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Sorry, this is a little long, but I wanted to try to get as much info as I know for some advice/help. In 2005, a family member purchased a home, then in 2010 she almost foreclosed on it, but was able to get a loan modification after working with the bank for a year on it. During that year, she didn't pay her 1st mortgage or her 2nd mortgage. Since the 1st mortgage was modified, she was able to keep her home. The 2nd mortgage was with HSBC, and they charged it off. That 2nd morgage was around 55k. Then in 2013, she moved out of state, and rented out her property in FL. She has had tenants in her home for the last 7 years. She wants to sell this home because she's really not making any money from the rental. And this is where we learned (the hard way) about how that 2nd mortgage really came back to haunt her. The title company found that there was a 2nd mortgage, and after some digging, after the charge off, it was sold to DiTech Financial, so they hold a lien to the house. They want 55k to release the lien, and well if we sold the house, then she would be under if she had to payoff the 2nd mortgage too. After all the fees for the real estate agent, closing, etc. and it means she'd end up paying to sell her house. She really needs to offload it because she can't manage the rental any longer and pay for repairs. Well when we tried to call DiTech, we got the run around and can never get someone to call us back. We want to try to settle, but we just found out that they are going through a bankruptcy! Does anyone have any advice about our best options here? Would DiTech settle a portion of the balance to release the lien, but honestly, would they have any incentive to knowing that we are trying to sell the house? Since the account is charged off, and it's been 10 years, then the debt essentially is not owed, but DiTech still owns the lien. Should we try to get an attorney to help? Would an attorney have a better chance of getting the lien removed? The security instrument states something to the effect of: "Borrower is indebted to lender... and providing for monthly installments of principal and interest, with the balance of the indebtedness if not sooner paid due and payable on October 1, 2020" So after that date of October 1, 2020, even without a recorded satisfaction, shouldn't the title agency consider the lien expired? When I contacted the title agency, they said that they don't consider it expired until 8-10 years after the maturity date! Does that sound right? I guess she just assumed that since the chargeoff/lien was put on the property in 2010, that it would be expired by now and she wouldn't owe that money. Anyway, I'm asking because I wanted to see if we had any negotiation power when we try to call DiTech again to settle so that she can sell the house! Since they are in the middle of filing for Ch. 13 bankruptcy, I don't know how willing they would be to negotiate with us, and even if they still own the debt. Maybe they sold it, but she has never gotten a letter about it if so. Honestly any advice, or sharing of similar experiences would be appreciated. This is a close family member, and I need to try to help her.

I need some advice please and this is a "not so common situation". I have already started the dispute process with the credit bureaus but so far they haven't removed any late payments, which has caused us a lot of problems. I didn't know these were on there until we sold our house and went to buy another one. I have all my facts written down and will copy and paste it, let me know what you think? Also, when disputing this should I send a copy of everything that happened to the credit bureaus in full detail or will they not care? I bought my home in October of 2001 with a total monthly payment on a fixed interest rate of $665.33. Our payment stayed the same until around 2010. It began going up more and more with no explanation as to why. While trying to make our regular monthly payment we realized it was constantly changing. By 2013 our payment was extremely high. After many conversations with many different Chase customer service employees we finally found out it was due to escrow and the homeowners insurance going from $400 yearly to $3,141.78. We were never informed of the price increase from Cotton states or Chase and had to make several phone calls to Chase before we finally found out why our payments were so high. Living on a budget and having our house payments go higher and higher made things very difficult. This went on from 2010 until January of 2013. We then cancelled our insurance with Cotton States and got homeowners insurance with Shelter Insurance with a premium of $971.00. Chase never canceled the homeowners insuarnce with Cotton States even though we sent a policy cancelation letter, so this had us paying insurance for both Shelter and Cotton states which was a combined amount of $4,112.78 a year which sent our payments even higher. By now our payments were close to or over $1000 a month. I do not have a copy of that and Chase refused to send us one. We recently moved and all my paper work is stored away, the last high payment invoice I could find was the $864.77 from 2012 but it went up even higher by 2013. Every month we would call Chase to resolve this issue which by the time it was resolved the payments were once again late, and month after month Cotton states was put back on our account even after a customer service rep said is was taking off. This was not fully resolved until the end of 2013 which by this time our account was so messed up we had a hard time catching up. Chase reccomended we do a loan modification and sent us all the paper work and during this time we were not supposed to make a payment which now reflects 90 day lates on our credit history. We never did the modification nor should we have had to since this was not any fault of ours. Cotton states finally refunded us for the money they owed us for the year of 2013. By the Fall of 2014 Chase finally had our account straightened out. Our payments finally went back down to where they were supposed to be and not a single late payment was made until we sold our house in 2016. Since then we have been trying to get a mortgage and these late paymets have made it impossible. I had no idea these were even on my credit report until I went to get a new mortgage. We contacted chase and asked for records of all the problems we had from 2010-2014 and they would not send it to us. We needed a history of the insurance increase and the escrow showing they paid 2 homeowners, which they would not send either. They only sent us payment history from 2015 & 2016 which did not help us when applying for a mortgage since this didn't show all the problems and why we were late throughout 2010-2014.

Hello everyone!! I am new to this boards and I hope I'm posting this in the right place. Last week I've discovered that I had a lawsuit filed against me by Calvary SPV for some old debt from Citi requesting judgement, I didn't know about it until I started receiving letters from lawyers and went to check on public records. And there it was! I have retained an attorney to deal with it, but meanwhile... I'm in the process of purchasing a house and have closing already set for December 20th. Lawsuit was filed on November 8, I understand this is not a judgement, but if title runs the search, will they pick up this lawsuit and how will it affect my closing, will I be able to close?? The amount of debt is 30K (it's a long story with my ex, etc...) I'm really concerned I might not be able to purchase home, even though I was already preapproved. The Citi debt is no longer on my credit report, only this law suit that just popped in at a really bad time. Should I let my lender/title know about this or what should I do if anything at all? Any advise would be much appreciated and thank you in advance!

I was reading on another site that if you have a FICO score 580+ than your down payment can be as low as 3.5% but if it's lower than 580 you have to do a down payment of 10%. Has anyone heard of this before??? My boyfriend and I want to buy a house together but one of us has a great score and the other not so much. I don't want to buy the house by myself.

Hello and thank you for reading/trying to help, I'm in the process of looking for a home to buy and have been pre-approved for a mortgage. I was told that no matter what I have to take care of the open/active collection I have reported on my credit reports by Portfolio. The SOL is up and they cannot sue me for it, but the account is to stay on my credit reports for 2 more years. I tried disputing it with the credit agencies but had no luck. Portfolio actually sued me for a different account a year ago, which I challenged and won; I'm guessing that's why they let the SOL expire on this one and never bothered to contact me about it, and instead reported it to the credit agencies right after the SOL was up. How should I go about contacting them to get this off my credit report? The amount owed is $1,300 and obviously I'd like to pay as little as possible and have the account completely deleted off my credit report or reported as paid in full - or whatever is best to improve my credit score. I would think that I have leverage in this situation seeing as they can't sue me for it so offering them anything at all would be better than nothing. If I contact them, would that change/reset the SOL and allow them to come after me for it? What's the minimum you think they would be happy with? How long would this process take? I know I should get the deal in writing, but is it wise to talk to them on the phone while we try to reach a deal? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hello, This is the first time i am posting here as this is also the first time i have had anything in collections. I received a phone call from a said collections agency stating that i owe money to them regarding damage done to a Hertz rental vehicle in November of 2016. I asked him for more details on the matter and after putting me on a 3 minute hold he said he would have to gather paperwork and could have it emailed to me. I still have not yet received the email so i have no idea what this is referring to. I have never rented a car before as i am 23 years old so i know it has nothing to do with me. From the sounds of things they could have the wrong person. I asked if there were any police reports or anything and he couldn't answer the question. What should i do? I just looked and the collections agency appeared on my credit report. I want to get this disputed because I'm in the process of buying a house and this cannot be on there! Thank you.

I'm filing for Chapter 7, I'm thinking of giving up my home.The issue is I have a balloon mortgage on my home, is it worth it to keep it or not?Comps on the house is 85kPreviously owe 71k19 year left on the mortgageBalloon payment 30k after 19 years2% Apr on the mtg now.What to do is it worth it to keep the houseHouse also needs about 15k in repairsWhat are your thougts

Filed Chapter 13 Sep 2011, Bankruptcy Plan Number 8 DIRECT PAYMENTS lists 3 items, Jeep payment $265.36 WF Home mortgage (1stMortgage) $1,553.24 Wells Fargo Bank (2nd Mortgage) $275.00 These are the payments setup and ordered by the court for us to make directly to these companies. Got your attention? The first 2 went along just fine, Jeep paid off, 1st Mortgage ongoing @ 9% interest, 2nd mortgage paid $275.00 as ordered. We paid for 15 straight months, last payment was Dec 2012, so in Jan 2013 WF Charged the account off. No notification just Charged it off. Total payments due for those 15 months as ordered by the court amounted to $4,125.00 total amount of payments made during same 15 months $4,105.00 . (See Redacted payments 2nd mortgage 2016-12-23-091341 document attached) and (REDACTED Chapter 13 Plan 2016-12-23) So question is how could they charge this off and then why are they now reporting it to the Credit Bureaus as overdue $3,303.00. We tried to refinance with WF, got a resounding "No" , Since Aug 2016 I have been communicating with WF, I have received 41 letters some the exact same letter twice in one day, the subjects range in no specific order (Acknowledgements, Response to Inquiry, Update to inquiry, Payoff, Resolution, Status Update), we get weekly phone calls with no new update but letting us know they need 2 more weeks, 2 more weeks, 2 more weeks. (See Wells Fargo Letter Tracking Document) . So what are my options here? They will not send us a bill, we can not refinance because they report this overdue, they claim the account went into default 1 Sep 2011 before the bankruptcy?? They claimed over the phone with the Credit company that the last payment was Oct 2012. Yeah right. The last 3 letters received this week on Monday says a resolution by maybe Dec 29th or Dec 30th, I am holding my breathe... What are my options, they are obviously caught in a mess with disobeying a Court Order and Charging off the account without merit. WellsFargoLetterTrackingSheet.xlsx redacted payments 2nd mortgage2016-12-23-091341.pdf REDACTED Chapter 13 Plan2016-12-23-092308.pdf

I recently filed chapter 13 as a way to save my home from foreclosure. There are 10 payments that were made (before bankruptcy was filed) that the mortgage company never applied to my account. I keep asking (and emailing) my bankruptcy attorney about it but have yet to receive a response. To top it off, my loan was just switched to a new servicer. What can I do or who do I need to talk to to get my account credited for these payments? If a "lender" has provided incorrect balance, fee and/or charge information to the BK court, shouldn't my BK attorney be looking at challenging these errors?

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I am at impasse with a debt collector reporting on my credit report as the current owners of an alleged old second mortgage debt. A few years ago the last supposed owner of this alleged debt was unable to validate it so it came off of the credit report. This was prior to my becoming a citizen of Texas. Green Tree now pops up claiming to own the debt on my credit report and it looks like they have been reporting it since March of this year. Before educating myself with TFC 392, I requested validation through the credit bureau website thinking there was no way they could validate it because the last guy wasn't able to but they did. How is this possible? if they did in fact purchase the right to collect on this alleged debt, they should not have been able to verify because the documentation required for that doesn't exist. On top of that, they never sent anything to me showing that they were the new owners of the alleged debt. So how do I get rid of these guys? Good news is the alleged debt is SOL. My initial thinking was to try to use portions of TFC 392 and demand that they remove all trade lines within 5 days because they were lying by verifying the debt to begin with but I wasn't sure I could because I did not invoke TFC 392 in my request for verification with the credit bureau. I was also going to threaten to file a claim against their bond, send a complaint to the FTC, BBB, AG and CFPB. They've already gone through so much litigation with the FTC, you would think they would clean up their act. Any advice on how I should handle this? Thank you for your help, guys!

Mortgage lender told me to remove "Accounts In Dispute" on my credit report. 4 collection accounts are affected. All these accounts are "closed." Of these 4 accounts, 2 collections were recent disputes the other 2 were disputed about a year and a half ago. 1 of the recent disputed accounts, I paid recently. I called all 3 CRAs and all of them agreed to remove these remarks (without much prodding just long wait times over the phone). My question is: How badly is this going to affect my credit score when the lender pulls it again? thank you!

Hello everyone! Thank you for the help in advance. I'm going to try and not draw this out for everyone, so lets get to it. Here's my current status and situation: Recently I moved to MI and obtained a job that brings in about $1600 monthly after taxes. My bank account has a balance of around $2k at any given time. I'm currently lucky enough to live with family until my finances are straightened out enough to get back to my own place. My GOAL by February 2016 is to have a 650-700 credit score so I can move down south. I'm hoping to be able to boost my credit score while maintaining a stable work/housing history to purchase my first house. First things first though, repairing my credit. Current credit score: 568 'Open Collections Balance' of $1,095. Two accounts are reflected in this: 1- ER visit $748 OPENED 01/2014 REPORT DATE 04/2015 2- Verizon $347 OPENED 12/2013 REPORT DATE 03/2015 Should I pay these off? *I am able to pay them off now if need be*Would they help my credit or am I just paying into nothing?'Past Due' 1- Credit Card $5,569- OPENED 08/2011 REPORT DATE 02/2013 *Account status for this is still OPEN. This is actually a car that I have given back to the credit union once my ex went to jail. They have not contacted me to let me know how much was needed to be paid on it after they came, got it and put it up for auction. Should I contact the credit union regarding this?Should I pay it?Would it help my credit score?'Student Loans' 1- $3,914 *Making $100 monthly payments on it. I believe this is my only account in good standings/no late payments. Do student loans reflect on your credit rating?No revolving credit or credit cards at this point. No bills in my name, but I will be obtaining a secured credit card this month. What, if anything, could I do to raise my credit score? Once again, thank you for the help.

Hi All! I was a member here back in 2005-2008 and this forum, moderators and others really helped me then so, I hope you can do the same now. My FICO's have been in the dumpster ever since my home went into foreclosure in 2009. In 2008, I had major health crises and underwent 5 operations and recovered for 2 years. CitiMortgage foreclosed on me in 2009 and despite having a lawyer, court appearances, requests and submissions, never evaluated me for HAMP refinance. Fast forward to now, Citi sold my mortgage to another servicer in December 2013 and they reviewed me for HAMP in March 2014, I started my 3 monthly payments in June finished in August and approved late October 2014. My problem is the 120+ late's since Jan. 2009 with the most recent being September and October of 2014 when I was under review immediately after the trial payments. I really feel what Citi did by keeping my home in foreclosure for 6 years without reviewing me for refinance was criminal but that's beside the point. I pulled my credit report and found a tax lien during the time Citi sold my mortgage but it has been released and I will file the correct paperwork to hopefully clear it from my report. For years, I haven't used credit other than making a car payment (24.99 APR) and I have 1- 30 day late (June 2014) due to a car accident and I wrote a goodwill letter (fingers crossed). Right now, including my mortgage, student loan and house payment my DTI ratio is 17%. My other negatives is 1 medical collection for $276 in 2013, C/O PLTF in 2011 for my second mortgage, a redeemed repossession in 2010, 3 lines of student loans that I got out of default in 2010. That's it! I did the shopping cart trick for 3 store credit lines (very low limits) and 2 Capital One cards (300 limit). I haven't received any of them and they are not on my credit report yet. But I took a lot of inquiry hits to get the credit cards (8). It seems that Capital One was the only to approve me. BOA, AMEX, BARCLAY's, and Chase all were denied. I hate taking on these new credit cards and hope it was the right decision. My finances are good so that's not a problem. I need business credit because my business (I'm self employed) needs to expand. My FICO scores are 533 TU, 534 EQ, and 599 EX. It's time I come out of my shell and deal with this. Please advise, I am desperate, Thanks!

Hello All! So, I currently have a mortgage that I've been late on several times in the passed due to hardship and some families issues that were going on at the time. Heres the situation The orginal Loan servicer has about 5 late payments and has been transferred/sold. The second Loan Servicer has 1 late payment and has been transferred/sold to a third Loan servicer. So my question is how can I get the late payments removed or possibly both accounts since they were transferred/sold to another Loan servicing company?

I was behind on my payments with Penfed on a loan I took out in 2008 and they refinanced my HELOC by incorporating the closing fees and late interest into a new HELOC in May of 2010, which since it was the only loan on my property is in a first lien position. Even though they did it as a HELOC, they closed the line of credit. My balance is $85,000.00 which is the original amount refinanced. The property has lost value and is worth about $52,000.00. Since LTV is upside down I want to approach Penfed from a position of leverage and rework the loan with a lower loan amount. I am current on my payments for this HELOC so it's not like I have to hurry and do something to prevent foreclosure. I looked at the promissory note and they mention MERS once in there but there is no 18 digit MERS identification number and I can't find where this note was securitized when I entered my SS # and address on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae websites while searching for my note. Does anybody know if lenders securitize HELOC's, and especially HELOC's that are in a 1st Lien position? I don't know if Penfed services their own loans as a credit union but if I can find out Penfed had MERS involved with this, I should be able to uncover some fraud which would give me the leverage I need to negotiate with them on lowering the balance owed.

My mortgage lender is sending a lot of mixed signals, so I am trying to gauge their intent and come up with a plan. I was 2 payments late and then filed Chapter 7 due to crushing CC debt and upcoming CC Trials when my 3rd mortgage payment was due. After paying all the attorney fees, I did not have money to pay my mortgage payment, so I got to the point where I was 90 days late. A couple of weeks later, I sent all of the loan mod documentation, have been cooperating with them and been sending them all the documents they'd request. I also do have a fairly good income/job now (finally!), so I put all those figures in the loan mod, saying I can pay regularly from now on, but that I have hard time closing the 3-month payment gap without the mod/some help from them. Then, I kept wondering if they'd reject my single month payment in October (since I am 90 days behind), but I sent it anyway. To my surprise, they actually took it, and continued to work on my loan mod, and there was definitely activity. But, then, BAM!, they filed a motion for relief of automatic stay and used the section of the code that lets them give me and the Court only 14 days notice before hearing, instead of 28. In their motion, they also completely ignored the fact that I made a payment in October. I told all this to my Lawyer, who is working on an opposition brief. He's confident he can beat their motion, but the whole experience left me a bit shaken regarding the lender's true intent. Now, I keep wondering if I should send any more payments or just hang on to money and catch up later in the foreclosure process. I am fearful of a scenario where I am making payments and not letting myself fall more than 3 month behind, yet the lender denies modification. If they deny the loan mod, then I really have no financial means of closing the 3 month gap. I don't want to keep throwing good money after bad and still lose the house, But on the other hand, I've heard that if I stay at 90 days late, I have a much higher chance of getting a loan mod then if I slip even further behind. What do you thiink the bank's true intent is here? Aggresively foreclose or get the stay lifted, so they can get the loan mod done more easily (without the restrictions of a stay)? The dual tracking (foreclosing on the owner while there is pending loan mod is now prohibited in California as of Jan 1, 2013), so even if they get the stay lifted, they can't record a notice of default until they approve/reject my modification and comply with HUD counseling requirements for Calif. Another thing that also puzzles me is why they're spending money on a motion for relief of stay when I am about to get discharged from Chapter 7 just around 40 days after the motion hearing anyway? Are they that antsy to begin foreclosing? Aren't they spending a lot of money on those motions for relief considering they only save 40 day by it (provided that they win). I'll never understand their ways of reasoning...

Greetings to all the wise ones!! I have spent the last 24hrs reading every nook and corner of this forum to find answers to my specific problem to no avail! Please help me out so I can achieve my dream!! I am in process of buying my first home, when I went for my pre-approval the mortgage specialist(MS) ran my credit and picked my median score of 660 to grant me the pre-approval letter. My 3 scores were 654/660/679, That was back in April. Fast fwd 3 months and I finally found a house that fits my budget, the paperwork went to underwriting(UW) and I found out I got denied, because my median score dropped to 634!? My new scores are 629/634/670, I have to be at 640 to get approved for the mortgage. I immediately went through all 3 reports and NOTHING has changed since then, everything looks EXACTLY the same as April report, I am baffled as to what happened and why the score dropped?. My credit-card balances are below 10% on ALL credit cards as of today, back in April they were about 15%, all payments have been on time and never late! I had one collection account that is scheduled to fall off next year, it was on my report then and is still on now, so what gives? My mortgage broker wants to know if I want to re-run the credit and I told him to give me couple of days till I figure it out. Anywho, so i did some reading and learnt that if you dispute negative items on your report it temporarily boosts your score. SO I used common sense and only disputed 2 of 3 reports (the 629 and 634), my question is this......How long should I wait before giving the UW green light to go ahead and re-run my credit so they could see the boosted score? Is there absolutely ANYTHING I can do to get a 6 points boost in 24hrs? Any/All suggestions are most welcome, I appreciate all your help, Thanks a million. Regards, John

In completing the Chapter 7 Means Test in Pennsylvania, can anyone shed light on the Mortgage Debt Payment (Subpart C of Means Test) if a home is CO-OWNED with a non-spouse? Specifically, myself and the co-owner are planning to file bankruptcy (one at a time). If I file first, can I state that I pay 100% of the mortgage in Subpart C of the Means Test? This would make passing the means test possible. Also, assuming my bankruptcy is granted, can the co-owner THEN file using the same 100% mortgage payment in his Subpart C?

HI All, I've been getting so much help out of this forum. Like many, I was hit hard by the economic crisis. I had a number of investment properties that turned sour and had to let them go. Thanks to the advice here, I've already gotten 3 foreclosures removed from my reports because the bank never responded to the CRAs. So, I have a few second mortgages that I am working on getting off my reports next. So, here is my question. BOA purchased the horrid Countrywide and PNC bought not-quite as horrid National City. CW and NC were my OCs. So, are BOA and PNC CAs or are they OCs? Anyone dealt with this situation? Thanks!

My wife and I settled a second mortgage with CitiMortgage early last year. That settlement allowed us to sell our condo about 6 months later, though we still had to bring significant cash to closing. Our hope was to start a family and buy a house this summer. Well, Citi reported the transaction as promised. Our reports say some variation of "Closed/settled for less than full balance". This language looks like a short sale to Fannie/Freddie apparently, and we have been denied a conventional mortgage, even though we made every mortgage payment on time for almost six years and have pretty good credit overall. Our only hope for getting a mortgage is having the item removed from all three reports for both me and my wife. I know that a short sale DQs us from a mortgage (for a couple of years I think), but in my mind this was not a short sale by any reasonable definition. Also, I do not think that the language reported by CitiMortgage is accurate. CitiMortgage is the one who proposed the settlement amount. As far as I am concerned, the full balance of the account was the amount they proposed I pay to close the account. Has anyone else run into this situation? Are there any success stories out there? Has anyone successfully worked with CitiMortgage in removing this or similar language from a credit report? Thanks in advance.

Here are 10 mortgage tips to help you with your mortgage decisions in 2013: 1. Stop procrastinating and refinance. If you haven't refinanced recently, you're probably paying a higher interest rate on your mortgage than you should. Take advantage of today's record-low mortgage rates while they last. 2. Buyers, get moving. With rates near the bottom and home prices on the rise, it's still a perfect time to buy a house. Get a mortgage preapproval before you start shopping. 3. Compare FHA vs. conventional loans. Many homebuyers opt for aFederal Housing Administration mortgage because it allows them to buy a home with as little as 3.5 percent down. But the already costly FHA fees that are added to your loan will increase again in 2013. Consider saving a little extra for a down payment on a conventional loan. 4. Ensure that your credit is golden. Credit standards remain tight. As new mortgage rules are unveiled in 2013, the standards are not expected to loosen. If you plan to get a mortgage anytime soon, you must treat your credit as one of your most valuable assets. You'll need a credit score of at least 720 to get the best rate. Borrowers with a credit score of 680 or more can still get a good deal. Review your credit report before you apply for a mortgage. Sometimes, paying part of your credit card balances can boost your credit score quickly. 5. Want to pay off your mortgage earlier? If you are one of those homeowners who dream about being mortgage-free, the low-rate environment may be a good opportunity to refinance your 30-year mortgage into a 15- or 20-year loan. Make sure you can afford the higher payments on the shorter loan and that you have money saved for emergencies. 6. Underwater refinancers: Don't take "no" for an answer. If you owe more than your home is worth and have tried and failed to refinance, give it another shot in 2013. The Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP 2.0, was revamped to allow homeowners to refinance regardless of how deeply underwater they are. Lenders are much more open to HARP 2.0 refinances these days than they were a few months ago. If one lender says you don't qualify for a HARP refi, don't take "no" for an answer. Try to find a lender willing to do it. 7. Give your lender a chance. If you have trouble paying your mortgage, don't ignore your mortgage servicer. There are new programs available for borrowers who struggle to keep up with mortgage payments, including forbearance for those with FHA mortgages. Lenders have been more willing to work out delinquent loans through loan modifications and even short sales for homeowners who can't afford to stay in their homes. 8. Shop for a low rate and good service. Even with rates hovering near record lows, you should still shop for the best mortgage deal. Get quotes from at least three lenders and compare not just the interest rate but also closing costs and the quality of their service. Favor lenders that have a reputation of closing on time. 9. Approved for a mortgage? Leave your credit alone. Most lenders order a second credit report for the borrower a few days before closing. Don't open new accounts or charge up your credit cards at the furniture store while you wait for closing day. 10. It's not over until the loan closes. You've submitted your mortgage application and locked a rate. The race has just begun. Submit any documents requested by your loan officer or mortgage broker within 24 hours, if possible. Lenders will remain overwhelmed with the large volume of refinance applications at least through the first few months of 2013. Follow up with your lender or mortgage broker at least once a week to ensure the process goes smoothly. Mortgages Tips and Informations