Cash For Keys

Many Homeowners have suffered through a foreclosure. Many more Homeowners will no doubt join that group. Out of this population many Homeowners are eligible for a great program called cash for keys.

Cash for keys is a program that awards the Homeowner or renter a cash sum with the understanding that they will move by a specific date after the foreclosure sale of their home or residence.

Cash for keys is designed for both homeowners and renters facing foreclosure and who have to move due to a foreclosure.

The Cash For Keys programs available for those facing foreclosure are all through the lender. Often Homeowners may be offered the cash for keys program by a realtor or another third party. Though in the past the Homeowner will receive the most money from the lender directly. Often the third party will take a cut.

Homeowners who have received money through a Homeowner assistance program such as cash for keys have reported amounts of money received anywhere from just a few hundred dollars or as much as 6000 - 7000 dollars.

If you are a Homeowner or renter who has lost or will lose their home through foreclosure you may want to contact your lender and ask about a cash for keys program or any program that offers financial aid as recognition of the incurred hardship and future moving expenses caused by the expected foreclosure.

Dictionary for Home Mortgage Terms: Why Should You Use It?

Mortgage Knowledge is Homeowner Power

Buying a home through securing a mortgage loan might appear to be a difficult task, particularly when you come across so many types of mortgage loans. By understanding mortgage terminology you will avoid the costly mistakes that so many Homeowners have made and who now find themselves in need of some serious financial help and mortgage assistance. But by educating yourself with just the basics you will empower yourself with the ability to find the most suitable loan option that fits the needs of your unique situation.

To understand home mortgage terms, you should always refer to a dictionary for home mortgage terms, real estate dictionary, mortgage dictionary or financial terms dictionary. A number of them are available online.

Some Important Home Mortgage Terms That You Would Find in a Dictionary for Home Mortgage Terms

Mortgage: A mortgage is a loan secured by a real estate property. In other words a mortgage or Home Loan is a claim or lien against real property provided by the property buyer to the lender as guarantee for the loan taken.

Fixed Rate Mortgage: This is a form of mortgage where the interest rate remains constant for the entire life or term of the mortgage (the repayment term).

Mortgagor and Mortgagee:

• The borrower is termed as the mortgagor
• The lender is known as the mortgagee.

Mortgage Term: The mortgage terms or repayment terms is the number of years or months during which you would pay off your loan at a certain rate of interest. Terms typically vary from 15 to 30 years.

Adjustable Rate Mortgage: This is a type of mortgage where the interest rate does not remain constant and is attached to an index. The rate of this mortgage is modified from time to time according to the upward or downward movement of the index. These ARM mortgages can be switched to fixed rate mortgages.

Amortization: A diminution of a debt through regular payments comprising interest and a portion of principal.

Annual Percentage Rate: This is the true cost of borrowing a mortgage loan, expressed as a yearly rate.

Closing Costs: These are costs that have to be paid along with the purchase price during selling of real estate. Closing costs can consist of title insurance fees, document preparation fees, escrow fees, notary fees, credit report fees and appraisal fees.

Foreclosure: This is a process where the mortgaged property or home is sold due to the borrowers nonpayment, also known as mortgage default, the proceeds are then used to fulfill the mortgage debt obligation. In the world of real estate foreclosure is the repossession process .


Valuable Resource for Homeowners...

I have found a helpful Homeowner resource available on the web that has a wonderful mortgage terminology dictionary available. I have left the link below for those who would like to check it out.

URL: http://www.mortgagefit.com/terminology/

Debt Help and Assistance

As consumers of debt America may have bit off more then they can chew. We have financed and continue to finance everything from big purchases such as cars, homes, and education, to medium sized purchases such as vacations, computers and televisions, all the way down to the small everyday purchases such as the morning coffee and newspapers, or that evenings dinner. No matter what we seem to buy wee want to finance it.

These sort of borrowing habits seem to finally be catching up with us. The level of credit card account defaults and bankruptcies are rising steadily and have already passed the record numbers of our past. The same can be said about foreclosures and mortgage defaults. The American consumer and the American Homeowner is in desperate need of debt help and debt assistance.

Debt Solutions:

• Debt Settlement- Debt settlement is a great way to get rid of unsecured debt that has accumulated from credit cards and or other high interest unsecured debt that one may have.
• Debt Management- Debt management technically refers to the act of monitoring ones levels and cost of debt. Today the term debt management is commonly used to describe the process of reworking the way one manages their debt and usually involves a plan of getting rid of debt as well as lowering the cost of debt.
• Debt Resolution- debt resolution is similar to debt settlement except for that debt resolution generally takes about 14-18 months as opposed to about 24-48 months in a debt settlement program. Also debt resolution is done by attorneys as opposed to the debt settlement programs which are usually done by debt settlement specialist that are not attorneys. Though some debt settlement work is done by attorneys.
• Bankruptcy- This is a legal action that allows a borrower to restructure debt.

You can find more information about debt solutions and mortgage solutions including information and tools that help homeowners stop foreclosure, all this and more can be found @ HopeNHousing.Org

New Foreclosure Hope: Obama Expands Reach and Hope of Mortgage Assistance Program

Obama Has expanded the reach of the Making Home Affordable Mortgage Refinance Plan. These Modifications boost Foreclosure Hope for the American Homeowner who has endured a financial hardship and must find a way to stop foreclosure or obtain a mortgage workout.

Obama has modified his Homeowner Help and Assistance Program known as the Making Home Affordable Plan, which is composed of two parts both a Loan Modification and Mortgage Refinance Program that was created to help American Homeowners Make Home Affordable.

The Modifications set in place as of July 1st will expand the reach of eligible Homeowners for the Mortgage Refinance side of the Making Home Affordable Plan.

Before the New Obama Changes to the Mortgage Refinance qualification Terms

• Homeowners had to meet several qualifying terms but the significant one regarding this article was the Loan to Value ratio or rather percentage.
• Homeowners were only allowed to have a loan to value percentage of 105% or lower. Homeowners with a 106% loan to value ratio were out of luck.

After The Obama Adjustments to the Make Home Affordable Mortgage Refinance Program

• Homeowners with a Loan To value Ratio of 125% or lower are now eligible for the Mortgage Refinance portion of the Making Home Affordable Plan.
• No Other terms of the Mortgage Refinance Portion of the plan were modified
• The Mortgage Lenders still have the final approval so The question now becomes how willing will the lenders be to work with those kind of Homeowner numbers in such a harsh economy.
• None of the Loan Modification terms in the Making Home Affordable Plan were modified in any way.
  

Make Home Affordable: Loan Modification

The Obama administration has created a foreclosure prevention plan rthat is designed around to main mortgage workout solutions that allow Homeowners to stop foreclosure and make home affordable.

These two mortgage workouts are loan modification and mortgage refinance.
Both the loan modification and mortgage refinance agreements and program terms allow homeowners to lower monthly payments if they meet some basic qualifications and their lender is willing to work with them.

This post will be focused on the loan modification side of the Making Home Affordable Program.

Making Home Affordable Loan Modification Program Qualifications:

• The property must be the Homeowners primary residence.
• The homeowner must have a current mortgage payment that is 32% or more of their monthly income.
• The Homeowner must have incurred some sort of unavoidable financial hardship.
• The Homeowner must have a home value of 730,000.00 or less
• The Lender must agree to participate in the Making Home Affordable Loan Modification Plan.

The Make Home Affordable Loan Modification Plan has helped many Homeowners has done far better the it's peers such as the FHA insured plan known as the Hope For Homeowners Mortgage Refinance Plan.

You can learn more about the Making Home Affordable Loan Modification and Mortgage Refinance Programs through the Government Websites @ http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov

Learn how to use this site and read a review of MakeHomeAffordable.Gov

Making Home Affordable: Obtaining a Mortgage Refinance

The Obama Administration has created a mortgage refinance program outlined in the foreclosure prevention plan known as the Making Home Affordable Plan. The making Home Affordable Plan Has a loan modification side as well as the mortgage refinance side mentioned above. This article will focus on the mortgage refinance portion of the Making Home Affordable Plan

Making Home Affordable Mortgage Refinance

What is Mortgage Refinance:

• Mortgage Refinance is the act of replacing a debt or loan that is secured by a home with another secured loan.
• Generally a mortgage refinance is done for one of two reasons: 1) The Homeowner need or wants to obtain capital and chooses to put up the equity of the Home as collateral. This is often done to consolidate credit card bills or to make improvements on the home. 2) The Homeowner wants to save money and existing mortgage rates are lower then the current rates outlined in the mortgage agreement.

Making Home Affordable Mortgage Refinance:

• The Making Home Affordable Mortgage refinance program is for Freddie and Fannie mortgage only.
• The current mortgage must be less then thirty days late.
• The mortgage value or balance of the mortgage must be equal or less then the worth or value of the home.
• The Homeowner must be under the consequences or near future consequences of an unavoidable hardship.
• The lender must agree to the mortgage refinance.
• The new monthly payment target for the Homeowner seeking the mortgage refinance is targeted at about 31% of the Homeowners take home income. This figure can be as high as 38%
• 1-4 unit property

If you are a homeowner who meets these current qualifying aspects of the Making Home Affordable Loan Modification then you may be able to benefit from this foreclosure prevention program.

Make Home Affordable: Loan Modification

The Obama Administration has answered the long ignored cries of the collective American Homeowner. Obama's answer was a well thought, planned, and is already a success. The plan that has inspired a new sense of hope among Homeowners is known as the Make Home Affordable Plan.

The Make Home Affordable Plan is a two part plan. There is both a loan modification program as well as a mortgage refinance program. Both have done exceptionaly well. This post wil focus on the loan modification portion of the Make Home Afordable Plan.

What is Loan Modification?

Loan Modification:

• The restructuring or modification of the terms of a loan agreement.
• Loss mitigation tool utilized by both Homeowners and mortgage lenders
• The most popular mortgage workout or foreclosure alternative among Homeowners when a refinance option is simply unavailable is a loan modification.
• Loan Modification will Stop Foreclosure

Who qualifies for the Make Home Affordable Loan Modification?

The Make Home Affordable Loan Modification Program is designed for Homeowners who are strugling to pay their mortgage due to some sort of Hardship. Investors or speculaitors are not the target beneficiaries of the Make Home Affordable Program. There are other requirements as well that Homeowners must meet to qualify.

Qualifications for the Make Home Affordable Loan Modification Program

• Must be the Homeowners primariy residence
• Must have purchased the home prior to 2009
• Home value must be under 730,000
• Must have encountered Hardship leading to the inability to make the monthly mortgage payment
• Current Mortgage payment should currently be above 38% of take home income.

If a Homeowner meets this general criteria they are not home free just yet. Remeber that the Make Home Affordable Plan is a voulantary program so the final decision is ultimately up to the lender or mortgage servicer.

Make sure to check back next week for the post on the mortgage refinance portion of the Make Home Affordable Program. If you simply can not wait check out one of the web resources below.