If you are considering a loan modification to stay in hour home, make sure you read all the fine print and know what you are agreeing to.  This goes for the starting of the process as well as at the end or even after the modification is completed.

About six weeks ago, I had a couple come into the office and was considering selling a house that they own.  He said he has it rented right now and the tenants would like to purchase the home.  He also told me that he did a loan modification earlier that year and didn't know how to handle it.  I asked if he knew how much he owed and he sent in a request for a payoff.  We later got the payoff and upon further review, the loan company (NationStar) had added over a $40,000 corporate advance fee that would be a balloon payment at the end of the loan.  WOW, I thought! 

I asked the couple for all of their loan modification documents and they provided them to me.  I had the couple sign an authorization for me to discuss their loan information with NationStar and sent it to the lender.  In trying to get an explanation on why NationStar added that $40,000 plus to this account, all they could say is that the couple had late payments and missed payments and that is how much they were behind with an additional attorney fees.  I expressed my concern that  they were only 8-9 months behind, how could that add up to over $40,000.  They just said it was what they owed and it would have to be paid off at the end of the 30 year loan.  I didn't agree with their explanation and asked them to send me a detailed payment history of the account. 

After several days, we received the account history.  As I figured, there was no explaination of the excessive corporate advance fee so I contacted the agent at NationStar that originated the loan modification.  The agent could not tell me why that was there and was going to have someone else look into and get back with me.  She said I would be contacted that day or the following Monday.  About Thursday of the following week, since I was not contacted, I made another call and had to leave a message.  After several more attempts to talk to someone, I still have unanswered questions.  They knew I was calling about the account because their system recognized my phone number when I called in.

Well, after a couple of weeks with no answers, I was determined to get this resolved and made another call.  I was not going to accept we will look into it and call you back.  I spent over an hour with one person and she could not say why that $40,000 plus fee was on there.  She rattled off a long explanation again and I was almost buying into it.  I asked to let me think about this a second because I was going to have to explain this to the couple I was working with.  After trying to explain it to myself, it just didn't make sense.  She could not give me a acceptable explanation so she transferred me.  When the next guy tried to explain it, I asked several questions that he could not answer and quickly transferred me to another agent without any warning.  Getting the third guy on the phone, he gave me the same explanation and I gave him back my questions why I have a problem with what he was saying.  He said that was all he knew and that he was going to transfer me to the customer service department.  I was very vocal and said do not transfer me and to let me speak to his manager or supervisor and he did. 

The managers name was Brandon and he gave me the same explanation.  Again, I had questions.  He was speaking in acronyms and different terminologies so I had my computer up looking up what he was saying.  After figuring out what he was saying, I again asked questions and he would try to answer them before I was finished.  I asked him to let me complete my question/explanation for why I was asking these questions.  After listening completely to what I was trying to explain he asked to put me on hold for a few minutes.  I quickly asked if he was transferring me and he said no that he had to look up something in the file.  After several minutes he came back on the phone and he said they made a mistake and that this loan modification was a different one and that the $40,000 shouldn't be on there.  He told me to call back in to see if he was able to get it resolved and I said I would.  WOW! 

I called back in about 4 days later and was told that the account was credited the $40,000 plus amount and that the couple would NOT have a balloon payment at the end of the loan.  I have to say WOW again.  I am thoroughly shocked!  All I can think about is that this couple would have been stuck with this excessive fee and how many other people have they done this too.  I have to say WOW again. 

As I said in the beginning, make sure you read everything and make sure you don't have any thing done to your account that they can't explain and that you agreed to.  I handle real estate transactions all the time and I almost gave up.  I kept on saying you HAVE to give me a detailed accounting of these charges and MAKE them give you a valid reason.  I hope this helps someone else as well.  This just saved my client over $40,000, which they never owed.

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