Posts Tagged ‘short sale’

Altisource Portfolio Solutions, a provider of knowledge process services related to real estate mortgage portfolio management, asset recovery management and customer relationship management, announces the addition of short sale and deed-in-lieu services to its line of services available to mortgage lenders and servicers. The expansion leverages Altisource’s 20 years of experience in default and asset management to provide lenders and servicers with another essential component to enhance their loss mitigation programs.Read more

I’ve been writing on this blog that housing short sales may become more popular this year as loan modification programs fail to help as many struggling homeowners as once hoped.

In a short sale, a homeowner sells for less than outstanding mortgage debt on a property.

In a recent story I wrote for the Register’s Sunday Business section, two real estate agents debate whether banks are already making short sales easier to complete:

Susan Piazza, an agent with First Team Estates in Newport Beach who focuses on short sales, said she is seeing lenders reduce the time they take to approve a short-sale offer to six weeks, down from three to four months.

Lenders have changed their attitude within the past few months as a loan modification program pushed by the Obama administration has failed to help as many borrowers as hoped, Piazza said.

And some lenders are improving their computer systems to better handle delinquent mortgages, just like they automated the loan underwriting process during housing’s better days, she said.

“I think you will see short sales become automated also,” Piazza said.

Of course, the short-sale process runs smoother, she said, when sellers get their paperwork in order: pay stubs, tax returns, bank statements and a hardship letter.

The Southern California Multiple Listing Service reports 530 short sales closed in October, up 70 percent from the average during the first three months of the year. Still, there were more foreclosures (763) in October and more loans that started the foreclosure process with a notice of default (2,152), according to MDA DataQuick.

And some brokers are unconvinced most banks are moving faster on short sales.

Veronica Hicks, an agent with Condos etc. in Newport Beach, said lenders are dragging their feet with short sales in twin condo towers in Irvine known as the Marquee. She represents owners who have received cash offers on their condos but banks have been silent for months, Hicks said.

“I don’t know what their motivation is not to clean these up,” she said.

Hicks speculates lenders may be reluctant to recognize losses, since the units once were worth $800,000 and now are getting offers for half that value.

She said if lenders are simply reluctant to take losses, than things are “not going to get any better for a long time.”

What do you think?

Post from: Mortgage Insider

A short sale is a transaction where a seller sells the property for less that what was owed. Short sale is increasingly becoming a common option to sell a house in San Jose and rest of the Bay area. If you went through a short sale you could have this question – Do I now qualify for a loan? FHA recently came with a guideline on this question. Below are the highlights:

You are not eligible for a new FHA mortgage if you pursued a short sale agreement on your principal residence simply to

• Take advantage of declining market conditions, and
• Purchase, at a reduced price, a similar or superior property within a reasonable commuting distance.

However you could be  considered eligible for a new FHA-insured mortgage if

• You were current on their mortgage and other installment debts at the time of the short sale of your previously owned property, and
• The proceeds from the short sale serve as payment in full.

If you were in default on your mortgage at the time of the short sale  you are not eligible for a new FHA-insured mortgage for three years from the date of the short sale. Lenders may make exceptions to this rule under certain circumstances.

This guidance is effective immediately.

Related post - FHA Loan requirements for San Jose and Bay Area

If you had a short sale and would like to find out what are your options with regard to buying a new home contact me. I will be glad to explore all options for you.

Photo courtesy www.Photoxpress.com

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(Update: D.A. declines to comment.)

Investigators with the Orange County district attorney early Thursday morning searched three Ladera Ranch homes believed tied to a foreclosure rescue scam.

Agents served search warrants on two homes on Roshelle Lane and one on Merrill Hill. The homes are connected to Terence Green Sr. and Stefano Marrero of Home Relief Services and Christopher Diener of the Diener Law Firm. (Photo by Ken Steinhardt. Home on Roshelle.)

The three men were not immediately available for comment.

Attorney General Jerry Brown last week said he has filed suit against the men, alleging that they charged homeowners $4,000 in upfront fees and then failed to get them cheaper payments on their home loans.

Brown also charged that the companies sometimes promised to arrange a short sale — when a lender agrees to accept less than the debt owed on a property — but instead attempted to use customers’ personal information for the companies’ own benefit.

The District Attorney’s Office declined to comment. After getting an anonymous tip, a Register photographer took photos of agents entering the homes.

Alan Gordon, assistant chief trial counsel of the California State Bar, confirmed that the Orange County district attorney and some other agencies served search warrants today. He said the bar has been “working closely with several agencies” investigating potential loan mod scams.

Earlier in the week, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas told a group of community leaders that his office is expanding investigations into real estate fraud.

Elizabeth Henderson, an assistant district attorney who spoke at the same event in Garden Grove, said 30% of the cases handled by the office’s major fraud unit are tied to real estate, up from an average 10% in past years. Here’s more of what I wrote about her talk and subsequent interview:

The district attorney has two prosecutors, two investigators and a paralegal focused just on real estate fraud, she said.

The real estate squad is paid for, at least partially, with money from a $3 fee on the filing of certain real estate documents that was approved by the Board of Supervisors earlier this year.

Henderson was more blunt in her speech and in a later interview.

“We want to send people to jail,” she said.

The issue is not just that someone might lose $2,000 or more, but that his or her house proceeds to foreclosure while the homeowner waits for help that never comes, Henderson said.

Defrauding just one person could translate to a maximum penalty of three years in prison for grand theft, she said. Subsequent victims could add eight months to a sentence per person. Loan modification scammers could be committing other crimes, such as fraud, practicing without a license, and breaking rules tied to call centers.

More from this blog…

• These O.C. homes are about to be repo’d
• Democrats renew push for Consumer Finance Agency
• District Attorney steps up real-estate fraud investigations
• O.C. foreclosure starts climb as inland may be hitting bottom
• Foreclosure flip
• Fed plans to raise rates … in distant future
• When will these foreclosures hit the market?
• House committee votes to extend home-loan limits
• Bank failures in perspective
• Buyers dominate foreclosure auction

Post from: Mortgage Insider