About HomeHelpOC

There are solutions for Orange County homeowners who have questions or need assistance in this current housing market. To find the best solution requires your consideration of many options and reviewing the vast amount of information available. Should you refinance, try a loan modification to make it more affordable, sell your home through a short sale, a deed-in-lieu, or consult with a lawyer? There is HAMP, HAFA, FHA Short Refinance, Unemployment Assistance programs, government and non-profit programs, MRAP, PRP, UP, TAP, and forbearance. Perhaps you have heard of these programs and the benefits available. But, what you don’t know is what it takes to qualify….WE DO, and we can quickly determine what options are availble that fit your specific situation. With so many options, websites, and people “in the industry”, homeowners likely feel as though they might as well throw darts at their Sunday morning paper to pick a name. HomeHelpOC is the name you want.

HomeHelpOC.com shares valuable insight on the constantly evolving programs, but it also provides names of industry professionals who have extensive experience and a proven track record of helping individuals and their families.We will walk you through the process, help package your application, participate in conference calls with their processors and underwriters, and get the answers needed so you can plan for the future. Request a consultation, select a city where you live, and you will find top real estate agents and other professionals in your area each ready to assist. The site is FREE, as is a consultation with any of the people participating. The professionals on the site have not paid for their place on homehelpoc.com. Each was recommended, interviewed, and included because they want to help Orange County homeowners find their solution.

Homeowner Relief Programs Falling Short

Homeowner Relief Programs – The Hardest Hit Fund allocated $7.6 Billion to states heavily impacted by the decrease in home values. California received $2 Billion of the funds which is administered by Keep Your Home California. The money was to be used to lower principal balances, help unemployed homeowners, reinstate mortgages, or assist in the transition of relocating. An article in the New York Times reviewed the impact of the program based on findings by a federal watchdog office. According to the article, since the inception of the Hardest Hit Fund in the spring of 2010, only 3% of the funds or $217.4 million has been disbursed helping a mere 30,650 families in the last 2 years. It was estimated that the funds would help as much as four million households. In California, the program aided only 4357 households so far. By comparison 48,422 households received foreclosure notices in February.

The lesson, don’t expect the Government to bail you out. The Short Sale Tax Provisions expire at the end of 2012. If your home is distressed you need to keep all of your options available. Contact us today to discuss all aspects of today’s housing market.

[gravityform id=4 name=RequestA Consultation]

Do You Qualify For Keep Your Home California?

Do You Qualify for Keep Your Home California?

As part of the Hardest Hit Fund by the US Treasury, California received $2 billion to help homeowners. The funds administered by CalHFA and Keep Your Home California are meant to provide mortgage assistance for unemployed and/or underwater homeowners or transition assistance if a short sale or deed-in-lieu is required. Do you qualify for Keep Your Home California funds? The information below was provided by KYHC to HomeHelpOC during a February 6, 2012 phone conversation. The accuracy of this information has not been verified.

As a general rule, the loan must be owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and qualify for HAMP (Home Affordable Modification) guidelines.

  • You obtained your home on or before January 1, 2009
  • You occupy the house as your primary residence
  • You have a mortgage payment that is more than 31% of your monthly gross (pre-tax) income
  • You owe up to $729,750 on your home
  • You have a financial hardship and are either delinquent or in danger of falling behind
  • You have sufficient, documented income to support the modified payment

Here is what they don’t tell you:

  • If you have an OPTION ARM, there are no available programs because it does not fall under HAMP.
  • The $25 Billion settlement that was just reached with the 5 major lenders requires relief only to be given to people that are delinquent on their mortgage
  • If you are current on your mortgage, you may be told that you don’t qualify because the loan is current.
  • A homeowner cannot be in a trial modification or have applied for it.
  • If applying for Keep Your Home California programs, a household income must be less than maximum income limits for the county.

MRAP – Mortgage Reinstatement Assistance Program – A person may qualify for this program where homeowners can receive up to $20,000 to catch up on the mortgage payments if the delinquency was due to a significant change in circumstance on an emergency. The total housing expense must be less than 38% of the gross household income. If a household makes $5000 per month, the maximum expense for all payments including mortgage, insurance, taxes, HOA, and revolving or installment debt reflected on the credit report cannot exceed $1900. Should the debts exceed 38%, the homeowner does not qualify for the MRAP program. If a homeowner or spouse is currently unemployed and receiving unemployment benefits, the income is not used in the debt to income calculations.

UMA – Unemployment Mortgage Assistance – The program provides mortgage assistance up to $3000 per month for unemployed homeowners who are collecting unemployment benefits from the State of California Employment Development Department (EDD). In general, to qualify for this program a homeowner must have a total debt to income greater than 31% of their total gross income. If one spouse is employed and the other is unemployed, and if the income received from the EDD causes the debt to income ratio to be less than 31%, the homeowner does not qualify for the program.

PRP – Principal Reduction Program – This program provides up to $50,000 from KYHC and requires the current participating servicer to contribute a dollar-for-dollar match. The total reduction in principal could be up to $100,000. To qualify, your current mortgage amount must be greater than 120% of the current value of the home. If the property is currently worth $200,000, the loan amount must exceed $240,000 to be eligible. Additionally, the total debt-to-income must be greater than 31%.

If your loan is serviced by Bank Of America, good luck. KYHC does not facilitate or oversee the eligibility of the programs for BofA. KYHC does conduct an initial interview to determine possible eligibility, but homeowners will then be directed to send all items to Bank Of America and their Hardest Hit Fund Department. Once the file is with them and a homeowner tries to follow up, the homeowner is directed back to KYHC to contact the assigned processor. Unfortunately, because KYHC does not have the file there is no one assigned to the file within KYHC. It can be a frustrating circle.

Income and values can be looked at in many different ways. Be sure to contact us first before going through all of the paperwork and initial interviews. We will make sure your income is calculated correctly and the information you provide is accurate.

[gravityform id=4 name=RequestA Consultation]
Thumbnail image for Get Your Condo FHA Approved

Get Your Condo FHA Approved

Get Your Condo FHA Approved – A little known fact is that every condominium association once approved by HUD for FHA loans expired in 2011. Every condominium development must be certified again by HUD for FHA loans to be used for financing a unit for sale or refinance. If a condominium development is not approved for FHA loans, a large amount of potential buyers and homeowners, who may need to refinance, are now excluded from using an FHA loan. Often the only loan that a borrower can qualify for is an FHA insured loan. Let HomeHelpOC get your condo approved for FHA.

How do you get a condominium approved for FHA loans? Spot condo approvals where only one unit is approved are no longer available, and now the entire HOA or phase must be submitted for approval. Each submission for a condo community is a process that involves financials, questionnaires, and recorded documents which are reviewed by HUD to determine the amount of delinquencies, owner occupancy, reserves, and litigation among other factors. Each factor has maximum limits and minimum requirements that are set by HUD.

Does the condominium need to be re-certified or re-approved? The determining factor is based on when the project was initially approved. If the project was initially approved prior to January 1, 2000, a full approval is required. If the project was approved after this date, the project only requires re-certification. Participation by the HOA Board and the management company is necessary for a full approval, where the re-certification can be submitted by the new lender on a transaction (mortgagee). Once the project is again approved, it must be re-certified every 2 years.

HomeHelpOC fully understands what is required by HUD. Our extensive experience in all aspects of home ownership, and specifically with the required documentation and standards set by HUD for condominium approval will make the submission process easy. We know exactly what HUD wants, the limits, and the potential rejection items, and we can consult your board and homeowners on the actions that should be taken to ensure an approval. HomeHelpOC will prepare your file for submission, provide a copy file on disc to the HOA, and if the project is in Orange County will hand-deliver your documents to the local HUD office. After your documentation is submitted the HOA can expect an answer within 30 days from HUD. Contact us today, and let us help your community get FHA approved. Request A Consultation

Banks Agree to $25 Billion Settlement

All 50 states attorney general have agreed to a settlement of $25 billion with the 5 largest banks including Bank Of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, Chase, and Ally formerly GMAC. The settlement is designed to be the final act on the banks which will require them to help mitigate the housing decline by using these funds for principal reduction, refinancing, and paying roughly 750,000 homeowners who lost their home to foreclosure between 2008 and 2011 a cash payment of $2000. The settlement will also now clear the way for banks to proceed with liquidating assets (foreclosing on homes). In 2011 when the robo-signing scandal broke the banks held off from foreclosing on properties while they conducted internal audits and addressed regulator concerns. As a result of the settlement the banks are no longer handcuffed from foreclosing on properties. An estimated 11 million homeowners are underwater or owe more than their property is worth, this according to CoreLogic Inc. located in Santa Ana, California, and comments from the Vice President of Realty Trac, Daren Blomquist, estimates foreclosures at 1 million homes in 2012 which is up 25% from 2011. The chief economist for Zillow Inc figures that homeowners in the U.S. have $750 billion in negative equity. The truth is that the $25 billion settlement accounts for only about 3.3% of the negative equity in total and only $17 billion will be used to reduce principal. Who gets the money? How do you benefit? What are the chances of this money helping you or your neighbor?

Home values will likely be impacted, but every market is different. Orange County has certainly taken its lumps, and there are tremendous deals for buyers especially with rates at record lows. For homeowners, the lifelines are all but over after this settlement. If a homeowner does not qualify for HARP, an FHA Short Refinance, denied a loan modification, behind on payments, received a notice of default or trustee sale, you need to speak with a professional about your options. Don’t count on the government to bail you out. Contact us today and speak with one of our Certified Distressed Property Experts. – Request A Consultation

HARP 2.0 Refinance Underwater Homes

HARP 2.0 is designed to help more homeowners with underwater mortgages by eliminating the maximum loan to value requirement currently capped at 125%. This means that if you owe $200,000 and the home value is now $100,000, theoretically you could refinance the mortgage to current rates provided your loan was sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac prior to May 31, 2009 . The updated version is a revision of the original HARP program and was announced late in 2011 with a projected start date of December 2011. The timeframe to begin accepting applications was extended until March 2012 because the lenders who must agree to the new rules and implement changes to their underwriting systems were not ready in time. There is a tremendous amount of publicity and anticipation. It remains to be seen if this program will actually begin in the near future. Independent Mortgage Bankers who are correspondents which means they sell their completed loans to investors like Chase and Wells Fargo have not received instructions from the banks on the new program. Is it possible that some of the larger banks have begun originating these loans…sure, but we haven’t heard of any to date. To get more information, contact HomeHelpOC and we will determine if your property is eligible for the program. Request a Consultation

Keep Your Home California Expands Program

As of November 11 it is reported that Keep Your Home California has enhanced and expanded their program to include even more homeowners. It’s a good thing too, because we assisted several homeowners in applying for the program before the changes, and they were ultimately denied the assistance. One case was that of a homeowner who applied for …

Applying for a Modification? Time Is Not On Your Side

Recently, HomeHelpOC was assisting a homeowner who had received her Notice of Default in July of 2011. Prior to receiving the NOD, the homeowner had attempted to modify the loan by working with NACA and applying through the Keep Your Home California program, but was unsuccessful. During the time of working through the modification request, the homeowner tried sending in payments in an effort to keep up with the payments as best as possible and not fall further behind. The bank returned the checks un-cashed stating that “the partial payments on your account are not sufficient to satisfy the full delinquency on your loan. Since we have not received additional amounts to equal the full amount due, we are enclosing a return of these partial funds.”

The homeowner contacted HomeHelpOC in July and we began restructuring the request to Keep Your Home California, which homeowners are allowed to do if denied. The homeowner qualified for the Mortgage Reinstatement Assistance Program (MRAP) where homeowners can receive up to $15,000 to bring the mortgage current, and we were in the midst of providing all final paperwork to complete the process. The Notice of Default stated a past-due balance of $13,370 which is covered by the $15,000 available to homeowners. But, since the bank would not accept the partial payments which would lower or stabilize the defaulted amount, the past-due balance accrued to just over $17,700. The homeowner offered to make up the difference as they had not cashed the returned checks from the lender and set it aside. Pretty simple…homeowner makes up the small difference, receives the $15,000, the mortgage is reinstated, and the home is free from the threat of foreclosure. Unfortunately, the lender would not allow for the homeowner to make up the difference, and as a result, the $15,000 MRAP was immediately DECLINED by Keep Your Home California. Amazing, isn’t it?

We didn’t give up and on August 22 subsequently prepared a package to the lender requesting a loan modification that would bring the homeowner current, and ideally modify the terms to make the loan more affordable. It was assigned to a counselor who seemed very helpful. The lender did ask for additional updated items over the next 30 days which we provided within 24 hours of every request. Near the end of September, the homeowner had the Notice of Trustee sale hanging from the front door, and we enlisted the help of a reputable agent in the area to answer questions and prepare for the worst. If the homeowner listed the property for sale, it would end the modification request, and the homeowner desperately wanted to stay in the home. We had until October 27th and continually contacted the lender and provided information as requested. The lender representative stated this would be reviewed rather quickly because of the deadline and ultimately approved, but never issued anything in writing. The second week of October we again had the homeowner speak with the agent because the lender was being evasive and non-responsive and no decision had been made on the modification request. The servicer stated that the lender could postpone the sale in a simple email to them, and we repeatedly requested the lender to contact the servicer to postpone the sale. It never was postponed. The homeowner decided to give it until the 24th before proceeding with the listing of the property hopeful that all the effort put into modifying the loan would come through. On October 24th, the homeowner, defeated by the process listed it for sale, and the agent sent the package into the lender immediately. On October 27th, the property sold at auction…foreclosed.

The moral of this true account is: loan modifications are not guaranteed and most do not get approved; lenders are not eager to help homeowners; Keep Your Home California will not help everyone; if you received a Notice of Default and subsequently a Notice of Trustee sale…..time is not on your side.

HARP 2.0 Reportedly Allows More Homeowners To Refinance

If you have been following the news lately, the Obama administration has been stumping their newly revamped HARP (Home Affordable Refinance Program) announced on Monday, October 24 at a campaign rally in Nevada. The program expands the limits that a homeowner can be underwater and still refinance into the lower market rates. The previous plan allowed homeowners whose loans were owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac prior to June 2009 the ability to refinance up to 125% of the current appraised home value. What most people don’t know is that many banks put limits on the amount a person could be underwater and participate in the program. That limit was widely viewed at 105% rather than the available 125%. The revised plan removes all limits which in theory sounds good. But, will the banks again put their limitations on the program? We will wait and see. Final rules and pricing is projected to be complete by November 16 with some banks beginning to accept applications by December 1. Here is a link to a Wall Street Journal blog post with Twelve Questions on the newly formatted plan.

Keep Your Home California – Do You Qualify?

HomeHelpOC has assisted many people attempting to take advantage of the Keep Your Home California programs which includes, Unemployment Mortgage Assistance (UMA), Principal Reduction Program (PRP), and the Mortgage Reinstatement Program (MRAP). The process starts by contacting the KYHC counseling center where you are asked a series of questions. Determining if you qualify to move to the next step depends on how a homeowner answers the questions. KYHC asks questions about income, assets, current home status (late payments, NOD, NOT), occupancy, and estimated value among other questions. Again, to move on, you must meet certain mandated guidelines. If the counselor deems you “eligible” your file is moved to a processing department and the homeowner is requested to prepare a package of documents such as W2’s, tax returns, payroll statements, etc., that must be faxed to a specific phone number. The documents requested are required to support your verbal answers to the questions. Once the documents are received, the file is elevated to an Underwriting department who then verifies the figures and issues their decision.

Qualifying for the KHYC programs is just like qualifying for a mortgage loan. The KYHC programs are very stringent. They also carry difficult underwriting guidelines that must be met to qualify, and if you are outside the “box”, you will not qualify. Additionally, income can be calculated in a number of ways and from various revenue streams. Certain income is not necessarily required to report, such as child support. There are times, however, when you will need to use the child support to qualify, and other times you would be advised to not disclose the child support because it would cause a homeowner to have too much revenue. KYHC does not tell you whether or not it should be used…it’s up to you. Income tends to be the most important qualifier and is used to determine your debt-to-income ratio. You can’t find this information on the internet or on the KYHC website. HomeHelpOC discovered their guidelines after participating on conference calls with homeowners who were applying to the KYHC programs, and only after asking industry-specific questions that we would know to ask.

At HomeHelpOC, we will review your situation before you call into KYHC so you can be prepared for the initial interview. Additionally, we will give you a list of items to gather and review the income, projected property value, and details of your specific situation. The last thing you want is to go through the myriad of interviews, gathering and forwarding of information, only to find out that the information you provided over the phone was inaccurate or harmful to your application. Accuracy is the key to ensuring a timely response and is the only determining factor when their underwriting department reviews your eligibility. HomeHelpOC will save you time and get you as prepared as you can be when applying for these programs. Contact us today and we will do our best to prepare you for the gauntlet.

OC Real Estate Statistics

According to RealtyTrac, as of October 18, 2011 there are 5714 pre-foreclosures listed for sale. These are homes that are delinquent on their payment and a filed Notice Of Default, often includes Short Sales. There are 5249 Trustee Sales scheduled. Trustee sales are homes going to auction through the foreclosure process. The number of bank-owned REO properties for sale is 5109. The amount of properties for sale and currently listed on the MLS is 11,782. The total amount of properties sold over the past 3 months is 13,915.

Page 1 of 512345»