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Communicating a Hardship Effectively
Effective communication is the single most important aspect of describing hardship issues. Many modification requests fail because the homeowners can not tell their story in a simple way. It is easy to forget there is a real human being analyzing the hardship letter within the lender’s or servicer’s loss mitigation department who is responsible for determining the existence of a real hardship. With that said you must keep your hardship letter simple and get to the point quickly. Loss mitigation departments are overwhelmed with foreclosures, short sales, and modification requests. They do not want to read a ten page letter regarding the loan officer who put them in the loan, why they bought the house, the memories they have had there and why they want to keep their home. When writing the hardship letter, keep the letter simple and to the point. In addition, handwrite the hardship letter. The fact is that people personally relate to handwriting more than a typewritten letter and this includes the lender’s or servicer’s loss mitigators. What follows on the next pages are perfect examples of sample hardship letters, a financial worksheet, an income and expense worksheet, a sample loan modification request and a sample stacking order for you to use. Notice as well that on the loan modification request and on the sample stacking order for a loan modification you will need to include documentation of your home’s value. You can obtain reliable documentation of your home’s value from a local Realtor, Title Company or from an appraiser.
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