Hey World. My first post! OK straight to the point. With all this hoopla with the distressed property law, is it legal to represent a client on loan re-modifications? I've been trying to help my brother-in-law short sell his house, but the process has already taken six months and the auction date for his house is approaching. Our last resort may be to just re-mod his loan so he doesn't take a bigger hit on his credit that necessary. I truly think that I care more about this situation than him! But he IS married to my sister so I won't let him go down that easily.

What do you mean exactly by 'represent?'

An agent who has expertise in short sales, foreclosures, or other financial aspects of the business can and should give their best advice. Followed by a recommendation to consult a professional loan officer or mortgage broker.

But giving sound advice is not the same as 'representing' the client.

Check your state license law, it is most likely on line. I was attending a CE class a while back and a question came up, not your question, but as the class responded you could see that there were quite a few different opinions on what was legal.

The instructor simply went back to our state license law, bang, an answer. Not just an answer, the correct answer! That really stuck with me, such a simple yet productive approach.

Check your state license law, you may or may not get the answer you want, but you will get the correct answer....

We struggled with this question as well in our market. We have individuals come to us asking for help with their loans, and with our connections, phone numbers and email addresses with the banks we have been able to modify a few loans. We haven't charged for this but simply make the phone calls along with our short sale calls. It's the same process as far as gathering the information is concerned and it has led to referrals for short sales. We haven't done many, but we do no advertising and we have a steady stream of short sales to do.

You can call for the homeowner as long as you have an authorization to release on file with the lender. Same process and paperwork.

The BIGGER question if you are just an agent is if the brokerage you are with ALLOWS you as part of the your IC agreement to do short sales and loan modifications.Many do not as many things can go wrong and the broker is ultimately responsible for you.They may not want the liability or it may not be covered as a claim under there E & O policy.

Have you had a mortgage broker pull a tri-merge lately to see what it is??

If they already have the paperwork for the short sale they would have already looked at a modification.Something is missing here as you are doing it backwards.Loss mitigators when working a file have a natural progression they go through.

First customary call from customer service department,then a few months behind the collection department,then you get really behind they hand it over to loss mitigation.FIRST they will look at a workout above anything else as that lessens there loss.Laon modification,interest rate freeze or drop,putting payments on the back end,forebearance plans etc. Then if it looks like a long term problem instead fo a short term bump in the road the mitigator will work for a short sale,deed-in-liue etc.

I can't comment further as I don't know your clients situation well enough.

I already can guess it's in the crapper.No difference between a 520 middle and a 540 middle score.

Have you had a mortgage broker pull a tri-merge lately to see what it is??

I already can guess it's in the crapper.No difference between a 520 middle and a 540 middle score.

Sorry my paragraphs got split somehow.

I've never heard of a tri-merge but I will find out more about it. What I mean by represent my client is if I can negotiate my client's loan modification on his behalf. Right, I think I was concerned when I heard somewhere that my Broker could be liable if something went wrong within the process and thats why I started this post. Originally my client did not want to keep his house nor could he afford it but with loan remod's a possiblity that might effectively reduce his monthly payments maybe we might be able to work something out with the bank where he can stay in his home.

Tri merge= Pulling reports from all 3 credit reporting agencies.