As you manage the stress of negotiation a mortgage you can
no longer afford, keep in mind that while your family,
neighbors, co-workers, or friends may not be talking about
it, chances are good at least one of them in a similar
situation. So why is this all so stressful? Lots of
reasons: it's a slow process, requiring extensive
documentation, which you may be asked to submit
repeatedly, to more than one place, and, during much of the
process, aggressive collection attempts are still be made
by other parts of the mortgage companies. Some things that
will help you manage the stress are keeping these
expectations, or expect the expected.
1. Even though you may be knee deep in the paperwork
process of a loan modification or short sale brace yourself
for your mortgage company to NOT let up on collection
activity. Why? Because mortgage companies are usually
huge organizations, spread across many locations, and don't
expect one department communicates with another. Often,
until a negotiator is assigned to your request for loan
modification or short sale, mortgage collection activities
may continue, often daily. Remember the people placing
these calls are trained to make you feel bad. See the
documentary Maxed Out and you may come to understand that
it is not personal, it's not about you.
2. When collection calls come in, remember you everything
you said is being recorded and, as they are required by
federal law to inform you, any information you give can be
used by them to attempt to collect a debt. So less is more.
Tell them you are in loan modification and loss
mitigation, the date the process started, and then,
regardless of what they ask you ("can't you borrow money
from some other source?," or say to you ("This may be
reported to a credit bureau,"), remain polite, but firm.
"I've already gone over all those details in my loan
modification/short sale application." Or, "thank you for
your time." This lets it be documented that you are
attempting to make them aware you are in the loss
mitigation process. Remember they are most likely
following scripts, and your loss mitigation updates are not
on their scripts, so they will be stressed, and may even
hang up on you. Do NOT expect them to be friendly,
sympathetic or understanding. It's not their job. Their
job is to say whatever they think will bring money to bring
your loan back up-to-date, or bring your loan "current" as
they like to term it.
3. When loss mitigation staff call, understand they are at
an all time high, nationwide, in paperwork. One real
estate agent was told an office that used to get 20
applications a month, now gets 3500. That's a jolt for any
company. So don't say anything that might land you at the
bottom of the every heaping stacks of paper. Remember to
always remain calm and polite with loss mitigations staff,
no matter how many times they ask you to resubmit
paperwork, even if you have a receipt that your documents
arrived at their mortgage company weeks and weeks ago, even
if you have the name of the company employee that signed
for it. You may go ahead and let them know you did submit
it but are delighted to provide another copy. If you
financed the entire mortgage and have 2 loans, be prepared
to ride the document merry-go-round. Most will ask you
to use telefax as it is secure, email is not. And
remember, you will be very, very lucky to get the name of a
person, a direct number is nothing less than finding your
own gold mine. Get an actual email address and you'll
probably hear game show style bells and buzzers going off
in celebration.
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Jenny Martin is an experienced writer who regularly
contributes to
http://www.stopbanksforeclosuretip.com/free_report Blog, a
site designed to empower homeowners facing loss mitigation
and shows them how both they and the bank can win.
