If your home is worth less than your home loan, and you don’t have a hardship that qualifies you for a mortgage modification, you may be considering strategic default — that is, walking away from your mortgage and daring your lender to sue you. However, you’d rather not incur years of having bad credit and being unable to get another mortgage. Plus, you wouldn’t feel too great when your foreclosure caused all of your neighbors’ homes to lose value. And a foreclosure is a public record — everyone in town would know, including those snotty ladies in your book club. Well, now there is a program that allows you to refinance to a lower mortgage rate, and brings your mortgage balance more in line with your home’s current value. It starts on September 7th and it’s called an FHA Short Refinance. Continue reading ‘Want to Walk Away From Your Home Loan? There’s a New Program for You!’
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The lack of transparency surrounding mortgage lenders’ modification decision processes is legendary, and the failure of HAMP is well-documented. Mortgage servicers say they’re overwhelmed with multiple changes to the program. They claim the reason the many folks get kicked out of the program and don’t receive modifications is that they fail to return paperwork. Borrowers counter that they send the same stuff in over and over and that servicers repeatedly “lose” it, then send out a HAMP denial because “documentation not provided.” Mortgage counselors agree, with 100% of those surveyed claiming to receive multiple requests for the same documents.
So how would HAMP be run if servicers actually wanted to accomplish the modifications?
Continue reading ‘If Lenders Really Wanted to Modify Loans……’
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It’s no secret that your credit rating can come up in your job search. Experts say that 60% of employers check credit before making job offers, and 25% say that a bankruptcy or other severe credit event can keep you from getting a job with them. So those who walk away from mortgages or strategically default would be wise to keep that in mind if they plan on getting a new job in the next few years. Continue reading ‘Can Foreclosure Get You Fired?’
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If you’re trying to save your home from foreclosure, you may be desperate. And hearing all the horror stories in the media and from your neighbors doesn’t give you a lot of hope for getting a modification. So, when a company promises huge results, fast, shouldn’t you jump on the chance before you end up homeless? The FTC says just say no to companies that charge up front. Continue reading ‘Mortgage Modification: Does Outside Help Make a Difference?’
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Some new members are joining the mortgage foreclosure club, according to research firm First American CoreLogic and The New York Times. Mortgage defaults on million dollar plus homes far exceed those on other properties — more than one in seven in fact! Unlike those with cheaper digs, who cannot save their homes due to unemployment or other financial emergencies, the wealthy appear to be letting their homes go purposely. CoreLogic’s senior analyst Sam Khater explains: “Those with high net worth have other resources to lean on if they get in trouble,” said Mr. Khater, the analyst. “If they’re going delinquent faster than anyone else, that tells me they are doing so willingly.” Continue reading ‘Mortgage Credit Problems Spread to Wealthy Homeowners’
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Many people with bad credit mortgages are in a bind. Even though they did everything right, getting a home loan with a short or no prepayment penalty, improving their credit rating, and putting themselves in a position to refinance into an FHA mortgage, conventional home loan, or even another bad credit mortgage but with a better mortgage rate. And then home values tanked. Not long ago, most loans for people with bad credit could be gotten with little or no down payment (80/20 plans, with an 80% first mortgage and a 20% second mortgage), increasing the chance that subprime borrowers today are underwater and unable to refinance. To make things even worse, the second mortgages are making it harder for needy homeowners to get the mortgage modifications they qualify for. Continue reading ‘Why Your Second Mortgage Can Derail Your Mortgage Modification’
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If you lost your home through a short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, you may not have to wait five years before you are eligible to finance your next home.
Fannie Mae is directing its lenders to relax rules making mortgage applicants who have done short sales or given up their homes with deeds in lieu of foreclosure ineligible for a new mortgage for many years. Instead, you could be eligible for Fannie Mae financing in as few as two years. The new standards go into effect July 1st. Continue reading ‘Recent Short Sale or Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure? You CAN Buy Again!’
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If you’re experiencing mortgage credit problems, have missed home loan payments, and are perhaps delinquent on other credit accounts as well, it may be tempting to give up. The stress can be debilitating, the balances pile up, and you think you will be in bad-credit Hell forever. A recent study by VantageScore shows that’s not necessarily the case. Continue reading ‘Fix Your Credit in Nine Short Months. Really.’
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If you have a bad credit mortgage, chances are you have a high interest rate. Your housing expense may very well exceed 31% of your gross monthly income. And if you live in a neighborhood dominated by bad credit mortgage financing, chances are there are lots of foreclosures and your property may very well be worth less than the value of the liens against it. Well, to paraphrase a popular commercial, there’s a HAMP for that. Continue reading ‘New HAMP Principal Reduction FHA Refinance — Hardship Not Required’
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It’s a sad tale you read a dozen times a day. Borrower buys home, borrower loses job, borrower loses home. And in some cases, the bad credit people get from missing mortgage payments actually keeps them from getting new jobs! And of course you can;t refinance to a lower mortgage payment when you’re out of work. Now, thanks to updates in the HAMP modification program, unemployed borrowers will be able to get help that doesn’t involve a foreclosure notice and a moving van Continue reading ‘HAMP Help for Unemployed’
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