The very first thing you should do is to learn everything possible about the application guidelines before you get started. This helps you more accurately calculate your figures. Knowing whether to use the gross or net income could determine whether you qualify or not. You need to gather your supporting documents, even if you do not need to submit them all with your SunTrust application. You will need them to compile your information and get a clear financial picture of what kind of monthly payment you can really afford.

The Treasury Department has recently streamlined the paperwork involved in the loan modification process. Of course, you will need proof of income. The other information needs have been consolidated into two forms. The RMA is a form that will organize information regarding your income, expenses, other liens on the property, and liquid assets. It also includes a hardship affidavit, fraud notice, and trial period information. The other form necessary to expedite your application is the Short Form Request For Individual Tax Return Transcript. This basically gives SunTrust the authority to access a copy of your most recent income tax return.

You should be mindful of the need to be completely honest and straightforward in the completion of your application for a SunTrust Loan Modification. Not only will dishonesty cause you to forfeit your chance for assistance, it is a serious crime to submit false information on an application for a government program.

For must know facts about how you can get approved for a Suntrust loan modification, visit our blog at http://1MortgageModifications.com/ to get help today.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_Clover

The information below will help you better determine if you have been a victim of mortgage fraud or predatory lending.

Have You been a Victim of Mortgage Fraud?

* Have you been encouraged to falsify certain information on your loan application?
* Have you been asked to leave certain signature lines blank on a loan form?
* Has there been any alteration/s made to the information you supplied in your mortgage loan application?

Indications of Predatory Lending

Where you not given a copy of any of the following disclosure agreements?

* Good Faith Estimate
* Special Information Booklet
* Truth in Lending
* HUD-1 Settlement Statement

* Have you refinanced your mortgage several times? In each instance, has your monthly mortgage payment and/or total amount owed increased?
* Do any of your mortgage documents say that when your payments are late, your interest rate will change to accommodate “daily interest” that you need to pay?
* If you want to pay off or refinance your loan, are there any pre-payment penalties indicated?
* Is your loan amount higher than your home’s value?
* Do you have any unexpected costs in your settlement that were not discussed with you prior to the settlement?
* After the settlement, did you find your monthly mortgage payments to be higher than you anticipated based on the initial disclosures?
* After making a series of low payments to your loan, there is still a large lump sum or “balloon payment” due to your entire loan balance. Will you need to refinance thru another loan to pay that lump-sum?
* Were you encouraged or required to get credit life insurance? Insurance that will repay the debt in the event of a death or disability.

Note: Credit insurance is optional and should not be imposed to borrowers. You must decide carefully whether you are going to purchase credit insurance because it considerably affects the cost of the loan transaction.

MBA and its fellow supporters actively fight to control, if not eliminate, predatory lending. In fact, borrowers are being made aware that there is a Borrower’s Bill of Rights. This gives the borrowers some form of protection against predatory lenders.

Federal Predatory Lending Laws
The following are laws now in effect at the Federal Reserve that gives you rights on certain issues during the closing process:

Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act (RESPA)

This requires disclosure of mortgage processing transactions and other fees that could affect the cost of settlement services. It is a consumer protection statute, enforced by HUD, that aims to make consumers well-informed in the home buying process.

Truth in Lending Act (TILA)

Enacted under the Consumer Credit Protection Act in 1968, which requires creditors to disclose information to consumers in relation to why they are being charged, what for, and how much.

State Predatory Lending laws
Predatory lending laws can vary from state to state. Know the laws in your area that protects consumers against abusive lending practices like excessive fees and rates. High fees may compromise pre-payment penalties and credit life insurance.

List of fraudulent home loan modification practices
Desperate home owners would potentially jump to every opportunity to get a mortgage modification to avoid being kicked-out of their homes. It is not surprising, that over-promising practices will start to occur and loan modification companies will take advantage of homeowner’s vulnerability.

Your Guide To Detecting Loan Modification Fraud

* The “high-pressure, cash-up-front” type of sales business tactics. Be suspicious of pushy salesman and mortgage modification companies that require up front fees..
* Never pay a fee for housing counseling services.
* Never sign anything. Unless you are working directly with your mortgage company, do not sign anything, such as, a transfer of deed.
* Never submit mortgage payments other than to your mortgage company.

Be alert. Remember that the official place to go for mortgage modification services is the governments Making Home Affordable website. You can find information related to the mortgage modification process. In reality, fraud does not only occur in mortgage modifications. Oftentimes, it starts from the moment a borrower shops for a loan.

Learn more about Predatory Lending Laws & Get your Free Loan Modification Kit. This loan modification kit includes everything to Stop Foreclosure and Save Your Home with a loan modification. Includes Loan Modification Worksheets, Loan Modification Forms, detailed instructions, lender Rolodex, 50 bank specific forms, And Much More! Absolutely Free!

Visit our website for How to articles, mortgage calculators, free sample hardship letters, foreclosure timelines, and dozens of informative articles on loan modifications and foreclosure. Stop by to check out our growing library of free financial kits. We currently have bankruptcy kits, credit repair, and loan mod with more on their way!

FreeDIYkits
“Helping Homeowners Help Themselves”

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bobby_Tucker

The securitized mortgages are subject to rules created in the investment documents and rules issued by the Internal Revenue Service to secure favorable tax treatment for securitized loans. These rules constrain the ability of the banks to modify mortgages. Such rules may include the following:

(a) Imposing the restrictions on mortgage modification required to be made to qualify for pass through tax treatment under IRS regulations.
(b) Imposing restrictions upon the number of mortgages in the pool which may be modified.
(c) Providing a procedure and fees to be paid for foreclosure but no procedure to modifying the loan as an alternate dispute resolution.
(d) Creating securities with classes of ownership (”tranches”) with adverse and opposing financial interests resulting in so called “tranche warfare” so that a modification which favors one tranche may work a detriment upon another.
(e) Restricting the ability to lower interest payments on the note.
(f) Restricting the ability to increase the number of payments to be made.
(g) Restricting the ability to defer payments.
(h) Restricting the ability to extend the term of the mortgage.
(i) Restricting the ability to impose a temporary moratorium on payments.
(j) Restricting the ability to accept “short sales”.
(k) Creating potential liability to a specific class of certificate holders by entering into a modification agreement required for an alternate dispute resolution.
(l) Requiring the servicing agent to purchase any loan which has been modified.

These restrictions work a modification of the Transaction without the consent of the borrower. This constitutes either a breach of contract or a tortious interference with a contract, or both. Failure to have obtained the consent of the borrower to a securitization of the mortgage is a legally fatal flaw.

Following the rules imposed on securitized mortgages constrains and restricts the ability of banks to modify loans. Even where the loan is modified only by extending the term of the loan so that the original principal and interest rate are unchanged, the cash flow generated may not be sufficient to permit modification of the loan if the investors hold fixed rate bonds. In short, banks make fees when they foreclose; banks incur actual and potential liability when banks modify mortgages.

The Administration and the banks have shown nothing more than a willingness to pay lip service to the achieving loan modifications instead of foreclosure. Documents issued by federal financial agencies and Congressional Committees show that the government is fully aware of the institutionalized constraints but loath to discuss such constraints with members of the public. There has been no serious effort by our government to address and overcome the institutionalized constraints to loan modification. Until there is a serious countervailing force to compel lenders to modify mortgages which overrides the institutionalized constraints, the sorry rate of foreclosures will continue unabated. Unless such a countervailing force emerges from the private sector or from a need to respond to massive political pressure, very little is likely to change.

The discussion above has shown that the note holder disappears in securitization and the securitization works an illegal modification of the Transaction without the consent of the debtor. As organized, securitizations have a third major difficulty. Typically a third party to the Transaction is required to make any monthly payment to the certificate holders which is in default. In other words, if a specific mortgagor fails to make the January payment, a third party will make the payment for the mortgagor. Accordingly, the allegation in a foreclosure proceeding that the January payment was not made and is in default is false. The January payment was paid to the investors. How many times must the investors be paid the January payment? Once is enough. Is there any requirement in the Transaction or anywhere else that only the named mortgagor can make the required January payment to the servicing agent? Absolutely not.

It may well be that such a third party who has made payments in default is entitled to a legal recovery against the debtor. However, that party is not a party to the mortgage or a successor in interest to the mortgagee and therefore has no right whatsoever to foreclose to effect repayment. To use the mechanism of foreclosure to recover the third party debt perpetrates a fraud and misuse of the foreclosure proceedings. The mortgage is not intended to secure repayment of anyone. It is intended only to secure repayment of the mortgagee and the mortgagee’s successors in interest. In the case of securitization, the third parties making payments in default are indisputably not the successors in interest of the original mortgagee.

It is but a question of time until Congress and the courts are compelled to recognize that securitization, as practiced and without any public regulation, has resulted in “Morgicide”, the illegal and intentional destruction of mortgages by Wall Street. The upshot of this Morgicide will be the realization that the nation’s largest banks and financial institutions have caused millions of illegal foreclosures. Think of it this way. Your neighbor purchased a new car with an installment credit loan. Your neighbor has failed to make monthly installment payments. The dealer has the right to repossess. Instead, I come along and take the car. The police arrest me and charge me with Grand Theft Auto. At trial, I defend myself by arguing that since my neighbor was in default, I had the right to repossess the car. Sorry, this will not work, and I am going to jail.

The judge will rule only the dealer, not me, has the right to repossess. I acted as a mere thief in the night. Similarly the financial institutions acting as plaintiffs in the foreclosure of securitized mortgages are acting like the thief in the night. They are taking the house on behalf of the secured creditor without being the secured creditor.

So far, just as in the Sherlock Holmes mystery known as “Silver Blaze” where the dog did not bark in the night, our judges have been suspiciously silent. This will change as more and more lawyers become familiar with securitization. Look to see multibillion dollar class actions suits for wrongful foreclosure as part of the shameful legal legacy of unregulated securitization. As long as lawyers chase ambulances and sue for malpractice, Morgicide will not go unpunished.

For more information contact:
Richard F. Kessler
Documentary Clearing House and Associates, LLC.
941-924-5608,
richardfkessler@verizon.net
http://www.documentaryclearinghouse.com

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DCH may not represent you legally or provide legal advice. Please give us the opportunity to help you save your home and delay foreclosure by using our Stop Foreclosure Package for the price of one half month’s rent. You cannot afford to miss this opportunity to try to save your home.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Kessler