The retrospective foreclosure reviews mandated by the formal enforcement actions handed down to servicers will help regulators evaluate the extent of the problem and determine the amount of monetary fines that should be assessed, according to John Walsh, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

The OCC, along with the Federal Reserve and the Office of Thrift Supervision, issued cease and desist orders Wednesday against 14 mortgage servicers, as well as Lender Processing Services and the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, that are intended to correct deficiencies the regulators found in foreclosure processes and the way customers are treated. The orders laid out a laundry list of procedural reforms and best practices to be implemented, but did not give a dollar amount for monetary sanctions, although officials from both the OCC and Fed said such penalties would be forthcoming. Speaking to attendees at a meeting hosted by Women in Housing and Finance Thursday, Walsh described the problems uncovered in the investigation as “extensive.” He says servicers will have to absorb “substantial expense” to fix the problems.

One of the provisions laid out in the cease and desist orders is for each servicer to hire an independent, third-party firm to check all foreclosure actions processed in 2009 and 2010. Any cases that are found to identify borrowers that suffered financial harm as a result of foreclosure processing deficiencies, the servicer is obligated to provide restitution. “This is an open-ended obligation, with no dollar cap, and we will be supervising compliance very closely,” Walsh said, adding that servicers must evaluate the cases of any borrower who asks for a review. “As we gather additional information from continuing exam work and the look-back about the extent of harm from processing failures, this will inform our decision on civil money penalties,” Walsh said. Critics of the regulators’ response have voiced concern that although the third-party review firms must be approved by the supervising federal agency, the fact that the hiring decision rests with the bank will likely lead to skewed results. “You have an outside reviewer chosen by the bank reviewing things under an uncertain standard and then also deciding what the harm was,” Georgetown University law professor Adam Levitin, who has been critical of the mortgage industry and its record-keeping, opined to Dave Clark of Reuters.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, whose agency participated in the federal probe last fall but is not the primary regulator for any of the mortgage servicers, stressed that the “look-back” exams of past foreclosure actions must be carried out with integrity and transparency in order to return a semblance of credibility to the reputation-tarnished institutions involved. “There is evidence that some level of wrongful foreclosures has occurred. It is important that servicers identify any harmed homeowners and provide appropriate remedies,” Bair said.

In his speech Thursday, Walsh said, “As bad as the mortgage servicing breakdown was, it was not the cause of mortgage delinquencies that led to the surge in foreclosures. Rather, it was the unprecedented surge in foreclosures that exposed and exacerbated weaknesses that already existed in the process.” Walsh says even with the changes mandated to solve the processing problem and ensure troubled borrowers are treated fairly, “our actions are unlikely to fundamentally change the trajectory of the foreclosure problem.” “If there is any reassurance here, and there is sadly very little, it is that borrowers subject to foreclosure in our sample were indeed seriously delinquent,” Walsh reiterated again.

He added that the cases evaluated in the sample also showed that servicers “generally had the documents they needed to foreclose” and that only a “small number of sales should not have gone forward” because they involved active duty service members, a bankruptcy filing, or approved trial modifications. “In general, we found that servicers had considered whether borrowers facing foreclosures might qualify for some alternative program, such as a modification,” Walsh said.

It’s this type of argument that pundits say gives servicers an edge in the negotiations that are still pending with state attorneys general, who are reportedly pushing for more stringent reforms and a hefty punitive fine, as well as the federal Justice Department. However, in his remarks Walsh added, “[W]hile the sample of foreclosures we examined was adequate to expose these flaws in the process and provide a basis for developing enforcement actions, it did not capture the full extent of harm to borrowers.”

Basically a Mortgage Loan Modification is when your lender agrees to change the terms of your loan without refinancing or changing lenders.

Mortgage loan modification is the best programs for payment relief for homeowners, but like any government sponsored program it has specific guidelines and requires a lot of documents to qualify.

There are many factors that should be kept in mind while doing this, but the first thing is that you have to qualify for this program so that you can save your house and repay the loan. Although each lender mortgage loan modification program having different criteria most are now following the Making Home Affordable guidelines.

Primary qualifications for the Making Home affordable Mortgage Loan Modification Program:

1. The home needs to be your primary residence.
2. The amount owed should be either equal to or less than $729,750.
3. You will need to have a genuine financial hardship that is causing you to not be able to make your payments.
4. Your mortgage loan should have been written before January 1, 2009
5. The current payments exceed 31% of your gross monthly income.

If you do not qualify under the above guidelines (i.e.; your loan amount is too high) it is likely your lender has their own guidelines which will be very similar and you can still qualify under their specific guidelines. Contact you lender and ask their requirements.

Once you determine you do qualify under your lender’s guidelines, you can apply for a mortgage loan modification. Completing the mortgage loan modification documents correctly will be critical to your approval. If you want a guide and all the insider formulas for what they want to see you can read our FREE Loan Modification Guide above for in depth instruction and to get all the forms you will need.

Steps to Apply for a Mortgage Loan Modification:

1. Obtain the financial worksheets and loan modification documents from your current lender(s)
2. Using their worksheet or your own calculate your income and expenses to figure out how much your mortgage payment would need to be so that is it no more than 31% of your income.
3. Complete all the lenders paperwork making sure that after all expenses that you still show about 3% disposable income left over. Trick is making #2 and #3 work together.
4. Gather all the required backup documents as requested by your lender. Sign and date all documents you are providing to them.
5. Write your hardship letter. (Examples and Specifics in the FREE ebook above)
6. Compile all your paperwork and fax it in to the lender, keeping copies of everything you send.

For a detailed, to-the-point guide on how to modify your own loan, with all the forms, worksheets, and examples, download or FREE Loan Modification Guide above. Our guide is all the help you need, without paying anyone, to get your mortgage loan modification done quickly and correctly by yourself.

As you will see in this recent news broadcast its important that you are aware of exactly what your lender is offering and the terms of that offer. In most cases the customer service representatives at your lender are telling you one thing and their foreclosure department may be telling you another thing. The trial loan modification should be put in writing for you. If you are provided a verbal agreement you must request that it be put in writing and that the exact terms of that trial modification are spelled out.

With the recent debacle surrounding robo-signing of foreclosure notices its very important to ask your lender where you are in the process of foreclosure or default. There are also many sources for you to check the public record yourself online to see if a notice of default has been filed, which in some states is the first step in the foreclosure process.

Remember that if you are not making payments during your loan modification application period, it is likely that your lender will require you to get caught up on some or your payments when they do offer you a trial loan modification. Be prepared for this and make sure to have at least a couple of payments saved so you can enter into the trial loan modification agreement when it is offered.

The banks have finished 1.13 million long term loan modifications for at-risk home owners so far in 2010, based on information released Wednesday by HOPE NOW, the private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers, and non-profit housing counselors.

For the 30 days of July alone, servicers finished much more than 120,000 proprietary loan modifications for home owners. It was the second straight 30 days that proprietary mods topped the 120K mark. As reported by Treasury Department, mortgage servicers also finished 36,695 long term mods via the government’s House Inexpensive Modification Plan (HAMP) in July.

If a borrower doesn’t qualify for HAMP, mortgage servicers figure out eligibility for a proprietary loan modification that might assist the homeowner stay in their house. HOPE NOW reports that 86 % of proprietary modifications finished in July reduced the monthly payment for home owners so that you can make them much more sustainable.

The business group also reports that because January of this year, mortgage delinquencies of 60 days or much more past due have dropped 20 %, as of July 2010. HOPE NOW’s information show that 60-plus-days delinquencies decreased from three,487,783 in June to three,298,236 in July, a drop of 5 % over the one-month period.

Numerous analysts have suggested that recent drops in delinquency stats are merely the byproduct of an improve in foreclosures by servicers as they work via the large backlog of defaulted mortgages and push cases via the pipeline.

HOPE NOW’s information seems to support this assumption. Together with the slight month-to-month drop in delinquencies, the organization also reported that foreclosure begins jumped 22 % in July and finished foreclosure sales rose 12 %. July’s foreclosure begins outpaced loan mods throughout the 30 days by nearly 90 %.

Foreclosures had been initiated on 226,664 houses throughout the 30 days of July, up from 186,395 in June, based on HOPE NOW. Sales had been finalized on 97,951 foreclosed houses in July, compared to 87,842 the 30 days prior.

Faith Schwartz, senior advisor for HOPE NOW, said, “As noted, we did see an improve in foreclosure begins and sales, despite the unprecedented efforts from the business, together with its government and non-profit partners to provide numerous alternatives to foreclosure. We believe this is really a function of borrowers moving via the pipeline of all eligible plan offerings (government and private business) to exhaust all alternatives.”

Schwartz added, “The improve in foreclosures is also a reflection from the continued challenges facing the economy, particularly the level of unemployment nationwide. We remain hopeful that as jobs begin to come back the housing marketplace will stabilize.”

Because HOPE NOW initiated survey information reporting in July 2007, the organization says much more than three.5 million home owners have saved their houses via long term loan modifications. This total reflects the combination of proprietary loan modifications plus those finished under HAMP.

Combined with other mortgage choices, for example repayment plans and forbearance, the mortgage business has assisted nearly 10.4 million home owners because HOPE NOW was formed in 2007.

Mortgage interest rates are already at their lowest level in decades, and this week, they headed even lower. The descent was prompted largely by fears that another housing downturn could hamper the economic recovery, after July’s home sales took a deeper plunge than expected.

Long-term mortgage rates have dropped to new record lows for nine weeks out of the last 10, according to Freddie Mac. This week, the GSE reports that the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) came in at 4.36 percent (0.7 point), down from 4.42 percent last week.

Rates for 15-year FRMs are now averaging 3.86 percent (0.6 point) in Freddie’s study. That’s down from last week’s average of 3.90 percent.

Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), too, are treading extremely low. Freddie Mac says the 5-year ARM remained tied at its low for the survey at 3.56 percent (0.6 point). One-year ARMs dropped from 3.53 percent last week to 3.52 percent (0.7 point).

Sometimes the credit damage in the mortgage modification process comes from a lack of coordination between the bank’s loan mitigation department — which works with mortgage holders to modify their loans — and the foreclosure department.

For example, representatives in the bank’s loan modification department often tell homeowners they must stop making mortgage payments before applying for a loan modification, says Rashmi Airan-Pace, a partner in the real estate law firm Airan2, Airan-Pace & Crosa in Coral Gables, Fla., whose practice is focused on assisting homeowners in distress.

James Spray, a mortgage banker and credit expert at America’s Mortgage in Denver, agrees that loan modification departments frequently urge customers to skip payments.

“If you don’t miss any payments, you’re not showing that you’re bleeding,” Spray says.

But as soon as homeowners skip a payment, the bank’s foreclosure department reports the missed payment to the credit reporting agencies. As a result, the borrower’s credit score takes a hit — not just once, but again each month a new payment is missed.

“This will continue until the loan is paid off,” Spray says.

Even if the loan mitigation department and the foreclosure department work together, it won’t be enough to completely spare the borrower’s credit from damage. Spray says even a successful loan modification will continue to pull down the credit score every month because “the original contract, in which you promised to pay a certain amount, has been breached.”

While a loan modification doesn’t end up as a legal action, such as foreclosure or bankruptcy, on the credit report, it’s still “a pretty heavy hit. Your payment history is about 35 percent of your credit score,” Spray says.

Options to improve your score

If a loan modification has damaged your credit, there are ways to shore up your credit score. But you’ll need a professional’s help.

“The consumer is pretty helpless here,” Spray says. “Other than disputing items that are false, there’s nothing they can do by themselves.”

Negative items can’t be erased, but sometimes a credit score can be improved by having positive information such as on-time payments entered on the credit report, Melinda Opperman, a senior vice president at Springboard Nonprofit Consumer Credit Management in Riverside, Calif.

This has to be done through the mortgage lender, which contacts a company specializing in rapid rescoring that works directly with credit reporting agencies.

“But it’s not easy or cheap,” Spray says. “Depending on the number of trade-line items that need to be fixed, it could be anywhere from $150 to $1,200.”

Modified or a mortgage loan modification is a method that owners turn to end the anxiety of losing their homes to  because of their inability to pay their lender. If you have a mortgage at Citi, you can participate in several programs that can help you refinance your home,

Modified or modified mortgage loan is a method that owners turn to end the anxiety of losing their homes to close because of his inability to pay their lender or making their monthly mortgage payments. If you have a mortgage to Citi, you can participate in several programs that can help you refinance your home, or for those owners who have not rated enough to do, amend the conditions of your existing loan. Mortgage modification is a way to avoid taking a new loan – you simply present the terms of your loan modified to get a cheaper payment and a low interest rate.

Do you need a mortgage loan Citi Change? To determine if a change is needed loan, determining the debt ratio. If the landlord to pay the mortgage and property taxes and taxes on more than 31% of gross income (before taxes), then you probably could benefit from reduced monthly payments you can get when you modify your existing mortgage loan. communicate, home mortgage new, with the most important part LenderThe to change the loan is to communicate directly with your lender. You do not need a lawyer to do it for you or a third company.

You can contact the lender, you will find that the lender is more than happy to provide information that may lead to modify the conditions of a mortgage in order to end the anxiety of foreclosure. The lender did not apply the information sharing options. If you are behind on your mortgage payments and try to avoid the lender, the lender can not help.

There are many homeowners who need help, which means that you could not get to start the process of editing a lien away.Speeding AlongWhen The process it was decided that the mortgage can be modified for you help speed along the process of loan modification with any loan the lender will need. First, you must prove your injury, and complete an affidavit from the compulsion to start the process of amendment. This can be a formal declaration of what made you fall in a desperate financial situation, such as job loss or redundancy, or illness that prevented working.

You should be prepared to provide the lender with pertinent details about your income, including taxes on income for all sources of income, wages and income, pay stubs and other documents required to paint a picture of the amount of money you have coming in this will help the lender to determine the relationship debt / GDP as a percentage of his income is eaten by paying the mortgage. You must also be willing to declare that the mortgage on your primary residence, and that this is not an investment property, holiday home, second home or from any other.

For a detailed Guide on how to modify your own loan go to LOAN MODIFICATION

After steadily increasing for 12 consecutive quarters, the national mortgage loan delinquency rate—the ratio of borrowers 60 or more days past due on their mortgage—dipped down to 6.77 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to data released Monday by TransUnion.

This statistic, which is traditionally seen as a precursor to foreclosure, reflects a 1.74 percent decline from the previous quarter’s 6.89 percent average. However, on a year-over-year basis, mortgage borrower delinquency was still up approximately 30 percent from 5.22 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

TransUnion said delinquency rates in the first quarter continued to be the highest in Nevada (15.98 percent) and Florida (14.65 percent). And the lowest rates of delinquency were found once again in North Dakota (1.76 percent), South Dakota (2.44 percent), and Nebraska (2.68 percent.)

The Chicago-based company also found that just 17 states showed increases in delinquency rates from the previous quarter. Alaska led the pack with an 11.3 percent increase in delinquency rates, and New Hampshire, up 6.3 percent, and Hawaii, up 4.8 percent, followed close behind.

But even the states that showed an increase in mortgage delinquency had metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) that showed improvement over the previous quarter. For example, delinquency rates increased in both Wyoming and Alaska, but the Cheyenne, Wyoming MSA showed a decrease in delinquency of 23.48 percent, and the Fairbanks, Alaska MSA posted a decrease of 1.48 percent.

In total, 60 percent of the nation’s MSAs showed a decline in their 60-day mortgage delinquency rates from the prior quarter, a significant jump from the mere 14 percent who