Tuesday, July 14, 2009

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

Friday, July 10, 2009

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.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

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

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

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.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

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.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Make Home Affordable: The Obama Plan

The Obama Administration has demonstrated there dedication and seriousness of such to the Homeowner Help Initiative they have promised to the American Homeowner. They have done this through the Make Home Affordable Plan.

The Make Home Affordable Plan was created by the Obama Administration to help Homeowners stop foreclosure and avoid further mortgage trouble. The Make Home Affordable plan comes in two parts. There is a loan modification program as well as a refinance program that are both a part of the Make Home Affordable Program.

Thus far both the refinance and loan modification have done well and have made the Make Home Affordable plan a success. Ten million Homeowners may very well find help through the Make Home Affordable Program by the end of the year.

Monday, May 11, 2009

SAsense