Services
The Law Offices of Omar Zambrano has built a reputation for hard work and dedication, where our clients are human beings and not a number. Community support is what has united us and allowed us to reach our fullest potential for service. Our full range of services have given us the privilege of helping address all of our clients' needs at all phases of their lives.
Bankruptcy Lawyer
At the Law Offices of Omar Zambrano we strive to offer sound legal and financial advice. We will work diligently and aggressively to relieve the overwhelming stress and burden that comes with dealing with consumer debt or facing legal troubles. With patients, knowledge and understanding of the laws we are determined to help our clients every step of the way.
Do you find that some of the following questions below hit close to home?
- Are your credit cards currently near or over the limit?
- Do you find yourself paying only the required or minimum payment?
- Do you notice your credit card balances never seem to go down?
- Are you already past due on some of your accounts?
- Are collection agencies constantly harassing you for payment?
- Do you hide credit card bills from your family members?
- Are you currently screening your calls to avoid harassment from your creditors?
- Do you find yourself living from paycheck to paycheck?
- Are you tapping into your savings to pay off high interest debts?
- Do you avoid opening your monthly bills and adding balances?
- If you own a home, have you already "tapped out" the equity in it?
- Do you use your credit cards for cash advances?
- Are you afraid your only option is "bankruptcy"?
- Are you constantly transferring credit card balances to avoid the inevitable?
- Are you currently being sued from any of your creditors due to lack of payment?
- If you are already behind, how many calls are you receiving: 5, 6, 7 or more calls per day from your creditors?
- Are you feeling physically stressed or having trouble sleeping?
- Are you on a fixed income that makes it very difficult to pay your creditors?
- Has a financial or medical hardship caused you to go late on your payments?
- Has your debt negatively affected your relationship with a loved one and/or spouse?
If you answered "Yes" to one or more of the following questions above it's time for help. Let The Law Offices of Omar Zambrano help you gain back your financial freedom and get a fresh start.
If you are unable to manage your mortgage or you are already behind on payments, try negotiating a workout plan with the lender so that you can avoid foreclosure. There are workout plans such as forbearance, deed in lieu, short sale, loan modification and others. You need to choose the one that best fits your mortgage situation.
Mortgage loan modification (home loan modification) is where the lender may lower your mortgage rate, or add any dues to the mortgage balance and extend your loan period. This is to ensure that your monthly payments are reduced.
There can also be a reduction in the principal balance you owe. The purpose is to make your payments affordable so that you can save your credit and keep your home.
When is loan modification suitable for you? Loan modifications (mortgage modifications) are suitable for you when: you have experienced a long-term reduction in income, your monthly expenses have increased, or you don't have enough income to pay off mortgage dues.
Are you eligible for mortgage modifications? You may be eligible if:
The lender has not declared a foreclosure yet and even if they have done so, they should have removed the loan from the foreclosure status.
- You're delinquent on the loan for 3 months or more.
- The loan has been originated for more than 12 months.
- You have stable surplus income to help you pay at the modified rate/terms.
- The property is in good physical condition
How does a loan modification work? If you're concerned about how to do a loan modification, here are 7 things you should be aware of:
Review Your Financial Situation Prepare a Financial statement including a detailed list of your expenses (food, gas, credit cards and other financial obligations) in a spreadsheet and calculate the average costs on each item for the past 3 months or so. This is important because most lenders would ask you questions on your financial situation and require you to submit a Financial Statement.
Hardship Letter Prepare a Hardship letter of not more than 2 pages wherein you'll communicate why you aren't able to carry on with the usual payments and why you need a loan modification.
Collect Documents You need to gather certain documents that the lender may review when you request a mortgage loan modification. The documents are:
- Pay stubs and bank statements for the past 2 months
- W-2 Form for the last 2 years for the employed
- Form 1040 for last 2 years if you're self employed
- Rental Agreement if the loan is not on your primary home
- Most recent mortgage statement
- Property tax statements
Contact Your Lender Call up the lender and make him aware of your situation. The best way to communicate is by sending a hardship letter. It is easier to get a home loan modification if you're behind on payments. However, you may get approved even though you're not behind but are not sure whether you can keep up the payments.
Fill Out Paperwork Once you qualify for mortgage modification, the lender will send an information packet and a financial worksheet for you to calculate your expenses. You need to attach documents you've collected along with the worksheet. This is for your lender to assess your financial situation and interpret whether you can pay your mortgage after home loan modification. What you need to prove by filing out the paperwork is that the loan modifications will help improve your situation and make your payments manageable.
Written Agreement Once the lender reviews your paperwork, he may verbally agree to modify your loan. He'll also send you a document explaining the loan modification offer for your approval.
Stop Gap Repayment Plan Once you accept the offer, the lender will need you to start off a stop gap repayment plan till the mortgage modification goes through. This will go on for maximum 60 days during which the lender reviews your loan status, financial statement and documents in order to assess the risks in modifying your loan. During the stop gap period, you need to prove that you can afford monthly payments along with other expenses after loan modifications. Only then will you have a fair chance to get your loan modified. Home loan modification may be offered alone or as a part of forbearance. However, not all loans are appropriate for mortgage modification. Loans being modified are mostly those which are above the market rates or have lower loan-to-value ratios and mature terms.
Do you need professional help? If you cannot negotiate mortgage loan modification on your own, an attorney or a loss mitigation specialist can communicate on your behalf. Your attorney should be one who has good service background and can ensure that you get a fast response from the lender. Any foreclosure action is stopped while the attorney negotiates with your lender.
What happens when you're in mortgage modification? You'll be able to get current on the loan. If you have an ARM, modification may help you convert it into a fixed rate fully amortized loan. The lender may reduce the interest rate below the market rates. The entire PITI (principal, interest, escrow items such as tax and insurance payments etc) may or may not be added to the current loan balance. Any administrative fees resulting from cancellation of foreclosure may be added to the loan balance. The modified principal balance can exceed 100% loan-to-value or the original principal balance if any dues are added. In such a case, your monthly payments are likely to go up. The purpose of loan modification is to ensure that you can better afford the mortgage payments. But make sure you don't miss payments as the lender will consider it a new default and initiate a foreclosure on your home.
Debt Settlement
We invite you to learn about our debt settlement program and other debt arbitration and debt settlement services. We are sure that when you compare and contrast debt settlement and debt arbitration to debt consolidation loans and debt consolidation services you will see that debt settlement is the only way to go. Find out how debt settlement will put you back in the drivers seat and determine how much you pay these credit card companies.
Debt Consolidation Loans
A debt consolidation loan provides funds to consolidate debt into one monthly payment usually in the form of a home equity loan. This debt consolidation loan reduces the number of payments going out monthly, simplifying a consumer�™s debt problem. Realistically, this debt consolidation loan does not mean one is debt-free; the debts have just been transferred. Hopefully, this debt consolidation loan guarantees a lowered APR, allowing one to pay off the new debt quicker than if they had not taken out a debt consolidation loan. But even though this sounds like a good solution to avoid bankruptcy and get out of debt, it can damage consumer credit and cause a consumer to be forced to pay back far more than if they had selected a debt settlement program.
Credit Counselling
Credit counseling is a service that is typically offered by a Credit Counseling Agency (CCA). The agency provides financial literacy and also analyzes a consumer�™s debt and spending habits and provides a plan to work out an achievable budget and debt repayment plan with creditors. By requesting that creditors accept a longer pay-off period, the counseling service can often design a successful repayment plan called a Debt Management Plan (DMP). With the help of a Credit Counseling Agency (CCA), new terms are agreed upon to satisfy the outstanding debt. Generally the entire balance is paid back; however the payments and/or interest rates are reduced.
