Under President Obama's Mortgage Rescue Plan (Safe Harbor Mortgage Modification Bill ) 9 Million mortgages are eligible for Mortgage Loan Modification, the $75 billion program to stop foreclosure for up to four million homeowners.

Mortgage companies are paid $1,000 for each modification & another $1,000/yr for up to three years. This is crucial to the economy. Without it, foreclosures will continue to grow & real estate prices fall. But, since the program began, millions more loans have gone into foreclosure.

Take advantage of the housing rescue incentives and modify your Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgage.

Take control of YOUR home loan and prepare your BANK READY Modification Package. If you have a first and second mortgage, prepare a package for both loans.

Three steps to a LOWER Mortgage Payment!!!

Now borrowers who are current in their payments, but lack home equity, may be able to modify their mortgage loans to a lower interest rate.

Op Ed today muses:

Banks say they are overwhelmed by the clamor for relief and are working hard to meet demand. We have heard that before. In May 2007, a group of banks and loan servicers went to Washington to promise a solution for troubled borrowers. The problem has only gotten worse.  A more plausible explanation is that banks feel no great urgency to act.

They are being buoyed by immense government support.   And the Obama plan — which provides up to $75 billion in subsidies and incentive payments to help lenders and borrowers come to new loan terms — imposes no real penalty on lenders if the modifications don’t happen.

So instead of moving forcefully on foreclosure relief, the players in the mortgage chain — lenders, servicers and investors — have spent months parsing whether the incentives are adequate. Administration officials have spent countless hours clarifying the rules, trying to iron out the differences and pressing the industry to do more.

[emphasis mine]

There have always been banks that were great to work with when escrow problems showed up, getting payoff's, payment information, etc.  And there have been banks that were the worst! to work with . . . I won't name names, if you've tried to get something from your servicer you know whether or not they actually give any "service" to their customers.

I guess now they don't have to think about their customers being the ones who write their paychecks . . . after all, Obama seems to have pen to checkbook at all hours of the day and night to assist lenders, and while he's made laws about everyman's mortgage being made manageable, apparently the incentives to the lenders to make them manageable just aren't enough incentive.

Couple that with organizations who have absolutely no reason to impress you with customer service, because you are stuck with them until you pay off your mortgage or refinance, it looks like stalemate for the economy, after all.

If you'd like to see if you can have your loan modified, we'll certainly do everything we can to get it done . . . DIY Mortgage Loan Modification

The lastest figures are that of the 30.4 million mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (and NOT sub-prime, but mostly A paper loans) 63%  more went into foreclosure during the first three months of 2009.  We're now at 243,800 homes in foreclosure . . .

Loan modifications, forebearance and repayment plans, and short sales, done in the same period only totalled 87,000.

More than 150,000 families gave it up, and walked away from their homes.

A Wharton School study, performed by Grace Wong Bucchianeri found that renters may be happier than homeowners, and . . . the study was done in 2005. Before the big bust.

“The average homeowner, however, consistently derives more pain (but no more joy) from a house and home.” says Buccianeri.

For those of you who don't want to be renters, and who are uncomfortable, if not down right miserable with your mortgage loan, there is a solution that doesn't include bankruptcy, or the poorhouse.  You can prepare a mortgage loan modification package yourself, submit to your lender (or lenders, if you have a first and a second), and keep track of your progress online.

Created by members of the mortgage banking industry in response to President Obama's mortgage rescue solution, the Safe-Harbor Mortgage Modification Bill, it is a true do-it-yourself system to prepare bank-ready documents, complete with your lenders contact information; print them, and follow up with your lender to see that your loan is modified.

The Safe Harbor Mortgage Modification bill allows for interest reduction, term increases (the length of time you are allowed to repay) and in some cases balance reduction.  The goal is to have your mortgage payment be at or below a 31% dti (debt-to-income) ratio, which is a far cry from the 50-55% dti allowed by some sub-prime lenders.

It allows the past due payments to be added back into the loan, in order to be able to get back on your feet sooner, and get busy paying those other bills that have been languishing, unpaid on your desk.

President Obama apparently believes that everyone should have a fixed rate mortgage, and this bill is for adjustable rate mortgage modifications, but I'm aware of fixed rate loans that have been adjusted due to hardship.

You can find definitions for all the above at Do It Yourself Mortgage Loan Modification Platform.  And, you can pre-qualify before you shell out the bucks, unlike those programs that charge $2,000 or $3,000 to have your loan modification done for you.