There have been a growing number of stories in the news about homeowners suing their former mortgage brokers over the loan that they were given. Lawyers, as usual, are seeking out victims in order to drag more people into the court system and attempt to wring money out of them, rather than actually providing any useful service to society. Many of these attorneys will be able to extract some sort of legal judgment payments out of the mortgage brokers, of course, but it is doubtful how much actual responsibility mortgage brokers have in the current foreclosure crisis. In fact, the lawyers as a profession may have more to do with it all.

The average broker may be just as victimized as the homeowners, and many more former brokers and loan originators are feeling the pain of tighter credit and declining property values. Their potential customer base is quickly shrinking. The easy business is just not there any longer, and banks are not approving loans without better credit and actual down payments. For brokers who specialized in or got a significant amount of the income from providing loans to borrowers with poor credit, they may not be able to stay in the business at all.

This environment of easy credit and loose lending policies was created by the government, the official home of the lawyers. The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates drastically in order to stimulate the economy, but only managed to create a huge financial bubble in the housing market. Local governments and large banks turned a blind eye to the fact that many of the home values were being inflated beyond any assumption of reality. Property taxes rose and lenders were able to provide huge loans on properties worth far less than stated, package them into incomprehensible financial products, and sell them to uncaring hedge funds.

The mortgage brokers played the most direct role with the homeowners, but they were only offering the mortgage companies' products to a market of homeowners and buyers who wanted them. If the adjustable rate or interest-only mortgages were not useful or desirable, then they would not have been so popular. Brokers would have had to offer more reasonable, less flashy products to their customers, like loans on affordable homes or higher, fixed rate mortgages. But many homeowners either did not want this type of loan, or they did not qualify for a more standard mortgage but wanted to buy a house anyway.

In all cases, besides that of fraud on the part of the broker, mortgage lender, or servicing company, the responsibility lies more with homeowners than any other party. It is up to the consumers of mortgages to understand how their loans will work, not just now but years down the road, and be able to analyze at least the largest risks, such as declining property values and rising interest rates. Few people buy cars without researching their options and evaluating the features of their prospective choices, such as cost, security, mileage-per-gallon, and so on. And cars have far more technical, moving pieces, and are less expensive, and are shorter commitments than buying a house with a mortgage.

Although greedy mortgage brokers may become the scapegoat of the foreclosure crisis, they were not the only ones taken in by the era of easy credit. The banks and hedge funds encouraged the use of these loan products in every case, and the government created a huge bubble instead of recognizing that economic bubbles do not solve previous economic bubbles. The lawyers, if they really wanted to hold the right party accountable for the foreclosure mess, would go after the government's poor monetary policies. But that would be like expecting a dog to bite the hand that feeds it. Lawyers in government create the laws and policies that allow the financial bubbles to occur, and then use other laws to deflect accountability away from themselves, encouraging the lawyers out of government to do their best to steal money from the productive of society and drag them in front of another lawyer in government wearing a black robe.

Just in the past few weeks, a great number of people that we have talked to have fallen prey to one of the most dangerous mistakes to make in a foreclosure situation. Namely, they thought that they could apply for a refinance and actually qualify for a loan to stop the foreclosure process. In ever single instance, unfortunately, the method completely failed, with the mortgage broker leaving the homeowners hanging at the last minute -- sometimes a few days before the sheriff sale of their homes.

It is quite unfortunate, but homeowners who want to apply for a foreclosure loan will often call one mortgage company after another until they find one that will work on the loan for them. In most cases, they are not qualified for the loan, but that fact does not really matter to the mortgage broker. In fact, the homeowner will have to pay for all of the expenses, such as the appraisal, before the loan is sent to a lender for approval. Since the mortgage broker does not have any real interest in the property, he can rely on the slim outside chance of getting a foreclosure loan that works. The homeowners, on the other hand, have their home wrapped up in the deal and can not afford to put their faith in a company where they have no hope of finding a permanent solution.

Refinancing to stop foreclosure can be a great option, but homeowners need to realize that the qualifications for a loan when they have missed numerous mortgage payments are very, very tough to meet. This is not such a complicated concept: if you borrow several hundred thousand dollars, and you fail to meet the payments on it, other banks will be much less willing to loan you another several hundred thousand dollars to help you pay back the loan that is so far behind. Banks usually hang around with each other in a big group, and when one of them is betrayed in the paying back of a loan, then the others are less willing to help out.

Of course, this is not to persuade homeowners to give up seeking a refinance; in fact, one of the things they should do as soon as they know their payment is going up or they are going to have trouble making their payment is to apply for a refinance. Refinancing very quickly can help the homeowners avoid facing the danger of losing the home to foreclosure.

But the problem is, the qualifications to get a lender to approve this type of loan become more and more difficult as time goes on. Think about how tough it is to get a loan with one missed payment, and then add in another 4-6 more payments, plus an active foreclosure lawsuit, and it becomes very difficult and very expensive to find a lender to approve a foreclosure loan.

In addition, when homeowners apply to one mortgage broker after another, in most cases, the brokers will submit the clients' applications to the same exact lenders. But homeowners get the impression they are submitting their loan application to various mortgage companies and just need to find "the right one" that will approve their loan to stop foreclosure. Few homeowners are aware that multiple brokers will submit the same file to the same two or three foreclosure lenders as the last broker did. the lenders will turn down the file again, after pulling the homeowners' credit again, and making them pay for another appraisal up front.

Once this happens enough times, the homeowner will finally be turned down with little or no time to find another solution before the home goes to sheriff sale. This is why homeowners need more options and need to learn more about how to stop foreclosure, rather than just relying on one method at a time, or, even worse, relying on one demonstrably impossible option that has been turned down multiple times.

We hear of untold numbers of mortgage brokers who promise to help clients in foreclosure, but then string the clients along for months or nearly a year without telling the clients that they were turned down months ago.

One of the main questions we should ask is "Why do mortgage brokers have a hard time turning down clients who they have promised to help out of foreclosure?" There may be a number of reasons for this. The broker may be afraid of losing your trust or creating an enemy; no one wants to tell a customer that they are in danger of losing their home due to foreclosure. Also, most brokers know that their foreclosure clients put all their eggs in one basket and know that if they can not help, the foreclosure victim will have lost valuable time. Because of this, turning down a client who is in foreclosure becomes very tough for these brokers, many of whom have gained your trust.

These brokers use a number of tactics to string along their clients so that they do not have to turn them down. One of the main ones is to keep telling the clients that he is waiting on a particular piece of information. It may be from your lender, an underwriter, an attorney, or one of his managers or another broker. While some things do tend to move slowly in the mortgage industry, you should assume something is wrong if you can not get a straight answer from your mortgage broker.

Another tactic that brokers use is to not answer your calls or respond to your voicemails or emails. They may say they are out of the office or have been busy. Obviously, if a mortgage broker does not have enough time to work on your foreclosure loan, then you should seriously consider using another broker. In addition, you should wonder why your broker does not have the time to work on your file; it may very well be that you are not approved, and that since the broker will not make any money on the loan, he does not have the time work on your case any longer.

Here are some general guidelines on how to pick a mortgage broker who has helped clients in foreclosure refinance their homes.

-Give your broker a set period of time to approve you, and then move on if nothing is resolved. Don't just let your broker work on your loan forever; you know how much time you have before foreclosure, so don't let the broker keep working on the file. You should be able to get a pre-approval from a foreclosure lender within 3-5 business days after submitting a complete loan application.

-Don't rely just on a mortgage broker to help you out of foreclosure. If you're in danger of foreclosure, you need to examine every option possible to stop the foreclosure and save your home. You can't rely on any single option to help you. Call several brokers and shop around for the company that you think fits your situation and will best serve your needs.

-If you can no longer get in touch with your broker, then assume things have taken a turn for the worse. Most companies that can not help you will not take the time to tell you that they have turned your file down. Instead, they will stop taking your calls, send you to voicemail, and ignore your emails. If you do finally get through to someone, the news is usually not very good. So, if the lines of communication fail with your broker, then assume they have been unable to approve your foreclosure loan. Allow the possibility of being approved if they call you back, but you always have cause for concern if you can not get in touch with anyone.

-Do research on the brokers you choose; look up their parent company, check where they are licensed to do business, and ask for references.

We know that working with a broker can be difficult, but the rewards of getting a refinance out of foreclosure can be very great. A brand new loan to stop foreclosure that gives you a fresh start to rebuild credit can be the perfect solution for your situation. We only recommend using our members' area to locate trusted sources of loans to stop foreclosure, but you should do research on your own and pick a broker to work with very carefully.