June 29th, 2010
Home Affordable Refinance Program and Home Affordable Modification Programs were put into action by the Obama administration to help between seven and nine million American reduce their monthly mortgage to more affordable levels.
The Home Affordable Refinance Program was set up to target underwater homeowners with their mortgage through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. This program was to have helped somewhere between four and five million Americans refinance into more manageable mortgage payments.
The Home Affordable Modification Program had set aside $75 billion to help between three to four million Americans restructure their mortgage loans. Home Affordable Modification Program was designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure with loan adjustments that can include a reduced interest rates and lowered payments.
According to some industry experts, both programs have done more harm than good. Approximately 75% of the modifications have failed. Your lenders get paid to do the modification if they modify your loan before you go to foreclosure. Most lenders are doing fewer modifications now than before the Home Affordable Modification Program was created by the Obama Administration. Why, because of all the guideline implemented by the government. Prior to the Home Affordable Modification Program was created servicers were completing over 120,000 permanent loan modification a month. That number has now dropped to about 70,000 trial modifications per month. That’s right I said trial. Each homeowner must now go through a 90 day trial. At the end of the trial period the homeowner must qualify all over again.
So why is Making Home Affordable not performing as expected? The government’s strict qualification means that many homeowners just don’t qualify. The Obama Administration and services are pointing fingers and no one is accepting responsibility for the ineffectiveness of the program, nor is either coming up with solutions. Most important of all is that the Home Affordable Modification Program lowers payments temporarily, but fails to provide a permanent solution for the American homeowner.
Remember you should never have to pay to have a modification until services have been preformed. There are companies that do not charge till the modification is completed. If you have questions, and you live in Arizona, please respond to this blog. There no cost involved.
Tomorrow we will cover the second half of this Program – Home Affordable Refinance Program and the challenges that Americans are facing in their attempts to complete the refinance program.
Tags: GDM, GDM REALY GROUP, HAMP, HARP, Home Affordable Modification Program, Home Affordable Refinance Program, Loan Modification
Posted in Short Sale | 1 Comment »
December 31st, 2009
I came across an interesting article in the LA Times over the weekend, discussing a paper written by University of Arizona law school professor Brent T. White. In the article, Mr. White essentially advises people to walk away from their mortgages in droves. Certainly, it makes sense. Banks have been responsible for some of the most inappropriate lending practices in our lifetime and while there are plenty of guilty parties on the receiving end of those funds, the majority are innocent bystanders now caught up in the mess these practices have caused.
I’ll be the first to concede that two wrongs don’t make a right, but many people who need to move – for whatever reason – are unable to do so at the moment. And while Mr. White refers those who don’t want to walk away from their homes as “woodheads,” I understand and respect their dilemma. They made a commitment and even through the situation they find themselves in won’t allow them to honor it, they desperately want to. I respect that a great deal – especially since many are victims of these market conditions, not the causes of it. Sadly, the lenders don’t respect them.
Naturally, my first recommendation is to try a short sale – it very well might be the best option for both sides. The seller can walk away with less damage to their credit and the piece of mind knowing they likely brought the lender more money than they’d have received via foreclosure. The lender walks away without having to take back yet another home, only to resell it for less and likely get stuck paying taxes, association dues, etc., with a slim chance of recouping all expenses.
Of course some people, the bank will tell you, don’t “qualify” for a short sale and those are the people I think Mr. White speaks to. And if those people start listening to his words, short sales will start sounding better and better to the lenders…
Tags: GDM, Short Sale, SHORT SALE GDM
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
December 31st, 2009
It’s no secret that the short sale process with Bank of America is typically longer than everyone else. There are plenty of reasons for this, but recently we discovered yet another – how they deal with Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. If Fannie or Freddie backs your loan, it’s taking about 60-90 days in some cases just to be assigned to a negotiator at BofA. The short sale documents have been audited and the BPO might’ve already been done, but the file just sits. The reason? BofA submits your file to the investor, then waits for them to respond – i.e., no follow up. Like submitting a short sale to a lender without following up, it might get done, but it will take months. Oh, the irony – BofA lectures it’s client to always follow up with them, since they might not have the time to contact the customer when additional documentation/answers are needed.
Other lenders will assign the short sale to an internal negotiator who will audit the file, order the BPO and then decide if it meets the pre-determined requirements. At that point, they submit to Fannie or Freddie and… follow up! Someone actually calls once a week or so to check the status. Should the file fall through the cracks, etc., someone is keeping an eye on it.
So there you have it. Even BofA employees concede their process is ridiculous, however they don’t appear to be doing much about it…
Tags: BANK OF AMERICA SHORT SALE, BOFA, GDM, GDM Realty, SHORT SALE BOFA
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
September 21st, 2009
Hey everyone – we have finally gone live! This blog is expected to answer a lot of questions to people surfing the net about short sales, 1099′ issuances as well as the anti-deficiency statues. As always we would like to point out that the best source of information is the “horses mouth” so to speak, with that said we will always list our source of the information gathered. Will be posting additionally shortly! – WideEye
Tags: Arizona Short Sale, Buy Short Sale, GDM Realty, GDM Realty Group, REO Short Sale, Short Sale Arizona
Posted in Short Sale | No Comments »