Obama Sends SWAT Teams Into Mortgage Servicing Offices
Making modifications permanent
This morning, we talked about President Obama’s plan to call lenders to the carpet and he along with the Treasury Department delivered.
Today, the White House threatened to punish mortgage lenders with fines if they don’t speed up giving troubled homeowners a permanent break on their monthly payments. With mortgage delinquencies on the rise, nearly 375,000 borrowers are eligible for permanent loan modifications by the end of December and the Obama Administration want to make sure the banks make good on granting these modifications rather than lolly gagging. Proof of reluctance to move past trial offer periods is that only 1,711 permanent mortgage modifications had been offered by September.
“Banks should be moving more rapidly and more efficiently to decisions once documents are in and we will have more detailed metrics on that in coming months,” Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Barr said during a conference call, reported by The Guardian.
The loan modification program (Home Affordable Modification Program) is a $75 billion taxpayer-financed program put in place to curb foreclosure rates but loan servicers are known for being slow and ineffective, often “losing” paperwork.
HAMP was implemented to aide struggling homeowners and has come under sharp criticism by the real estate industry and now the Department of Treasury, Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as the White House.
Now, lenders will be required to submit plans stating how they would deem a loan as qualifying for permanent modification and failure to do so it faces penalties and sanctions, some of which may be financial.
Interesting move: swat teams
To prove they are serious, the Treasury is sending what they are calling “swat teams” into mortgage servicers’ offices starting this week to investigate the issues that are slowing decision-making on loan modifications. Servicers will be required to report to the Treasury daily during the modification eligibility period regarding progress in decision making on permanent loan modifications.
Interesting move, Treasury.
Start spreading the news...
This article published on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 12:04 am | Contact the editor
About this Columnist (Full Profile)
AGBeat Editor-in-Chief: Lani, named one of Real Estate’s 100 Most Influential, as well as 12 Most Influential Women in Real Estate, is a business writer hailing from the great state of Texas in the city of Austin. As a digital native, Lani is immersed not only in advanced technologies and new media, but is also a stats nerd often burried in piles of reports. Lani is a proven leader, thoughtful speaker, and vested partner at AGBeat.
Email Lani Rosales
The Daily Hot Sheet
The AGBeat Daily is jam packed with today's news headlines, fresh and neat in your inbox- start the day ahead of the curve.
Comments (19)
Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed
Social Shares & Links Back
- Short Sale Approval Time Limited, Commission Reductions Banned:
[...] highly anticipated guidance on a plan for mortgage companies to expedite short sales as well as demanded mortgage servicers make loan modifications permanent rather than continue to shuffle distressed homeowners out the [...]
- Short Sales ASAP:
Obama Sends SWAT Teams Into Mortgage Servicing Offices http://bit.ly/5zIA47 #LoanMod
- Top 10 real estate posts of the day for 12/1/2009 : Tempe real esatate and free home search:
[...] Obama send SWAT teams into mortgage servicing office – The Obama administration is applying pressure to banks to approve more loan [...]
- realdiggity:
Obama Sends SWAT Teams Into Mortgage Servicing Offices: comments http://bit.ly/4nduv2
- Short Sales ASAP:
Obama Sends SWAT Teams Into Mortgage Servicing Offices http://bit.ly/5zIA47 #LoanMod
- Marie Stapleton:
Obama Sends SWAT Teams Into Mortgage Servicing Offices http://bit.ly/7U3Aso
- Amy Shair Realtor:
President Obama sending in SWAT teams to help speed up loan modifications for struggling homeowners: http://short.to/yv8d Much Needed!
- Reggie McCrary:
@agentgenius Obama Sends SWAT Teams Into Mortgage Servicing Offices http://bit.ly/4rgy69
- Dawn Bricker:
RT @AmyShair: President Obama sending in SWAT teams to help speed up loan modifications for struggling homeowners: http://short.to/yv8d …
- Patti Puckett:
@agentgenius Obama Sends SWAT Teams Into Mortgage Servicing Offices http://bit.ly/4rgy69 woohoo! might get my clients some action FINALLY
- Patty G. Keller:
We all know Short Sales are difficult, but really! "Obama sends SWAT teams into Mortgage Offices" http://twurl.nl/pfx0ly
- Charlie Kodatt:
Obama turns Treasury into SWAT FORCE : http://short.to/yv8d
- “We’re the Treasury and We’re Here To Help You With Short Sales (kinda)”:
[...] recently wrote a post referencing HAMP, and today I received some additional information that I thought would be nice to share with the [...]
- Government Reviewing cases now? - Loan Modification Forum - LoanSafe.org:
[...] Reviewing cases now? This must be the SWAT team the Gov was talking about sending out: Obama Sends SWAT Teams Into Mortgage Servicing Offices __________________ [...]
- Realty News Now | United Law Group Sends Notice of Intent to Sue on Behalf of Disabled Man and His Wife; Couple to Save over $600 on Their Monthly Payment:
[...] President Obama and the government took the banks to task for their lack of performance. An article titled, Obama Sends SWAT Teams Into Mortgage Servicing Offices that ran on December 1, 2009, stated [...]
- AgentGenius:
#agnow [...] President Obama and the government took the banks to task for their lack of performance. An article ti… http://bit.ly/4VCN0l
- Patricia Moore:
Obama Sends SWAT Teams Into Mortgage Servicing Offices | AgentGenius http://t.co/ls9Motf via @AgentGenius
Benn Rosales
Conal Campbell
Elijah May
Lani Rosales
Tara Steele
Marti Trewe
Charlene Jimenez
Somewhere, Ayn Rand is laughing uncontrollably.
Well this is interesting. We do need something.