To fill out and submit a loan modification application on Form 710, gather your income and hardship documents first, complete the form’s four sections for every borrower on the mortgage, add a one-page hardship letter and a signed IRS Form 4506-C, and send the whole packet to your servicer in one delivery you can prove was received. Everything that follows — the servicer’s review clock, your protections against foreclosure, the trial period — depends on that packet being complete when it lands.
Get Your Documents Together First
The single biggest reason applications stall is missing paperwork. Your servicer will not start the 30-day evaluation clock until the file is complete, so assemble everything before you open the form. Form 710’s checklist spells out what each income type requires.1Freddie Mac. Mortgage Assistance Application – Form 710
Income Proof
For wages, salary, overtime, commissions, and bonuses, pull your most recent pay stub showing year-to-date earnings. If the stub doesn’t show YTD, add a document that does. Two recent bank statements showing deposits will also work in place of a pay stub.
Social Security, pension, disability, and other benefit income needs either two recent bank statements showing the deposits or an award letter stating the amount and frequency.
Self-employed? You have three choices, and you only need one: two recent bank statements showing business income, a signed and dated quarterly or year-to-date profit-and-loss statement, or your most recent complete and signed business or individual federal tax return. The P&L is usually the fastest to produce.1Freddie Mac. Mortgage Assistance Application – Form 710
Hardship Proof
What you need to attach depends on what happened. A job loss or income reduction needs nothing beyond what you state on the form. Disability or serious illness calls for a written statement or medical documentation. Divorce or legal separation requires the final decree or separation agreement, or a recorded quitclaim deed showing the departing spouse transferred their interest. A death in the household needs a death certificate or published obituary. Military relocation needs Permanent Change of Station orders.1Freddie Mac. Mortgage Assistance Application – Form 710
IRS Form 4506-C
Most servicers require Form 4506-C alongside Form 710. It authorizes the servicer to pull your tax transcripts directly from the IRS through the Income Verification Express Service, so they can confirm your stated income against your filed returns.2Internal Revenue Service. Income Verification Express Service The form itself is short: name, Social Security number, address, and the tax years to verify. Your servicer will tell you which line items to complete and will put itself in the recipient box.3Internal Revenue Service. Form 4506-C – IVES Request for Transcript of Tax Return Sign it and include it with the packet.
Working Through Form 710
You can download Form 710 from your servicer’s website or from Freddie Mac directly, or request a paper copy by phone. Many servicers have a branded version that captures the same data.4Freddie Mac. Form 710 Whichever version you use, the form moves through four areas.
Borrower Information
Enter names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and contact information for every borrower on the mortgage. Fill in the property address, whether you live there, and the number of people in the household. If a co-borrower has moved out, note that but still include their information — they are on the loan.
The Hardship
Check the box that identifies your hardship type and write a brief description. If nothing on the list fits, select “Other” and give a short explanation. This section is a summary, not a narrative. The fuller story goes in the hardship letter.
Income and Monthly Expenses
List each income source for every borrower and enter the gross monthly amount before taxes. The figures here should match the documents you gathered. Then enter monthly expenses: housing costs including property taxes, insurance, and any HOA dues; car payments; credit card minimums; student loans; food; utilities; and other regular bills.
Precision matters. If your bank statements show something different from what you wrote on the form, the servicer will come back with a request for clarification and the clock won’t start running until you resolve it. Reconcile the numbers before you submit, not after.
Assets and Liabilities
Assets include checking and savings balances, retirement account totals, the market value of other real estate you own, and other investments. Liabilities cover the outstanding balances on car loans, credit cards, personal loans, and other liens. The servicer uses these to calculate your debt-to-income ratio and decide whether a modified payment is realistic.
Signatures
Every borrower listed on the mortgage has to sign and date the form. One missing signature makes the application incomplete, and the review clock stays stopped. The certification above the signature line states the information is true and correct, so verify your numbers once more before signing. If your servicer’s portal supports electronic submission, electronic signatures are generally valid under the federal E-Sign Act once you’ve consented to electronic records.5National Credit Union Administration. Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act
The Hardship Letter
The hardship letter gives the reviewer context the checkbox can’t. Keep it to one page. Open with your loan number and property address, then explain in plain language what happened: a layoff, cut hours, a divorce, medical bills, whatever the triggering event was. State when the hardship started, whether it’s ongoing or resolved, and what steps you’ve taken to stabilize. Close by stating that you want to keep the home and can handle a modified payment. Sign and date it.
The letter doesn’t need to be polished. Underwriters read hundreds. What matters is a clear timeline, a specific cause, and numbers that line up with the rest of the application. A letter that says “times are tough” without naming a concrete event gives the reviewer nothing to work with.
Sending the Packet In
Submit Form 710, the supporting documents, the hardship letter, and the signed Form 4506-C together as a single packet. Most servicers accept submissions through an online portal, by fax, or by mail. If you mail it, use certified mail with return receipt. The delivery date is the date the federal deadlines begin to run.
Within five business days of receiving your application, the servicer has to send you a written acknowledgment stating whether the packet is complete or listing what’s missing.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures If something is missing, send it quickly. The 30-day evaluation clock only starts once the application is complete. Call the servicer a few days after you send the packet to confirm receipt. Paper gets lost. Faxes fail.
What Happens Next
Once the servicer has a complete application, Regulation X requires a written decision within 30 days. The servicer has to evaluate you for every loss mitigation option available, not just a modification, and send a notice explaining which options it will offer, how long you have to accept or reject, and whether you have appeal rights.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures
The 37-Day Line If Foreclosure Is Scheduled
If a foreclosure sale is already on the calendar, timing is everything. Your complete application has to reach the servicer more than 37 days before the scheduled sale. If it does, the servicer cannot move for a foreclosure judgment or conduct the sale while your application is pending.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures This is the dual-tracking ban. Submit inside that 37-day window and you lose the protection.
The Trial Period
Approval doesn’t make the modification permanent right away. You first enter a trial period, typically three months, during which you pay the proposed modified amount. The servicer wants to see that you can actually handle the new payment before signing off.7U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mortgagee Letter 2011-28 – Trial Payment Plan for Loan Modifications Make every trial payment on time and in full. One late or short payment can disqualify you and send you back to the start. After a successful trial, the servicer sends a final modification agreement that updates your mortgage terms and is recorded against the property.
One point that surprises people: during the trial, the servicer may still report your mortgage as delinquent to the credit bureaus because the trial payments are lower than the original contractual amount. That status usually doesn’t clear until the final modification is executed. Ask the servicer upfront how it plans to report your trial payments.
If You’re Denied
The denial notice has to explain why. You have the right to appeal, but only if your complete application reached the servicer at least 90 days before a scheduled foreclosure sale. The appeal deadline is 14 days after you receive the decision. A different team at the servicer has to review the appeal and respond within 30 days.8eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.41 – Loss Mitigation Procedures There is no second appeal. If the denial rested on incorrect income figures or a stale property value, submit corrected documentation with the appeal.
If the servicer missed a procedural requirement, such as failing to acknowledge your application within five days or moving ahead with foreclosure while the application was pending, you can file a formal notice of error under 12 CFR § 1024.35. The notice needs your name, information identifying your loan, and a description of the error. Send it to the address the servicer designates for error notices on its website.9Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.35 – Error Resolution Procedures
If Your Name Isn’t on the Loan
If you inherited the home or received it through a divorce, you may still be able to apply for a modification even though you weren’t on the original mortgage. Federal rules require the servicer to promptly confirm your status as a successor in interest so you can access loss mitigation. You’ll need to show how you acquired the property: a death certificate and will, a divorce decree, or a deed transfer.10Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.31 – Definitions Once confirmed, you have the same application rights as the original borrower.
Free Help, and Scams to Avoid
HUD-approved housing counselors will walk you through the whole packet, review your finances, and contact the servicer for you at no cost. Find one through the CFPB at consumerfinance.gov/housing or by calling 1-855-411-2372.11Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Find a Housing Counselor If any part of the process feels overwhelming, a counselor is the best first call. They see these forms every day.
Companies that promise to negotiate a modification for a fee are often scams. Federal rules bar mortgage assistance companies from charging you before they deliver results. An upfront payment demand means they are breaking the law.12Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Beware of Mortgage Rescue Scams Other warning signs:
- They tell you to stop making mortgage payments or stop talking to your servicer.
- They ask you to send payments to anyone other than your servicer.
- They want you to sign over your property deed, even “temporarily.”
- They make verbal promises but refuse to put anything in writing, or hand you documents with blank fields.
- They contact you out of the blue with a guarantee they can save your home.
Get the packet complete, submit it in one delivery you can prove, respond fast to anything the servicer asks for, and keep every piece of correspondence. That’s what moves a Form 710 application from paperwork to a modified loan.