Last Friday we discussed the Obama administration's mortgage modification efforts and the fact that its good intentions were not exactly translating into much relief for owners of properties like Miami Beach homes.  It seems like the bigwigs overseeing these foreclosure prevention efforts caught on to this quickly and announced some tweaks on Friday that may be more effective.

If your lender is participating in the Making Home Affordable program and you happen to be unemployed, you'll have some degree of relief for about three to six months as the lender will be required to cut down the monthly payment for your Miami Beach homes.  However, you must be able to show proof of unemployment insurance and you must not have missed more than three mortgage payments if you wish to qualify.

Some people may already be part of the government program and have received a mortgage modification.  If you happen to be one of those people you can still get a reduction on the principal for your Miami Beach homes as lenders must retroactively consider cutting down the mortgage balance by the same amount that would have been forgiven using the new approach.  Keep in mind however that in most cases any loan refinancing may negatively affect your credit as you're essentially not paying off the total balance on your original mortgage loan.