SINCE I started informing my readers about the Harp Refinancing program, I have been getting a high volume of calls inquiring about this. Thanks so much for your support and I would like to further more explain the process and hopefully shed more light to your concerns.
We started our recession in 2008 and the Real Estate market abruptly turned south soon after that. The first wave of homeowners who went thru the foreclosure and short sale process in my view where borrowers who really cannot afford their mortgages when they got into it between 2005-2008. These homeowners maybe came into the market when the home prices where at its peak and realized that they either can’t afford it or they got in at the worst time, which is at its peak.
So, if you can’t afford your mortgage payments, Short Sale and Foreclosures where your only options. Of course the Loan Modification was already in place but the Scammers where also in full force. Back then Loan Modification Companies where allowed to charge homeowners a fee for their services. After all the efforts of trying to do the Loan Mod and paying for it, mostly all that failed went into a Foreclosure or a Short Sale.
The second phase of defaulters is homeowners who actually went into hardship during this recession and would have also tried and maybe failed or got rejected for the loan modification process. These where homeowners who are barely making it when they had their mortgages, these are homeowners who may have had a second source of income to help pay for their mortgages, these are homeowners that might have multi properties that had problems with renters, they might have lost their jobs, they might have had hours reduce, lost of a second job etc. These are homeowners that could have made it, if our economy did not spiral down that much.
The third phase which is the now phase are homeowners that are strategically defaulting to get some kind of help from their lender either thru a loan modification or thru refinancing. I have seen more homeowners come out of the woods now who are trying to get help, they are the homeowners who actually can make their mortgage payments, they have been busy during the recession and now realizes that their properties are upside down. They have been hearing and maybe reading about all these homeowners that are supposedly getting their loan modified and getting some kind of government help to reduce their payments. These are the qualified homeowners who are under water, if you are one of them you are in the worse situation. Because if you were in that phase one stage where you really can’t afford the payments, no problem just short sale the property, get your deficiency waiver and you will recover and can buy another property in three years. If we were in stage two and have the misfortune of losing your income or other source of income and found your property to be upside down, again do the Short Sale and get it over with.
But if you can actually afford the payments, you are not considered in any hardship and you have excellent credit, you conscience is whom you have to deal with. The property being underwater is part of a cycle, just like when I went to see Donald Trump in Las Vegas for a motivational seminar, he spoke for only 25 minutes, this was during 2009 when we are all going thru this financial crisis. We all ask him about the Real Estate market, his only answer was and I quote “ Real Estate is cyclical its up sometimes and down some time”.
Now, let me get to most of the people that I have been trying to help about this new Harp program. It is again not for everyone and might not be your answer to reduce your mortgage payment. In order to qualify for Harp 2 the mortgage loan taken out has to be before May of 2009, the property has to be either a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac owned loan, on top of this you would have to qualify based on good credit and qualified income among all the other guidelines.
Most of the people inquiring are upside down on their mortgages; fortunately you are still employed and can make your payments. The Key factor is if you really want to keep your property you must believe that there might not be a solution for your problems just yet. I hope it will come soon, but as of now this HARP 2 has too many restrictions and regulations that some times disqualifies borrowers.
If you are too deep into a negative equity meaning your property is very much upside down in value, you have a decision to make, if your not in any hardship then continue to pay the mortgage until the value comes up to meet your loan balance. Enjoy your job, family, free time and make your payments and just cruise along. If you are slightly in hardship and might not be able to go for the long haul due to the soft real estate market, then you have to decide on what to do now. You don’t want to come to me next year and say, I can no longer afford the payments. You just wasted a year of payments and could have tried to work something out now.
I wish I have the magic bullet now, I would for sure be able to help turn the market around and bring back the good all days, but not just keep checking and following me. I will do my best to always be on top of what is available for you out there.
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Thanks for your inquiries, please email me with your complete information in order for me to be able to research your situation before discussing them with you. Please email Ken Go at 1st Innovative Finance at[email protected] or call Ken at 562-508-7048.