Mortgage Relief Online

This from today’s New York Times …

———————–
HOMEOWNERS who are having trouble making their monthly mortgage payments may be able to get some relief by modifying the terms of their loans.

The federal government’s Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan is aimed at owners whose mortgages are backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while other individual lenders are offering help as well.

But borrowers may have a difficult time determining if they qualify for these programs, in large part because loan-modification guidelines are not always widely available, and busy lenders often have little time to explain them to customers.

FICO, formerly known as the Fair Isaac Corporation, which developed the most widely used scores for assessing credit risk, unveiled a Web site this month — MortgageReliefOnline.com — to help these homeowners.
The new site walks borrowers through a questionnaire about their income, mortgage debt and home value, and asks for contact information.
———————–

Mortgage Graph

The information collected is compared to other information about the borrower and a preliminary on-screen status is posted. From there a borrower may be notified that a counselor will call. The counselor may request documentation and, if deemed appropriate, would forward the file to the lender with a recommended course of action.

———————–
Mark Greene, the chief executive of FICO, says lenders and loan servicers are more likely to respond quickly to such recommendations than to borrowers who contact them directly. “The servicers know that qualified leads are coming through, with all the information attached,” he said.
———————–

Read !–more–