Roseville Loan Guy » roseville loan mod

Fannie & Freddie making important policy changes…

Greg Cowart — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:57:39 +0000

If you’re unemployed and in danger of going into default on your mortgage the nation’s Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE’s), Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, are making some important changes to their foreclosure and forbearance (when the bank suspends collection of payments for a period of time, kind of like a timeout on making payments) policies.

The new rules will direct mortgage servicers (who you make your payment to) go through a forbearance process when the homeowner has lost their job before moving into foreclosure territory. Under the new rules these services have automatic authority to grant homeowners on unemployment a full six months forbearance and can go to the GSE’s for approval of another six months if the homeowner’s unemployment income lasts for longer than six months.

That’s adding up to a year to get back on track before any sort of foreclosure process begins!

There are some exceptions to the new rules however. The house must be a primary residence, not an investment or second home. And the mortgage must be backed by one of the GSE’s themselves, not FHA or VA, and not a private/portfolio loan held by the bank themselves.

That covers the basics. But, of course, there are some more details that might affect you. If you have any questions, please ask! I’m always here to help…

Greg

Credit Makeover In Five Steps

Greg Cowart — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:56:24 +0000

My friends at local credit repair agency, Blue Water Credit Repair, gave me this GREAT five step path to a credit makeover. While I know all of this myself I can’t take credit for putting it into words (and Blue Water taught me a bit of this stuff anyways). Here you go, a free five step outline to a complete credit makeover!

CREDIT MAKEOVER IN FIVE STEPS

A lot of homeowners have the mind set that making payments on time automatically equates to good credit and credit scores.

Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
While paying your bills on time accounts for a large portion of your credit score, there’s still a lot more to it. In fact, paying your bills on time only drives 1/3rd of the points in your credit score, which means that 2/3rds of your score has nothing to do with making on time payments.
Five main categories go into making up your overall credit score calculation. Let’s briefly review each category and how much they count:

1. Payment History – The Most Important Category

This category is pretty self-explanatory. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you pay your bills on time, you’ll do well in this category. Likewise, if you have a history of late payments, collections, chargeoffs, public records, etc. – you’re not going to do so well in this category.

In addition, the number of negative items on your credit reports is important. The more incidents of credit transgressions, the more your score will suffer. And if you have recent negative information that will punish your scores more than if they are several years old.

2. Debt – A Very Close Second

The most important non-payment category in your credit score is, by far, the amount of debt that you carry. And while your installment debt (auto loans and mortgages) are factored into your scores, it’s really your credit card debt that’s most important.

This includes anything from Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, gas cards and/or retail credit cards like Macy’s or Target. The balances that you carry on your credit cards can affect your scores almost as much as whether or not you make your payments on time.

This category calculates the proportion of balances to credit limits on your revolving credit card accounts – also referred to as ˜revolving utilization’. Simply put, the higher your revolving utilization percentage, the fewer points you will earn in this category.

So what is revolving utilization and how is it calculated?

To determine your revolving utilization, you’ll need to add up all of your current balances and all of your current credit limits on your open revolving credit accounts (except for Home Equity Lines of Credit). This will give you a total balance and a total credit limit. Divide the total balances by the total credit limit and then multiply that number by 100. This will give you your total revolving utilization percentage.

See the example provided below:

Remember, the lower your utilization percentage, the more points you’ll earn and the higher your credit score will be. To earn the most possible points in this category, you should try to keep your revolving utilization at 10% or less. If you can’t reach 10%, just remember that the lower the better. While 50% is better than 60%, 40% is better than 50% and so on.

How you pay your bills and your revolving utilization are by far the most important factors used to determine your credit scores. They account for 2/3rd of the points in your score. That’s a hefty chunk! Needless to say, if you don’t do well in both of these categories, your scores aren’t going to be very good regardless of how you do in the remaining categories.

While the remaining categories are worth fewer points, they are still very important for consumers who want to earn the highest scores possible, certainly a requirement in today’s difficult credit environment:

3. The Age of Your Credit History - Secondary Category

Don’t confuse this with your age. It’s the age of your credit reports. Basically, the score is looking to see if you have a lengthy history of managing your credit obligations. The age of your credit history is determined
by the “date opened” on the oldest account listed on your credit report. The older your credit report, the more points you will earn in this category.

There’s really not much you can do in this category except wait it out. As your reports get older, you will gradually earn more points. This means that you should never try and get old, good accounts removed from your credit reports.

You want the history!

4. New Credit/Inquiries – Secondary Category

When you apply for credit you are giving the lender permission to pull your credit reports and credit scores. Each time this happens, your credit report will reflect what’s called an “inquiry.” To perform well in this
category, you should really only apply for credit when you need it.

5. Credit Mix – Secondary Category

What types of accounts do you have? You will do well in this category if you have a nice diverse list of different types of accounts in your credit report. This includes mortgages, auto loans, installment loans, credit cards, etc.

If your credit report is dominated by one type of account (or lack of others), this could negatively affect the number of points that you earn from this category.

That pretty much covers the factors that are used in determining your credit scores. Let’s do a quick recap:

1. How you pay your bills – on time is good, late is bad

2. How much you owe your creditors – keep your credit card debt low (10% utilization is optimal)

3. How long you’ve had credit – the longer the better

4. How often you apply for credit – apply only when you really need it

5. Account mix – diversity is good
If you can stick by these five key principles, you should be well on your way to healthy credit and credit scores.

Is the “loan mod” business dead? Is that a bad thing?

Greg Cowart — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 01:25:41 +0000

As of January 31, 2011; the FTC has banned consulting firms from charging up-front fees for negotiating modifications of residential mortgage loans. In Nevada, the Mortgage Lending Commissioner said the constraints of the federal rule “will have substantial impact” on the number of licensed consultants for mortgage loan modifications. His office counts 39 licensed loan modification firms with 185 licensed associates in Nevada (I would guess there was that many in the Sacramento area alone a year ago).

Critics say that the ruling favors large banks, which don’t want advocates representing homeowners. However while there might be a small grain of truth to that, the ruling really favors consumers in my opinion. As one would suspect, unethical mortgage modification firms often fail to do any work after collecting fees, and the FTC rule will prohibit mortgage modification firms from being paid in advance so this can not (legally) happen ever again. What some may not expect is the vast majority of these companies should be considered unethical. Most of them have little to no experience in the business and if they so it’s usually that they were mortgage originators for the predatory lenders than put so many people into very bad situations during the real estate boom of 2004-07, but couldn’t get the proper licensing required to originate mortgage loans in today’s regulatory environment. Taking advantage of people on their way in (giving them the predatory loan) and again on the way out (charging thousands up front to try and modify their mortgage)…

Greg

Top 10 rules for handling collection agencies

Greg Cowart — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:39:58 +0000

1. Realize that Credit collection agents are usually working on commissions. This is a JOB to them and the more they get you to pay, the larger their paycheck. They will be persistent and more often than not MEAN, be prepared.

2. Don’t argue with the agent, because you will lose. This is what the do all day, every day and they have heard every excuse in the book. They are prepared with an answer to everything. State your case but don’t argue.

3. It usually doesn’t help to ask to speak to someone’s boss. In this case, talking to the supervisor normally won’t help (in fact it could be worse). Remember, he ended up with his job because he was good at what he did and was able to squeeze every dime out of past consumers who had disputes.

4. Never give information out over the telephone to a collection agency. This includes your driver’s license number, social security number, debit card numbers, check numbers, credit card numbers, or bank account numbers. For the most part they should already have this information.

5. Use a money order or certified funds to make all payments. Make a copy of it and staple it to the bill.

6. Keep records of everything (including dates of phone calls and what was said), and make sure that anything sent through the mail has a return receipt.

7. Make sure you get written confirmation of any deals or negotiated payoffs. Make sure you have something that says the collection has been satisfied.

8. Never take their first offer when negotiating a lower payment as they will always call back with a better offer.

9. Use powerful sentences like, “This is all I can afford to pay,” rather than “this is all I am going to pay.” This is a much better negotiation tactic when you are trying to lower the payoff with the collection agent.

10. When repairing your credit, it is a good rule to keep copies of all your credit reports. That way you can track the process of what has been repaired and make sure that what you negotiated is coming to pass.

While it would be impossible to include everything there is to know about dealing with collection agents, these 10 tips will almost always result in more money in your pocket and less in theirs. I help all of my clients through this process as needed, don’t hessitate to call or e-mail if you have any questions…

~Greg

“We want to streamline and standardize the short sale process”

Greg Cowart — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:39:08 +0000

News on the short-sale front? News straight from Washington? It looks like the long rumored short sale streamline process is finally on it’s way. This could be big news for Sacramento and the entire California Real Estate Market. Check out all the information in this article from the NY Times.

“Walking away” from your mortgage? Maybe think twice…

Greg Cowart — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:08:52 +0000

With so many homeowners underwater I hear daily about people “walking away” from their homes, as if it was such an easy decision to make. Maybe it is? With it becoming so commonplace these days maybe it is an easy decision to walk away from your home and mortgage when you owe more than your home is worth. What was once considered an EXTREMELY reckless move is not only tolerated these days, it’s being encouraged… Even amongst those that currently are not behind and have no problem making their payments. Even the so-called “experts” in the media are suggesting that homeowners will come out ahead if they stop making payments on their loans. Are they right? Lets look at this from a true mortgage planner (and a financial planer’s) point of view.

Forget for a moment the vast legal and moral reasons to keep your home and make the payments you agreed to when you bought (or refinanced) it in the first place, even though those reasons have become easier to dismiss in today’s world, and realize there are some very real consequences to defaulting on your mortgage, not limited to killing your credit score and making it so you can not buy a home (and lose all of the REAL benefits of being a homeowner) for at least 2 to 3 years. In the short-term it seems obvious, why keep making payments on something that isn’t even worth the debt that is carries? One big piece of the American financial system is how much leverage is built into the housing market and being a homeowner. People who wouldn’t consider borrowing money to invest in anything else gladly pile on the leverage when it comes to Real Estate, often borrowing close to the full purchase price of the home (a great financial strategy if used correctly). Of course that is because most of us don’t have the cash to buy a home outright – and if we did it would be the worst financial decision we could make, but that is another story for another day - but however our homes are an asset like any other. Like all assets, values go up and down and leverage magnifies both losses and gains.

Lets look at a home that sold in Roseville during the height of the market in 2005 or 2006, it sold for $450,000 and the family put 10% down when escrow closed obtaining a conforming mortgage of about $405,000. Lets assume all homes in Roseville have dropped about 25% in value since, and the home is worth now $337,500. If this homeowner stops making payments and “walks away” from the home they automatically lose their $45,000 down payment, all interest paid, and principal payments as well. A huge financial loss. People looking at this option sometimes still seem to think walking away from their home and the mortgage is the right move, capping the losses there. The Sacramento real estate market is not good for sellers and probably wont be for a while and they can probably rent the nicer house next door for less than their current mortgage payment. In a simple world this makes sense, but our world is not that simple.

This decision assumes a static housing market where home prices are fixed at their current low values (real estate always appreciates when viewed over the longer-term period and we’re already seeing prices stabilize and start to rise since last Summer). Everyone knows the ABC’s of investing, buy low sell high, but just like the stock market people do it backwards. Selling on the bad news and buying when prices have come back up, in this case it’s no different with Real Estate. People are essentially “selling” low, the exact opposite of what they should. Assuming prices continue to stabilize and appreciate at a modest annual rate of 5% (the National Association of Realtors data shows average appreciation of 6% historically, even taking into account the huge drop in home prices of the last 2-3 years) until the loan is paid off in 2035, this Roseville home will be worth approximately $1,200,000. Of course this homeowner might not want to wait 25 more years, they may want to sell 10 years from now, when this home will be worth $549,750, a decent gain of more than $200,000 more than today’s value, and still $100,000 more than the original purchase price. Which we’ll remember was purchased at the height of the market back in 2005. In my opinion that doesn’t seem too long to realize a $200,000 gain compared to almost a $100,000 loss by walking away today. Especially considering this investment is your home, the place you live, where you keep your stuff, raise you kids, etc. There’s a real good chance you’d been keeping it for 10 years anyways.

Then there is the opportunity cost of walking away with home prices at the bottom of the market and likely to go up. By the time those walking away today are again credit-worthy enough to obtain financing for a new home they’ll have missed years of appreciation, low interest rates, and today’s rental rates will have gone up. Possibly stuck as a renter forever because they can’t afford the current home prices at current rates five years from now. Before long their rent will assuredly be more than they original mortgage payment was and there will be nothing they can do about it.

In the end I hope you see the case for staying in many situations, and that that case is far more compelling that first it seems. Not to mention fulfilling one’s obligations is just the right thing to do. So there is more than just financial reasons for doing so (and we didn’t even take into consideration all of the lost tax benefits of not owning a home, higher interest rates paid on all other credit and other accounts, such as utilities, chance of not getting a job, a deficiency judgment levied by the current lender, massive IRS fees, etc that we won’t have to face/lose if we make the decision not to “walk away”). If anything I recommend homeowners look into one of the government’s new refinance programs to take advantage of tofaday’s low rates, or talk to their lenders to try and get a loan modification or modified payment plan. In reality it’s the monthly payment that matters most right now, and that payment was just fine when your home was worth more, if you can get a lower payment it’s just the obvious and right thing to do.

~ Greg

Foreclosure vs Short-sale… Are you being fed bad information???

Greg Cowart — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:21:15 +0000

A lot people call me each month to let me know that a short sale is much better on your credit than a foreclosure and that it will not delay buying another home. While it is true that a short sale can be a little easier on your credit score, it will be treated the same way as a foreclosure on your credit would be when you want to purchase a home. As with all situations, there are varying rules for each individual borrower and it’s true that FHA does not automatically disqualify someone from obtaining an FHA insured mortgage for any period of time after that person goes through the short-sale process, but keep in mind, FHA does not make loans, banks do. Every bank has their own guidlines overlayed onto every situation.

While I believe a short sale is a much better situation for our local economy as a whole it is not a guarantee that the seller can run out and buy another home today. In fact it’s quite the opposite: IF you were not forced from your existing home due to a job transfer or dramatic illness and therefore proceeded with a short sale, you are probably not going to get a new home loan for a MINIMUM of 24 months and more realistically 36 months.

Why am I harping on this issue so much? There is a lot of bad information being thrown around in the local real estate and mortgage world, especially in marketing (suprise suprise). Those of us that are “teachers” in the Sacramento real estate and mortgage land need to regain the trust of the home buying/borrowing community. Over the last few years, many in the general public feel they have been taken advantage of by lenders, realtors and just about everyone else. Now is a time to give good, honest advice to people: Even if it is not exactly what they want to hear and it does not meet their immediate goals.

I’m confident that as time rolls on, we will see a softening of these rules. Please feel free to call me with any questions.

The Long & Short

Greg Cowart — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:00:42 +0000

In today’s “real world” a short sail should be a no-brainer. A win-win for all parties. Allowing the seller to avoid foreclosure, the buyer to get a great deal on the sale of the home, and the bank to get out of the deal without the considerable loss and expense of foreclosure proceedings. While the process is getting both better and easier we’re still not quite where we need to be. Here are some things to remember in doing it right…

BUYERS…

Have your agent do some research. Make sure the current owner’s agent is experienced with short sales. Less than half of short sales result in closed escrows so it’s important to make sure you are working with the right short sale seller or you could just be wasting a whole lot of time, possibly letting other opportunities pass while you wait.

Listen to your agent when he/she tells you what an appropriate offer is. The severe lowball offer just isn’t going to fly. Local short sale experts say to make an offer no less than 10% below current market value. And make sure to GET PROQUALIFIED before you make your offer (this goes for short sales and any other real estate transaction).

Patience is a virtue. Especially important when dealing with banks on short sales. We already talked about how important it is to work with a listing agent that is experienced with short sales but even if you do this is going to take some time. Most of my clients end up waiting a minimum of 3 weeks, up to 3 months, for the bank to get back to them on their offer. A good buyers agent will also put in a clause allowing the buyer to search for and bid on other homes while they wait. There is no reason to miss a great opportunity just because the banks are months behind of short sale offers…

SELLERS…

Be ready to provide evidence of a hardship before going to your lender with a short sale request. It’s more than likely that the bank will not approve your request just because you are upside down on your mortgage. Be able to support some sort of financial hardship. The most common would be the loss of a job, medical bills, death in the family, or divorce.

Get started in conversation with your lender ASAP. Once you have made the decision to try and sell you home by way of short sale let them know! This can possible shorten the process by months and you may end up one of the lucky ones knowing what the bank will accept in short sale before you actually get an offer on the house.

Share the pain. Even if it’s just a little. Odds are the bank is taking a bath costing them tens of thousands of dollars. Sweeten the pot for them. Maybe offer them a couple grand on top of the sale. If it is what it takes to get you out of a foreclosure or a loan on a house worth tens of thousands of dollars more than the house is worth, it just might be worth it.

That’s it for now….

Sincerely,

Greg :: The Roseville Loan Expert

Sacramento Ca, leads the way in battling Loan Mod scammers in “Operation Loan Lies”

Greg Cowart — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:16:34 +0000

I don’t have too much for today’s post (there’s a lot coming this week) but look at this press release from the Federal Trade Commission on “Operation Loan Lies”; the new project to reign in on the loan modification industry. An industry that, if you read my blog often you know, I don’t think highly of…

FTC Leads “Operation Loan Lies” to Stop Fraud and Help Distressed Homeowners

~ Greg Cowart :: Roseville Loan Expert

Today is Black Wednesday for the seconday mortgage market…

Greg Cowart — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:28:05 +0000

Today we have seen the entire bond market take a huge hit. Mortgage Backed Securities and Treasuries are way down, and I mean WAAAAAYYYYYY down. We’ve seen the market off by 2 full basis points. Meaning as much as 0.75% to rates from just yesterday. I will keep an eye on things as they progress and let you know. For the time being, I’m just hoping they stop the bleeding.

~Greg :: Roseville Loan Expert

P.S. Rates are still very good. Anything sub-6% is very good and interest rates are definitely still in the 5′s. It may be that the days of fixed rates in the high 4′s are over, possibly forever. It will take quite a lot for mortgage rates to get back to where they were after the massive sell-off in bond land today.