Many of the sample hardship letters we’ve seen on the internet have it all wrong! Keep these 5 tips in mind and you’ll get your lender on your side trying to help you rather than rolling their eyes in frustration.
1) Stop whining and start focusing
Your hardship letter is not the place for you to describe all the bad experiences you’ve had with your lender’s collection agents. It’s not the place to describe every little detail of why you lost your job or how bad your boss treated you either.
Your goal is to present yourself as a rational, reliable person that got behind on their mortgage and is now ready to make it right.
Stay focused. Don’t try to win sympathy…because you won’t. Just tell your story plainly and move on to the rest of the letter.
Did you lose your job? Say that.
Did you go through a divorce? Say that.
Don’t try to get fancy.
2) Don’t fly off the handle
Pointing fingers, blaming, calling the lender names, etc., isn’t going to get you anywhere either. Stay calm and business like.
3) Finish quickly, but don’t rush
The hardship letter and hardship package are what start the loss mitigation process for most lenders. You need to get them done as soon as possible, but do not rush through completing them (see “Critical Hardship Letter Errors”).
Don’t worry…your grammar and writing skills do not need to be flawless to write a successful letter. Your lender cares much more that the letter is honest, sincere, and from you directly than it does if the letter is perfect.
Write the best letter you can and then ask a friend to review it before you send it in. You’re only going to get one chance at writing this letter…you don’t want it to look like your third grade daughter wrote it for you.
4) Don’t ask for the moon
This isn’t the time to threaten, cajole, or make promises you can’t keep. And don’t expect the mortgage lender to do something like start your payments fresh (although they might in some cases). Instead, present reasonable options that allow you to catch up on your mortgage payments.
Explain how much money you’re willing to contribute to the workout plan. If you don’t have any, say that and explain why. They expect you to have saved all of the payments you’ve missed. If you haven’t been able to do that, explain why.
5) Don’t go it alone
You need an objective eye or two here. When you write your letter, have someone else read it. This person doesn’t have to know everything about a hardship letter. You just want them to give you overall feedback and make sure you didn’t make any glaring grammatical or factual errors. If you have a real estate agent you’re comfortable with…especially if they’re used to dealing with short sales…it would probably be helpful to have the look iot over too.
Don’t forget to check out our sample hardship letter and our other articles on writing a real estate hardship letter.
You should also check out a couple posts by Tanta on the Calculated Risk blog. She used to be a loss mitigator and has written two very detailed posts on how not to write a hardship letter.
How Not to Write a Hardship Letter
More Advice on Hardship Letters
Tags: hardship, hardship letter, lender mediation, lender negotiation, loan modification, loss mitigation, negotiation, tips, workout plan
December 9th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
As home values decline in the state of florida we have created a site to give some helpful advice on how to modify your loan due to hardships of all types. http://www.letterofhardship.com