Vet Beats Mortgage Mod Scam

In celebration of Veterans Day, HousingWatch is featuring stories about veterans and active military personnel and their real estateexperiences.

When Hank Neigel, a 66-year-old disabled veteran, realized in February 2009 that he and his wife, Carol, would no longer be able to afford the monthly $1,300 mortgage payments on their three-bedroom, two-bath home in Hewitt, Texas, just south of Waco, he sought loan modification help from a company he found on the Internet.

Boy, was that a mistake.

The Mesa, Ariz..-based loan modification firm advertised a 100 percent performance-based, money-back guarantee. In exchange for a fee of $2,250, the company promised to handle all the paperwork and presentation to the lender of the modification of Neigel's $97,000 conventional loan.