Bank Of America Short Sale San Diego

June 21, 2011 By Simon

Bank of America Short Sale | BofA Short Sale | San Diego Short Sale ...

San Diego Bank Loan Modification Help in California Choose Homestart A+ BBB Foreclosure Services

To Learn More Please Visit www.YourHomestart.com

HOMEstart Explains Obama’s Loan Modification Plan

Introduction. As part of Obama’s 2009 economic recovery package, the President has introduced a plan to rescue and revive the troubled housing market. The new plan is called the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan (HASP), which describes Obama’s intents to modify distressed mortgages, keeping struggling borrowers in their homes with the intent to help stop rapidly declining property values resulting from surrounding homes entering foreclosure. Obama is dedicating billion to the HASP and below are some key details.

HASP focuses on reducing mortgage payments since it argues homeowners will continue to stay in their homes, despite declining home values, as long as the borrower is able to afford their monthly mortgage payments during the poor economic climate. Many economists agree that foreclosures result from homeowners simply being unable to afford high monthly mortgage payments versus not being able to pay at all. Obama’s plan requires major lenders and banks to participate in reducing monthly mortgage payments to less than 40% of the borrower’s gross monthly income. The resulting losses lenders and banks incur would be refunded by Obama’s billion HASP budget.

Lenders Involvement. There are a few simple methods lenders use to lower monthly mortgage payments; these include reducing the interest rate to as low as 2% or extend the loan term as high as another 10 years. In Obama’s attempt to incentivize participation, lenders will receive ,000 for each mortgage modification and can also receive an additional ,000/year, for up to 3 years, if the borrower makes consistent payments. Borrowers are also eligible to receive a principal balance reduction of up to ,000 each year, for up to 5 years, granted the borrower makes consistent payments. HASP was originally designed for responsible homeowners who have been seriously affected by the worsening economy and resulting decreasing unemployment, however, with the rate of foreclosures becoming so high, almost any home owner with legitimate financial hardships (ie. divorce or separation, illness, unemployment, reduced pay, etc) can qualify for a mortgage modification.

The major lenders developing government Loan Modification Programs are Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Countrywide, Citigroup, IndyMac and Washington Mutual. Most of these lenders make up the top 5 mortgage lenders by dollar volume. Whether you are currently behind on your mortgage payments or foresee being unable to make payment in the near future, you can qualify for a mortgage modification.

Loan Modifications. The time to act is now, however, do not rush and make a decision based on pricing from any mortgage modification company. Remember that a turnkey, mortgage modification involves 7 critical phases. The process can generally take up to 3 months, even with a team of experienced mortgage modification specialists working diligently, which is why the time to get started is now.

Even though a loan modification requires several people (ie. intake processors, consultants, negotiators, lawyers, etc.), consider that just one individual working on your loan modification file for 3 months works out to the borrower hiring help for just over the minimum wage rate of California. Do not be fooled by loan modification companies or firms offering low prices because they mostly likely (1) do not have a DRE license, (2) are not accredited by the BBB or (3) do not have the resources and staff to complete a full loan medication (a legitimate contractual agreement between the borrower and lender to modify mortgage loan terms).

Each of the seven phases utilizes the skills and experience of a wide range of professionals to negotiate and create a loan modification agreement for your mortgage loan terms. For the consumer’s protection, the Department of Real Estate (DRE) certifies loan modification companies by providing a license on a per state basis. Along with that license, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) provides an extensive grade, or rating scale, on a multitude of different factors which can help the consumer eliminate any fears of being scammed.

Loan modifications were originally reserved for those whose mortgages became delinquent due to job loss, divorce or illness, but today loan modifications are also open to anyone suffering from high adjustable rate mortgages. It is imperative to begin the loan modification process before your lender gives you a notice of default. Also, one major misconception about who qualifies for a mortgage loan modification is that the borrower must already be behind on their mortgage payments, this is not true.

Your HOMEstart. Many attempt to work with their own lender and come away with no results. This partly results from many lenders having a severe lack of trained and experienced personnel working on loan modifications due to the rising amount of loan modifications being processed each day by any given lender or bank branch. There simply is not enough experienced people to meet the demand of incoming loan modification files. Also consider this process can be difficult in some cases even with professionals and legal staff working diligently for months, so do not hesitate to make another attempt at a home loan modification with a BBB accredited and DRE licensed loan modification company like HOMEstart.

Loan modification companies that provide A+ BBB rated services have established personal relationships with the largest mortgage lenders to expedite the loan modification process. Contact HOMEstart at anytime to discuss your financial hardship, we will listen and maintain the highest level of confidentiality. We have an entire team of experienced loan modification consultants who will help answer any questions you may have, regardless if you pursue a loan modification through HOMEStart. We are here to help; start new, not over.

Mortgage Loan Modification Preparation

The loan modification process begins with consultation with your experienced HOMEstart loan modification specialist. Your loan modification consultant will discuss with you the financial hardships you’re facing and determine if you are a good candidate to receive a mortgage loan modification. After HOMEstart pre-qualifies you for a loan modification, there will be some essential paperwork to get to the loan modification process underway. The loan modification process will require:

* Proof of income.

* Last 4 monthly bank statements.

* Hardship letter discussing your current or future situation.

* All inclusive monthly expense sheet.

* Most recent mortgage statement.

* Past two years of W2 forms and tax returns.

Once the paperwork is complete, your loan modification file enters negotiations. At this time your loan modification file will contain all the information your negotiator needs to create an agreement with your lender to modify your mortgage loan terms. Once an agreement has been made, the loan modification offer enters approval. Your HOMEstart attorney will review the offer made to you by your lender to make sure that it represents the terms previously discussed with your negotiator. Generally each lender will have their own borrower qualification guidelines and so for the best results, consider these factors while getting prepared:

Income-Expense Ratio. The borrower’s proof of income and monthly expense sheet is used to show your lender that smaller monthly mortgage payments will in fact result in consistent payments. Lenders also want to determine if your expenses exceed 60% of the borrower’s gross monthly income.

Nature of Hardship. Some lenders have specific requirements on what types of situations qualify as a financial hardship, however, your financial hardship should be a result of a situation which occurred (or will occur) that was (or is) “out of your hands”. Commonly accepted situations include illness or death in the family, demotion or pay decrease, lawsuits, divorces and military service.

Payment History. Lenders look at the borrower’s previous mortgage statements to see if there were any prior delinquent payments. If the borrower made timely monthly mortgage payments prior to the financial hardship, then it will show the lender your capability to make consistent payments after a mortgage loan modification. Remember that your credit history is not reviewed, simply your mortgage payment history. Those with poor credit can qualify for a mortgage loan modification.

Bank Statements. Lenders look at the borrower’s bank statements to determine if the loan modification applicant had normal spending habits prior to the financial hardship and to see if there is any savings set aside in case of an emergency or worsening situation.

Tax Payments. These documents serve to evaluate the borrower’s level of financial responsibility. Consistent tax returns will demonstrate to your lender that you’re not just looking for “cutbacks”. The borrower’s tax returns also provide additional proof of consistent income.

Foreclosure Information and Timeline

If you are looking for loan modification services, then you are probably looking to save your home by preventing foreclosure. The closer a home owner gets to foreclosure, the more difficult it becomes to get a mortgage loan modification. Knowing the foreclosure process and timeline will help you evaluate your situation and make the best solution for your current or approaching financial hardship.

Collections Stage. This period, ranging from 30-90 days, begins when you miss your first mortgage payment. Generally your bank will try to contact you before taking any severe action. After 2 to 4 weeks from the first missed mortgage payment, your bank will begin to assess late fees. If the second mortgage payment is missed, your lender will send you a breach of contract letter, which formally informs the borrower in writing that they have violated the mortgage loan terms. In addition, after the second delinquent payment, the borrower will be given 30 days to pay the balance or come to a resolution before receiving a Notice of Default.

Notice of Default. At this point, also known as pre-foreclosure, the borrower has missed their third mortgage payment. Pre-foreclosure starts when your lender files a Notice of Default (NOD) at the county office governing your property. Unfortunately for the home owner, technically speaking the foreclosure process begins at this time; only a short 2 months after your first delinquent payment. It takes less than 2 weeks to receive your formal Notice of Default. In California, a 90 day period, known as the Reinstatement Period, is initiated as the time frame the borrower has to resolve the owed balance before a Notice of Sale.

Midpoint. At this time, typically 60 days before the Auction date of the home or property, the borrower’s options for initiating a loan modification get very difficult. Contract terms vary from lender to lender, but the trend is the longer you put off making payments, the less likely your lender will allow you to create an agreement to modify your mortgage loan terms. However, if the borrower does manage to get caught up in payments, the NOD would then be withdrawn.

Notice of Sale. At this point, also known as Pre-Trustee Sale, the owner’s property will have a Notice of Trustee Sale (NOS) publicly posted. The notice remains posted for 3 weeks (21 days) and will contain the time, date and location of the auction. Fortunately, the borrower is able to reinstate the loan upon payment of the balanced owed from delinquent payments 5 days before the auction date.

Trustee Sale. At this time, also known as the Auction date, your home is officially auctioned off to the public. The borrower is given 10 days to remove all property and leave the premises from which thereafter a sheriff will get involved to enforce eviction.

About the author: JP Ramirez

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ask-an-expert-articles/san-diego-bank-loan-modification-help-in-california-choose-homestart-a-bbb-foreclosure-services-1205777.html

Filed Under: San Diego Short Sales Tagged With: bank of america short sale san diego

Short Sale San Diego

June 20, 2011 By Simon

15 Questions to Ask When Buying a Short Sale in San Mateo County

San Mateo County has its share of so-called short sales. To be clear, we don’t have the glut of short sales or bank owned homes as we see in places like Sacramento, Modesto and Stockton. San Mateo County’s inventory of distressed properties is indeed very modest.

Just How Many Alleged Short Sales are For Sale in San Mateo County?

As of this publication, there are 152 single family homes and 55 condominiums listed in the Multiple Listing Service as aallegeda short sales. I say alleged because a short sale is not a short sale until the seller’s lender approves and agrees in writing to accept less than the amount the seller owes them. So, we tend to see many homes called short sales in spite of the fact that the seller’s lender has not yet approved the saleaand may not ever approve the short sale.

Ask These Questions Before Writing an Offer

Rather than waste our time and the time of our clients, we recommend that you as we do and ask the following questions of the listing agent:

Who initiated the short sale – the seller or the listing agent?
Has the homeowner stopped making payments on the loan?
Has the bank received the seller’s short sale application package with the hardship letter and all the supporting documentation?
If so, have they approved the homeowner for a short sale in writing?
Has the seller agreed to accept all of the bank’s conditions to the short sale?
How was the listing price established – broker price opinion or comparative market analysis – and has the bank approved the price?
Are there any junior or subordinate lien holders?
Have all lien holders agreed to the short sale?
Is there Primary Mortgage Insurance (PMI) on the first mortgage?
Have you received any other offers?
Has a loss mitigator been assigned to the case?
How long do you estimate the loss mitigator will take to respond to our offer?
Has the loss mitigator ordered another broker price opinion yet? If not, when will they?
When is the scheduled trustee’s sale?
Has the bank postponed the trustee’s sale in writing?

Why Ask The Questions?

The answers to these questions will help us determine whether we wish to propose an offer or pass because there is a high likelihood of failure. We have no desire to put our clients through the stress and emotional turmoil associated with a short sale transaction, and we have no interest in wasting your time and energy chasing a fantasy. Most short sales are unattainable. Nationally fewer than 20% of the alleged short sales fail so a statistically a positive outcome is remote at best.

How Can I Get a Complete List of San Mateo County Distressed Properties?

To get a list of distressed San Mateo County properties, please visit SanMateoHomesInfo.com and click on the aBest Deals Lista tab. Our list is complete and updated 8 times a day!

About the author: Raymond Stoklosa has been in real estate on the San Francisco Peninsula since 1978. With over thirty years of experience, he currently coaches his clients through their transactions as the Managing Broker and co-owner of The RayChel Realty Group in San Mateo, CA. Raymond is also the co-author of the blog LivingWellinSanMateo.com

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/15-questions-to-ask-when-buying-a-short-sale-in-san-mateo-county-1077321.html

Filed Under: San Diego Short Sales Tagged With: Short Sale San Diego

Mortgage Fraud against Military Personal

March 13, 2011 By Simon

We have yet another example of media cravenness. You would assume that when official positions presented in the media contradict each other, it would represent an obvious opportunity for reporting, and an intrepid young journalist would take up the task. But since the job of US news outlets is increasingly to distribute propaganda, they manage not to notice.

We’ve had a stenography masquerading as reporting on the results of the recent Foreclosure Task Force “review” of servicer practices. After looking at 2800 severely delinquent loans, it found only some operational shortcomings and no unjustified foreclosures. Given that all that this cross agency effort did was to have tea and cookies with the servicers while reviewing their documents, as opposed to doing any validation of their data, this means the “exam” was a garbage in, garbage out exercise.

Similarly, today the Fed made the similarly ludicrous statement that there were “no wrongful foreclosures” based on a review of a mere 500 loan files. Given that there are 14 major servicers, that means it looked at 36 files on average per servicer. Heck of a job, Brownie!

Aside from the fact that there have been numerous reports of colossal errors that should be impossible in a system with any integrity (homes with no mortgages or where the mortgage had been paid off, where borrowers had been given letters that they had been approved for permanent HAMP mods being foreclosed upon), there are also numerous accounts of servicer-driven foreclosures. As Karl Denninger noted:

We have myriad reports of homeowners who are told to intentionally default by servicers, a clear act of bad faith. We have documented instances of banks breaking into homes that are occupied, an apparent serious state felony. We have documented instances of banks playing games with forced-placed insurance, escrow accounts and similar acts leading to foreclosure.

But the most telling contradiction of the banking regulators’ “nothing to see here” stance is the Administration’s aggressive pursuit of servicing abuses against active duty soldiers. When a Congressional hearing focused on how JP Morgan illegally foreclosed on soldiers, the bank went into overdrive to do damage control. As David Dayen reported:

The big bank went out of their way to fix the problem yesterday, knowing that abusing service members could get you in big trouble in this country, and lead to further scrutiny of their abusive practices. Calling these violations a “painful aberration” on a track record of honoring military families, JPM CEO Jamie Dimon announced:

• New pricing. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, servicers are required to cap mortgage interest rates for active duty personnel at 6%. JPM will lower that cap to 4%.

• Military modification program. JPM will go beyond HAMP requirements for all personnel who served on active duty going back to 9/11. If the borrower has a second lien with them, they will reduce the interest rate on it to 1%.

• No foreclosures. JPM will not foreclose on any active duty military personnel overseas. Anyone who was wrongly foreclosed upon previously will not only get their home back, but JPM will forgive all remaining home debt. They promise to do that in the future with any other wrongful foreclosure of a military family.

• Donations. JPM will donate 1,000 homes to military and veterans, through a non-profit partner, over the next five years.

• Jobs. They will commit to hiring 100,000 military and veterans over the next ten years. They will also offer a Technology Education certificate for veterans to take free to get technology training for future careers.

• Advisory Council. They’ll form an Advisory Council to determine other ways to help military families. They’re also opening a bunch of Homeownership Centers near military bases to assist families.

Needless to say, this is a PR gambit to the nth degree. But look how incredibly scared JPM is that anyone will look past the abuse of military families. They are going out of their way to burnish and repair their public image on this one, and the goal is to whitewash the fact that they were merely engaging in standard servicer practices of abusing homeowners and illegally foreclosing.

To underscore Dayen’s point, servicers are factories with highly routinized, bad procedures. If you see one abuse reported more than a time or two in the media, like force placed insurance or fee pyramiding, it is not a mistake. It’s policy.

Not surprisingly, JP Morgan appears to have company in the “grinding up servicemen for fun and profit” school of banking. And while the Administration has bent over backwards to protect servicers by disputing any suggestion that they’ve made unwarranted foreclosures, they’ve been fast to saddle up the Department of Justice to investigate over the very same issue,20 probably impermissible foreclosures at Saxon, a servicer owned by Morgan Stanley, because it involved active duty personnel. From the New York Times:

The Justice Department is investigating allegations that a mortgage subsidiary of Morgan Stanley foreclosed on almost two dozen military families from 2006 to 2008 in violation of a longstanding law aimed at preventing such action.

A department spokeswoman confirmed on Friday that the Morgan Stanley unit, Saxon Mortgage Services, is one of several mortgage and lending companies being investigated by its civil rights division. The inquiry is focused on possible violations of a federal law that bars lenders from foreclosing on active-duty service members without a court hearing.

Mark Lake, a Morgan Stanley spokesman, declined on Friday to comment on the investigation. However, in the fine print of a recent regulatory filing, Morgan Stanley disclosed that it was “responding to subpoenas and requests for information” from various government and regulatory agencies concerning, among other issues, its “compliance with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act,” the law that governs the actions creditors can take against service members on active duty.

This two-tier approach is intriguing: aggressive pursuit of abuses when members of the armed forces are the victims, flat-out denials for the rest of us. Dave Dayen thinks it’s politics, but I wonder if something deeper is at work. The Pentagon has been aggressive in blocking other forms of exploitation of soldiers, such as locating payday lenders near military bases (the Pentagon sought and won interest rate ceiling. My 2007 post on that tussle was “The Pentagon as Financial Regulator.” Maybe that’s an idea we need to entertain more seriously. It seems to be the only body with the authority and firepower to take on the mortgage industrial complex.

Filed Under: Mortgage Fraud

Loan Mod Scam Via Text Message: Beware!

March 2, 2011 By Simon

Loan mods are one of the most abused and fraudulent scams in the real estate industry. Many reader have tried and failed to modify there loan. Read the article below, and be careful out there!

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against a Huntington Beach man who it says sent millions of illegal text spam messages advertising a mortgage modification website that claimed to offer government-affiliated services.

The FTC said in the court document that Phillip A. Flora sent out text messages at a “mind boggling” rate of about 85 messages a minute, every minute of every day for a 40-day period that began on Aug 22, 2009.

During that time, Flora allegedly sent out more than 5 million illegal text messages, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court.

The commission, in the complaint, has requested that the court freeze Flora’s assets and order a permanent injunction against him from sending such text messages.

Among the messages sent, some read: “Homeowners, we can lower your mortgage payment by doing a Loan Modification. Late on payments OK. No equity OK. May we please give you a call? Loanmod-gov.net,” the complaint said.

Some others stated: “If you are struggling to keep up with credit card payments and have more than 10k in debt, we can help. May we give you a call regarding this?” the court document said.

Loanmod-gov.net, a website that is no longer up, contained text that said it could offer “Official Home Loan Modification and Audit Assistance Information” with an image of a U.S. flag beneath it, according to the complaint.

Many of the sites and texts were designed to trick consumers into believing they were affiliated with the U.S. government, the court document said.

The commission also alleges that the text spam blasts resulted in many recipients losing money because they ended up having to pay fees to their respective mobile carriers for receiving the unsolicited messages.

The FTC said in its complaint that Flora collected contact information from those who responded to the text spam, even if they were asking him to stop sending the messages, which was then sold to marketers as “debt settlement leads.”

The commission is also accusing Flora of sending a number of e-mail spam messages to commercial e-mail marketers touting his success in sending such text message blasts.

In his e-mails, Flora promoted the texts by writing, “Currently able to send out 200k text messages a day; I designed, own and operate the marketing system. All companies on the internet charge a penny a message, I charge a tiny fraction of that and I do not charge for cell phone data because I maintain a database of 100 million cell phone opt-in uses,” the complaint said.

The e-mails failed to offer recipients a way to opt out of receiving the messages and didn’t list a physical mailing address for the sender, two items required by law for such commercial e-mails, the FTC said.

In the e-mails, Flora offered a rate of $200 for 50,000 messages and $300 for 100,000 messages sent, the complaint said.

The FTC said it was assisted in its investigation into the text message spam by AT&T, Verizon and CTIA – The Wireless Association.

– Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/nateog

Filed Under: Loan Modification