If your house is teetering on the edge of foreclosure, the time to act has a deadline.
HAMP, the government program incentivizing home loan modifications, ends in 2016.
To qualify for HAMP, you must submit a complete Initial Application Package by December 30, 2016.
That package must include:
- A RMA form which includes a required hardship affidavit and Dodd-Frank certification
- Either IRS Form 4506-T or 4506T-EZ, or in the alternative, a signed copy of the most recent year’s tax return with all applicable schedules and forms,
- The Dodd-Frank certification, either as part of the RMA form or as a stand-alone form, and
- Evidence of the borrower’s income.
Get the HAMP forms and supporting information
Start now
My advice is start now. Don’t wait for the last minute. Who wants to be filling out forms over the holidays?
Expect the servicer to screw up, lose things, delay. Make a record of what you’ve sent.
Be persistent. Many of my clients have gotten loan modifications after months and months of submitting and resubmitting forms.
Get free help
HUD certifies housing counselors to help with this process. Counselors are FREE.
There is no excuse not to get help from non-lender experts: this is not their first rodeo.
Find a free housing counselor.
For Bay Area readers, I’ve created a list of housing counselors.
Alternatives to HAMP
Nothing keeps loan servicers from offering proprietary loan modification programs after HAMP sunsets.
But I have no confidence that they will play fair, or even put out a good effort to get troubled loans back on track.
So while you still have some federal laws and regulations as partners in the effort, get your HAMP application on file before Decemeber 30.
More
What if an accepted loan modification vanishes
Image: USGS via Flickr
