If you have been watching a lot of cable television lately, you have certainly heard a lot of talk about "homeowner irresponsibility". Many have opined that they should not bear the burden of having to pay the mortgage of their "irresponsible next-door neighbors". Some of the more sanctimonious pundits have warned of the slippery slope of foreclosure prevention.

To be sure, there are many homeowners who were irresponsible with regards to the sub-prime loans. Many of these folks took out these loans knowing full well that these loans were not prudent. However, I have not heard anyone say that these folks should not bear any responsibility. Yet, I have never heard these same pundits argue for lender irresponsibility either. Having said that, there needs to be a more balanced perspective here.

The Federal Reserve now estimates that up to 20% of all the sub-prime loans made over the past few years were made to people who qualified for prime loans. What does that mean? That means that the person who signed them up for the loan knew full well that these folks would unnecessarily pay several hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of those loans. That also means that these same lenders knew full well, that at the end of those 15 year loans, the borrower would be stuck with a ridiculous balloon payment.

How could this happen? Well, a typical scenario is that a person back in 2005 was seeing real estate prices skyrocket. Upon prodding and pressure by family members to get a house before being "priced out of the market forever", these people made the unfortunate mistake of walking into a sub-prime shop at their local strip mall. Upon performing a credit check on this person, you would think that this lender would have an ethical duty to steer them to a prime lender due to the qualifications. However, the statistics tell us otherwise. Obviously, many of these lenders did not want to allow business to walk out the door.

Forgery, falsification of documents, and liberal use of White-Out helped bootstrap otherwise unqualified borrowers through the cracks. What’s more, according to a BusinessWeek Magazine article entitled "Sex, Lies, and Mortgage Deals" (November 24, 2008) several experts contend that the industry was so rife with corruption, that many mortgage wholesalers began to trade loans for sex. According to dozens of former brokers and wholesalers, the practice of trading sex (by mortgage wholesalers) for loans "was so common that it came to be expected".

Therefore, if you are worried about your current mortgage payments, the first step is to put aside your guilt, shame, and embarrassment. Although you should bear some responsibility, you are not alone in the blame game. As such, you should bravely re-visit your loan documents.

In order to determine if you should get a loan modification or resort to other recourse you must determine whether your loan is affordable and practical. Try to find an amortization schedule. And also look for those terms which spell out when the re-setting of interest rates will trigger.

Moreover, you should also try to determine whether there is a balloon payment. A balloon payment in your mortgage could make your loan untenable. As opposed to most prime 30 year fixed loans, your home will be completely paid off. However, with many sub-prime loans, at the end of the first 15 years, you may owe the principal balance of that loan. In other words, if you took out a loan for $350,000, you will owe the lender $350,000 at the end of that 15 years. Sounds ridiculous? Then you either need a loan modification or you need to explore other legal recourse to take care of your financial future and your family.