Clearly the government has proven itself impotent in its feeble attempts to save us. The banks are so overwhelmed and over-leveraged themselves that they are hanging on to their own lifeboat that they can’t throw one out to the struggling homeowners. Everyone is slowly drowning. Comically, the only ones thriving are the bankruptcy attorneys who use up the desperate homeowners last stash of cash, and then toss them back out to the sea of sharks after their 3-month Hail Mary Pass has ended. Are there any good guys left?

Is anyone out there with a solution? Clarify: Is anyone out there with a solution that does take money out of the homeowner’s pocket? Is there anyone that has the capability to make things better going forward, rather than damage the homeowner for the next 10 years?

Well, to ensure you finally hear about a happy ending, rest assured…the answer is YES. There is a positive solution that doesn’t entail bankruptcy and all the embarrassment associated with it; it doesn’t mean you have to pay a Realtor high commissions, it doesn’t mean you will suffer the social humiliation of a public foreclosure, or fall prey to the crafty loan modification and forensic audit scams.

If you want to hear the solution, you must do only one thing.  Pick up the phone and call us.  If you are truly ready to end your foreclosure nightmare, call: 858-480-1717. Our corporate Vice President will speak with you personally and confidentially. Call NOW:  858-480-1717.

The government-sponsored enterprise will also give qualified home buyers 3.5% of the final sales price that can be used toward the closing cost, including home warranty. Eligible offers must be submitted on or after Sept. 23 and they must close by Dec. 31, 2010. Fannie said the sale must close within 60 days of the accepted offer.

Terry Edwards, executive vice president of credit portfolio management at Fannie, said more than 87,000 families have purchased a HomePath property in the first half of 2010. HomePath is the in-house manager of the Fannie Mae foreclosures. It hires vendors and agents to rehabilitate the home and ready it for the market again.

“We continue to look for ways to stabilize neighborhoods and offer incentives to qualified buyers who will occupy these properties over the long-term and help support their communities,” Edwards said.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and many lenders have instituted a First Look program to give owner-occupants a head start ahead of investors to buy these previously foreclosed homes. In California, home buyers have a 14-day headstart over investors. It is 30 days in Nevada. In one year of the First Look program, Fannie has sold more than 29,000 REOs to owner-occupants.

Real estate agents and brokers will also receive a $1,500 closing bonus for selling one the these foreclosed homes to an owner occupant.

To find a foreclosure home that qualifies for the Fannie Mae incentive,

contact a HomeFetchers agent today at http://HomeFetchers.com

…or call the 24-Hour Home Hotline:   877-610-1717

source: housingwire.com

“These grants will support local efforts to reverse the effects these foreclosed properties have on their surrounding neighborhoods,” said Donovan. “We want to make certain that we target these funds to those places with especially high foreclosure activity so we can help turn the tide in our battle against abandonment and blight. As a direct result of the leadership provided by Senator Chris Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who played key roles in winning approval for these funds, we will be able to make investments that will reduce blight, bolster neighboring home values, create jobs and produce affordable housing.”

The funding announced today is provided under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. To date, there have been two other rounds of NSP funding: the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) provided $3.92 billion and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) appropriated an additional $2 billion. Like those earlier rounds of NSP grants, these targeted funds will be used to purchase foreclosed homes at a discount and to rehabilitate or redevelop them in order to respond to rising foreclosures and falling home values. Today, 95 cents of every dollar from the first round of NSP funding is obligated—and is in use by communities, buying up and renovating homes, and creating jobs.

State and local governments can use their neighborhood stabilization grants to acquire land and property; to demolish or rehabilitate abandoned properties; and/or to offer downpayment and closing cost assistance to low- to moderate-income home buyers (household incomes do not exceed 120% of area median income). In addition, these grantees can create “land banks” to assemble, temporarily manage, and dispose of vacant land for the purpose of stabilizing neighborhoods and encouraging re-use or redevelopment of urban property. HUD will issue an NSP3 guidance notice in the next few weeks to assist grantees in designing their programs and applying for funds.

NSP 3 will take full advantage of the historic First Look partnership Secretary Donovan announced with the National Community Stabilization Trust last week. First Look gives NSP grantees an exclusive 12-14 day window to evaluate and bid on properties before others can do so. By giving every NSP grantee the first crack at buying foreclosed and abandoned properties in these targeted neighborhoods, First Look will maximize the impact of NSP dollars in the hardest-hit neighborhoods—making it more likely the properties that communities want to buy are strategically chosen and cutting in half the traditional 75-to-85 day process it takes to re-sell foreclosed properties .

NSP also seeks to prevent future foreclosures by requiring housing counseling for families receiving home buyer assistance. HUD seeks to protect future home buyers by requiring states and local grantees to ensure that new home buyers under NSP receive homeownership counseling and obtain a mortgage loan from a lender who agrees to comply with sound lending practices.

In determining the allocations announced today, HUD, as it did with NSP1, followed key indicators for the distribution formula outlined by Congress. HUD is using the latest data to implement the Congressional formula. The formula weighs several factors to match funding to need in the 20% most distressed neighborhoods as determined based on the number and percentage of home foreclosures, the number and percentage of homes financed by a subprime mortgage related loan, and the number and percentage of homes in delinquency. To estimate the level of need down to the neighborhood level, HUD uses a model that takes into account causes of foreclosures and delinquencies, which include housing price declines from peak levels, and increases in unemployment, and rate of high cost and highly leveraged loans. HUD also considers vacancy problems in neighborhoods with severe foreclosure related problems.

In addition to a third round of NSP funding, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act creates a $1 billion Emergency Homeowners Loan Program to be administered by HUD. This loan program will provide up to 24 months in mortgage assistance to homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure and have experienced a substantial reduction in income due to involuntary unemployment, underemployment, or a medical condition. HUD will announce additional details, including the targeted areas and other program specifics when the program is officially launched in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned to http://HomeFetchers.com for more housing updates…

or call the 24-Hr Home Hotline at: 877-610-1717

Primary objectives for the Keep Your Home Program include:

* Preserving homeownership for low and moderate income homeowners in California by reducing the number of delinquencies and preventing avoidable foreclosures

* Assisting in the stabilization of California communities. Each of the Keep Your Home programs is designed to address one or more aspects of the current housing crisis by doing the following:

* Helping low and moderate income homeowners retain their homes if they either have suffered a financial hardship such as unemployment, have experienced a change in household circumstance such as death, illness or disability, or are subject to a recent or upcoming increase in their monthly mortgage payment and are at risk of default because of this economic hardship when coupled with a severe decline in their home’s value.

* Creating a simple, effective way to get federal funds to assist low and moderate income homeowners who meet one or all of the objective criteria described above. Speed of delivery will be balanced with fulfillment of the specific program’s mission and purpose.

* Creating programs that have an immediate, direct economic and social impact on low and moderate income homeowners and their neighborhoods.

CalHFA is not taking applications or maintaining waiting lists for the Keep Your Home Programs at this time.  The Keep Your Home programs are under development and will not be available until November 1, 2010. If you are currently struggling to make your mortgage payment, are in any stage of mortgage delinquency or are already facing foreclosure, it is important for you to contact your loan servicer or a HUD-certified housing counselor immediately. When the program does roll out, here are some important facts:

*Anyone who did a cash-out refinance is ineligible

*Homeowners who have lost their job and are in imminent danger of foreclosure due to a short term financial problem can obtain a payment subsidy of up to $1,500 or 50% of their monthly mortgage payment, whichever is less–for up to six months.

*Homeowners who have missed one or more payments can receive up to $15,000 or 50% of the past due amount, whichever is less, to reinstate the mortgage and prevent a foreclosure.  The lender, loan servicer, mortgage insurer, and or borrower must match the catch-up money on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

*Homeowners who have severe negative equity can receive up to $50,000 to reduce the principal balance on their mortgage to a market level to prevent an avoidable foreclosure and promote sustainable homeownership.

*Homeowners who can’t afford to keep their home and are willing to participate in the lender’s short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure program can receive a one-time grant of up to $5,000 to transition to a more affordable residence.

To qualify, the home must be occupied as the primary residence, income restrictions must be met, a hardship must be evident, and there must be the ability to make the modified payment arrangement. Expect modifications to the program prior to rollout. A chart of the  income limits with this program is available. Please call the 24-Hour Home Hotline at 877-610-1717 ext 111 to request the chart of income limitations and other restrictions. If you would like to be notified when the program is activated in California, please send an email request to: CALHFA@homefetchers.com or call the 24-Hour Home Hotline with your contact information.

“The Obama administration plans to set up an emergency loan program for the unemployed and a government mortgage refinancing effort in the next few weeks to help homeowners after home sales dropped in July, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said. [Call us if you have questions about the HAUP program for the unemployed homeowners in San Diego: 877-610-1717]

“The July numbers were worse than we expected, worse than the general market expected, and we are concerned,” Donovan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program yesterday. “That’s why we are taking additional steps to move forward.”

The administration will begin a Federal Housing Authority refinancing effort to help borrowers who are struggling to pay their mortgages, and will start an emergency homeowners’ loan program for unemployed borrowers so they can stay in their homes, Donovan said.

“We’re going to continue to make sure folks have access to home ownership,” he said.

Sales of U.S. new homes unexpectedly dropped in July to the lowest level on record, signaling that even with cheaper prices and reduced borrowing costs the housing market is retreating. Purchases fell 12 percent from June to an annual pace of 276,000, the weakest since the data began in 1963.

Sales of existing houses plunged by a record 27 percent in July as the effects of a government tax credit waned, showing a lack of jobs threatens to undermine the U.S. economic recovery.”

Yes, this news does spark the debate again…should we continue to prop up the housing market or let it finally settle in to its natural bottom. Both sides of the argument have merit. The real question is: would you take advantage of the tax credit this time?

Details of this third version of the home buyer tax credit are yet to be announced.  Some other developments which Obama mentioned in a recent conference, and echoed by Real Estate Insider News include:

1) Radical re-fi. Expect there to be some sort of radical refinance program for upside down borrowers. These will not be a loan mod.

2) More programs like the Bank of America Cooperative Short Sale Program- HPO (also called the High Performance Out Reach Short Sale). Goal: reduce foreclosures..for real.

3) More ‘flexible’ loan standards. (I wonder if we didn’t learn our lesson last time on these flexible loan standards and the mess it created.)

It’s all about to get very interesting in the housing market.  Check back on our VestorLink blog for all the latest updates as they happen.  Or…call our 24-hour Recorded Home Hotline for the latest news: 877-610-1717.

Here’s the thing…as your REALTOR,  it’s not my job to play moral police.  It is my job, and my passion, to help homeowners (and buyers).  So, in this epically distressed real estate market it’s my MORAL responsibility to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. If that means providing a strategic short sale for your homeowners…so be it.

The goal must be: Fewer Foreclosures.

More and more commercial real-estate companies are doing what many indebted homeowners would like to do: Walk away from mortgages on properties that are now worth a lot less than they paid for them.

Today’s Wall Street Journal highlights three major developers – Macerich, Vornado Realty Trust and Simon Property Group – that have recently decided to default on mortgages. Even the Mortgage Bankers Association defaulted on their $92 million dollar corporate building.  Yes, you read that right…the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

When companies do this, no one bats an eye…it’s just “smart business.”

When ordinary homeowners think about strategically walking away from their mortgage, the mortgage industry and government begin moaning that a mortgage is more than a business contract. It’s a social contract, in which homeowners have a “moral obligation” to pay.

That’s is just plain crazy. An individual mortgage is no different than a corporate mortgage. If corporations are allowed to walk away from mortgage obligations without feeling shame and guilt, then individuals should be able to do so, too.

The contract homeowners sign when they take out a mortgage spells out exactly what happens if the homeowner stops making payments on the loan. The lender has the right to foreclose on the house, taking the homeowner’s downpayment with it. In addition, the borrower’s credit rating will usually get destroyed, and, in some states, the lender can come after his or her other assets to recoup the capital the lender has lost.

Those are big penalties. They provide a major incentive for the borrower to continue making his or payments. And that’s why the lender, a corporation, put them in the contract.

Importantly, the lender voluntarily entered into the contract–and it did so because it thought doing so was a smart business decision. That it actually turned out to be a lousy business decision is not the homeowner’s fault. It’s the lender’s fault. And the borrower, who is already feeling plenty of pain his or herself, should not have to bear the burden of guilt and shame on top of everything else.

If you are ready to weigh your options: to walk or not to walk…

Call our office today at 877-610-1717

The Treasury Department launched HAMP in March 2009 to provide incentives to servicers for the modification of loans on the verge of foreclosure. BofA converted 4,300 trial modifications into permanent ones in July, about half of the amount done in June. In order for a borrower to receive a permanent modification, he or she must make three monthly payments in the trial stage of the program and submit all documentation.

But BofA has completed nearly 100,000 permanent modifications through its own programs outside of HAMP this year. Some of these loans were given second looks after falling out or not qualifying for the government’s program.

Early problems with collecting necessary documentation for those in the trial stages of HAMP led to thousands of loans spending more than three months there. After the Treasury required a borrower to submit all documentation before entering the trial, servicers began working through this overflow.

BofA has trimmed its active trial modifications from 221,395 loans in January to under 85,000 in July, according to the Treasury.

According to the bank, the slower pace of new trial modifications follows a transition from accepting verbal financial information to requiring full documentation and underwriting before putting a borrower into a trial.

“When a customer is found to be ineligible for HAMP or falls out of a trial modification, we consider an alternative home retention program, and if no viable solution is available, a dignified exit from homeownership,” said Rebecca Mairone, default servicing executive for Bank of America Home Loans.

While HAMP guidelines outline specific debt-to-income ratios, owner-occupancy and trial payment performance, Mairone reiterated that BofA continues to find other ways to avoid foreclosure either through other modification programs or the government’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program, which urges servicers to do short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure.

Now that the cat is out of the bag on Bank of America’s program, here are the details of this program as discussed by Matt Vernon, REO and Short Sale Executive:

Bank of America is launching a new cooperative short sale program that will target 2,000 pre-screened homeowners, said Matt Vernon, the REO and short sale executive at BofA.

In an exclusive interview with REO Insider, Vernon said the bank pre-screened these borrowers who have been considered for a modification under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and a short sale under the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program. They have either fallen out of both programs or failed to qualify.

“The big question we’re looking to answer is customer responsiveness,” Vernon said. “These are not customers who are seeking short sales but rather distressed customers who are on the road to foreclosure, and we want to provide them an alternative. Our goal is to provide a tailored program with incentives that are attractive to homeowners experiencing a true hardship.”

Under this “test umbrella” for future programs, no new documents are needed from the seller since they already submitted their financial information to the bank. BofA is waiving deficiencies, or the difference between what the home sells for and how much is left on the mortgage. Vernon said his department will assign a short sale specialist to work with the real estate agent and the homeowner to market the property for 120 days.

Letters have already gone out to the homeowners, and they have 120 days to list the property. Vernon said they are looking at a six month program. The bank will be working with the homeowners’ real estate agents, meaning the bank will not be selecting agents to work with the homeowners.

Once sold, the former homeowner receives a $3,000 relocation fee, and the real estate agent gets a 6% commission. If it doesn’t sell, BofA will accept a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure in order to satisfy the mortgage.

Vernon said the homeowners targeted are heavily concentrated in the sand states California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona.

“It’s a small test of customers who have been pre-screened,” Vernon said. “We’ve also worked with an investor to get their approval in the program before hand. This allows us to test and learn. Our hope and desire of this is that this pilot and others will help us design expansion of these programs in the future.”

That investor held a stake in the original mortgage that is now in default. Lenders need approval from these investors for a short a sale to go through. It has been one of the major hurdles in the short sale process.

The industry is beginning to recognize short sales as a serious alternative to foreclosure. According to the real estate data and service provider CoreLogic, short sales in the US have tripled since 2008. Freddie Mac recently reported that its short sale figures were up 600% from two years ago and said in its Q210 financial statement that it completed 22,117 short sales in the first half of 2010, up nearly 180% from 7,914 in the first half of 2009.

In Q210, BofA completed more than 25,000 short sales, almost three times the amount done in the same quarter last year. Roughly 90% of the short sales are performed on the Equatorplatform, and Vernon said by the end of the year, the entire short sale business will be.

“Bank of America is committed to constantly improving the short sale process for our customers and our real estate business partners,” Vernon said. “We continue to test new ways of completing short sales to provide customers with a dignified exit and help avoid foreclosure.”

To learn more about short sales, visit:

http://ShortSaleChoices.com

or…

call our 24-hour Recorded Hotline: 877-610-1717

Right smack in the middle of the short sale fraud, claims Corelogic….are…Realtors.

The study projects that more than half of short sales happen in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas and will cost lenders an estimated $310m in unnecessary losses during all of 2010.

Lenders lose on  average $41,500 per short sale due to mistakes, inefficiency and potential fraud.

For example: Potential fraud, flipping or offer misrepresentation, likely happens in 1 in every 53 short sale transactions. This information is based on Corelogics study of short sale transactions from the past 2 years.

CoreLogic also found the number of short sales have more than tripled since 2008.

Typical example of short sale fraud.

If you to sell your home as a short sale, look for a Certified Short Sale Specialist. If you are buying short sales, be sure your are dealing with a Realtor with integrity as well as specialized knowledge in short sales to make certain you are safe long after the deal has closed.

Call the 24-hour Home Hotline to find the best Realtor in your area:

877-610-1717 ext. 2

or go to:

http://LocalAgentWanted.info

Right now,  short sales are a nightmare for most.  If not managed properly, they can take 6 months or more. When that happens, home buyers lose interest in that property and walk away, leaving the homeowner facing imminent foreclosure if another buyer doesn’t come along right away.  That is why it is imperative to only work with a Realtor experienced in short sale negotiations.

The new Bank of America HPO Short Sale program will change the way short sales are done in the future.  As more details are released, we will update you with the breaking news.  For now, here are the highlights of the HPO program:

• Every short sale seller and agent will be assigned a personal advocate who will shepherd the short sale through, using the new, simple process.  Think of this as your own ‘short sale personal representative’
• No pre-qualifying, no hardship required.  Being upside down in the house IS the hardship
• No documentation
• No bank statements
• No tax returns
• No financial worksheets
• No deficiency judgment
• No financial contribution from the seller of any kind will be requested

If all that wasn’t good enough, here is the icing  on the cake that makes this program so delicious.  Remember how many forms and piles of paperwork were required when doing loan modifications and short sales in the past? All of that is gone now.

Only 3 documents are required for the new HPO Short Sale Program:

1. A Listing Contract
2. A Purchase Contract
3. An Appraisal

Get these three things in, and expect your Bank of  America Short Sale approval in only 2 weeks!!!  Realtors will have their 6% commissions paid by the bank, and home sellers can receive $3,000 cash upon move out…no matter how underwater they are on their home loan.

This program is revolutionary. If you are curious if you qualify for this program go to:

http://ShortSaleChoices.info

…or call our 24-hour Recorded Short Sale Hotline at:

877-610-1717 ext. 415

Stay tuned for more information…

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Need to see it with your own eyes?  Take a look at one of the approvals: