Today's Mortgage Rates

When searching in Google for information on a company, many times, the Google Suggest feature will suggest relevant searches. for example, if you search for “Lending Tree”, it will suggest “Lending tree Reviews” and “Lending Tree Complaints”. It is wise to see what is showing up and at least respond to any complaints when possible. Otherwise, you get some negative reviews ranking well, such as Lending Tree’s situation.

USAA also has some issues as seen by these USAA Reviews.

Action items you can do to help:

1) Set up a Google Alert that will notify you when your company name shows up.

2) When you find negative reviews, try to get detailed information on the issue and respond to it, but don’t make it a canned response. Make it relevant. It takes extra worth, but will be worth it.

3) Finally, simply try to do as much as you can to provide good customer service. Service has always been important, but now, you don’t control your perception through marketing anywhere near as much as your customers control it. So it is worth the extra investment.

Almost twice as many people dropped out of the government’s mortgage loan modification program in June as those who received permanent modifications, according to the Treasury Department.

There were 91,000 dropouts  in June, which means that 530,000 homeowners have left the mortgage program without a permanent loan modification, reported Reuters. Only 49,000 borrowers received permanent mortgage modifications, for a total of 389,000.

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) has been criticized for not helping enough homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Treasury Department released the Obama administration’s July housing scorecard this week and acknowledged the challenges with helping homeowners. 

HUD Assistant Secretary Raphael Bostic said in a statement: “The housing market is performing better than the predictions made over a year ago. We’re absolutely not claiming victory, but due to the Obama Administration’s efforts, improved home affordability is continuing to provide opportunities for prospective, qualified, home buyers, while promising neighborhood stabilization efforts are helping hard hit neighborhoods start to recover.”

The housing market is still struggling to recover and the numbers could mean that more foreclosures are on the horizon. If you find yourself struggling to hold on to your home, talk with a housing counselor as soon as possible to discuss your situation. Like many Americans you may not qualify for a permanent mortgage loan modification, but there may be other options that can help your situation.

Pregnancy has a lot of risks associated with it. But other than some of the obvious health issues involved, now your dreams of home ownership could be affected.

Apparently mortgage lenders are giving the thumbs down to parents who are expecting a baby or are on maternity leave when they apply for mortgage loans, according to the New York Times. That’s because mortgage lenders want to see proof that a borrower’s current income is enough to cover mortgage payments.

So if you just had a newborn and are on maternity leave, it’s likely that you won’t qualify for a mortgage even if you plan to return to work soon. Even if you can actually afford to buy a home to accommodate your growing family and are guaranteed a job after a leave, you may be required to provide even more proof of qualifying income and assets than normal.

In some cases, banks are showing new parents to the door and instructing them to apply later when they are back at work. And don’t think that new moms are the only ones being denied. Workers who are on other types of leaves from their jobs and have a drop in income may also be out of luck when applying for a mortgage.

“Maternity leave or any other leave of absence often prevents a person from obtaining a mortgage. There are some who long for the days when such strict proof of income was not required,” John Councilman, president of AMC Mortgage in Fallston, Md., told the New York Times.