Welcome to Loan Mod Purgatory — please take a number.

According to an article that appeared in CNNMoney on Monday, May 18, lenders are overwhelmed by a flood of applications; mortgage investors are threatening to sue loan servicers for modifying loans, and unemployment is the newest threat to stabilizing the housing market.  This article comes on the heels of an announcement on Friday, May 15 by the Obama administration, announcing a new, standardized process and incentives for short sales and “deed-in-lieu” transfers of ownership.   The newest initiative is aimed at homeowners who cannot get loan modifications. These newest actions follow by two weeks the Government’s announcement that it would provide incentives to lenders holding second liens to reduce interest rates and/or release second mortgages.Anyone involved in the loan mod process would have to acknowledge that the entire process is bogged down.  CNNMoney noted that even though it has been three months (to the day) since President Obama announced the Housing Affordability and Stability Plan (February 18, 2009), and Guidelines were issued on March 4, many (if not most) loan servicers have been slow to get up to speed to respond to the requests.  Borrowers frustrated by the lack of clear guidance and inconsistent advice are tempted by robo-call operations offering to “help” homeowners for hefty fees.  Ironically, it turns out that investor contracts arising from the securitization and sale of the loans, which was part of the problem in the first place, are restricting which loans can be modified and how.   Congress is working on a bill to provide a “safe harbor” to allow loan servicers to use the Federal mortgage relief programs, but some investor groups are lobbying hard against passage.  It is no secret that many loan servicers are using the “investor contracts” as excuses not to make prompt and effective modifications.  Unfortunately, the borrower has no way of knowing whether or not the excuse is valid.  One gets the same feeling one gets when the car salesman returns from the back room to report the General Manager’s “last, best and final” offer, but you never even see the guy behind the curtain.Compounding the problem and undercutting efforts to stabilize the mortgage crisis, many lenders have yet to sign up for the Federal program.  According to CNN Money, 14 of the mortgage service companies, including Bank of America, Citgroup, J.P.Morgan Chase & Co., and Wells Fargo.  Others claim to be implementing their own versions, and still others are evaluating the program.  At the application level, each lender and loan servicer appears to have their own processing requirements.  Some permit the borrower to send the required documentation electronically, while others insist the documents be sent by fax.  One loan agent told me their fax room was a complete mess, with different applications getting mixed up with others like a crazy game of 52-card pickup.  Another loan agent told me they had no way to confirm receipt of the electronic transmission of the application documents.  Still another e-mailed me within 24 hours to confirm receipt, followed up 5 days later with a request for a missing piece of information, and provided an estimated time of review and affirmed that the foreclosure status was being suspended pending review of the loan mod application.  Simply stated, there is no uniformity or standarization.As I’ve reported before, the fact that some of the lenders and loan servicers are only now just beginning to implement the Guidelines first released on March 4, and others are still “evaluating” the program, calls into serious question any claims or reports of successful loan modifications.  Sixty percent (60%) of all reported “loan mods” approved in the first three Quarters of 2008 resulted in mortgage payments that were the same or higher than prior to the modification.   I saw one “approved” loan modification that reduced the monthly payment by 27 cents!  And that lender insisted the borrower was foolish to reject it!  This type of chaos and confusion will only serve to further destabilize the process; create additional opportunities for fraud; and worst of all, erode any sense of confidence that the Federal program might otherwise have a chance to work.In addition to the impact of rising unemployment cited by the CNNMoney article, there is another growing threat to the Federal effort to stabilize the situation — credit card debt.  Broke, facing unemployment, and no longer able to tap their home equity for relatively inexpensive funds to make up the difference, many homeowners have tapped the most costly source of revenue remaining — their credit cards.  Unfortunately, the card companies, who reset the loan rates faster than you can say “charge it,” have started charging cardholders the highest possible default rates of 29.99%.  Behind the wave of home foreclosures working their way through the so-called “trial periods” and voluntary moratoriums is a second wave of crushing credit card debt.Sadly, the situation is bound to get worse before it gets better.  Unless and until the loan servicers get clearance from the investors, or simply clear directions from their managment, and free up the backlog of applications, the confusion and frustrations will continue to mount.  One problem is that no one knows what will work, and therefore everything is approached with the same level of risk aversion.  It would be a great service if the U.S. Department of the Treasury could simply select a statistically significant cross-section of different types of loans, fund the modificaion, and see what would really work to increase the probability of success.  Hindsight, of course, will teach us all many lessons.  The question is whether we can wait long enough.