FAQ

QUESTION:  Do I need to be delin­quent or behind on my mort­gage pay­ments to qual­ify for assistance?

ANSWER:  No.  Most mort­gage relief pro­grams are meant to help peo­ple in finan­cial hard­ship.  Banks are more will­ing to help bor­row­ers in trouble.   Having strug­gled to main­tain your pay­ments despite finan­cial hard­ship is looked upon favor­ably.  The best time to obtain assis­tance is when you first fore­see dif­fi­culty mak­ing your payments.

QUESTION:  Is it too late to help clients who have received a Notice of Trustee Sale?

ANSWER:  No.  MRP pro­moted attor­neys can assist clients with fore­clo­sure defense rep­re­sen­ta­tion up to a few days before the actual trans­fer sale date.  How­ever, if you are con­sid­er­ing legal assis­tance, please don’t wait until you have received a notice of sale.  Your chances of reach­ing a suc­cess­ful res­o­lu­tion dimin­ish the longer you wait.

QUESTION:  Do you work with all lenders and servicers?

ANSWER:  Yes.  MRP pro­moted attor­neys will work with any and all lenders and ser­vicers and the results will typ­i­cally vary with each. The results will depend not only upon your lender/servicer, but also the spe­cific details of your case. These attor­neys have estab­lished con­tacts at all major lend­ing insti­tu­tions.  These rela­tion­ships have saved clients mil­lions of dol­lars in suc­cess­ful loan mod­i­fi­ca­tions.  Most major lenders have their own spe­cific mort­gage relief pro­grams in addi­tion to their par­tic­i­pa­tion in any fed­eral mort­gage relief pro­grams, such as HAMP. 

QUESTION:  Can you help me with prop­er­ties that I’m not liv­ing in or cur­rently rent­ing out?

ANSWER:  Yes.  There is assis­tance avail­able for non-owner occu­pied properties.

QUESTION:  What do you look for in clients?

ANSWER:  MRP pro­moted attor­neys can help any­one in finan­cial trou­ble, but cer­tain con­di­tions can make their job eas­ier.  Ideal clients are those home­own­ers who:

are already in fore­clo­sure
have received a notice of default
have an adjustable-rate mort­gage that has already increased
have neg­a­tive amor­ti­za­tion loans
have a loan amount which is greater than the value of the house
are expe­ri­enc­ing hard­ship due to a bad loan or predatory lending

QUESTION:  Do unem­ployed home­own­ers qual­ify for any mort­gage relief programs?

ANSWER:  Yes. (Click here for details.)

QUESTION:  Do you count the income of peo­ple who are liv­ing in the home but are not legally respon­si­ble for the mort­gage payments?

ANSWER:  Yes.  For most loan mod­i­fi­ca­tion and mort­gage relief pro­grams, the total income of every mem­ber of the house­hold is con­sid­ered, not just the home­owner.  It is best to con­sult your loan mod­i­fi­ca­tion attor­ney regard­ing these other income sources and their applicability.

QUESTION:  Will my lender need other doc­u­ments (such as credit scores) to assess my case?

ANSWER:  Besides the pay stubs and tax forms, some lenders may ask for at least two months of bank state­ments in order to deter­mine your income. Credit scores are not con­sid­ered for qual­i­fi­ca­tion! What lenders are really look­ing for is your abil­ity to main­tain your pay­ments going for­ward.  In other words,  most pro­grams are con­cerned with the future, not the past.

QUESTION:  How long does it take to get a response from my lender?

ANSWER:  The aver­age ini­tial response is 7–10 busi­ness days, but it varies from one client to the next. The entire process typ­i­cally takes about 60 days.  Some appli­ca­tions process faster than oth­ers and are mostly depen­dent on the lender’s response times. 

QUESTION:  What inter­est rates can I expect after a loan modification?

ANSWER:  The results vary from case to case, but many of our clients have had their loans mod­i­fied to inter­est rates between 2.5% and 5.5%.  In most cases, vari­able inter­est rates end up being con­verted to fixed inter­est rates as well.

QUESTION:  Do I need to pay for an attorney’s legal ser­vices in advance?

ANSWER:  Yes. You are pay­ing for legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. It works as a legal retainer, as it does for any legal ser­vices.  How­ever, pay­ment plans are avail­able for those who qual­ify.  (NOTE:  There are no upfront attorney’s fees for debt set­tle­ment ser­vices.)

QUESTION:  How do I pay to retain an attor­ney for legal services?

ANSWER:  Pay­ments are accepted by check, money order, cashier’s check, elec­tronic funds trans­fer, Mas­ter­Card, Visa, and Discover.