Blog

Exciting News! FHA Is Allowing People that Suffered through Recent Economic Hardships to Apply for a Home Loan with the FHA Back to Work Program.

In the not so distant past people had to wait 3 years or more after suffering through a financial hardship. Bankruptcy, foreclosures and other major financial disasters would sideline people for a number of years before they could buy a house again. However, all that has changed with the FHA Back to Work Program.

Previous Guidelines

For years the FHA program has helped people finance the purchase of a home with a modest 3.25% down payment. In general, the FHA rules for credit and employment history were more forgiving than conventional loan guidelines. However, there were strict rules about waiting a significant length of time after filing bankruptcy, losing a home to foreclosure, getting a loan modification or a deed-in-lieu.

New Guidelines

The Back to Work program waives waiting periods based on certain hardship situations. People that have suffered through the following types of problems are no longer forced to wait multiple years to apply for an FHA loan

* Bankruptcy (either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13)

* Short sale of previous home

* Foreclosure

* Modification of previous mortgage

* Sale of a home due to pre-foreclosure status

* Deed-in-lieu

Due to the recession of the past few years the government has given FHA the ability to relax their rules in order to help people qualify for home loans. Now people will only have to wait 12 months.

Meeting the New Qualifications

For borrowers that have faced a hardship like the ones described above they will need to meet a few qualifications.

First the borrower will need to prove that their current financial condition is recovered from the impact of the financial hardship.

Second, the borrower will need to provide proof that their income declined by a minimum of 20% for 6 months or longer. This can usually be shown by presenting federal tax returns and the supporting W-2 forms.

Finally the borrower will have to agree to complete a counseling session aimed at educating home buyers.

In addition to these items the borrower must re-establish their credit. This does not mean that the scores must be 700+. However, once the hardship has ended the borrower will need to have good payment history on all credit accounts in order to prove that they are able and willing to make their monthly obligations.

Types of Borrowers

The Back to Work program can be used for people buying their first home as well as people buying their second, third, fourth, etc. home. It can also be used with the FHA 203(k) program for people that wish to renovate or modernize a home. Even people that are currently in a Chapter 13 plan could be approved for the FHA back to work program. The court will have to grant permission for the loan and the borrower will have to meet the other requirements.

The recent recession has hit a lot of people and left a lasting impact on them. The Back to Work program is aimed to help these people put the past behind them and return to the stability of owning a home.

Additional Mortgage Information: Mortgage Home Loans Financing

HOME Consortium Down Payment Assistance

The HOME Consortium home ownership assistance program helps families afford a home of their own by providing deferred loans. The DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE LOAN (DPA)program provides eligible home buyers with a forgivable loan of up to $5,000 to be used for down payment and/or closing costs. Funds are for buyers purchasing in Waukesha, Jefferson, Washington or Ozaukee counties.

The program is funded by the HOME Consortium’s annual allocation of funds provided through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Eligible homebuyers must reserve funds through a participating lender of their choice who will receive a loan commitment from the HOME Consortium program administrator.

DPA loan is provided as a five-year forgivable loan, meaning that as long as the property remains the borrower’s primary residence for five years the loan is forgiven and no repayment is due. If the property is sold, title is transferred, ceases to be the primary residence, or there is a cash out refinance a partial repayment of the loan would be required. The loan is forgiven 20% for each full year. The HOME Consortium down payment forgivable loan may be combined with other down payment assistance programs available through the state, Federal Home Loan Bank, HUD or other personal or non-personal sources.

For additional information on maximum purchase price limits and eligibility please visit their site at:

http://www.homeconsortium.info/home/home-ownership-assistance/

Need help finding the perfect home? We would love to help! Take a moment to fill out the home buyer questionnaire below:

My Next Home

We don't want anyone to lose their home. We don't want anyone to be forcibly displaced. There is no place for foreclosures and evictions in an intelligent society. They are symbols of moral, economic and social corruption. Unfortunately, they are of our own making. Our own craving for materialistic pleasures leads to consumerism and a system of governance that is more concerned about the health of its financial institutions than the health of its citizens.

In order to help home owners facing foreclosure,  the government of United States introduced HAMP. As of 04/30/2013, 18% of the home owners offered permanent modifications under this program had redefaulted and many were on the brink of default. The program itself is only available until 2015, so it does not really provide us a viable long term alternative to foreclose. 

Some market partipants have, however, come up with some options that look like viable long term alternatives to foreclosure. I would like to discuss three of them.

The first one is an Assisted Short Sale program offered by Ocwen Loan Servicing in association with Altisource. The purpose of this program is to help fetch the best price for the property while ensuring that only minimum costs are incurred, encouraging the first mortgagee to approve the short sale instead of foreclosing on the loan. As a part of this program Altisource work on reducing costs by negotiating liens, judgements, HOA dues and other encumbrances and let the seller list the property on their online platform HUBZU.COM. This program is viable long term alternative to foreclosure because it addresses three major concerns of associated with a short sale - time, financial viability and finding a buyer. A short sale can be completed, in most cases, in less than two months from the date the seller opts for this program. Many short sales fail because the costs associated with them are high compared to a foreclosure (particularly in non-judicial foreclosure states). This generaly happens due to junior liens, HOA dues, judgements etc. The major strength of this program lies in the way it is able to deal with these issues. Finally,  HUBZU tries to find buyers. In case the seller already has offers, this a good opportunity to see if it is possible to find better offers. Overall, this looks promising and has folks at Altisource very excited about it. I hope firms other than Ocwen also get together with Altisource to design similar programs. 

The second viable long term alternative comes courtesy real estate agents. Wherever and whenever possible a realtor may get an investor to buy the home through a short sale and rent it out to the seller with an option to buy. This would have to be disclosed to the lender at the very beginning. I understand that some lenders may not allow this. However,  wherever possible, this is a great way of letting the distressed home owner continue living in his home. This prevents foreclosure and displacement.

The third option is what can roughly be termed as "a deed in lieu of foreclosure in exchange for contract to rent". The first and the second options are great if you can find a buyer. However, there may be properties which may not find a buyer but have a home owner not wanting to be displaced. In such cases, wherever and whenever feasible, the home owners should have the option of offering the property via a deed in lieu of foreclosure to the lender or an REIT/investor (through the lender) in exchange for being allowed to rent the home. 

The only fool-proof way to avoid losing material possessions is to not have them in the first place. Its not the loss of possessions that causes stress but our attachment to them. However, since we all have material desires ourselves, we can understand the stress others undergo when they are on the verge of losing material possessions. It is with this understanding that we must help others. Let us get together and end foreclosures. Let us say no to forced displacement. Let us push for viable alternatives to foreclosure.

—————————————————————————————————

Saurabh Singh is a student of the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh and is currently employed with Altisource. All views expressed here are his personal views and are not necessarily  endorsed by his employer. The author does not guarantee the accuracy of any information contained in this post. Real Estate, finance, banking and online transactions are complicated and governed by various regulations and readers are advised to consult with certified professionals before making any decision. 

www.seattleshortsaleblog.com

Short sale lease back programs have been around for quite some time now. In an SSLB program, the homeowner short sells their home and subsequently rents from the new owner upon closing the sale. Most of these type of programs have been fraudulent by nature but now HAFA allows a leaseback program if the homeowner qualifies.

Is it a good idea to lease back to homeowners who were not able to pay the mortgage payments in the first place? At the same time, isn’t it much easier to rent your own home until you repurchase another home? Let’s review once and for all, the Short Sale Lease Back Program.

This pilot for this leaseback program started in California and is starting to gain attention. The most recent headline stated that Wells Fargo is now endorsing the notion of the SSLB. The way the program works is, treasury issued a supplement to HAFA guidelines allowing “servicers the discretion to approve sales to non-profit organizations with the stated purpose that the property will be rented or resold to the borrower, so long as all other HAFA program requirements are met.”

In other words, if you or your agent is able to find a non-profit organization willing to purchase your home and lease it back to you, you may obtain a minimum 3 year lease to stay in the home while having the option to buy back your home at a set price. The rental rate will be based off the comparable market rental rates in your area.

What do you think about this program? Our experiences with these types of programs have been abysmal as we have seen cases of homeowners who joined the leaseback program but immediately struggled with an increase in rental rate forcing them to vacate due to non-payment. Many of these situations were fraudulent and those involved were penalized.

We are not claiming that this is what the non-profit companies would do but in our opinion, one of the mains reasons to short sale is to lower your monthly house payments by temporarily downgrading your living situation in order to rebuild credit and save up for your next home. If you decide to remain in your home, you will most likely have a small discrepancy between your previous & new payment amount.

Thoughts? Do you think the Short Sale Leaseback Program is a viable option for homeowners? Post your comments below!

www.seattleshortsaleblog.com

When I first heard about the Bank of America Cooperative Short Sale Program, I thought it might be more blah blah and less ah ha!

I was initially skeptical, A) because banks are famous for coming out with “new programs” that don’t end up getting squat done! And B) because I was told that with this program, the bank does the appraisal BEFORE an offer is received for the property.

Issue “B” was what I was more concerned with. I thought that with an appraisal being done before an offer is received, that there were great odds of the bank determining a value for the property much higher than we could actually get an offer for.

I thought of a way around this tho! We processed the file through their co-op program, and the seller received a check for $2,500!! So how did we get around the value issues with the lender? Give me a call and I’ll be happy to share with you how we get this accomplished now without having to worry about a high value when dealing with Bank of America co-op short sales. Now I’ve closed several through the Bank of America Cooperative Program, and my clients are getting checks! If you would like to see if you can qualify for the Bank of America Cooperative Program and receive a check for doing a short sale, contact me right away!

A quick side note about the BofA Cooperative Program: The process of going through the Bank of America Cooperative Short Sale program can take a little longer than a traditional short sale with BofA. This is because they outsource a lot of the processing. Of course this may be a benefit to you, depending on your situation. I have also found another benefit to this tho. Hit me up

I've lately been having many friends and clients receiving certified mail from their "lender" (but it actually seems to be from the govt) saying they are qualified to get a lower rate through the HARP program.....that it will be easy and all they have to do is fill out a few papers. These are owners that have never had a late or missed payment as well. So far, I havent heard of ANY of my clients getting this lower rate very easily-and when it has come back from Freddie or Fannie, it is declined saying no real hardship. (They arent supossed to even have a hardship, just looking to refi an underwater mortgage.) Then, they have been advised to actually MISS one payment and then they will get the lower rate. And this is NOT the case....then it has snowballed into back and late payments, and leaving these poor borrowers (who never were in distress in the first place) struggling to negotiate to get any type of refi program qualification from Freddie or Fannie!!!! And to keep their home! Anyone else out there hearing similar stories? Am I correct in thinking this is terribly wrong?? Cassie

Thanks to Tim & Julie Harris for getting the information on this this program Bank of America is hopefully going to implement soon. It is in the "testing" phase now.

This is what we all have been hounding the banks to do for a few years now. This will be AWESOME!!

This program is being quietly introduced, using only a hand-selected group of top short sale agents across the country.

* 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 judgement.

* No financial contribution from the seller of any kind will be requested.

* Only requirements? -A listing contract -A purchase contract -An appraisal, though we've been told the appraisal will not have an adverse bearing on the final acceptance.

* 2 WEEK approvals.

Lets hope this becomes mainstream soon!!

Go to Bank of America 'Secret' Short Sale Program BoA HPO Short Sale Program to read more.

Blog Disclaimer-This is a personal blog. All information is provided for informational purposes only and is Not legal advice, consult an attorney or financial expert for legal advice. This is general information and is not intended to provide advice on any specific question or transaction. Parties to any real estate transaction should seek competent legal and/or tax counsel to determine the legal, credit and tax consequences of buying or selling a home. Copyright © 2010, Dawn Barrier. All Rights Reserved. Any Stats are per the GLVAR MLS as of this writing.