Things to Be Grateful For as a Loan Modification Specialist
As a person who specializes in helping homeowners to get a loan modification and prevent foreclosure, I have the good fortune of providing a service that offers REAL value to my clients. My goal has always been to leave my clients much better off as a result of working with me than they were before they found me. And while there’s plenty to complain about when it often seems like you’re trying to prevent foreclosure in spite of EVERYONE involved (including the clients themselves in some cases), there are a lot of things for which I’m grateful.
Yesterday offerred a perfect example. I’m working with a couple on the west side of my state. She had surgery to remove a tumor, and while the tumor was being removed from her body, it fell apart and some of it fell back into her abdomen. As a result, the surgery was not as successful as it might have been, and the cancer has spread even further.
She’s on a heavy rotation of chemotherapy, spending 8 hours at a time hooked up to an IV for her treatments. Naturally, she’s unable to work, and has a mountain of medical debts despite the fact that she has health coverage through her husband’s job. As she’s been fighting cancer for the last two years, a medical provider had garnished her husband’s wages. They tapped out their 401(k) to keep things going and help to pay the mortgage and other bills.
She had called 4 bankruptcy attorneys to assist her in filing Chapter 7, as it’s clear that she will never have the money to pay the overwhelming amount of medical debts that she has. All 4- ALL OF THEM- told her that she had to be current on her house payments before she could file a Chapter 7.
In addition, the mortgage company was a little less than cooperative in helping her to prevent foreclosure on their home. They denied her modification on a technical matter, which was heartless and hopelessly incompetent. The matter can be resolved, if someone would be willing to lift a finger.
She contacted me and after reviewing her financials, it was obvious that she’s not quite ready to resume monthly mortgage payments in the next few weeks, which she was on track to do. After having a conference call with her attorney’s office and re-directing their efforts, it appeared that we would be able to work in concert with them to obtain a good result.
The very next day, she left a message, in a panic, saying that her attorney had called and that she would not be able to do what we had planned the day before. In addition, she’d called 4 MORE attorneys, and they had all confirmed what he had said.
Disgusted with the legal profession as whole, I put her in touch with an attorney who tells his clients the TRUTH about the bankruptcy process, and now she’s finally on track to get the results she needs. It seems that honesty is a little scarce in many bankruptcy attorneys’ offices these days.
She now is finally on track to not only help clean up her debts, but once she does resume her mortgage payments, she will be in much better financial shape. She will not be a statistic- there is no reason for her to end up being one of the 50% of homeowners who obtain a loan modification and then find themselves back in foreclosure within 12 months.
Obviously, the last few weeks have been extremely stressful for her- not exactly conducive to fighting cancer. She was effusive in her gratefulness to me- so glad to have found someone who would help her get the results she knew she needed in order to survive financially.
Her stress levels should plummet, her blood pressure will fall 40-60 points, and she should be able to now focus on sleeping through the night and getting well.
While there is so much that I complain about the loan modification business, nothing I’ve ever done can match the feeling I get when I work with a client like Mrs. I. To know that I’ve helped where others refused, that I found a solution where there wasn’t one, that I was able to take a complex set of circumstances and fashion a solution where both the borrower and the investor will come out ahead, that I was able to take a file that was destined to be marked “foreclosure” and breathe life into it… that’s gratifying.
While I know there will come a day when I won’t be doing this anymore, it’s definitely the days like yesterday that I’ll remember fondly. Getting a loan modification and helping to prevent foreclosure for a homeowner in a way that’s sustainable for the long term… for me, there’s nothing like it in the whole world. And I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to do it for a living.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!