We've been asked to review a product on Loan Modifications for which we are an affiliate. As stated in the Liar's Poker post, lenders do discriminate in regards to who they give loan mods to. Since my background is in land planning and not lending, I thought it would be best to get someone from that industry to do the review. Morgan, our blogging buddy from Blown Mortgage, has written a guest post for us regarding this program. Thank you Morgan!
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Hi Irvine Housing Blog Readers,
My name is Morgan and I manage and own the blog BlownMortgage.com. BlownMortgage.com, like the Irvine Housing Blog, has been about telling the truth during this housing mess. From the moment I started it in February of 2007 it received a lot of attention as the only honest mortgage blog on the Web. It's regularly linked to by the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, and we've been fortunate enough to be published in the most prestigious publications in the country including many of the leading newspapers in the nation. Our one motto at Blown Mortgage has been to tell the truth and I believe that is what has made us successful. I also believe that is why the Irvine Housing Blog has been such a success.
I'm a huge fan and regular reader of the Irvine Housing Blog. I have a ton of respect for the work that Irvine Renter and the rest of the team do on the site. Because of that I'm very grateful that they've asked me to write a review for a new product that they offering to their readers. As a former owner of a mortgage bank (yes, we closed our doors in the contraction) and now owner of the blog I've seen a lot of pitches about loan modification products and services. Some of them mediocre, some of them outright scams, most of them not worth the time it took to look them over. But I found one product and service (and more importantly individual) who I think gets it in terms of helping people get loan modfications themselves. Continued after the jump
The product is called Loan Mod Secrets and it is a do-it-yourself guide to doing loan modifications. Richard Geller owns the company and also provides other products like Short Sale Secrets and other courses.
His do it yourself loan modification ebook and seminars on loan modifications and short sales have been some of the best material I've found on the internet to-date regarding the subject. After reviewing the material upfront I was confident in recommending the product to my readers. Hundreds of books have been sold to date and I've had exactly one email from an unsatisfied customer. I rested easy knowing that Richard offers a full, 365-day money-back guarantee on his products and that this person would get their investment back. PLEASE NOTE: I AM AN AFFILIATE FOR LOAN MOD SECRETS AND MAKE A COMMISSION FOR EACH BOOK THAT SELLS. But I have literally reviewed dozens of these courses, ebooks and programs and found this one to be the best.
What do I like about Loan Mod Secrets?
- It's inexpensive compared to other loan modification programs. Do-it-yourself means no retainers, no lawyers and no four-or-five figure fees.
- It's ethical. They renounce trying to cheat the process by providing fraudulent information to secure a loan modification.
- It's practical. There's not a lot of magic here, just straight commonsense and how-to information to help you get the loan modification you need.
- It's complete. Richard goes through all aspects of the loan modification process and gives you a system and tips to manage all of the moving parts of the loan modification process.
- It's got some great, unknown information. Do you know how you can get a market price and short sell your house in 9-days? Neither did I until I read his book. I thought it was brilliant. The other nuggets of advice are worth the price of the ebook as well.
- It's risk-free. You can try the program risk-free for 365 days without it costing you a penny. That's a pretty good trial period.
- It's above board. I've never had any complaints from customers who felt jerked around or cheated with this ebook. After hundreds of sales I consider that significant.
So if you're looking for a solution to getting a loan modification on your home mortgage without having to pay an attorney thousands of dollars in retainers I recommend this Loan Mod Secrets ebook and/or course. And if you're in the business and want to help people with loan modifications there's a course on that as well. The information in the ebook will help you help others. And trust me, there is a real need for more qualified, honest people to help with this crushing problem. In addition to the books I've sold I get over 100 inquiries a month from people looking for help with their loan modification (they don't want to do it themselves, they just don't have the time and need help).
Try Loan Mod Secrets. The Irvine Housing Blog will make a commission on the product, but you're helping yourself with a product I believe can help you and you're supporting a great resource that has helped shine the bright light of truth and honesty on this housing crisis. Thanks for your time.
Morgan
Hire a loan modification attorney that can help you reduce your mortgage payments if there are grounds to do so.
I got a kick out of the article on Mating Men on your website.
“Our competition for economic displays drives our consumer economy and culture of affluence,? said Kruger. ?In terms of the current mortgage crisis, the findings suggest that one of the reasons we overextend ourselves is the we?re basically in a status race. We have expectations that spiral upward as people make more money and everyone wants to show they are better than average.?”
Once everybody is enabled, its off to the “Irvine status races”.
Thanks Granite – that was written by Jay Hammond, one of our writers. She’s been covering the various parts of the blame game and I particularly enjoyed that biologically-driven rationale.
Irvine Renter,
Next weekend can we get a post about this:
https://www.getsnuggie.com/flare/next
or at least something on the intrinsic value of gold, and how we should all put ourselves on the gold standard, you know one of those commercials where they say: “If the price of gold soars to $3000 an ounce the gold on this table would be worth $XXX,XXX ……”
Actually, that might make for an interesting weekend thread topic. We could have the big debate between the gold bugs and the rest of the world. Awgee is a gold bug, and he would probably argue well for buying gold. Personally, I think gold only has value because gold bugs think it does. Of course, there are enough of them to make a big market for it, so it does have value.
that debate is like beating a dead horse…
I’m on your side of the fence with that one…. why do governments guard gold with guns and blood? reverse psychology
At some point the value of gold will be based on the cost to produce it. That could be in 20 years or 500 years, but it will happen…. and the cost/value will be driven down.
1. Gold always increases in value in the long run.
2. Gold prices don’t fall to zero like stock prices, so it’s safer to invest in gold.
3. The bubble prices were driven by supply and demand.
4. They’re not making any more gold (though they are still digging it up out of the ground I guess)
5. Rich Chinese (or Europeans, or Arabs) are driving up gold prices.
6. If you don’t buy gold now, you’ll never get another chance.
7. Gold is worth whatever fools will pay for it.
OK, I admit, a couple of those were a stretch to say with a straight face but two or three years from now I’ll probably be wishing I had listened to me.
A letter to the editor in Feb’s Cal Bar Journal from someone at the Dept of Real Estate provided interesting commentary on the explosion of these loan mod outfits. The letter’s a cautionary tale for lawyers thinking about adding loan mods to their practice, but I think the IHB community might find it interesting and it’s definitely on topic for today’s post.
“Diane Karpman?s December article, ?Beware the meltdown?s temptations,? provided several important and timely cautionary notes to lawyers who might be tempted to participate in what you aptly called ?new business models? related to loan modifications. The last paragraph states that ?lawyers can ? hire in-house loan modification agents so that they can be properly supervised.?
The California Department of Real Estate has learned that some lawyers, using this concept, are offering to hire real estate brokers and salespersons and to supervise the real estate licensees as ?paralegals? or as some sort of legal assistants. But this scenario raises a number of issues, which arguably puts the lawyers back in the same ethically questionable realm that the first part of the article addresses.
The California Mortgage Foreclosure Consultants Act was enacted to address the fraud, deception, harassment and unfair dealing by foreclosure consultants relative to homeowners whose residences are in foreclosure. With rare exception, the act prohibits the collection of an advance fee or the payment of compensation in advance of services being performed once a Notice of Default has been recorded. Real estate licensees are covered by this prohibition.
The applicable ?lawyer? exemption is for ?[a] person licensed to practice law in this state when the person renders service in the course of his or her practice as an attorney-at-law.? Section 2945.1 (b)(1).
If a lawyer hires ?in-house loan modification agents,? are these non-lawyers performing legal services? Or are they performing ?non-legal? real estate-related loan modification services (which would arguably require a real estate license)? Are they practicing law? What legally related training do such ?loan modification agents? have? If the lawyer has collected a retainer fee for the services, is the lawyer sharing that fee for legal services with non-lawyers? How is the compensation to the in-house modification agents made? Commission? Salary? Hourly? In the event of an unsuccessful loan modification, the fee(s) payable to the lawyer may be shockingly large when compared to the lawyer?s normal hourly rate charges.
Certainly, there are many more questions and issues that can be posed. Moreover, there are a number of other problematic scenarios which bring into question the applicability of the ?lawyer practicing law? exemption. I have lingering concerns about the statement that lawyers can hire in-house loan modification agents.”
http://calbar.ca.gov/state/calbar/calbar_cbj.jsp?sCategoryPath=/Home/Attorney Resources/California Bar Journal/February2009&MONTH=February&YEAR=2009&sCatHtmlTitle=Opinion&sJournalCategory=YES&sCatHtmlPath=cbj/2009-02_Opinion_Letters-Editor.html&sSubCatHtmlTitle=Letters to the Editor
That is a great article and an important part of the reason that I chose to support a DIY program. There are just too many sharks in the tank as it is right now. There are too many attorneys charging outrageous retainers to do what amounts to admin work and there are also too many folks operating outside of the law when it comes to collecting fees and providing “help” for loan modifications. There is absolutely no law, however, against an individual who wishes to modify their own mortgage, which is why I think, if you have the time and desire that you should do it yourself.
I don’t know about you guys, but there are hundreds of folks and firms that are now doing loan modifications. I mean, if you go onto the jobs section of craigslist you’ll see hundreds of posts looking for people who can do loan modifications for a company.
I know multiple mortgage brokers and ex-mortgage brokers that have either hired one in house attorney, or have partnered with an outside law firm all together and simply switched their loan originators to “modification” support staff. Moreover, many of these mortgage brokers were the one’s that manipulated documents when stated income loans were running crazy. Now they’re doing the reverse, I think that Irvine renter coined the term “reverse liar loan”. This area needed to get new regulation 6 months ago. I think that a good argument can be made that the only mod that should be allowed is for those people that can afford a fully amortized, 30-year fixed loan, at the same rate offered to everyone else, however, they can’t refinance only because of lack of equity. Of course, the profit sharing etc the banks often put into the new terms may help in the short term, they will bite the banks and our country in the long term as this generation of homeowners doesn’t have a pot to piss in come retirement time. Moreover, I’ve heard that 60% of mods from the beginning of this year are back in foreclosure. This needs to be addressed.
I don’t know about you guys but as an agent I really want to learn how to complete a short sale in 9-days!!!
“Moreover, I?ve heard that 60% of mods from the beginning of this year are back in foreclosure.”
Because these folks are not credit worthy regardless of the terms.