How To Modify Your Mortgage

The character traits that it will take to modify your mortgage will also do you well in life — patience, honesty, diligence and persistence.

How we handle money is a great tipoff to our character.

I hate paperwork. I hate being vulnerable to others. I hate playing the game. I prefer doing my own things. My personality tendencies would not help me modify a mortgage.

The lone wolf blogger, however, rarely has to worry about modifying a mortgage because he so rarely has a mortgage (or family or spouse or other signs of adulthood).

The LA Times says:

Here's how to get started:

* Eligibility. Familiarize yourself with the Obama administration's Making Home Affordable Program. You can read up on the program at www.makinghomeaffordable.gov.

The key to eligibility is your "front end" debt-to-income ratio. The total of your principal, interest, taxes, insurance and homeowners association dues must be greater than 31% of your gross household income.

If it is, you should be eligible for a loan modification. But you'll have to call your lender or servicer — the company that collects the payments on behalf of the loan's owner — to determine if it is participating in the White House program. Supposedly, servicers handling some 80% of all mortgages are taking part.

If you are eligible, it is possible to obtain a loan modification even if you are still current on your house payments. But if you are not eligible for the Making Home Affordable Program — that is, your income is too high — you still may be eligible for a more traditional solution, such as forbearance for a few months until you get back on your feet.