Starting today, thousands of borrowers facing foreclosure will be able to stay in their homes and avoid the trauma of being evicted. Fannie Mae’s new “Deed for Lease” program allows impossibly situated borrowers to transfer their home ownership to Fannie Mae and sign a one-year lease, with month-to-month extensions after that. Yes, you still lose your home–but you avoid explaining to your kids why they have to squeeze into a crummy apartment and change schools, you don’t have to schlepp from landlord to landlord and blush whenever they check your credit, and you don’t have to add the joy of moving to your holiday celebrations. Not a small thing. Continue reading ‘Facing Foreclosure? Stay Home with Fannie’s Deed for Lease Program’
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If you are experiencing financial difficulties, you may have decided that you can’t afford to make your mortgage payment. Or you may be waiting for a loan modification from your lender. But in any event, if your checking or savings accounts are with a bank that also has your mortgage, you should move them–or you could lose them. Banks all over the country are raiding their customers’ accounts if the mortgage isn’t being paid. Continue reading ‘In Trouble with Your Mortgage Lender? Check Your Checking Account’
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You’re in trouble with your home loan. Your income has dropped. Your expenses have not. You’ve been dipping into your savings to make your payments, and they’re almost gone. Your retirement account is all you have left. Can you get a mortgage modification? You check www.makinghomeaffordable.com and take the quiz on the site to see if you’d qualify for a mortgage modification. You do! Except that you don’t. What the site doesn’t tell you is that just because you are experiencing hardship doesn’t mean that your loan servicer is going to modify your loan–the program is voluntary and lenders all have their own criteria for determining who gets a modification–and who doesn’t. Continue reading ‘The Truth About Mortgage Modification: What www.MakingHomeAffordable.com Doesn’t Tell You’
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Over half of homeowners who get a mortgage modification or forbearance don’t get the happy ending they expected. They simply get behind on their payments again according to a new report by bank regulators. More than 50% of mortgage borrowers with loans modified in the first half of last year had missed at least two months of payments a year later, government officials claimed. Continue reading ‘Mortgage Modification May Not End Mortgage Credit Problems’
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According to an article in the LA Times, mortgage problems are becoming credit problems. While refinancing under making Home Affordable programs won’t hurt your credit and may even help it a little, the same can;t be said for short sales. Many holders of under water property assume that a short sale won’t harm their credit, or at least not much, but it really depends on how the lender chooses to handle the sale. Unless you live in a non-recourse state like California, your lender has the right to pursue a deficiency judgment against you. If it does, you could be liable for the difference between the sale proceeds and the loan balance. And even if you pay this in full, one large American bank still reports the transaction as a “charge off,” which is little better than a foreclosure. Continue reading ‘Mortgage Problems Hurting Americans’ Credit’
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The chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee said that he plans to keep working on legislation to reduce mortgage balances via bankruptcy proceedings, and that the lame performance of lenders, some of which received taxpayer bailout funds and have yet to modify a single mortgage, increases the support for that legislation. Continue reading ‘New Legislation May Help You When Your Lender Won’t’
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You need a mortgage modification. You checked the questionnaire on www.makinghomeaffordable.com and discovered that you meet the criteria for a modification under the Home Affordable Modification Plan (HAMP). So you call your lender, get your modification packet, and return it. And then nothing happens. For months. Continue reading ‘Frustrated with Your Lender? So Are Some Judges’
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All the buzz these days is about the homeowner rescue programs–Making Home Affordable and it’s babies Home Affordable Refinance Plan (HARP) and Home Affordable Modification Plan (HAMP). But eligibility for these programs requires that the property be a primary residence. What about investors? Is there any help for them? Continue reading ‘Investors In Trouble: Any Foreclosure Help for Borrowers with Rentals?’
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It’s not just the sixth-grade drop-outs who are having mortgage problems. And not just the “greed is good” Wall Streeters either. And not the big spenders who partied like it was 1999 even though it was 2009 and they weren’t pulling in the big bucks anymore. And the Realtors? The ones who many think stretched the truth when talking up property as a great investment? A lot of them are in more trouble than anyone–because they bought into the hype more than anyone. After all, you have to be pretty enthused about a product to sell successfully. Lots of these folks have no business coming in and a lot of houses going into foreclosure–including their own. Continue reading ‘In Trouble with Your Mortgage? So Are a Lot of Experts’
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Drop the word “foreclosure” into almost any conversation and you’ll hear something like: “loose lending…irresponsible borrowers…dead real estate market…what do you expect?”
But what you probably won’t hear is that one of the biggest causes of losing a home–even today–is medical. Continue reading ‘Want to Avoid Foreclosure? Get Medical Insurance’
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