Frank Collins asked:




The home loan industry has changed stated income loans requirements if you don’t know yet. Most lenders now want full documentation loans and borrowers qualifying by using traditional debt to income ratio calculations. This directly affects the high cost housing markets like California, Florida, and the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut as well as parts of Maryland, Virginia, and Massachusetts. The reason is a lot of homeowners in these markets used adjustable rate mortgages and qualified by using stated income, stated assets and some instances no verification of employment.

The adjustments for adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) will continue through 2010 and into 2011. Most homeowners will be unable to refinance due to loss of equity in their home, their job, or other hardship. So, their best option is to negotiate with their loan servicing company or let the home go into foreclosure. Homeowners need to understand that when they send in a payment to the lender or loan servicer, that is their primary business to collect debts not negotiate with the public to change terms or modify interest rates. Furthermore, in a majority of the cases the borrowers do not get through to the right person or worse yet call them back in a timely fashion until they are close to foreclosure.

If a borrower has a truthful hardship and the bank is slow to react or refuses to listen what happens is a foreclosure results and the borrowers credit is hurt for seven years. When you are facing this situation and getting nowhere with a business and you don’t get the results you need in a timely manner, you should hire an attorney who specializes in foreclosures and loan modifications!

There are many stories from borrowers who say they most banks will not discuss your situation unless you are behind two to four months in payments. Once that occurs, your hard earned credit scores from years of being responsible are wiped out. Furthermore, you may never be eligible for a home loan at market rates for quite some time.

The solution is to use a loan modification company that actually does have an attorney on staff to get answers and responses quickly so your situation is resolved quickly. You end up keeping your home, getting a loan modification, reducing your interest rate to an affordable level, and in some cases reducing your loan principal but there’s no guarantees. An experienced debt representative from the attorney backed loan modification company will call you to see if you do qualify based on certain criteria.

Although, some firms will take your money even if you don’t qualify. Those are the ones you have to watch out for. They hit you when you’re down. Work with a loan modification company that has success, years of experience, paralegals and an attorney on staff. You will feel more at ease knowing you have the best team working on a solution for you whether it be a short sale, a deed in lieu of foreclosure, tax ramifications of short sale, or a loan modification.

A lawyer who specializes in negotiating with lenders can achieve magical results especially if they find RESPA or TILA violations to use for leverage. A real estate attorney understands how to speak their language and get the lender to negotiate. When a homeowners uses an Attorney, the lender’s loss mitigation and legal department become very receptive and responsive. Get a good legal team on your side to stop foreclosure and get a loan modification!

Sara

Carrie Reeder asked:




Getting a home loan with bad credit has actually never been easier than it is today. Here are some tips to help improve your chances of success:

Find A Good Real Estate Deal – If you can find a property that has some equity in it when you purchase it, you may have an easier time getting financing on that property. To the lender it may be almost as good as if you had some kind of down payment on the property. Some lenders will consider the properties loan to value ratio when they consider the loan. Talk to your mortgage broker and see if this factor could help you get qualified.

Try Creative Financing – See if the seller would be willing to carry back a second mortgage on the home. This is where you set up a contract or agreement with the seller that you will pay them monthly payments, including interest of, let’s say, $150/mo on $10,000 dollars of the price of the property, as a second mortgage. Then, to make it nice for the seller, perhaps put in the agreement that the entire amount is due in full within 2 years or something. That should give you plenty of time to refinance and then the seller doesn’t feel permanently locked into the contract.

Save For A Down Payment – There are lenders who may be able to qualify you for 100% financing, even with low credit scores, but your interest rate will be much lower if you can put even 3-5% down. If possible, try to save as much as possible for a down payment. Sometimes it may be better to wait about 3-6 months to get into a new home loan if it means the difference of having a down payment. The interest rate could be quite a bit better because of that factor. However, if you don’t want to have a down payment, you can always refinance later for a lower interest rate.

Shop Around – There are some mortgage brokers out there that you will talk to who will say, “I can’t help you, and if I can’t help you, no one can help you.” But, if you persist in talking with other brokers, 10 minutes later you could be talking to someone who knows a way to help you, no problem. Most brokers feel that if they can’t help you, no one can. However, the ironic thing is that each broker is varied in the types of loans they can do. Some brokers have relationships with flexible mortgage lenders and others do not. I recommend applying online to mortgage services that will submit your application to multiple lenders. That way, your credit is only pulled once, and you can analyze offers from multiple lenders. To see our list of recommended bad credit mortgage lenders, visit here recommended bad credit
mortgage lenders

Improve Your Credit Score – There are some really simple ways to improve your credit score without spending too much time at it. All 3 major credit bureaus now have areas on their websites where you can dispute incorrect items on your credit. The process is very quick and easy. Make your current payments on time to help your score. Keep your number of credit inquiries down. Too many inquiries can hurt your credit score. If you want to buy a house, don’t apply for any credit cards, auto loans or any other type of loan if you can avoid it. For your reference, here are the links to all 3 major credit bureau’s websites: www.abcloanguide.com/credithelp.shtml

If you really do want to get into a home, don’t let bad credit stop you. There are lenders out there who can help you, it just takes some persistence. Apply with multiple lenders. Like I said, apply with mortgage services that specialize in bad credit mortgage loans and will submit your application to multiple lenders with only having one credit inquiry.

Duane

T. asked:


My soon to be husband and I are renting a home in our area and paying $1100.00 a month in rent. (This is quite a bit for the area that we live in) We are wanting to buy a home and feel that we have sufficient income (around $90,000) to own a home. The problem is that our credit scores are in the high 500′s. We have been told that we could qualify for a home loan but may have a higher interest rate. We have little debt between the two of us and have a down payment set aside from a family member. Just wondering if anyone has obtained a mortage loan with simular circumstances?

EDMUND