Hi Michael,

 Yeah, it makes sense that there would be no new insurance or title search. The property would have been insured and the title searched when the mortgage was originally executed and recorded. The original mortgage retains its priority. All the modification does is change the terms of payment for the existing loan...lower interest rate....lower monthly payments...increased term, etc.

The signing agents are picking up a bunch of the modification business in addition to the purchases and refies.  However, there is less money paid for mods. So the signing agents usually limit mods to their immediate service area. A number of the signing services and TC's seem to be trying to take advantage of the economic down turn to impose lower fees, but for the most part the signing agents are not going for it.  Over on Notary Rotary some of the signing agents are actually posting that they are turning away business because they are over booked.

In terms of the refies and mods I am reading some nightmare stories of companies offering to obtain mods or refies for desperately delinquent homeowners at exorbitant fees. Some have said that they have been advised to deliberately become delinquent in order to qualify for some of the new federal programs. Most of the time these homeowners could do most of the research themselves or obtain the services of an attorney whose fees are subject to review by the disciplinary authority of each state. Attorneys are limited to reasonable fees. A reasonable fee depends on a number of factors, including but not limited to ...difficulty of the matter for which representation is sought...the degree to which the attorney may be required to turn away other work...the reputation of the attorney in the particular area of law. There may be other factors to be considered also.

In my case I get involved in foreclosure counseling only after the homeowner is served with the foreclosure summons, and the court action has begun.  The same options are open to the homeowner in court ordered mediation, but at least he/she has had the chance to try to refi or get a mod  before the court action commences.