NLMAA Says No Real Ties to Subprimers; 'Loan Mod' Biz Like Wild West
Looks like the National Loan Modification Association of America's Web site may only be tied to Homestar Direct, Prospect Mortgage and Opteum by coincidence. We talked to the NLMAA's owner and Web master, James Troia, whose day job is working for Homestar. Apparently, registrations he made for the Greystack Management sites NLMAA and Affordable Hope wound up including his affiliation to Homestar by mistake. So where does that leave Home Rescue LLC, which so prominently displays an NLMAA seal on its site? Troia said he would investigate their membership and possibly refund them their money, as he wants the NLMAA to be a guidepost for the industry and for consumers.
At the moment, he says, the loan modification industry is like a Wild West frontier. In his day job, he was running into a lot of consumers who wanted to refinance their mortgages, but in the current climate, didn't qualify. That can create something of a gray area, he said, for consumers who need options. Enter a loan modifier, who might assist in helping a consumer with preparing an argument with a lender for a different mortgage payment plan or interest rate. There are some reputable loan modifiers, he said. But there are also a lot of cowboys who come from the once fertile pasture of subprime lending who are now trying to make a buck off consumers with troubled mortgages.
Troia said he would let us know in the near future of any good recommendations for honest loan modifiers.