Thursday, December 10, 2009
The spanking Fannie Mae is suffering has become intolerable.
The rumor several banks have agreed to streamline short sales is true and will certainly make the spanking a light one. How do I know? When I inquired why my calls were not being returned, for a few days in October, contacts at BofA told me they were being trained for a new program to expedite… Read the rest of this entry »
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
The purchase of a fixer-upper house is often a catch-22 situation, because the bank won’t lend the money to buy the house until the repairs are complete, and the repairs can’t be done until the house has been purchased. Fixing up your new house is a costly idea in Los Gatos, San Jose and the whole Bay Area, really.
HUD’s 203(k) program can help you overcome this cost obstacle by enabling you to purchase or refinance a property plus the cost of making the repairs and improvements in one mortgage.
Dian Hymer of Inman News suggests “design your offer with a 60 day close and a 45 day finance contingency.”
Monday, December 7, 2009
From the California Bar Journal
State Bar prosecutors took action last month against five more lawyers under investigation for loan modification misconduct, bringing to 14 the number of attorneys who have resigned or been placed on involuntary inactive enrollment since creation of the bar’s Loan Modification Task Force in April.
“I am very pleased with the results being obtained by members of our Loan Modification Task Force,” said Interim Chief Trial Counsel Russell Weiner. “They have exceeded my expectations. Our office has been aggressively investigating and prosecuting attorneys alleged to have committed loan modification misconduct. Any attorney thinking that he or she can commit loan modification misconduct and get away with it for a significant period of time should think again.”
The Loan Modification Task Force has received more than 1,250 complaints and is investigating almost 250 lawyers. Each task force investigator oversees about 135 cases, and almost 20,000 attorney files have been removed from the offices of attorneys whose loan modification practices have been shut down.
California Bar Journal Article
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The Home Mortgage Preservation Program is now Turbocharged enough to help high Los Gatos mortgages hopefully.
In May the government stepped up the pace to modify mortgages to stave off the 10–12 million potential foreclosures looming on the horizon. This was to be done first, by allowing homeowners to qualify for modifications on a temporary basis. 650,000 homeowners are now in that process.
However, only 2000 have been approved for modifications through the program.
Request Loan Modification .PDF
“We now must refocus our efforts on the conversion phase to ensure that borrowers and servicers know what their responsibilities are in converting trial modifications to permanent ones,” said Phyllis Caldwell, the newly appointed chief for the Treasury Department’s upstart Homeownership Preservation Office, in a statement released Monday.
The MakingHomeAffordable.gov Web site will include links to all required documents and an income verification checklist, as well as explanations of how the trial and conversion processes work. The Homeowner’s HOPE Hotline, at (888) 995-HOPE, will provide direct access to housing counselors
The temporary modification idea was meant to allow the homeowner time to submit documentation the lender would review to potentially grant an approval. This has caused much anxiety on the part of the participants as evidenced in the following quote.
“Now it’s up to the banks to do their part to convert borrowers to permanent modifications,” said Michael Barr, an assistant Treasury secretary. “Servicers to date have not done a good enough job.”
We just don’t know what penalty the participating lender is facing if they do not comply with the pressure. Without proof of substantial numbers of permanent modifications there is a real sense that this will just be another case of hot air.
This will lead to MORE foreclosures that may well have been prevented if the homeowner had time to seek out alternatives like a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure.
“If we don’t see a big increase in the permanent modification numbers, then there’s something seriously wrong with this program,” said Alan White, a law professor at Valparaiso University. “I can only assume the number is appallingly low.”
The Treasury Dept. began to publish reports naming those institutions that were lagging which proved to increase the numbers of temporary modifications from 235000 to 650000 by the end of July.
It is likely there will be another attempt to list their names if the number of permanent modifications does not rise soon! Not quite Turbocharged.
There are new guidelines, now in place, that servicers are not going to like very much.
This is directly from the HMP press release …
Top servicers will be required to submit a schedule demonstrating their plans to reach a decision on each loan for which they have documentation and to communicate either a modification agreement or denial letter to those borrowers. Treasury/Fannie Mae “account liaisons” are being assigned to these servicers and will follow up daily as necessary to monitor progress against the servicer’s plan. Daily progress will be aggregated by the end of each business day and reported to the Administration.
If you or someone you know needs to get on board, forward this link to them. http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/index.html
Here they will find…
I think this is a mess that still needs cleaning up… and I am hear to watch ‘em.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
via Getty Images
Short Sales with Countrywide B of A WaMu JPMorgan Chase are going to become more relevant in the coming year. I just got off the phone with Bof A regarding a short sale I am working to a close. Word has it the short sale departments, at many mortgage lenders, are expanding and preparing for a bumpy 2-3 years.
UPDATE: 12/09 Changes are being implemented, on-line submission is one interesting change.
It may change the outlook in the foreclosure market as these institutions become more aware of their losses with REO’s. It is obvious they are learning that the Short Sale option is the better answer.
This B of A employee was quite talkative and shared a few things we all need to know. Fannie Mae (the government agency) is causing the most trouble for everyone. I do not want to absolve all short sale departments from some responsibility here, yet. Similar to trying to open a bank safe without a combo the banks have seen massive delays and required information changes coming from Fannie Mae in the form of more…..’forms’.
Have you ever been flustered by those pesky government forms? You may be sympathetic to the bank….I am not! I want to call a department speak to a ‘person’ and get the business done…Do you agree?
I have read tons of material from people who claim to have the golden key to helping people with short sales. The problem is that each and every bank and each and every home/seller is different. There is no one golden key.
Short Sale departments receive over 100000 faxes a day and most of the specialists have well over a thousand files each. Hire more specialists ever occur to anyone? Each person considering a short sale option has very different financial needs, assets and goals. Not to mention, different mortgage companies.
It is important to know where and how to make your short sale more visible with the mortgage servicer and understand how people work. Hiring a short sale professional is strongly recommended one with experience and a temperament to fit.
Do banks lie? Yes and No. The contact numbers are constantly changed, staff is moved around and responsibilities are adjusted all the time from the client bank (the one who hired the servicer i.e. Wells Fargo). The client bank delegates directives to the servicer to create guidelines used to gain their short sale approval. Changing the rules of the game. Is that lying?
This link takes you to my FOX News Interview broadcast Video
Being prepared for these guideline changes, before they are implemented, will reduce the anxiety in this very frustrating process. Your chosen professional should have a strategy to employ.
When you are willing to change, bend, search, use good practices and LISTEN the ordeal will come to an acceptable close.
Find a professional to represent you, employ them and prepare for a few bumps.
Hold on turbulence are ahead as change is sometimes not easy. I am preparing everyday for the next bump. I have my seatbelt drawn tight.
Update 12/22/2009 New FHA lender rules for short sales
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009
You always thought that over time your home would be worth it’s weight in gold right? Well, maybe not exactly. Now you are feeling like you are paying for a bottomless pit. Many homeowners are considering alternatives to paying for their ‘non performing asset’ and Short Selling seems to have become the option of choice.
There are a number of other reasons you may need to consider the short sale option too. Health, Job loss, divorce, relocation or a mortgage reset are hardships that your mortgage lender will agree are reason enough to allow a short sale if your assets are outweighed by your heavy mortgage burden.
There is some sunlight shining in your bottomless pit.
Your home is gold and there are miners digging for it right now. If after consulting with your bank and finding your best option is selling then you will need to consult with the experts. Your list should include your CPA, attorney and a Realtor experienced in navigating the short sale process. These professionals will provide advice at little or no expense until the home is sold.
There are pitfalls to selling your home for less than you owe. Your CPA can determine the tax implications, your Attorney; the legal ramifications and your Realtor will share the market opportunities, strategies and process.
Al and Erin, homeowners in Sunnyvale, CA., say “Be cautious in hiring ‘so called’ short sale expiditer companies”. Al and Erin hired one and learned the hard way that they were sold a load of gold colored rocks. Not gold. The company they hired took a fee at the front end and had no motivation to complete the process. They already earned money.
Consulting with your team of professionals will save time and money. Your mortgage lender will consider a short sale more readily when confronted with the alternatives this team will present to them and you will not be burdened with undo out of pocket expense.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Buying a short sale is like being a miner…A miner will dig and dig, for months, until they find gold right? Buying a short sale can be very much like mining for gold. You need to have a miner’s mindset and use better tools than the others.
“How many months is this going to take?” This question is being asked with great regularity… too much really. The answer…It depends on who has the mine. Period. If the Listing agent (who has the mine or short sale) is not proactive then it doesn’t matter how hard your Realtor works or how high your offer is…you won’t find any gold.
Your Realtor is your mining pick. They need to know how to qualify the listing agent’s knowledge, experience and ability or, at least, be willing to work to help the listing agent make progress with the bank who is ultimately going to approve the short sale and…shine the light on the gold.
A successful gold miner will have a map of the gold mine and know how to navigate it. Your Realtor of choice will need to have a good map and understand the best way to navigate their way to the gold and extract it. This map is developed through representing sellers AND buyers of short sale properties, understanding all the pitfalls and the best practices to avoid them.
More and more short sales will be coming to the market and, the best homes and best buys available, will likely be short sales. This is the market condition reality for the next year or longer according to Banking industry experts and Real Estate professionals based on market statistics and economic conditions.
The extremely low interest rates are bringing droves of buyers out and multiple offers on the best homes are the norm in San Jose as well as Los Gatos and all around Santa Clara County, for that matter. Too many miners and not enough mines. You can avoid having to compete with these buyers if you realize they are overlooking the opportunity in front of them. The Short Sale properties. Agents are avoiding them because they think that most of them will never close. Ahhaa! The key! Find other mines! Be a good miner and have the sharpest pick!
Cambrian-San Jose-Los Gatos Homes and Real Estate For Sale