Brian Baker

I find it hard to keep up with all of the different things going on around me sometimes. Lately, there has been a lot of talk going on about the economy. People are out of work and losing their homes. This problem seems to have been going on for a while now and the government has spent a lot of time trying to come up with a solution. Everytime, I turn on the news or read the paper it has something to do with the economy and what is being done to fix it. This time it looks like they may have done something to fix it.

I spend a lot of time looking at trends and statistics. I think my sales and marketing background causes me to pay closer attention to conversion rates and marketing trends, but whatever it was that the President said this time seems to have sparked some interest in the advertising public. All of a sudden I am getting inundated with marketing from law firms and others that are offering to modify my mortgage or lower my property taxes. I decided to call one of these to see what it is all about and found that this whole thing might be legite. I have dealt with REALTORS and Mortgage Brokers in the past, but there seems to be a new business that sprouted up for the Lawyers. I did a search for “loan modification” on Google and I don’t think that one lender or bank popped up, it was all lawyers. Even the junk mail that I have been receiving lately seems to have changed from bank lenders to lawyers.

I am a believer in the marketing trends and the trend seems to be leaning towards loan modification. After talking to the law firm whose advertising came in mail, I learned that the lawyers are providing all kinds of options by working with your current lender. I was given examples of how one person had their mortgage payment lowered by a third for the next five years, I heard another one where the lender changed the loan to a fixed rate mortgage, and yet another one where the overall interest rate was lowered for the loan.

This all sounds much more promising than the recent past when homeowners were losing their homes to foreclosures because the bank lenders could not work with them. This is the first time that I have noticed and realized how this government bailout could start to work. If it is true that you can now get your mortgage payment reduced by a third and still keep your house, then I can’t see how this wouldn’t help the economy. This would literally free up hundreds of consumer dollars on a monthly basis.

I look forward to the upcoming months ahead.