Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP)

Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP)

If you are current on your mortgage and have been unable to obtain a traditional refinance because the value of your home has declined, you may be eligible to refinance through HARP. HARP is designed to help you refinance into a new affordable, more stable mortgage. The HARP loan is a new loan and will require a loan application and underwriting process. Loan refinance fees will apply.

Eligibility*
You may be eligible to apply if you meet all of the following:

•​​​​Your mortgage must be owned or guaranteed by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.
•The mortgage must have been sold to Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae on or before May 31, 2009.
•​The mortgage cannot have been refinanced under HARP previously unless it is a Fannie Mae loan that was refinanced under HARP from March-May 2009.
•You must be current on your mortgage at the time of the refinance with a good payment history over the last twelve months.
•The current loan-to-value (LTV) ratio must be greater than 80%.
*Eligibility criteria are for guidance only. Contact your mortgage servicer to see if you qualify for HARP.

Program Availability
The HARP program is offered by many servicers. Homeowners should check with their mortgage servicer (the company to which homeowners make their mortgage payments) to determine if they are participating in HARP. If their mortgage servicer is not participating, the homeowner may contact other lenders that participate in HARP to determine if they are eligible for a refinance.

Steps to HARP Refinance•Determine whether your mortgage is owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac by visiting their respective Loan Lookup tools.
•Contact your current mortgage servicer or another that is approved by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to inquire about HARP.
•Compare rates and costs with additional mortgage companies to ensure best refinance terms.
For More Information
•Visit FannieMae.com or call (800)7Fannie.
•Visit FreddieMac.com, call (800)Freddie, Option 2
•If you have additional questions about getting mortgage help, contact one of our housing advisors at (888) 995-HOPE (4673). These HUD-approved housing counselors will help you understand your options, design a plan to suit your individual situation, and prepare your application. Research shows that homeowners who work with housing counselors like these are more successful and have better long-term outcomes. There is no cost to you for this valuable, around-the-clock service. Help is available in more than 160 languages.

Bank of America HAFA Short Sale

from

http://realestateinsidernews.com/breaking-real-estate-news/bank-of-america-hafa-short-sale-distressed-property-designation

no copyrright infringement
Bank of America is making a process change that will reduce cycle time and improve customer service for many short sales that are submitted with an offer.
The change went into effect Dec. 1, 2011, and impacts all short sales submitted with an offer in which the homeowner is eligible for the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative (HAFA) program.
When a short sale is submitted with an offer and the homeowner is HAFA eligible, we will no longer halt work on the file while waiting to contact the homeowner. HAFA eligible homeowners are no longer required to call our Short Sale Customer Care to indicate whether they will participate in the program.
Instead, real estate agents can indicate a homeowner’s HAFA interest by submitting the necessary documents to Equator within 14 days. During that 14-day window, the short sale will continue moving forward. By the end of the 14 days, if we have not received the requested HAFA documents, we will continue to process the file as a traditional short sale.
This change is being made because we are transitioning the processing of all HAFA short sales with an offer from our outsourced vendor partners to Bank of America associates. A Bank of America specialist will be able to seamlessly transition a file from our traditional process to the HAFA process, thus improving customer service and the agent experience. Our outsourced vendor partners will, however, continue to process all short sales submitted without an offer.

Action required:
■Short sales initiated on Equator.com that receive a HAFA eligibility message no longer require homeowners to call Customer Care to confirm their interest.
■If homeowners wish to participate in HAFA, agents must submit the requested documents within 14 days. (Note: the 14-day period begins the day the HAFA solicitation letter is mailed to the homeowner. Agents can obtain the date of the letter from homeowner.)
■If you are unclear about which documents to submit, contact your short sale specialist via Equator messaging.

Additional Recommendations:
■Help your homeowners understand the benefits a HAFA short sale, including the relocation incentive at closing. Review the agent HAFA education guide to learn more.
■Provide the Bank of America HAFA Eligibility FAQ to interested homeowners.
■Direct homeowners to contact Customer Care at 1.866.880.1232 if they have questions.

Mark Anthony Ruiz
714-815-4634
562-246-5200

California SB 458- brings closure and certainty to the short sale process

Fri Jul 15, 2011 3:11pm EDT
CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
from Lotus Lou, 213-739-8304
lotusl@car.org
no copyright infringement intended

CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® Applauds Gov. Brown on Signing SB 458 into Law

The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) applauds Gov. Jerry Brown on signing SB 458 (Corbett) into law. SB 458 extends the protections of SB 931 (2010), to ensure that any lender that agrees to a short sale must accept the agreed upon short sale payment as payment in full of the outstanding balance of all loans.

Under previous law (SB 931 of 2010), a first mortgage holder could accept an agreed-upon short sale payment as full payment for the outstanding balance of the loan, but unfortunately, the rule did not apply to junior lien holders. SB 458 extends the protections of SB 931 to junior liens.

“The signing of this bill is a victory for California homeowners who have been forced to short sell their home only to find that the lender will pursue them after the short sale closes, and demand an additional payment to subsidize the difference,” said C.A.R. President Beth L. Peerce. “SB 458 brings closure and certainty to the short sale process and ensures that once a lender has agreed to accept a short sale payment on a property, all lienholders – those in first position and in junior positions – will consider the outstanding balance as paid in full and the homeowner will not be held responsible for any additional payments on the property.”

SB 458 contains an urgency clause making it effective upon signing.

Leading the way…® in California real estate for more than 100 years, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (www.car.org) is one of the largest state trade organizations in the United States, with nearly 160,000 members dedicated to the advancement of professionalism in real estate. C.A.R. is headquartered in Los Angeles.

CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
Lotus Lou, 213-739-8304
lotusl@car.org

Investigating Fraudclosure-whistleblower speaks out

A report at the Dylan Ratigan show confirms what we’ve argued for some time is happening: that banks are not making mods to viable borrowers because servicing is more profitable. In addition, an insider on the HAMP program says that the pressure to make trial mods to make the program look good wound up hurting people. As we have described in older posts, people who were give trial mods under HAMP got reduced payments for a while (in theory three months, in practice often a lot longer). If they failed ot qualify, not only were they asked immediately to pay back the payment reductions, but also penalties. Not only did the servicers not prepare the borrowers for this possibility, some encouraged homeowners to use their savings to pay down other debt, thus pretty much assuring they’d lose their home if they did not get the permanent mod.

Some people were denied just to clear the back log. If you are in a situation where you need help with a short sale call me at 562-246-5200 and I will do my best to help you and your family.

Cerritos Home Sales 2010

As of the census of 2000,[19] there are 51,488 people, 15,390 households, and 13,650 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,306.2/km² (5,974.0/mi²). There are 15,607 housing units at an average density of 699.1/km² (1,810.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the City is 26.90% White, 6.67% Black or African American, 0.28% Native American, 58.44% Asian, 0.19% Pacific Islander, 3.75% from other races, and 3.78% from two or more races. 10.39% of the population is Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 15,390 households out of which 40.9% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 73.9% are married couples living together, 10.9% have a female householder with no husband present, and 11.3% are non-families. Nearly 8.9% of all households are made up of individuals and 3.1% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 3.34 and the average family size is 3.54.

The population is spread out with 24.5% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 31.3% from 45 to 64, and 9.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 39 years. For every 100 females there are 94.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 91.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $73,030, and the median income for a family is $76,944 (these figures had risen to $91,476 and $98,351 respectively as of a 2007 estimate[20]). Males have a median income of $50,103 versus $37,421 for females. The per capita income for the City is $25,249. About 5.0% of the population and 4.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 5.4% of those under the age of 18 and 5.3% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line. The average annual income of a household is $87,700 (approx. 15,900 total households as of 2006).

We speak Your Language

We speak you language

Are you home?

what is quanitative easing?

Bank of America latest news

I have been bombarded by friends, peers and family to give my opinion about the latest news from Bank of America in regards to their foreclosures-”Bank of America decided to freeze all foreclosures only a week after one of the biggest banks in America announced it was doing the same thing in 50 states that require a court approval in order to proceed with a foreclosure”…..

Please watch this video before reading on….

Let’s play this out…Some people think that this halt in foreclosures will stimulate and encourage the bank to push through the approval process faster for the only game in town-Short Sales.

However, HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM! All Bank of America short sales are required to use the platform “Equator” (formerly REOtrans). The platform is complicated.  It requires agents to actually watch tutorials and ask questions.  So what’s the big deal?  I’m going to have to take you back to elementary math…

Realtor A has a willing seller whose home is a qualified Short Sale leaving on track A with a qualified buyer on board.

Bank of America has a willing short sale negotiator eager to take Realtor A’s package and negotiate on behalf of the bank on track B.

So far so good, right?

Just wait.

Engineer Equator is brought in to make sure Realtor on track A and Short Sale negotiator on track B meet at home sold and closed.

Enter problem of all problems.

Engineer Equator speaks martian on a walkie talkie. 

Short Sale negotiator also speaks martian and has a walkie talkie.

The majority of Realtor’s on track A don’t speak martian, they have seen a walkie talkie and are currently using it as a paper weight.

Engineer Equator safely guides Short Sale negotiator to home sold and closed.  Unfortunately, Realtor on Track A picked up the walkie talkie when it beeped but had no clue what the commands were from engineer Equator, because he speaks martian! Therefore, like two trains passing in the night, Realtor, Short Sale seller and qualified buyer never meet up with the bank negotiator.

Until Engineer Equator can use a cell phone and speak Realtor language… this brilliant plan of Bank of America’s will not work.

Chase Offers Homeowners Assistance Events

Chase Bank is opening Chase Homeownership Centers across the country reflects their commitment to helping families stay in their homes whenever possible. Now, struggling customers can visit the centers to meet face to face with loan advisors to talk about their situation.

Focusing exclusively on helping our customers avoid foreclosure, the specially trained advisors start by gaining a complete understanding of your financial situation. Then the advisors will help determine whether you qualify for a “Making Home Affordable” modification, a Chase modification or another program that could help you stay in your home.

Chase Homeowner Event

They also have literally thousands of loan advisors available by telephone to help you. Their website is www.Chase/shortsale for more info on short selling.

To find location details and driving directions to a Homeownership Center or call me..

Mark Anthony Ruiz
562-246-5200

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