5 Tips To Help You In The Mortgage Modification Process.
Today, most mortgage servicers offer mortgage modification programs. In most cases, your mortgage servicer will request that you complete a Request for Mortgage Assitance, or RMA. If your servicer hasn’t already provided you with the form, it can be found at www.makinghomeaffordable.gov. I have had the opportunity to attend hundreds of court-supervised conciliation conferences in residential mortgage foreclosure diversion programs throughout Pennsylvania, and I wanted to take a few moments and offer some tips to help you through the mortgage modification process:
1. Submit all documents as a complete package. The quickest way to get your submission reviewed by your mortgage servicer is to gather all of the documents requested by your mortgage servicer, and submit all of them together as one, complete package. Regulations established by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) require that the servicer review your package and notify you of any missing documents within five days, but servicers frequently miss this deadline. Often, you may never receive timely notification from your mortgage servicer that your submission is incomplete. If your package “ages”, or sits idle too long, you may be stuck back at square one, and have to resubmit everything all over again. To avoid this, I recommend making every effort to gather all of the necessary documentation required by your lender and submitting it as one complete package.
2. Double check that 4506T. Your lender will require that you provide them with an IRS Form 4506T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return. Make sure that the form is completely filled out, this includes putting the information for your mortgage servicer in line 5. Your lender won’t fill in any missing blanks, so if you don’t fill this form out completely (and correctly) you can expect delays.
3. Taxes done? While we’re on the subject of taxes, if you have any unfiled tax returns, now is the time to do them. More likely than not, your lender will want copies of your signed tax returns from the past couple of years, in addition to the 4506T. If you were not required by law to file with the IRS, then make sure you write a letter, signed and dated, to your servicer explaining the reason(s) why you were not required to file.
4. Follow up, constantly. Once you provide a request for mortgage assistance to your lender, they have 5 days to review the submission for missing documents. Once your servicer receives the completed package, they have 30 days to review you for foreclosure alternatives. If it’s been more than 30 days since you submitted a package to your lender, follow up. Your RMA just might be sitting in someone’s inbox, collecting dust.
5. Is your mortgage servicer not following the CFPB Guidelines? Let the CFPB know about it. If your mortgage servicer is not following CFPB Guidelines for mortgage assistance, don’t be afraid to file a complaint against your servicer with the CFPB. It’s easy to submit online, and if the process is stalled, it could help move it along. You can file a complaint on the CFPB’s website.
