Having trouble paying your mortgage payments? Loan modifications are not a do-it-yourself project.

At our Columbus, Ohio law office, we are seeing  many people who have tried to work through home loan modifications on their own.  Many people do this in an effort to save money, which is understandable. Recent news articles confirm what I am seeing, foreclosures are still climbing (BusinessWeek, January 14, 2010) and the majority of loan modification applications never turn into permanent loan modifications (usatoday.com, January 16, 2010).

Sadly, many borrowers spend weeks, even months, dealing with lenders only to run out of time and have their homes enter foreclosure and end up in a sheriff’s sale.  Mortgage companies claim the reason that most loans are not permanently modified is that they do not receive the proper paperwork from the homeowners.

When homeowners have an experienced and skilled attorney working on their behalf, lenders are much less likely to misplace paperwork.  The attorney ensures that the proper paperwork is submitted in a timely manner and that it is in the format that will be acceptable to the lender.  In addition, the attorney holds the lender’s loss mitigation department accountable for their role by following up and making sure they meet their legal duty to mitigate and to fairly apply the HAMP program.

At Jump Legal, we are one of just a handful of law offices (the only one in Ohio) to have EMODIFY.  EMODIFY is a new state-of-the-art loan modification program designed by former employees of lenders familiar with the loss mitigation process. It allows clients to begin their loan modification on-line, if they desire. The information is submitted to one of our loan modification attorneys for review with the homeowner by teleconference or office conference, free of charge. EMODIFY assists the attorney in quickly determining homeowner eligibility and, therefore, whether or not a loan modification is the best legal solution.  EMODIFY also places all of homeowner’s documentation into the preferred format that has been required by lenders —thus streamlining the loan modification process. The attorneys at Jump Legal then stay on top of our clients’ loan modifications and communicate with the lenders on our clients’ behalf. Once approved for a trial modification, our attorneys will follow your through the trial period until a permanent modification is approved.

If you are having trouble paying your mortgage, or if you anticipate that might have difficulty in the future, now is the time to contact an experienced attorney.  If you reside in Ohio, Jump Legal can handle your home loan modification for you. Contact our Columbus, Ohio office to schedule a free consultation with an attorney.