Press
Real Consumer Stories of Mortgage Loan Modifications Gone Wrong Detailed in New GoBankingRates.com Investigation
Millions of homeowners are struggling to receive a mortgage loan modification and avoid losing their homes to foreclosure. In their latest investigation, leading personal finance site, www.GoBankingRates.com, interviews homeowners who have experienced the mortgage loan modification nightmare firsthand and shares their stories.
EL SEGUNDO, CA (March 20, 2013) – According to a Boston Globe article from January of this year, close to four million Americans have lost homes to foreclosure, while another 10 million are at risk of foreclosure in the next few years. GoBankingRates.com reached out to homeowners currently chasing modification programs in order to avoid similar fates, finding it’s their lenders who often stand in the way of a successful mortgage loan modification.
Brenda C. is just one of the many victims of mortgage loan modifications gone wrong. After suffering job losses and an expensive medical emergency in the midst of a down economy, she and her husband filed for bankruptcy. They managed to hold onto their home, but needed a mortgage loan modification to keep it.
At the advice of her loan representative, Brenda stopped making mortgage payments in order to qualify for a modification program. However, after agreeing to a trial period of reduced payments, the lender stopped answering the phone. “It just drug on for months and months past the three-month trial. I could not get anything in writing from the mortgage company, and our loan rep would not call us,” she explained to GoBankingRates. Now the couple is facing foreclosure.
Terri H. experienced a similar ordeal, attempting to have her mortgage modified when a single piece of documentation threw a wrench in the process. “I knew I had sent it in,” she told GoBankingRates, “and when I called, my ‘customer service’ rep told me not to worry, everything was in and to ignore the notice I got.” Thirty days later, Terri received a notice that her modification had been denied and she could apply the following year.
GoBankingRates managing editor, Casey Bond, states, “After convincing borrowers to take on mortgage loans they couldn’t realistically afford, mortgage servicers are now forcing borrowers to jump through hoops in an attempt to modify these loans to affordable terms.”
She adds, “In many cases, these are responsible, well-educated people who unfortunately fell victim to the mortgage crisis, and now they’re left on their own to pick up the pieces or foreclose.”
Click here to read their stories.
For questions about this report or to schedule an interview with a GoBankingRates editor, please use the contact information below.
About GoBankingRates
GoBankingRates.com is a national website dedicated to connecting readers with the best interest rates on financial services nationwide, as well as informative personal finance content, news and tools. GoBankingRates collects interest rate information from more than 4,000 U.S. banks and credit unions, making it the only online rates aggregator with the ability to provide the most comprehensive and authentic local interest rate information.