Negotiate a Home Loan Modification – Here Are Your Options

When the homeowner deals directly with the lender, there shouldn’t be any fees associated with the modifying your mortgage. When you negotiate with your lender, it is important to be prepared. Have a complete financial analysis – this includes all sources of income and all expenses. It is important to have all documents prepared to negotiate with your lender, a complete loan modification kit can help with this. Also keep in mind that lenders negotiate with the following guidelines:

o Maximizing returns on mortgages
o Minimizing losses on mortgages
o The best interest of the stockholders and the bottom line

If you don’t feel that you can successfully negotiate for yourself, there are other options. Using a home loan modification company is one such option. If you choose to use a professional like a home loan modification company, there will be fees paid for services rendered. A company that specifically deals with modifying home loans will have a diverse staff with the experience needed to successfully negotiate with your lender. The combined experiences and backgrounds of the company’s employees can be a powerful force in your favor when negotiating a home loan modification. When choosing a company, make sure they are able to deliver what they promise. Never work with a company that asks for an upfront fee and always check with references.

Another option is housing counseling agencies that have been approved by HUD. These agencies are funded by tax dollars and perform home loan modifications at no cost to the consumer. With the current economic down turn and the rise in the number of homeowners needing assistance, these agencies have become overwhelmed with cases and are forced to turn people away.

If you do not feel comfortable negotiating for yourself, you may feel that hiring an attorney is right for you. Make sure to find one that will fight for your best interest. A good attorney with ample experience negotiating modifications to mortgages can be a good way to get yourself a modification that will get you back on track and keep you there. Many home loan modification companies have attorneys on staff, which is something else to consider.

Remember, that while lenders are going to negotiate for terms that are in their best interest, an attorney or home loan modification company will fight for yours. If you are going to hire either a company or attorney, it is a good idea to conduct an interviews. If possible, conduct the interview in person and at their office in order to get the most accurate impression.

Questions to ask:
o What are all the costs associated with getting you a home loan modification?
o Are the fees flat or hourly?
o How many modifications have you successfully completed?
o Are there any customers you can speak with to get a recommendation?

If you find yourself falling behind on your mortgage, there are remedies available. Calling your lender and opening the lines of communication is the first step in solving your mortgage problem. When entering into negotiations with your lender, remember that they will have their best interests in mind, it is your job to fight for your best interests. If you feel that you will not be able to successfully negotiate for yourself, there are agencies, companies, and professionals available to assist you. Using one of these options may cost more than negotiating for yourself, but they be better able to get you a modification that will be a long term solution.

Four Persuasive Presentation Secrets

Being able to communicate persuasively with any audience is not just about what you say, it’s also about what you do. Here are four tips for making your communication more persuasive

1. Take Time to Build Rapport

When rapport exists, there is a sense of trust and confidence between people that makes each more likely to respond positively to the other. Although there are techniques you can use to accelerate rapport, it has to be earned.

You create rapport by being willing to meet the other person where they are rather than trying to drag them where you want them to be. The biggest mistake most people make in any type of communication is trying to communicate from their own perspective rather than trying to relate to where their audience currently is.

If you take time to understand your audience, whether it’s one person or a thousand, you will find it much easier to build rapport and communicate with them more successfully. You create rapport when you use that knowledge to change the way you communicate to suit your audience.

2. Model Successful Communicators

One of the best ways to improve your communication skills is to notice what works well for others and then to incorporate elements of what you see into your own behavior. Modeling is not about copying people. That’s often illegal and it doesn’t usually work. However, if you learn what makes other people good at something, you can use that experience to improve your own performance.

The key to successful modeling is that it’s not just about watching what people do, it’s as much about understanding how they think and what they believe. Take advantage of any opportunity to talk to speakers you admire and read as much as possible about them.

3. Always Be Authentic

To become a great presenter, you need to be yourself. One of the secrets of the best speakers is that they appear natural. They are the same on stage as they are in person. Too many people try to invent a persona that they use in presentations as they think that’s what is needed. And many people hold off from speaking because they compare themselves unfavorably to other people. The truth is it doesn’t matter. People are interested in what you have to say not in your speaking abilities.

Former US President Ronald Reagan is now called the Great Communicator but that’s as much for the way his natural personality shows through as for great public speaking skills.

You can improve your speaking skills by enhancing your abilities. But speaking successfully is about using your existing abilities to their full advantage. Just be yourself and you will get the results that you want.

4. Value and Respond to Feedback

Like most things in life, giving presentations is a process of constant improvement – no matter how good you are.

In order to be able to improve, you must:

- Be willing to accept feedback constructively: If you want to improve, listen to what people say and incorporate it next time. Accepting feedback doesn’t mean you have to do what others say but all feedback helps you be aware of what works for you most of the time and what doesn’t.

- Actively seek opportunities for feedback: If you seriously want to improve your presentation skills, you should actively encourage feedback. Hand out surveys at the end of a presentation or ask someone you know well in the audience for some comments. Try to find people who will be both honest and encouraging.

- Keep doing more: The best way to improve is to keep getting more practice so that you improve your skills, incorporate more of what you learn and build your confidence.

Following these four secrets will help you build your persuasive presentation skills easily and confidently.

Engagement Rings: How to Choose and Present One for Your Man

With modern times also comes modern ways of becoming engaged. Many women now prefer to propose to their boyfriends rather than be the one to get proposed to and many jewelers have now designed engagement rings to suit this kind of occasion. However, it is still best to approach your man with this kind of idea and whether he is comfortable with wearing an engagement ring before you go ahead with the proposal.

Men’s engagement rings do not have the same settings such as rings with prongs or other features that highlight the ring. They prefer rings that are understated that can be worn daily and casually. These are mostly designed with few embellishments and decorations unlike the typical women’s engagement ring. A good suggestion for women that will present a ring to their loved one is to have it engraved with a thoughtful message, or a date that means something to both of you as a couple.

There are also more elaborate engagement rings that have two-toned designs. Yellow and white gold are frequently used, but bronze is also a good use of color that can add distinction to the ring without using precious stones as decorations. There are also textured ones with lattice patterns with engravings of messages. Titanium is also a popular choice in men’s rings because of the different hues of the metal such as blue, purple and many others.

Most engagement rings for men also include diamond embellishments. However, there is no center stone that is accented by smaller stones like in women’s ring designs. A central diamond can also be used but it is subtly set in the middle of a wide band. If you prefer several diamonds in the ring, a channel set is arranged on one edge of a ring, which is mostly square in shape. This design is less prone to damage and is a more practical design for men’s rings.

You can also choose colored gemstones instead of diamonds, and birthstones are mostly preferred by many women. This is easily incorporated into an engagement band. Pearls are not typically used for men’s rings because it is not easy to set and can be easily damaged as compared to gemstones. The wedding ring design is quite similar to the engagement ring that is used mostly for men. In the future, you can have the engagement ring and the wedding band solded together into one ring that your man can wear in the future.

Engagement rings for men are also similarly priced to women. The diamond may not be as big or as expensive, the metal weight in a man’s ring is heavier which increases its value greatly. Two-tone rings as well as rings with patterns and intricate designs will also be more costly as well. Even if the ring designs are different, the symbol for it will still remain the same – it is to publicly announce the love that is both shared by the couple for the rest of their lives.