Mike’s Real Estate Show

  Many of you are facing the possibility of foreclosure. Find below links to answer many of your questions with links to articles and tips for homeowners facing financial difficulties.  

1. “How To Avoid Foreclosure” by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):  http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/forms/files/pa426h.pdf  Yes, I know these are long but they get you right to the information you need rather than going through the whole site.

2. “Tips for Avoiding Foreclosure” also by HUD:  http://www.hud.gov/foreclosure/index.cfm

3. “List of Approved Credit Counseling Agencies”  by the U.S. Department of Justice: http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/ccde/cc_approved.htm

4. “You Can Avoid Foreclosure and Keep Your Home” by FHA : http://www.fha.gov/foreclosure/index.cfm

5. “Mortgage Payments Sending You Reeling? Here’s What to Do” by the federal trade commission: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/homes/rea04.shtm

6. “Questions and Answers on Home Foreclosure and Debt Cancellation” by the IRS: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/o,,id=174034,00.html

 Our listeners who find themselves “upside-down”, “sideways” and just plain “Up-against-it”! Now have a web site to explore what might be the only financial move left: A “Short–Sale” through their lender.  Please go to the website below and you’ll be able to gain valueable information as to what a “Short-Sale” actually is and if it is for you. But before you go there we want you to exhaust all possible avenues with your lender. Here are Mike’s Tips for this:

1.  Call YOUR LENDER!! 80% of those now in default and loosing their homes DID NOT call their lender! Many feel their position is hopeless. Don’t despair! Try a call. Call your loan originator or Mortgage Broker who got you the loan. Call your Realtor also. See what they reccomend. You might get a local manager to give you someone at the “Top” or near the Top to help you with your loan issues. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a question from a Seller of a home who wants to buy another Home but thinks he can’t sell is current home? I asked the following questions and gave my commentary to his situation. Blunt as it might be!

Are the loans you have in place “refinances” or the loans you put on the property when you bought it? California is a “Trust Deed” state so the home is the final recourse IF you have the purchase money loans in place. If you have refinanced then you have what is known as a “recourse” loan which means the bank COULD come after other assets. Read the rest of this entry »

The following “Hot-Lines” are supplied by frequent radio show guest and co-host Pete Phillippe, Mgr, Production Branch 707-521-4406.  If you are having difficulty in making your monthly mortgage payments then call the following number: 888-446-6390  If you wish to change or modifiy the “Terms” of your loan, either due to a “re-set” in interest rate or a more than anticipated “margin” hike then give this number a call: 800-669-6650. Read the rest of this entry »

This ”press-release” was issued by Freddie Mac and warns of foreclosure “Hero’s” who are just after your home.  

McLean, VA – Can a custom made video posted to YouTube™ keep troubled borrowers from losing their homes to fraud artists? Freddie Mac aims to find out.

One of the nation’s largest investors in residential mortgages, Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) decided to produce an Internet video dramatizing a common foreclosure fraud scheme after a new survey found one-in-four delinquent borrowers go to the Internet before their bank or lender for information about avoiding foreclosure. Freddie Mac’s anti-fraud video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/AvoidFraud.

Freddie Mac’s two-minute YouTube video uses professional actors to demonstrate how con artists can:

Get copies of foreclosure notices at City Hall or a county courthouse;
Persuade distressed borrowers to give up the deeds in exchange for suspicious promises to solve their financial problems;
Use the deeds to secure new loans for themselves; and,
Let the new loans go into foreclosure, which means the homeowners looking for help can still end up losing their house.
“With fraud reports on the rise, we are using every communication channel out there to warn borrowers about these fraudsters and urge borrowers to call their lenders when they fall behind on their mortgage,” said Ingrid Beckles, vice president, Servicing and Asset Management, Freddie Mac. “By working with our servicers, Freddie Mac is now helping an average of 1,000 delinquent borrowers a week avoid foreclosure through forbearances, repayment plans or other workout options.”

Freddie Mac decided to produce the anti-fraud video for You Tube after a 2007 company-sponsored study that discovered that 25 percent of delinquent borrowers go to the Internet first for mortgage information, only slightly less than those who call their mortgage lender (28 percent) or bank (32 percent). GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, a division of GfK Custom Research North America, conducted the survey of 2,400 borrowers.
Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac purchases single-family and multifamily residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage-related securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible more than 50 million times, ensuring financing for one in six homebuyers and more than four million renters.

President Bush signed into law Thursday a bill creating a temporary tax break for homeowners who are able to persuade lenders to forgive part of their debt, and extends a tax deduction for some families with private mortgage insurance.

The last time we had a market going south for an extended period of time and when “Short-Sales” strode the landscape it was 1989. We had Sellers going to lenders to work out “Short-Sales” and the “Debt Forgiveness” was the double whammy for homeowner’s defaulting on their home loans. The politicans at that time decried this horrible state of affairs, beat their chests, promised “relief” and did Nuttin Honey! So here we are back to the “Double Whammy” days of Seller’s defaulting on loans but since this is the “Steriods Era” we have a defaulting/foreclosure market ON STERIODS!

  But this time the Legislators have come through and given the Homeowner who is defaulting on his loan and trying to work out a “Short-Sale” RELIEF!! For the next three years, the IRS won’t count as income debt forgiven by lenders when our defaulting borrowers negotiate short sales or workouts on their primary residence that involve forgiveness of part of their debt. The amount goes up to $2,000,000! (portend of things to come??!!) but only runs for 3 years.

HR 3648, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, also extends for three years a tax deduction allowing families earning $109,000 or less to deduct all or part their private mortgage insurance premiums from their taxable income. Savings? How about an average of $350 a year? Not great but hey, it helps! Many feel this will give incentive for a Seller to stay put. The Seller can try and work out a deal with their lender and keep their home. Getting the loan amount changed and reduced is the reason this bill now exists. Others think it now opens the flood gate for Seller’s to walk! Don’t have to now worry about getting nailed by debt relief so why not just let it go to foreclosure and put it up for sale as one of the hundreds of “Short-Sales” now flooding the market. Time will tell.  

Our foerclosures seem to be limited to production housing areas and certain zip codes. We have a heavily hispanic area where many, many sub-prime loans dominated the buying landscape 2-3 years ago. It’s been a bloodbath there. Both areas are “Westside” areas with the most affordable price points and primarily first time homebuyer neighborhoods and investor activity. Read the rest of this entry »

 Lawmakers are working overtime crafting bills which might help stave off the wave of foreclosures being predicted as “Sub-Prime” mortgages start the “re-setting” process in the months to come. 2008 will be the vast majority of these resets happening though $40 Billion worth of resets are going to happen this month in December. Many of these bills are predicated upon the Borrower or Debtor going to the Bankruptcy Court as a last resort to stop the foreclosure process. Senator Durbin, Democrat-Ill, has the most aggressive of these currently working its way through the senate. Hot juicy tidbits of this bill are: Read the rest of this entry »

Listeners, This is the web site we spoke of this morning for helping those meeting the rather strict guidelines for the program President Bush put forth this week. You can also call: 888-995-4673 (HOPE).  Here are the guidelines: Read the rest of this entry »

When you buy a foreclosed property  you had better check with your state to see what type of instrument you have: either a mortgage or trust deed. They differ in the foreclosure process and have different remedies for the foreclosed party. When consumers say a “foreclosed on” property they sometimes mistake a property “taken back” by the bank with a Notice of Default (NOD) filling. Do you know which it is? Read the rest of this entry »