As my regular readers know, I take a lot of pride in my work as a Home Retention Consultant with Titanium Solutions. I have written recently about the role of Realtors during this period of financial uncertainty, and how I believe it is our duty to assist clients in our community with loan modifications. This week, the State Bar of California, alarmed by the number of lawyers preying on vulnerable homeowners, identified 16 attorneys who are under investigation for misconduct related to loan modification. I have been seeing the fallout from these attorneys’ behavior in my work as a Home Retention Consultant.
Today, Freddie Mac announced that it will be using the services of Titanium Solutions, and the Home Retention Consultants, to hit the streets and meet with their borrowers at their homes and help them supply missing information, documents and complete other actions needed to begin their three month trial payment periods for Home Affordable Modifications under President Obama’s Making Home Affordable program. All this is being done to ease the borrower’s transition, avoid foreclosure, and to reduce the amount of fraud being perpetrated on homeowners.
Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation’s residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home ownership possible for one in six homebuyers and more than five million renters.
As HRC’s for Titanium Solutions, we will target late-paying borrowers with Freddie Mac-owned mortgages who have not returned letters or phone calls sent by their servicers, or who need to provide additional information or documents to launch their three-month Home Affordable Modification trial periods. Titanium will also help those borrowers who have already started their Trial Periods complete the documentation process to enable them to be converted into final modifications.
“By meeting with our borrowers, one on one, in their homes Titanium Solutions can help them overcome the roadblocks keeping them from starting their Home Affordable Modification trial periods,”said Ingrid Beckles, Senior Vice President Of Default Asset Management at Freddie Mac. “We believe this can give borrowers seeking Home Affordable Modifications the same type of personalized guidance they may have had when they were buying their home or applying for their mortgage.”
“Through this initiative, Freddie Mac again demonstrates their commitment to helping homeowners in need. We are pleased to work with them to improve contact with at risk homeowners who are in jeopardy of losing their homes to foreclosure, as well as increasing the number of homeowners who receive and are approved for a modification,” said Patrick Carey, Chief Executive Officer at Titanium Solutions, Inc.
Reaching Delinquent Borrowers in their Homes and Reducing Fraud
Titanium Solutions representatives will provide borrowers seeking Home Affordable Modifications with a wide range of support and expertise from reviewing program requirements, to explaining which documents are needed, to securing signatures and walking them through unfamiliar processes.
To minimize potential fraud by imposters, Titanium Solutions representatives will not accept mortgage payments or any other money from borrowers. Representatives will also carry a copy of their servicers’ solicitation letter the borrower initially received. These letters are specially formatted and include unique information about the mortgage loan.
Titanium Solutions, Inc. is the newest piece of Freddie Mac’s multi-pronged effort to help borrowers take advantage of President Obama’s Making Home Affordable program. Freddie Mac has placed program experts at servicers across the country, works one-on-one with borrowers at local events organized by the Treasury Department, and recently hired Home Retention Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stewart Lender Services, Inc., to ease backlogs at several servicers by processing applications from eligible delinquent borrowers with Freddie Mac mortgages.
This new program from Freddie Mac serves to give me yet another way to serve the community and participate with my clients in making the recovery happen. Remember these quick tips, if you are considering loan modification:
Beware of Foreclosure Rescue Scams – Help Is Free!
-
Scam artists often target homeowners who are struggling to meet their mortgage commitment or anxious to sell their homes. Recognize and avoid common scams.
-
Assistance from a HUD-approved housing counselor is FREE.
-
Beware of anyone who asks you to pay a fee in exchange for a counseling service or modification of a delinquent loan.
-
Beware of people who pressure you to sign papers immediately, or who try to convince you that they can “save” your home if you sign or transfer over the deed to your house.
-
Do not sign over the deed to your property to any organization or individual unless you are working directly with your mortgage company to forgive your debt.
-
Never make a mortgage payment to anyone other than your mortgage company without their approval.