The federal government’s Making Home Affordable (MHA) program helps people going through foreclosures. It has two primary programs: the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) considered assisting householders who are current on their mortgage payments however owe a lot more than their homes are worth, and therefore the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), intended to reduce monthly mortgage payments so householders can still keep their homes.

MHA begun in March, and as of Sept. 1, 2009, the loan modification program has helped several Americans who face foreclosures. In fact, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, that runs this system, has set an objective of getting 500,000 modifications under way by Nov. 1. On Oct. 1, the Treasury Department proudly announced that it has reached a total of 500,000 trial modifications-one month earlier than the primary target. In spite of this achievement, yet, many are still in danger of losing their homes.

In accordance with the October oversight report released by the Congressional Oversight Panel, which is tasked to assess the current state of the markets and regulatory system, foreclosure rates have currently quadrupled. One in eight mortgages faces foreclosure or default. Experts guess that before the housing critical condition is ended, Americans could be dealing with 10 to 12 million foreclosures.

The report, titled, “An Assessment of Foreclosure Mitigation Efforts when Six Months,” talks about the competence of this system and the reasons several are still not ready to lessen their monthly mortgage payments. The panel expresses trepidation over the program’s scope, magnitude, and permanence:

1. Scope

The program’s scope is terribly limited. Not every type of debtors can use it. As an example, the program will be incredibly helpful to subprime borrowers who are paying out a high interest rate. On the other hand, it’s not designed to deal with foreclosures including those attributable to unemployment. Nowadays unemployment rate proceeds to rise and it’s at the present thought-about to be one of the major causes of foreclosures. The program seems to be addressing the housing market because it existed six months ago instead of today.

2. Scale

In August, over 220,000 mortgages entered into foreclosure, however the US government started out preliminary modification on merely 95,000 mortgages. Foreclosures continue to escalate every day, and there is reason for fear whether or not the government can continue. The quantity of foreclosures is larger than the amount of loan modifications-a 2-one ratio. The scale of this system seems not broad enough to address the current foreclosure dilemma.

3. Permanence

The solutions presented under the loan modification program do not appear to help homeowners achieve long-term financial stability. The loan modification can reduce the monthly payments of the many borrowers, but subsequent to 5 years payments will rise. Even if a borrower’s loan can be changed these days, there is still a likelihood that he will cope with the same mortgage downside in the future. Loan modifications also increase a borrower’s negative equity (owing more on the house than it’s worth), that is additionally said to be one in all the causes of the amplified rates in non-payment. If the borrower still experiences foreclosure despite the loan modification, then the loan modification program is just a postponement and will not offer a stable solution.

The mounting unemployment, falling home values, and impending mortgage rate resets can definitely affect the American homeowners. Therefore, the government needs to evaluate the scope, scale, and permanence of the modification program to make sure that a real answer is supplied to property owners.

Another great article by Edmonton Homes

This is awesome! On December 24, 2008, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released the “Mortgagee Letter 2008-43″. What does this mean to you, the real estate investor? Well, to summarize:

1. Change in NET to lender. First, let’s cover the “bad” part. Well, it’s sort of bad, but if you play this right, it’s going to be irrelevent to you. The original NET of 82% has changed. The new NET is 88% if sold within 30 days, 86% percent if sold within 60 days, and 84% if sold after 60 days. Why does this not REALLY matter? See #2.

2. Removal of 63% or greater property appraisal versus debt. This will help everybody! The old FHA guidelines called for the appraisal to come in at or above 63% of the loan balance plus past due interest and late fees not including attorney fees. This guideline has been removed, which opens up FHA short sales for those areas that have seen huge depreciation as well as those properties that require massive repairs!

3. Property (by exception) no longer needs to be owner occupied. What this means is that FHA will still allow a short sale, even if the property in not owner occupied. The details are in section B (Mortgagor Qualifications) in the mortgagee letter. It will be interesting to see how the lenders interpret this section over time.

4. Increased amount to Junior Liens. FHA now allows up to $2500 to Junior liens ($1000 of this comes from the Seller Incentive).

5. Up to $1000 in seller incentives. FHA will allow the homeowner to receive up to $1000 at closing as an incentive for participating in the short sale program. However, the NET to the lender must still be at or above the 88%, 86%, or 84% as discussed above.

6. Lender MUST e-mail or fax the appraisal if requested. Ever wonder if the loss mitigator is lying to you about what the appraisal came in at? Guess what, if the homeowner or the real estate agent request a copy of the appraisal, the lender MUST disclose it! Wow, this takes ALL the guesswork out of the numbers required to pay for the property. Cool, huh!

7. The discount comes off the as-is value, not the full retail. Ever wonder what number drives your discount? This isn’t necessarily a change in the guidelines, but the mortgagee letter clearly states that the lender is to take their discount off the as-is value, not the full retail value!

Holy smoke, do you see why this is so cool!?!?!? All the guesswork for your FHA deal is now gone! From now forward, you know:

- What the appraisal came in at (lender required to send you a copy of the appraisal)
- What your number is that you must pay for the property
- That the appraisal can come in at ANY number (old 63% guesswork is gone)
- You can even get vacant FHA deals done

If you haven’t done an FHA deal ever, it’s time you got one!

To your success!

Marty Schulting
Top Foreclosure Training