Loan Deals: News

WASHINGTON – Today, the Obama Administration released its first monthly Servicer Performance Report detailing the progress to date of the Making Home Affordable (MHA) loan modification program.  The purpose of the report is to document the number of struggling homeowners already helped under the program, provide information on servicer performance and expand transparency around the initiative.

On February 18, the Obama Administration announced its comprehensive plan to stabilize the U.S. housing market.  Two weeks later on March 4, the Administration published detailed program guidelines and authorized servicers to begin modifications immediately.  MHA provides $75 billion for sustainable mortgage modifications through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). 

MHA has made rapid progress in a few short months.  Servicers covering more than 85 percent of loans in the country are already modifying loans under the program. More than 400,000 modification offers have been extended and more than 230,000 trial modifications have begun.  This pace of modifications puts the program on track to offer assistance to up to 3 to 4 million homeowners over the next three years, our target on February 18.  

Today’s report discloses performance on a servicer-by-servicer basis in order to increase transparency for participating institutions.  The data show that servicer performance has been uneven.  The Administration has asked servicers to ramp up implementation to a cumulative 500,000 trial modifications started by November 1, 2009. This would more than double in three months the number of trial modifications started in the first five months of the program.   

The Administration is taking additional steps to improve performance.  On July 9, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan wrote the CEOs of participating servicers calling upon them to redouble their efforts to increase staffing, improve borrower response times and streamline the application process.  Senior Administration officials discussed the importance of these steps in a face-to-face meeting with servicer executives on July 28.  The Administration will develop more exacting metrics to measure the quality of borrower experience, such as average borrower wait time for inbound inquiries, completeness and accuracy of information provided applicants, and response time for completed applications.  As an additional protection for borrowers, the Administration has asked the program compliance agent, Freddie Mac, to develop a “second look” process to audit MHA modification applications that have been declined on an ongoing basis.

To view the full report in pdf click here

Loan Modification, Mortgage

Earlier we reported the though to be scam of a company 21st Century Legal Services of Irvine was in trouble with the state of North Carolina. Now it appears they are also in trouble with the state of Wisconson according to josonline.com

“It’s pretty obvious this is a fishy operation,” said notary public Paul Mees, who was contacted by 21st Century to handle a loan modification.

Mees and Zana Darrow, another notary public, complained to the state consumer protection bureau and Department of Financial Institutions.

They were suspicious because 21st Century insisted that the notaries not leave any paperwork with the customers, even copies of documents the customers signed.

The company uses Yahoo e-mail addresses for its employees, and the name of the firm seems to be in flux. A woman who answered the phone said the company was called Transitional of America. Another man said it would soon be going by Fidelity National.

Public Investigator got ahold of Garrett Reed, a supervisor at 21st Century.

Reed said he’d look into Gibas’ case but never called back and didn’t return follow-up calls. At least five other messages left for representatives of the company were not returned.

In an earlier interview, Reed insisted the company is legitimate and has negotiated many loan modifications. Problems pop up only when consumers aren’t truthful about their income or financial situation, he said.

 

Loan Modification

“There’s the good and the bad out there,” Firoved said about modification companies. “If you’re going to use a third-party service for a loan modification, go to the state authorities and check to make sure there are no complaints. Move forward cautiously.”

Pool said several companies don’t heed the state Real Estate Department’s desist and refrain orders.

“A lot of these companies are just crooks,” he said.

The department issued 328 desist and refrain orders and accusations from October to July - 240 of them in the Los Angeles-Orange County- Inland Empire region.

They order unlicensed shops to shut down their loan modification or foreclosure rescue business and force dubious companies to stop collecting upfront fees.

“The list grows weekly,” Pool said.

Mortgage