Everyone it seems is attempting to get a loan modification these days. Anyone that has attempted to modify their mortgage knows that the process can be extremely frustrating. One way to make it somewhat less frustrating is to make sure that you qualify under the HAMP guidelines before you bother applying or retaining an attorney to apply for you.
First of all, you need to be delinquent on your mortgage payments in order to even be considered, the standard is 90 days delinquent. Second, you must live in the premises that you are attempting to modify the mortgage on.  Third, the mortgage you have on a single family residence cannot be in excess of $729,750.00.
If you qualify under those guidelines, you can now move to the next step. Your first mortgage payment, plus your property taxes, homeowners insurance and homeowners association fees must be more than 31% of your monthly gross household income. For example if your gross monthly household income is $10,000.00 and your mortgage payment, inclusive of taxes and insurance, is $3,500.00, you would qualify for consideration of a loan modification under the HAMP program, because you are paying 35% of your gross income towards your housing payment.

With all of those factors being present, you are now a candidate for a HAMP loan modification.  The next key step would be for you to make sure that your mortgage Servicer participates in the HAMP program.  You can check at www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/contactservicer.html to see if your Servicer participates.  If your Servicer is a participant then your next step would be to put the HAMP package together and submit it to your Servicer’s Loss Mitigation Department.  I will be posting a later blog about the factors the mortgage servicers consider in determining if they will offer you a loan modification.  For now, good luck.