Just a quick note to let everyone know…I have re-directed the URL www.coloradoavoidforeclosure.com to www.scotthardinghomes.com/foreclosure-help/. I have done this in order to better serve all my customers – distressed property owners and non-distressed – all in one place. The same valuable information can be found in it’s new location, and I am still available LIVE and IN-Person.
If you have been thinking about buying a home, NOW is the time. In order to take advantage of the Homebuyer Tax Credit ($8000 for qualifying first-time homebuyers, and $6500 for qualifying current homeowners buying another home), you MUST have an accepted contract on or before the April 30th deadline!!
If you have any questions about these Homebuyer Tax Credit Programs, please call me.
Scott Harding
RE/MAX of Cherry Creek – (303) 218-9450
Getting ready to go track down my Short Sale sellers for some needed signatures!
Sometimes, in order to help people avoid foreclosure, and get a short sale done, it becomes necessary to do more legwork than in a regular transaction.
In this particular case, my seller has moved out of their home to a more affordable location and works two jobs to make ends meet.
This means that sometimes it takes extra effort on my part as the listing agent to go out at odd times of day and night to get the job done.
Short Sales!!…not always glamorous, but rewarding to know you’ve helped!!
Scott Harding, Realtor, CDPE
Broker Associate at RE/MAX of Cherry Creek
Yesterday, my team was able to negotiate another Short Sale Approval. If all goes well between here and the closing date, and those is NO reason to think it will not, we will have helped another homeowner facing foreclosure. My team will have helped another family avoid the devastating effects of foreclosure!!
Our Short Sale Seller family, will now be able to begin the path to getting back on their feet financially and emotionally. They will be able to look down the road and see the possibility of owning a home again. Now, they may be able to buy another home in as little as two years, instead of waiting at least seven-years for a foreclosure to loosen its grip on their credit rating.
I am proud of our Sellers for having faith that we could get their Short Sale approved. I am grateful that we have a Buyer’s agent who understands the Short Sale process can take a long time…and took the time to educate his buyer. And, without a doubt, I am extremely proud of my Foreclosure Team at the Galo Garrido Group for working so hard to help solve the foreclosure crisis…one more homeowner at a time.
Scott Harding, Realtor, CDPE
Broker Associate at RE/MAX of Cherry Creek
When speaking to a prospective Short Sale client today, I was alarmed by how resistant this particular distressed property owner was to the idea of me listing her property for sale!! Her biggest concern, by far, seemed to be that she had put all of her remaining life’s savings into trying to keep up the payments on the home she is in jeopardy of losing to foreclosure, and in her words was, “unwilling to put another penny into trying to save that property.”
Many distressed property owners are bombarded by phone calls when they get behind on their mortgage payments. I certainly understand their reluctance to listen to one more mortgage company representative, or loan modification salesman asking for a payment or up-front money to help modify their loan…by the time a Short Sale Expert Realtor like me happens to call them they are worn out and out of money, in most cases!!
What I explained to this kind, but frustrated, woman today is this…I am a Realtor who is a Foreclosure and Short Sale Expert. I understand the process! I LIST the property for sale at a reasonable market price in order to get their home SOLD…BEFORE it goes to foreclosure. And, in every case of Short Sale that I or my team has completed, EVERY commission we have earned is paid by the bank, and not by the distressed property homeowner!!
This is the message…if you are in danger of losing your home to foreclosure, CALL ME, I am an experty, I will LIST your property, negotiate the short sale with the bank, at ZERO COST to you!!
Scott Harding, Realtor, CDPE, (303) 218-9450
RE/MAX of Cherry Creek, Denver, Colorado
quan⋅da⋅ry [kwon-duh-ree, -dree]
–noun, plural -ries.
| a state of perplexity or uncertainty, esp. as to what to do; dilemma. |
While I have seen first-hand the difficulties created by the inflation and subsequent bursting of the housing bubble, I think it is fascinating to sit back and watch as the very people and institutions which caused this mess now struggle with how, and if, there can be ANY way to recover from it all.
Here is an interesting article explaining the Obama Administration’s latest and greatest ideas for fixing the problem.
Treasury Weighs Fixes to a Program to Fend Off Foreclosures
The Obama administration plans next week to revamp its $75 billion program aimed at sparing homeowners from foreclosure, streamlining the documents required of borrowers seeking lowered payments, according to financial industry executives and others who have met in recent days with Treasury officials.The latest effort to accelerate the Making Home Affordable program — now widely viewed as a disappointment — comes as the administration faces growing pressure to do less for banks and more for households struggling with double-digit unemployment.
The changes by the Treasury Department are expected to include greater assistance for homeowners no longer able to make mortgage payments because their paychecks have shrunk, said banking industry representatives privy to the department’s deliberations who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of alienating government officials.
The Treasury was still debating the method, these banking representatives said, looking at either direct cash assistance or a grace period in which borrowers could postpone payments. That component may not be announced next week, but would follow soon after.
Housing experts said the anticipated changes would probably cause mortgage companies to move more quickly to lower payments for borrowers, though perhaps at the cost of prolonging the foreclosure crisis. Requiring less documentation of borrowers’ incomes carries a risk of lending to people who simply cannot afford their homes, increasing the likelihood of subsequent delinquency.
“They are turning this from a legitimate program to try to save people who have the ability to hang on their homes into one that says, forget the willingness and ability to pay, let’s just postpone foreclosures,” said Edward Pinto, a mortgage industry consultant who served as chief credit officer at Fannie Mae in the late 1980s.
While declining to provide details, the Treasury confirmed its plans to alter the program at a meeting next week with mortgage companies — servicers, in industry parlance.
“We expect to issue guidance to servicers next week to expedite conversions of current trial modifications and provide guidance on documentation,” the Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial institutions, Michael S. Barr, wrote in response to a reporter’s questions. “We are continually reviewing our housing plan to ensure that it promotes stability.”
The changes to be introduced next week are unlikely to address what has emerged as a potent factor propelling a wave of foreclosures: the roughly 15 million borrowers who are said to be underwater, meaning that they owe more than their homes are worth. But the Treasury is actively considering ways to attack this problem, financial industry representatives said.
Many economists and mortgage experts have concluded that banks must ultimately forgive loan balances to restore equity to underwater borrowers. Otherwise, growing numbers will walk away from their homes and accept foreclosure rather than make payments on properties in which they no longer own a stake.
The Treasury has resisted calls to push lenders to write off loan balances, concerned that such a course would either threaten the health of banks by forcing them to swallow billions of dollars in write-offs or cost taxpayers additional money.
The administration has instead focused on ramping up its existing program, which pays mortgage companies that lower mortgage payments. The vast majority of loan modifications to date have lowered payments by dropping interest rates while leaving balances untouched.
When President Obama outlined the program nearly a year ago, he said it would prevent three million to four million foreclosures by 2012. As of December, mortgage companies had modified 759,000 loans on a trial basis, typically lasting three to five months. But only about 31,000 homeowners had received so-called permanent loan modifications, which lower payments for five years.
“There’s a great degree of frustration about how this has been going,” said Alan M. White, a professor at Valparaiso University Law School.
The changes expected next week are intended to alleviate one roadblock: the voluminous paperwork mortgage companies must process to qualify borrowers for lower payments.
Homeowners complain that mortgage companies routinely lose their documents, forcing them to repeatedly resend files. Mortgage companies have acknowledged problems, while also blaming homeowners for failing to provide required documents.
The Treasury is likely to alter the program by making pay stubs an acceptable means of verifying income, rather than requiring tax documents, said the people close to the deliberations.
One reason that mortgage companies are having such difficulty processing paperwork, they acknowledge, is that they lack adequate experience. During the housing boom, major institutions like Countrywide (now part of Bank of America) and Washington Mutual (since folded into JPMorgan Chase) marketed themselves as easy lenders motivated to approve mortgages with little fuss. They specialized in mortgages that required little or no documentation, sometimes called liar loans, which led borrowers and mortgage brokers to exaggerate incomes and assets.
Some experts fear that the Obama administration is now so eager to slow foreclosures that it is willing to employ the same sorts of loose lending standards that delivered the crisis.
“It definitely does lead to the question, are they substituting liar loan modifications for liar loans?” Mr. Pinto said.
Consumer advocates welcomed the prospect of a new effort aimed at accelerating loan modifications, while questioning whether the proposed changes would be significant.
“The results are dismal so far,” said Julia R. Gordon, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending in Washington. “We need a game changer.”
Throughout the financial system and within government, a sense is taking hold that the only effective way to stem foreclosures is to write off loan balances.
“We realized early on that if we don’t include principal treatment, you just don’t get the buy-in from the borrower to stay with it,” said Paul A. Koches, general counsel for Ocwen Financial, a major mortgage company that claims conspicuous success in converting trial loan modifications to permanent arrangements.
As of mid-December, Ocwen had turned about 40 percent of its trial modifications into permanent arrangements, according to the Treasury. By comparison, JPMorgan Chase had converted only 4 percent of its trial loan modifications into permanent status; the rate was less than 2 percent at Bank of America.
Servicers merely collect mortgage bills for a fee. Most loans are owned by investors. They are increasingly inclined to accept losses by writing down loan balances in exchange for greater assurance that borrowers will be able to make payments.
“Investors are willing to put real money on the table toward refinancing borrowers from bad mortgages into good mortgages,” said Micah S. Green, a partner based in Washington at the law firm Patton Boggs, who represents a consortium of institutional mortgage holders.
The Obama administration has begun to consider a new push to reduce loan balances, while debating the proper mechanism, according to banking officials.
“They are looking at equity forgiveness,” said a financial industry executive who speaks regularly with Treasury officials. “There have been a lot of meetings on that.”
But the details are messy, requiring a complex balancing of competing interests. Not least, the owners of first mortgages are unwilling to accept losses by writing down loan balances unless the pain is shared by the owners of second mortgages.
Many second mortgages, including home equity loans, are owned by the very banks that are in the middle of determining whether and how to modify first mortgages — servicers like Bank of America and Chase. For them, taking losses on second mortgages would entail stripping away billions of dollars in assets from their balance sheets.
“The banks are kind of in denial that second mortgages aren’t going to get paid in full,” said Professor White of Valparaiso. “Treasury has to find a way to compel the banks to take a hit.”
Hmmm?? I don’t know about you…but, I don’t think these ideas will EVER work unless the banks and the politicians who created this mess are asked to suffer alongside the people who were so devastated by their schemes and scams!!
Please Comment!!
Scott Harding, Realtor, Short Sale and Distressed Property Expert
Just a heads up…you want to ask your next potential Short Sale Seller IF their orignal loan(s) to purchase the property were FHA loans.
Bank of America, and possibly others, are now requiring certain FHA-specific documents to be signed by the Seller for inclusion in their Short Sale package, as well as specific language to be added into the Listing Agreement and Purchase Agreement.
This just happened on one of our Short Sales with Bank of America and wanted to pass this along.
Again, is this just meant as a heads up as another good qualifying question to ask “up front” of your Short Sale Seller.
I couldn’t help but think of the words of my short sale mentor when I received buyer’s notification of cancellation on one of my pending short sales.
When referring to the ups and downs of short sales, he always says, “don’t take any of it personally”!!
And in this case, I’m certainly not going to take it personally. In fact, I’m just going to head into the office tomorrow morning, pick up the phone and tell the buyer’s agent of the first back-up offer, that we’d like to accept THEIR offer.
Keep smiling 
Working with Wells Fargo – ASC on our most recent Short Sale negotiation has been very frustrating, to say the least.
As those of you who have had experience with Short Sales know, all too well, the Short Sale process of dealing with a bank’s negotiator can be very trying.
In this current negotiation, we “thought” we were at the point of final approval from Wells – ASC on the first mortgage. The negotiator gave us conditional approval, based on receiving approval from the second mortgage holder, Litton, and gave exactly 48 hours to respond to him with Litton’s approval…during the Christmas holiday.
We did all we could to immediatley contact Litton to get their approval, and were able to do so in a miraculous two and a half day time frame.
But, alas, it was that extra half day that gave the Wells – ASC negotiator the nerve to “kick out” our entire file from the system, forcing us to go back to the beginning point of re-submitting out entire file, waiting for a new negotiator to be assigned and start the whole process over again!!
Has any one else had this same type of frustrating experience? Share your frustration here, if you have.
Looks like we may be close to an extension, and possible expansion, of the Homebuyer Tax Credit.
Here’s a story from the Washington Post:
Extension of Homebuyers’ Credit Has Wide Senate Support
By Dina ElBoghdady
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Senate has reached a broad bipartisan consensus on extending a lucrative tax credit for first-time home buyers beyond the Nov. 30 deadline and expanding it to include some current homeowners, according to the Senate’s Democratic leader.
Under the plan, people buying their first home would receive an $8,000 tax credit if they sign a contract by April 30 and close on it by June 30, the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said on Wednesday. Homeowners shopping for a new primary residence would be eligible for a $6,500 tax credit if they owned their home for five consecutive years in the previous eight.
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