A new video helps struggling homeowners navigate the federal mortgage modification program.

Offered for free to anyone by mortgage insurer and risk management company PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., the two-part video "Navigating the Home Affordable Modification Program" is a helpful adjunct to existing information about the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) on the MakingHomeAffordable.gov Web site.

A mortgage modification occurs when the lender reworks the terms of your existing home loan, typically to lower payments and make the home more affordable for you. Lower payments can result from a lower interest rate, extended loan term, reduced principal or any combination of those approaches.

A mortgage modification is not a refinanced mortgage, which replaces the old mortgage with a new loan.

Part 1 of the "Navigating HAMP" video provides basic orientation for homeowners who may not have heard of HAMP, it covers the objectives of the program, and helps you determine if you qualify for a HAMP modification.

Under HAMP, you may qualify for a mortgage modification if your home is your primary residence; your first mortgage's balance is no more than $729,750; you face financial hardship that is affecting or will affect your ability to make mortgage payments; you signed for your current mortgage on or before January 1, 2009 and your payment on your first mortgage (including principal, interest, taxes, insurance and homeowner's association dues, if applicable) is more than 31 percent of your current gross income.

"Distressed homeowners who are facing the prospect of losing their home need to know that help is available for those truly interested in saving their homes. This instructional video leverages the growing popularity of internet-based video to give homeowners an overview of how HAMP works and their important role in the process," said John Jelavich, head of PMI’s Homeownership Preservation Initiatives group.

Part 2 of the "Navigating HAMP" video uses examples to demonstrate how affordability is achieved with a loan modification, it walks homeowners through the steps necessary to obtain a modification and discusses the information homeowners need to provide their mortgage servicer, including:

• Pay stubs or other verification of your monthly before-tax (gross) income.
• Your most recent income tax return.
• Statements for savings and other assets.
• Your first and second mortgage (if any), home equity loan or line of credit statements
• Account balances and minimum monthly payments due on all of your credit cards, car loans, student loans and other debts.
• A completed Hardship Affidavit describing any circumstances that caused your income to be reduced or expenses to be increased.

"The jury is still out on the success of the HAMP program. Progress has been slow in materializing but may finally be gaining steam as many of the trial loan modifications are finally beginning to transition into permanent ones," said Nancy Osborne, chief operating officer of Erate.com, a Santa Clara, CA-based financial information publisher and interest rate tracker.

Osborne added, "A large part of the problem has been getting the loan servicers ramped up with the staff and technology to handle the massive wave of modifications, something they had no real experience with previously."

To learn more about loan modifications visit "Mortgage Modification Madness", "Mortgage Modification Updates" and watch "Navigating the Home Affordable Modification Program."

Published: December 31, 2009

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Broderick Perkins parlayed a 30-year career in old-school journalism into a digital-age news service offering editorial content and related consulting services. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based content provider specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and consulting. An open house for news that really hits home, the DeadlineNews Group includes the umbrella website DeadlineNews.com the flagship blog Deadline Newsroom, and three Examiner.com outposts -- Real Estate News Examiner; Consumer News Examiner; and Offbeat News Examiner. Along with a decade of work here with Realty Times, Perkins also provides content for Silicon Valley based ERate.com and the new AOLNews.com, where now "You've got news....that really hits home." His current work can also be found in Californian publications, the San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco's The Registry and the Salinas Californian. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News, before launching DeadlineNews Group. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Nolo.com among more than four dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins served as chief editorial consultant for "Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home."