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Whether you are dealing or have dealt with a short sale, foreclosure, BK, delinquency on your mortgage payments, or have a number of late payments elsewhere, your credit score is damaged and your finances are most likely in lockstep. However, recovering with bad credit will be difficult as interest rates inflate the cost of living and affect various other facets of your life and naturally you get caught in a downward spiral of poverty.

The best example of this is a home mortgage. Do not even consider pushing for another home without rebuilding your credit prior. The figures below will show you why.

The Ding Of A Delinquent Payment, Short Sale, Foreclosure, and/or Bankruptcy

Take a look at the impact of each situation on your FICO score. As you can see, regardless which consumer type you are, you will have incurred a significant ding on your credit score.

Can You Obtain Credit?

There are great deals out there on the housing market but a big problem these days is the inability for homeowners to obtain credit to finance their home. Large agency investors such as Fannie Mae changed their minimum credit score requirement from 580 to 620. Anything under 620 is considered high risk. Your local bank may require a credit score of up to 660 or higher. The question is, even if you were able to qualify for a mortgage, should you finance with sub-par credit?

A Bad Credit Score Will Cost You!

These figures are based on rates from 9/12/11. The example below clearly shows you how much you will be affected from obtaining a mortgage without an outstanding credit score.

How Can I Quickly Rebuild My Credit Score?

Whatever situation you may be in, the longer you are stuck in a bad credit rut, the more exacerbated your financial situation may get. Here is how to prepare: If you have a low credit score and/or want to prepare your credit situation to qualify for excellent loans for your next home purchase, by the end of this article, talk to a Lexington Law credit specialist. I have personally researched and found them to be the absolute best company to work with in rebuilding credit scores. Here is a direct number provided through the short sale blog for a free consultation: 888-586-6113 or you can apply through their website.

Hope this helps!

Peter

According to the Obama Administration’s October (2012) housing scorecard and “[…]the FHFA housing price index posting its largest annual gain in five years and new home sales at its fastest pace since April 2010” (Erika Poethig, assistant secretary for policy development and research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development) as well as numerous other sources, we can confidently say we have a recovering housing market. Even Warren Buffett, deemed as one of the greatest investors of all time, is bullish on the US housing market recently purchasing multiple real-estate brokerages including Prudential and his partnership with Brookfield Asset Management, a Canadian real-estate investor, to more than double his size of his brokerage business.

Our housing market is rebounding slowly due to various factors such as tight lending practices, fluctuations of supply & demand, and just the general current economic health but it is on its way to recovery. Will your client be ready to secure their next home investment and cease this opportunity?

Clear Capital exposed a sobering point: “Prices are 37.6 percent below the peak. This means a home bought for $200,000 in 2006 would be worth somewhere in the range of $124,800 today.” (source: dsnews.com) Prices were up 4.6% annually in October and as I have stated multiple times in previous articles, prices will not rebound in a U-shape but rather similar to a NIKE symbol. Concurrently, mortgage interest rates have remained at all-time lows with the latest report from Freddie Mac announcing a 15-year fixed-rate at 2.66% and 30-year fixed averaging 3.37%.

The opportunity is there and will be there for some time but are your clients preparing themselves to be able to jump on the bandwagon of nationally appreciating housing values?

A recent report shows that 23 percent of consumer mortgage requests were turned down by banks and I know from several sources around the Washington state that it is increasingly difficult to obtain a loan due to the fact that mortgage rates are so low that they aren’t incentivized to generously hand them out to just anyone.

I'm an agent. How do I prepare my client(future)? If your client had a short sale and got a significant ding on their credit score but want to prepare their credit situation to qualify for loans for their next home purchase, by the end of this article, have them talk to a Lexington Law credit specialist. I have personally researched and found them to be the absolute best company to work with in rebuilding credit scores. Here is a direct number provided through the seattleshortsaleblog for a free consultation: 888-586-6113 or you can apply through their website.

Hope this helps

Peter

The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 is set to expire!!

The window is closing rapidly on one of the most important tax-relief provisions enacted by Congress during the housing crisis to help financially strapped homeowners. Time is running out to Short Sale your house. Although the 2007 law that allows taxpayers to exclude from income the amount of debt that is forgiven or canceled by their lenders doesn’t expire until Dec. 31, it’s likely to take every bit of the coming months to persuade your bank to either foreclose or allow you to sell your house for less than it’s worth (Short Sale).

While owners who are struggling to hold onto their homes shouldn’t throw in the towel solely because of the pending tax bite, it is certainly something to consider.

Under the tax code, borrowed money need not be reported as income because you have an obligation to repay. But if the lender subsequently cancels what you owe, the IRS requires that you report that debt as income because the duty to repay it no longer exists. So, if you owe $250,000 and your lender forgives $50,000 of that debt in a $200,000 refinancing, that $50,000 is considered income. If your combined federal and state marginal tax rate is 36 percent, you would owe $18,000 in taxes.

Under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, though, taxpayers are allowed to exclude from income the discharge of debt on their principal residence when they do a short sale— at least until 2013.

So when your lender agrees to a short sale, there is no tax on the difference between the selling price and the amount you owe. When your lender forecloses, there is no tax on the canceled debt. Even when you refinance at a lower loan balance, there is no tax on the difference between what you owed on the old loan and what you now owe on the new one.

But unless Congress extends the law — and there is no indication lawmakers are even thinking about that — all residential mortgage debt relief that takes place on or after Jan. 1, 2013, will once again be considered taxable income.

Why worry about this now, Because the timelines on debt forgiveness decisions by lenders are absolutely horrendous.

Of course, each state has a different timeline. But the shortest is 463 days in Minnesota, according to Lender Processing Services. So the tax absolution window may already be closed for foreclosures.

There are no hard-and-fast numbers when it comes to short sales or loan modifications. But they also can be long, drawn-out transactions.

According to a nearly year-old survey by Equi-Trax Asset Solutions, a Santa Barbara, Calif., analytics company, it can take anywhere from four to nine months for underwater borrowers to persuade their lenders to sign off on a deal in which the lender will net less than what the borrower owes (Short Sale).

Eighteen percent of the 600 agents polled said short sales can be closed in less than three months if the stars line up just right. But almost 10 percent said these transactions require more than 10 months to complete.

There are many factors besides a tax break to consider when deciding whether to give up your house. What will a foreclosure or short sale do to your credit score? How long will you be precluded from buying another house? Will the extra income push you into a higher tax bracket? How long will it take before the amount I owe is on par with what is owed? Is it worth being tied down to one property for many years or should I just short sale and be back in the market within 2 years and probably buy more house for way less.

Consequently, as always when it comes to such matters, you should consult a tax professional before making any decisions.

At Trinity Homes & Investments we discuss all available options with our clients before deciding which course of action to take.  Our mission is to find dignified solutions to foreclosure.

This article is from the Florida Association of REALTORS(R) daily news letter:

More legal snags jeopardize real estate deals NEW YORK – March 15, 2011 – With a real estate market filled with complex deals, legal disputes from real estate transactions are on the rise. Legal snags from short sales, foreclosures, and disclosures are prompting more real estate deals to end up in court.

Legal disputes stemming from short sales, in particular, are increasing, from how banks handle defaults to disclosures and contract performance sections of the sale.

Some sellers are taking legal action against their real estate agents, accusing agents of pushing through short sales and failing to inform them of their possible loan deficiency and tax obligations, such as how the amount forgiven by lenders may be subject to income taxes. READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE