KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Ed. Note: The following is a KHTS Feature story based on a recent radio interview with Richard Szerman of Realty One Group Solutions
Seniors on fixed incomes often have trouble making their monthly mortgage payments, but with the help of a Santa Clarita realtor, these seniors can receive free loan modifications to lower their interest rates.
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Over the last decade, Richard Szerman of Realty One Group Solutions has helped homeowners of all ages save their homes from foreclosure through free loan modifications, which lowers the cost of monthly mortgage payments by changing the terms of their existing loan.
Richard Szerman
“With a lot of our senior clients, what we find is when they’re on a fixed income, when they’re on social security or on retirement– which is usually a lot less than they had when they bought the house –it becomes very difficult … to refinance,” Szerman said. “They just don’t have the income and you have to qualify, which makes a loan modification a much more attractive option.”
Instead of getting an entirely new loan through a refinance, a loan modification involves approaching the lender and requesting an interest rate reduction. Banks typically have four options in these cases: stay the course, loan modification, short sale or foreclosure, Szerman explained.
Related: Santa Clarita Realtor Offering Free Loan Modifications To SCV Community
“The bank would like to keep you staying the course– that’s where they make the most money,” he said. “If that’s not possible, their next best option– the public’s best option as well, the consumer’s best option as well –is a loan modification.”
For example, if the homeowner’s loan is currently at 6 percent and they can’t afford their payments, it is in the best financial interest of the bank itself to reduce the rate to 2 percent, according to Szerman.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “the banks know … that 2 percent of something is still better than 6 percent of nothing. A foreclosure is bad for everybody.”
While it is usually a difficult process, Szerman has an extremely high success rate– close to 80 percent –particularly with seniors on fixed incomes.
“We’ve been very, very successful at going back to the banks and saying our client used to make this, now they make less than that as a result of their retirement, and we need to talk about getting that interest rate dropped so they can afford to stay in their house,” Szerman said. “Otherwise the bank is going to have yet another foreclosure, which they don’t want.”
KHTS Feature Story
Santa Clarita realtor Richard Szerman, of Realty One Group Solutions, has 24 years of experience as a realtor. After “quietly” conducting public outreach and pro bono work as a realtor in Santa Clarita for the last few years, Szerman is now raising awareness about the opportunities available to the community through Realty One Group Solutions. Programs like Rental Rebate, Free Loan Modification and Resale Renovation are designed to help make it easier to buy a house, sell a house and even save a house from foreclosure.
25129 The Old Road, Suite #100
Santa Clarita, CA 91381
Cell: 661-714-1400
Office: 661-253-3000
