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Loan Modifications: Is There More To The Story Than Meets The Eye?

By
Real Estate Agent with The Gasset Group & Get It Done For Me Virtual Services 13253167-SA00

I just read a featured post asking why loan modifications are failing. Let's see if there is more to the picture- 


I also wrote a featured post about this some time ago. It is here: Is Your Short Sale or Loan Modification Being Turned Down?
That post was reblogged 44 times and had 4437 views. It was one of the most read posts I have ever written. 


The reasons are very clear if you research the facts.
The servicers are under their PAS agreements which I explain in detail in the previous post that I noted above and they are always in fear of being sued by the note owners; the investors.

Just because the servicer is a bank does not mean that bank is the one that holds the note.
 
One of the biggest misconceptions in dealing with loan modifications and short sales is that when the homeowner calls ‘his bank’; over 90% of the time, he is calling the loan servicer.

Just because the name of the servicer may be the name of a bank, like Bank of America or JP Morgan Chase- does not mean they own the note on your mortgage. There are many times where you will find that your loan is being serviced by Bank of America but your note is owned by Wells Fargo.

So the first thing we have to get straight is that there are different things in the works here. Let’s not mix the apples with the oranges.


The different segments to discuss are:

  • The servicers who service the loans
  • The investors who own those notes
  • The banks desire/plans to control our economy


Just because the big banks are horrid and lack in customer service like you’ve never seen before does not mean that they are not doing loan modifications for the reasons most think. There is a lot that the servicers can do upfront to help the loan mods to move along that is not rocket science. I will write a post about the fastest way to get a yes or let's process answer and we can hope they implement these. 

Now before we jump all over the banks- which we have every right to- because they are totally ruining our financial system not just in our country but in the world. We have every right to be mad at the banks.

Thomas Jefferson, over 200 years ago warned us about allowing banks to control us and our governments:

";I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people        ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and  corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up  homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to  the people, to whom it properly belongs.";
Thomas Jefferson, (Attributed)
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)



But when the servicing agreements tell the servicers they MUST protect their investments and ROI- they become fearful of law suits.


There was a bill in the house that was addressing this issue to relieve this liability off of the servicers and to give them some leeway in to what they could get sued over and what not. But the investors who need to protect their investments lobbied the house not to pass this bill. I am not sure if it ever even got to the floor of the house.

Now there are always more kinks in a situation than we might realize or expect. So the answers are not so cut and dry either. Don't get the banks tightening up lending, the banks not investing, the banks not being prepared, etc, etc, with why servicers are reluctant to do loan modifications and short sales. These are different subjects, all with merit but not for this particular discussion.

You see, many of these investors who are not excited about loan modifications and short sales are not the banks but the investors of those banks. So many people and companies ended up owning knowingly and unknowingly toxic mortgage backed securities. One of our investors on one short sale file is Etrade.

Who are these investors? People like the teachers in your children’s school, the local firemen and women, the police chief in your town, the sheriff in your village. People like your grandparents and aunts and uncles who are living on pensions right now. People like you if you have an IRA account or a 401K retirement account. These are the shareholders and the actual owners of these toxic mortgage backed securities.

So when the servicer is fearful of falling out of the guidelines set forth in their PAS agreement- their fiduciary duty is not to you and I who pay our mortgage payments to them but rather the you and I who have our retirement plans, pensions and stock investments tied up in the notes that were bundled and we bought.

Feel Free To Reblog. 

 

 

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Loan Modifications: Is There More To The Story Than Meets The Eye? was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Copyright © 2009 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*Loan Modifications: Is There More To The Story Than Meets The Eye? * 


 

 

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In real estate we service Utah County, Salt Lake County, Wasatch County, Tooele County. This includes many towns and cities. Some of which are: Provo, Orem, Salt Lake City, Draper, Springville, Spanish Fork, Payson, Lehi, American Fork, Vineyard, Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain, Pleasant Grove, and more. 

Katerina Gasset is a real estate agent who is also a digital marketing strategist, website designer and consultant for real estate brokerages, agents, entrepreneurs and small business owners. She is also the owner of Get It Done For Me Virtual Services. 

Katerina is a Certified AI Marketing Specialist. She can help you with ChatGPT, Content at Scale, Neuronwriter, prompting, and many other AI tools. 

She develops products and online courses to empower real estate agents to reach their marketing, SEO, social media and branding goals. Katerina Gasset is a blogger, author, podcaster, and keynote speaker.  

Text Katerina with your name + number to work with her:

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Comments(19)

Tim Lorenz
TIM LORENZ - Elite Home Sales Team - Mission Viejo, CA
949 874-2247

This complex problem is causing common sense to go out the window.  The Why is failing when do we work on the HOW

Dec 28, 2009 04:49 PM
Elite Home Sales Team
Elite Home Sales Team OC - Corona del Mar, CA
A Tenacious and Skilled Real Estate Team

I really do understand the problem and how it works, I agree with Tim when do we get to the solution.

Dec 28, 2009 04:53 PM
Katerina Gasset
The Gasset Group & Get It Done For Me Virtual Services - Provo, UT
Amplify Your Real Estate & Life Dreams!

Tim and Elite Homes- I agree, there needs to be a solution. However, as long as free markets are not allowed to correct themselves and government keeps bailing out the 'too big to fails'- the situation will not get better. A free market would take one year at the tops to correct itself. It would be uncomfortable for that year, it would be painful- but then again- coddling us now is only putting off the inevitable. Falsly keeping interest rates down is just a bandaid of a future explosion.

The truth is that over 50% of all loan mods fail in the first year. The problem is you can't legislate principles. People bought into the 'everything on credit'. The good folks get punished for saving money- and there are no incentives for saving because as long as we keep spending and buying on credit- it all looks good on paper, thus the Chinese will still loan us money. Katerina

Dec 28, 2009 05:04 PM
David Dee
RMX REALTY - Alhambra, CA
Real Estate - San Gabriel Valley (L.A.) & N. Orang

From the desk of David Dee,

Nestor/Katerina, with all the complexities in the law it is causing a bind to all involved. For these reasons, some banks are willing to foreclosure than to work out a solution via loan mod or shortsales with the homewoners.

Dec 28, 2009 05:11 PM
Katerina Gasset
The Gasset Group & Get It Done For Me Virtual Services - Provo, UT
Amplify Your Real Estate & Life Dreams!

David- yes, and everytime the government gets involved, they just make matters worse.

Dec 28, 2009 05:36 PM
Lenn Harley
Lenn Harley, Homefinders.com, MD & VA Homes and Real Estate - Leesburg, VA
Real Estate Broker - Virginia & Maryland

"Loan modification" is a placebo.

Dec 28, 2009 08:54 PM
Broker Nick
South Florida Real Estate & Development, Inc. - Coconut Creek, FL
Broker Nick Relocation Broker Service

Katerina - I was one of the 44 who reBlogged your post. Well done - Happy New Year!

Dec 28, 2009 11:15 PM
Renée Donohue~Home Photography
Savvy Home Pix - Allegan, MI
Western Michigan Real Estate Photographer

Another great post Katerina!  Kudos to you who said it more words and #6 Lenn who said it in less!

Dec 29, 2009 01:37 AM
John Occhi
AZ Veteran Notary Services - Marana, AZ
Mobile Notary Public/Certified Loan Signing Agent

Thanks for this and you are right in the summary about the fiduicary responsibility of the servicer...makes sence to me.

As far as Modifications go, I believe the probelm is no one really wants them since all they are doing is putting a band-aid on the payment portion of the problem and not addressing the loss of equity through a principal reduction.

Happy New Year,

John

Dec 29, 2009 02:29 AM
Matt Listro
National Credit Fixers - Matt Listro - Vernon, CT
Your Credit Repair Expert

Hi Katerina: I agree.  Most people don't know that their loan isn't owned by their "bank" which is usually just a servicer.  Most loans are owned by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or Ginnie Mae.

:)

Dec 29, 2009 03:22 AM
Morgan Evans
Douglas Elliman Real Estate - Manhattan, NY
LICENSED REAL ESTATE SALESPERSON

I would assume that the vast majority of people have no idea how this process works and the simple fundamentals that you speak about concerning what the servicer provides and who actually owns the note.  Learning the fundamentals really opens up how convuluted this process is regarding loan modifications.

Dec 29, 2009 04:30 AM
Katerina Gasset
The Gasset Group & Get It Done For Me Virtual Services - Provo, UT
Amplify Your Real Estate & Life Dreams!

Lenn- Great comment:) 

Matt- Oh, and wait til a few more years! Fannie and Freddie will the the ONLY ones owing notes! Did you just see what the Treasury did in the middle of the night on the eve of Christmas? 

I am writing a post about it tomorrow or maybe in the middle of the night, tonight:) 

Dec 29, 2009 06:13 AM
Wayne Johnson
Coldwell Banker D'Ann Harper REALTORS® - San Antonio, TX
San Antonio REALTOR, San Antonio Homes For Sale

The Risk/Reward ratio is starting to favor investments other than MBS, especially with the government taking a greater, almost unlimited, stake in mortgages. Too bad most of those steering government economic policy have so little real world experience in running businesses. Lots of academics (theory guys and gals), investment bankers, government policy wonks, and economists.

They are great at writing bills to extract taxes, and shape rules to help one group or penalize a less favored group. But little knowledge of how to build a system that provides goods or services that people want and are willing to buy. No doubt many of them had great SAT scores, good GPAs from some of the finest schools in the world, but from what I've seen so far, the national economic plan for the last eighteen months really blows. But, maybe I'm just not looking at things the right way.

Dec 29, 2009 11:52 PM
David Krushinsky
Reasy Financial LLC - Peoria, AZ
AZ MB-1044208 MLO NMLS #202115

There is also another reason loan modifications and short sales are failing.  The people that created the loans that enabled borrowers to access credit have protection against defaults.  They are called Credit Default Swaps (CDS).  A CDS is similar to a life insurance policy, in that, it allows a purchaser a guaranteed payment in the event the loan defaults.  So the creators of these loans are allowed to buy CDS on their own loans.  It's similar to you being able to buy a life insurance policy on someone whom you are going to hire a hit man to murder.  The Wall Street firms began buying CDS when they saw the writing on the wall in 2006, before the equity was gone.  Where is the downside protection for the homeowners.  There isn't.  There are no derivatives one can buy to protect their home from negative equity.

It's not fair to the lenders for homeowners to default, right?? Wrong, Lenders (Investors) actually prefer it in some cases.  They are making more money on the default than the lousy 2-3% per month in interest if the loan is modified.  Why wasn't AIG allowed to fail?  They had the largest exposure to CDS, which would have had massive repurcussions throughout the globe.  This is one of the reasons we read so many posts about Realtors stating, "It's like the bank wanted to foreclose. They kept losing one piece of paper or we had to fax 5 times and our short sale still didn't close".  These institutions have no sympathy  their clients and likewise I have no sympathy for them.  They make business decisions.  I say homeowners should view it the same way.  Apparently Morgan Stanley thinks it's okay to "walk away" since they just announced they are letting go of 5 commercial properties they owe $6.5 billion on.

Dec 30, 2009 03:19 PM
Katerina Gasset
The Gasset Group & Get It Done For Me Virtual Services - Provo, UT
Amplify Your Real Estate & Life Dreams!

David- Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Goldman Saks - are all evil in my eyes. They are hypocrites also. So is our government, oh, yeah, sorry- I forgot- They are our government! 

I don't like banks, lenders any more than the next guy but I do care about the catch 22 in regards to the aunt Josie depending on those shares to get her through her retirement years. I don't feel sorry for the banks in the least. I don't feel sorry for over half the owners defaulting either. They get to live in their homes for 2 years and more without paying a dime- while those like you and I are paying our mortgage payments every month. 

But I will say that we have gotten every single one of our short sale listings approved and every one of them except one of them under contract to closing. We have a 98% success rate in our short sales.  Katerina 

Dec 30, 2009 04:15 PM
Katerina Gasset
The Gasset Group & Get It Done For Me Virtual Services - Provo, UT
Amplify Your Real Estate & Life Dreams!

Wayne- You are right again. The last 18 months have been brutal and destructing. The holding down the interest rates right now is such a false sense of security. What goes up must come down and visa versa. As long as they do not allow free markets to work- they are only holding off the inevitable. You can't change the wind's course no matter what they try. IT is all fake and they just keep printing more money- shameful. Katerina 

Dec 30, 2009 04:17 PM
Wanda Kubat-Nerdin - Wanda Can!
Red Rock Real Estate (435) 632-9374 - St. George, UT
St. George Utah Area Residential Sales Agent

Katerina, It is amazing how Jefferson's quote still holds true today and how accurate it really is! I am glad that Pat Kennedy sent me over to take a look at your post! I wish you the best in 2010!

Jan 03, 2010 06:11 AM
Debra Leisek
Bay Realty,Inc Homer Alaska - Homer, AK

As always you inform with reason and fact.. I will reblog your site also... thanks for your ever sharp wisdom

Jan 03, 2010 07:44 AM
Virginia Hepp - Mesquite NV REALTOR
Desert Gold Realty - Mesquite NV Homes For Sale - Mesquite, NV
Mesquite NV Homes and Neighborhoods - Search MLS

Katerina, thank you for taking the time to explain what so many of us, even Reators, do not even understand.

Jan 03, 2010 02:47 PM