or about home prices and how communities are being affected.

Of course, in addition to looking at the angle and subject of the foreclosure news that you’re looking at, you’re going to want to be sure that you’re able to get a sense of the motion that is being taken. In other words, you’ll want to focus on more than just the news itself, you’ll want to take a look at where that news is going and how the situation may or may not change over the next weeks, months, or years. After all, the news that you read isn’t just about what’s happening now when it comes to real estate - it’s about what’s going to happen.

Sometimes when you are looking into foreclosure news, the stories that you hear and read are going to be about the efforts to keep owners in their homes - whether through government programs of those less than reputable companies that are taking desperate home owners for a ride through false promises. Other times, you’re going to hear more about foreclosure news that shows just how frustrated those who are facing foreclosure are.

There was a story out of Denver that talked about what the bank was left with when they attempted to foreclose on one home; essentially, when the bank got to the home after the previous owner had posted an “everything must go” sale, all that was left were the walls. The cabinets were gone, so was the interior plumbing and everything else.

Lashing out in this way, unfortunately isn’t going to help home owners to stay in their homes; more importantly, the reality is that the amount that it costs the bank before they are able to make a sale leads them to be more critical of every other mortgage application that comes in.

In other words, if you are facing foreclosure and you want to be sure that you are doing everything that you can to stay in your home, chances are good that seeking revenge is far from the best option. It’s important to take the time to look at viable options - things like mortgage audits and loan modification that will help to give you the advantage.

One of the primary reasons why homeowners are so concerned about the foreclosure crisis - and problems within the real estate market in general - is that it is a topic that’s discussed on the news pretty much every single day. One of the other reasons that homeowners are concerned with the foreclosure news that they have heard is because they recognize that whenever more than two million homeowners face foreclosure in the United States, there’s a good chance that it’s something that could also happen to them.

In other words, one of the primary reasons why many homeowners look at foreclosure news is that they see where they have financial struggles. They see that, with heating prices, food costs, filling up the gas tank and making sure that the kids have everything they need, if a job were to be lost or there were to be some other family emergency, they too could fall behind financially. In other words, the reason why so many homeowners are concerned about the foreclosure news that they read is that they know that it’s something that could happen to them.

If you are a homeowner who is concerned about the foreclosure crisis and the news that you’ve heard, you’ll find that it’s a good idea to take a look at your mortgage paperwork. You’ll want to be sure that you are considering your options and focusing on what you can do to fight foreclosure if it comes to that - after all, one of the most important things to know is that it is possible to fight foreclosure and to come out on the winning side.

When you are in the business of helping your clients to stop foreclosure - when your services enable you to identify the problems that exist within their loans and to work to correct them - you are going to find that you are in a position in which you hear a lot about foreclosures. You are going to find yourself in a position in which you’re reading about areas in which foreclosure rates have been seemingly astronomical and you’re going to read about predictions that suggest that foreclosures will not spike until the middle of 2009.

Rather than waiting to see what happens, however - rather than thinking about the fact that there are going to be increases to the rate at which foreclosures happen especially given the challenges that are being faced in the economy overall - it’s time to look at what can be done right now. For those who are working to help clients stop foreclosure, this means that the time is right learn more about forensic loan audits and the role they play in loan modifications and to focus on what you can do to change things within your own community.

The more that you are able to offer the right services to your clients, the more that you will be able to do to stop foreclosure within your community.

Looking at foreclosure news is no longer just a matter of “something that happens in cities” and in areas where the economy was already showing signs of being worse for the wear. Instead, it’s becoming increasingly common to open up newspapers to see that the talk about the ailing economy and the number of foreclosures is also taking it’s toll on areas that, while not thought to be immune, were thought to be more stable.

The challenge about these new groups of foreclosures - that aren’t entirely new, of course - is that more and more of the articles are accompanied by stories about the ways in which businesses are going under and jobs are being lost. In other words, the challenge is that more and more homes are also going to be left empty as there are fewer reasons why others are going to be drawn into the area.

Ultimately, what this means is that those who are going to choose to sell their homes are going to need to put a bit more effort in and that those who are working in real estate are going to need to work harder to find buyers and to sell properties. Unfortunately, however, most of us suspected that things were going to get worse before they got better.

It’s hard to talk about mortgages and real estate without making a comment on the most recent foreclosure news. Take a look at what info is hitting the web about foreclosures these days and you’re going to see that there are stories about:

• Foreclosures holding steady in Ohio
• Foreclosures increasing in the second half of the year
• An increase in foreclosures in Florida and the possibility that Jacksonville could become the foreclosure capital within a couple of years

However, as likely as you are to read stories about an increase in the number of foreclosures that are taking place, you are likely to find opinions about what can be done to stop foreclosure. You’re going to read about the ways in which some people think that the federal government should quit supporting the banks and instead buy out the underwater mortgages that so many homeowners are struggling with. You’re going to read about scams in which there’s an effort to take advantage of those who are about to lose their homes.

In other words, you’re going to read a whole lot about foreclosures and what people think can be done about them, but you’re not entirely likely to see what’s actually being done (and unfortunately, a lot of this comes down to the fact that there’s a seeming holding pattern and that not much is being done).

A few weeks ago, when ever you heard anything at all about foreclosure news, the focus was geared toward the number of home owners who were losing their properties to the banks. Then there was talk about the intention of the federal financial bailout and how it was going to give the lenders the money that they needed to help home owners and to get more people into homes of their own. Now, much of the foreclosure news that you hear is about stopping foreclosure.

What’s interesting, of course, to those who are looking for information about stopping foreclosure is that not every lender has done much to focus on the process. The more that some lenders like JP Morgan are offering to stop foreclosing on properties for a couple of months to let home owners thing things through, the more caught up people get.

The reality, of course, is that the foreclosure news that’s out there isn’t particularly new. While there are efforts being made (in some cases) to stop foreclosure, most of the efforts are not thought out beyond the short term - leaving most home owners who want to save their homes in a position in which they need to do the work on their own.

When it comes to foreclosure news, a lot of the information that you are going to find is not particularly good. In other words, you are going to find that there are a number of different situations in which you just read about more and more people who are losing their homes - and a lot of that foreclosure news comes down to people who were unable to really afford a home to begin with who were taken advantage of by their lenders.

If the foreclosure news that you read is striking a little bit too close to home for your comfort level, one of the things that you are going to want to think about is simple: loan modification can help you to stop foreclosure. When you are at risk for foreclosure, in other words, you are going to want to be sure that you are able to do more to connect with your lender - and one of the best ways in which you can do so is going to be to provide evidence to your lender that there were things that weren’t done appropriately along the way.

If you need to stop foreclosure, the best thing that you can do is to get the evidence that you need that your mortgage wasn’t all that you were promised it would be; a mortgage audit may be all the proof that you need.