Thursday, December 25, 2008

Will Someone Explain to Larry How the FHA Refinance Program Works

Larry has the FHA streamline refinance program all wrong. He is saying that it is helpful becuase the FHA streamline refinance program can be done without an appraisal. The loan officer who compares the FHA refinance to her dog food is suggesting that the fha lenders do not know how to calculate and FHA rate at the 5% payment amount without an appraisal. I will have to revist the FHA guidelines soon to determine that the FHA refinance is a helpful program when an appraisal is not required. Please post a comment to let me know if I am understanding the FHA refinance program correctly and if 5% is a nice rate or should I wait for a 4% rate on teh FHA streamline refinance program?

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Today was my first day at Litton Loan Servicing Loss Mitigation Dept.

Today was my first day at Litton Loan Servicing loss mitigation department. I woke up early and went in to the office to get ready to help people avoid foreclosure with a loan modification. The days tarted off ok when I was given a few short sale and forbearance manuals to read. I read them and then I was instructed to talk to the angry people that called in for loss mitigation. They said that I should try to help them and then put then back on hold again. I kept doing this and we were all passing the people that were on hold at Litton Loan Servicing around one to another. Finally I had to talk to people becuase I could no longer put them on hold. I asked someone who has been there for six months how she handles it and she said that she hums the hold music and pretends that the people are still on hold. Apparently that works well for her because she has been there six months. Tomorrow is my next day at Litton Loan Servicing and I will report back about how that went too. Goodnight!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Short Refinances with FHA

The housing bill and hope for homeowners has made much to do about the FHA short refinance. The FHA short refinance should help borrowers to renegotiate the mortgage payoff to a lower amount that can be refinanced through the FHA loan program. Let's take a look at who is eligible:

1. The individual must be the Homeowner who actually lives in the house, and not be an investor. In other words, no rental properties are eligible to receive a new mortgage.

2. Homeowners must certify that they have not intentionally defaulted.

3. Homeowners must have a mortgage debt of more than 31% of their monthly incomes as of March 1, 2008.

4. Homeowners incomes must be verified.

5. The troubled loan must have been no later than January 1, 2008.

Well as you can see from the above, many borrowers should qualify for the fha short refinance. It should be noted that the program is voluntary and in that regard there may not be as much hope for the hope for homeowners program when the fha short refinance is voluntary.

Stay tuned for more information on fha short refinances through the Hope For Homeowners program.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

FHA Short Refinance

The FHA short refinance has been in the news lately. The Housing Bill has sparked more discussion on the FHA refinance short option. The fact is that lenders have a loss severity level that is a function of market values and delinquency level. In many cases, the highest net present value for a mortgage refinance is realized when the lender accepts a short payoff to settle the mortgage debt.

The result can be called an FHA short refinance.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Commenting on Hope For Homeowners Act


THe much anticpated Hope For Homewowners Act will become an FHA foreclosure refinance reality soon. The text of the FHA Housing Bill called Hope For Homeonwers can be read here. It remains to be seen whether the servcing lener will chose a loan modification over the new FHA foreclosure refinance.


We will be posting more on FHA's new Foreclosure avoidance refinance and the general guidelines for FHA Hope Fore Homeowners can be viewed at your liesure.


FHA Hope For Homeowners will hopefully provide some hope for homeownership.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Short Sales Approved in Advance

This is an interesting phenomenon in short sales of real estate in Florida. Florida short sales are preapproved in advance. The short sale of real estate is advanced approval and can close quickly.

The quick close is helpful to the seller of reale state that is a short sale. The short sales are not normally short and they are not normally quick, however the preapproval of a short sale allows both. This is taking place in Florida real estate and helps selelrs to avoid foreclosure.

Foreclosure is not helpful of people in Florida. When someone has a florida foreclosure financing is difficult at that point. You may have to find the short sale preapproval in florida prior to the florida foreclosure. I am still checking into this and have provided some links to relevant articles on short sales of real estate in Florida that are preapproved. Clay County Florida short sales and their respective financing are also discussed in more detail.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Where can you find FHA 4155 in PDF form?

I just found the answer to that from a direct endorsement underwriter's perspective. As an fha loan officer you should have the fha handbook memorized for fha rules and fha lending. Maybe someone can decipher for the FHA direct endorsement underwriter what the fha rules are so that they are not arbitrary.

Yoru FHA rules in PDF form are helpful to all borrrowers in or outside of florida mortgage lending. This is a message for fha rulemaking and it is not from the fha directly although the fha 4155.1 is written by HUD, this blog is not owned by the FHA. You probably knew that already.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Listing Deficiecny Judgment Websites

Here is the best list of deficiecny judgment websites that I could come up with. Let me know your thoughts and feel free to post a comment on any deficiency judgment issues having to do with judicial foreclosure in Florida.


Thanks for checking out the list of deficiecny judgment website and stay tuned and be sure ot check back for more updates on the florida foreclosure refence site. You may post a comment and add a website to our list and please check back frequently for further updates on thi smost imprtant subject. Have a great day!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

About Fannie Mae Flips, Short Sales, Florida and FNMA

Fannie Mae reports from FNMA's website: "Fannie Mae provides stability, liquidity, and affordability to the nation's housing finance system under all economic conditions. We are a shareholder-owned company with a public mission. We exist to expand affordable housing and bring global capital to local communities in order to serve the U.S. housing market. "

The Federal National Mortgage Association provides help with the finacing of US homes. This comes in the form of mortgage loans for residential property. If the property is purchased and quickly mortgage or resold to another party, this can be charachterized as a FNMA flip or FNMA flipping transaction. There are specific rules for FNMA Flips. Here is more information on flipping reqirements with FNMA.

The FNMA my Community mortgage is a mortgage loan that is popular. You can obtain a FNMA MY COMMUNITY mortgage loan from FNMA. There are many nuances with the "my comunity mortgage" from Fannia Mae. Some call it fannie-mae-my-community-mortgage.

Many are saying that FNMA likes short sales. This is becuase Fannie Mae will allow a borrower to obtain a new FNMA loan in two years after completing the short sale. This is helpful for those seeking FNMA loans after a short sale. Some of these short sales are in Florida and are so called Florida short sales as a result of them being both in Florida and well, a short sale.

In cconclusion, you may have been seeking short sale information on FNMA, or you may have been seeking Florida short salee information about FNMA. Perhaps you wanted to know about property flipping in these areas. Whatever the case, you can understand that short sales, FNMA, property Flips, and Florida all have this article in common.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Beneficial Options for Florida Short Sales

This Florida Real estate investor enetered with an option contract that was helpful for the short sale in Florida. More has been discussed regarding Florida short sales and option contracts lately than in the past few years. Most notably, the Florida short sales with options and option contracts pending are able to process through the lender's loss mitigation department. This expedites the process and allows the short sale to close in a timely manner. The buyers of Florida short sales benefit with the Florida Option Contracts these days.

Real Estate in Florida and Short Sales with Options.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Calculating APR for FHA using the Current Index

Some lenders calculate the current fha apr using an index for mortgage backed securities. This may help borrowers who are comparison shopping mortgage loans with a truth in lending dicslosure. Interesingly, as this article will describe, many TILs are not calculated the same way and particularly becuase the current fha apr differs depending on the variable raet adjustment.

A current fha apr is easily determined for the fixed rate loan. Variable rates however do not use a current fha apr in the same way. This makes the fha apr different currently from lender to lender. After the interest rate is determined using the appropriate current fha apr, then the point of this article is to know how that differs from the APR or annual percentage rate of other fha loan types.

Was the FHA an APR that was used for a variable rate loan? Variable rate loans are also knows as adjustable rate mortgage loans and they are required by the TILA to have an APR disclosed properly. This should result in a current fha apr that is well within the tolerance for the FHA mortgage annual percentage rate.

I'm just about done typing current fha apr for the day. Perhaps you could check back and see if current fha apr has moved higher in the search engines and if not, the the FHA APR is not currently focused on the apr in general for FHA loans. This post made no sense whatsoever.

CURRENT FHA APR

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Loan Modifications

What is a loan modification? If you know, type a comment.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Removing Liens in Florida

Interesting post on removing liens on a florida property that is homesteaded. Basically, you can write a letter to the lienholder and force them to file a lawsuit against you to prove you wrong, or something like that, I'm not an attorney. Here is the lien removal letter for florida.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Intersting Post on Using Call Capture and Toll Free Numbers

Ever wondered how call capture works? Here is an intriguing post on calling call capture and how the tolld free number makes call capture recorded messages possible.

Let me know what you think about the call capture recorded message post.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

FSBO MARKETING

The For Sale By Owner market is in a unique stage at the moment. Let's face it, homes aren't selling. Many of these homes are candidates for FHA refinances or for real estate agents to list at realistic prices. That's my two cents for the day on the for sale by owner real estate market.

The psychology of for sale by owner is changing day by day. There is a sense of desparation out there in the for sale by owner market.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the lower priced homes are selling and then there becomes a new plateau for the appraised values in teh neighborhood. What does the for sale by owner do next? They lower their price to match the lower sales in the neighborhood.

The problem is that by the time the for sale by owner has lowered the price, the homes that are for sale in the neighborhood that have sold are at an even lower plateau. This in turn makes a new lower sales price for the for sale by owner to chase down.

As you can imagine, this can continue for quite some time. This is the dynamic that is going on in teh for sale by owner market in this market. The conclcusion is to work with a real estate agent to price the home correctly from the get go. The problem of course, is that the for sale by owner doesn't wnat to hear that.

For Sale By Owner Marketing For Loan Officers.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Mortgage Loans & Real Estate

This is a blog about mortgage loans and real estate.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Collection Law Firm Hit with $5.2 million Class Action Verdict

A collection law firm in Pennsylvania must pay $5.2 million to defendants that accused it of charging unauthorized administrative and attorney fees and interest on the fees as it collected delinquent real estate taxes.

Portnoff Law Associates was the target of a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of consumers that fell behind in their property taxes in the areas that Portnoff served from November 27, 2000 to November 26, 2002. Portnoff, based in Norristown, Pa., represented 22 municipalities and school districts in Pennsylvania at the time. The firm specializes in municipal fee and delinquent tax collection.

At issue was a $35 administrative fee Portnoff charged to the class plaintiffs to cover collection costs and subsequent interest and penalties charged on the fee. The lawsuit claimed that some 16,100 consumers were impacted; the class was led by three plaintiffs.

David A. Searles from Philadelphia-based law firm Donovan Searles, LLC, lead attorney for the class, told insideARM that appellate case law disallowed the fees. Searles also said that the case was initially filed in November 2002 and had moved from state court to federal court and then back to state court before being tried in September of last year. The decsion against Portfoff was announced Wednesday in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

In his ruling, Judge Mark I. Bernstein paints a picture of dissent between statutory and case law that spans several years. A 2001 ruling by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court that attorneys fees could not be added to delinquent tax debts was upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2003. In August of 2003, the Pennsylvania legislature amended the law that forbade the addition of attorneys fees to tax debt and made it retroactive to 1996. However, that amendment was declared unconstitutional in 2005 by the Commonwealth Court due to its retroactive nature.

Portnoff and its law firm did not return calls.