There are different products from which to choose according to your circumstances. In particular we mention 1^st Gold which is suitable for the majority of buyers. Then there is OHFA (Oklahoma Homeownership Financial Assistance)Shield especially designed for police officers and fire fighters. Those who work in the field of education may find that OHFA 4 Teachers would be a good alternative. These are the OHFA advantage products which include low interest, 30 year loans and 3.5% down payment assistance for homebuyers in the state. If you meet the requirements for OHFA advantage and you would like to take advantage of the offer you should apply for a loan from a participating lender(list on the website). These lenders accept all those who have the minimum income and a good credit rating as long as the price of purchase is within the limits – that is not over $189,607. If you call the Homebuyer Hotline we can give you more information. The number to call is 1-888-937-1122.

In Oklahoma it is feasible for those who are at present receiving housing assistance, and are using the payments to pay rent to change to mortgage payment and thereby purchase their own property. This is the Homeownership Program called the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Homeownership Program. This program is available to you if you want to own your first home and you participate in both, The Family self Sufficiency Program (FSS) at the time as well as the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher. The FSS is a program that helps you to grow financially. You make a contract to progressively reach certain objectives helped along by OHFA and FSS workers. You learn how to use an Escrow Saving Account among other things.

To be accepted for the program the main wage earner of the household must have an annual income of at least $14,500 and must have had a job for one year working on average 30 hours a week unless the head of the household is disabled or elderly in which case the minimum annual income is $8,088. You can choose any type of property if you qualify for the program. It could be a new home or it could be an older single family home. You might prefer a condo or a manufactured home or a town house. The property must be inside the area that OHFA operates and it must be within your price-range. Those with a disability may buy their property from a member of their family but otherwise this is not permissible. Neither is it allowed that the property be a means of earning money.

The OHFA may inspect the house to be purchased so as to decide whether or not it qualifies for assistance. In order to arrange for a loan you may have help from OHFA staff when you decide upon a mortgage lender. OHFA will help in the whole buying process giving assistance too when it comes to down payment and closing costs. Once the home is purchased assistance will continue as long as you are entitled to section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program. As soon as this terminates you are responsible to continue payments and the mortgage lender will be informed of the situation. To find out more call (800) 256-1489 ext. 171

Forget the adverts. Forget who your broker recommended. Forget who has the nicest offices. If you are searching for a mortgage refinance company to improve the terms of your loan, you need to forget about the gimmicks and look at what really matters in a refinance lender. This article summarizes some of the most important tips on selecting the best company for your refinance mortgage.

First Step. Forget the Annual Percentage Rate.

Many finance advisors encourage borrowers to check the annual percentage rate, or APR, of a mortgage refinance loan when deciding which is the best deal. On the surface, this is good advice. After all, the APR claims to provide a benchmark with which to compare loans by converting the total cost of the loan as a yearly percentage. If there was a standard method to calculate the APR this would be a great method, unfortunately there are no set standards to calculate a loans APR. Some lenders include certain costs and expenses while others choose to leave them out. This is not to say the APR of a loan is a worthless measure of a loan’s cost, but you do need to check what has been included in the APR. This means you cannot judge a loan by its advertised APR until you request a breakdown of how the APR has been calculated.

Second Step. Use the best mortgage brokers, but don’t let them use you.

Good brokers have access to a wide variety of mortgage providers and to the lowest mortgage refinance rates. Unfortunately brokers also have a, often deserved, reputation of charging expensive fees and offering little value to customers. However, a reputable broker with good connections can help you avoid lender junk fees and give you access to wholesale mortgage rates. How can you tell the good brokers from the bad ones? There are no easy solutions. Look for brokers with a good and long standing reputation, use brokers people you trust recommend and prefer brokers who operate as brokers and not as a mortgage banker or broker bank. Why? Because broker banks and mortgage bankers are protected from key disclosure laws which allow them to sell mortgages without the need of disclosing markup or profit margins on your loan. A broker, however, is not protected from the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and must comply with the Act’s disclosure laws.

Final Step. Ask for a complete breakdown of your mortgage rates.

Whoever you end up choosing, make sure you request a complete breakdown of the costs, fees, and rates applicable. Don’t let the banker or broker blind you with jargon and well scripted speeches. Ask for hard facts, in writing, and compare it to the information other lenders offer. This way you will get the best mortgage refinance lender, not the one with the best salesperson.

If you are living from paycheck to paycheck and never seem to have enough money to pay your bills, you may be a candidate for credit counseling. However, credit counselors may not be what your thinking they are. You see, there are many types of “professionals” offering you help to get back on your feet, financially speaking, and most of them will do exactly the opposite. After the real estate crisis of 2008 an army of foreclosure avoidance and debt relief “consultants” appeared out of thin air just as the business for subprime mortgage lenders ran into the ground. Needless to say, these are not type of counselors we are talking about when we mention credit counselors. The trouble is they are hard to set apart sometimes.

The government is offering struggling borrowers who are at risk of defaulting on loans or need a hand to get their financial matters in line the opportunity of speaking to debt relief specialists who know how to help you reduce debt without resorting to more high interest loans that only offer a short term relief. These are counselors financed by government subsidies who are not in it for your money. So, how to set them apart. Here are some things to look out for.

Choose credit counseling companies that help you organize your finances by creating a budget and offer you free credit workshops and educational material. Choose credit counselors that employ certified operators in consumer credit, debt management and budgeting. Avoid like the plague any company that requires you to provide personal information before they can help you. Call your state Attorney General, your local consumer protection agency and the Better Business Bureau. Find out what they have to say about the credit counseling companies you are looking into. You should only consider accepting the help of government approved credit counseling companies. How do I know if they are government approved? Easy, visit the Department of Justices’s U.S. Trustee Program website and see if your potential companies appear on their list of approved credit counseling agencies.

Strike out any company that does not pass these tests. Once you are left with an approved shortlist of credit counseling agencies ask the following questions.

What services do you offer? Avoid companies that push a debt management plan down your throat as your only option.

Do you offer information? Avoid agencies that charge for debt management information.

How are your employees compensated? Avoid agencies who offer commissions to agents who sell certain debt management products.

The real estate meltdown of the last two to three years has hit the housing, real estate and mortgage lending industries hard. What previously seemed a risk-free investment, now is viewed with suspicion and caution. However, we have all heard that smart investors make more money during the bad times than the good. Could this be the time to buy a home? If you are a first-time buyer or have the capital to cover the down payment and initial costs of buying a home and your credit rating is good, the answer to that question may be a resounding yes.

Fannie Mae, the government sponsored secondary market real estate investor, has just published a survey showing that according to the latest estimates home prices will continue to decline during the next 12 months. The same survey reports that the price of rents is set to rise. More specifically, homes are projected to drop in price by 0.5 percent while rents are expected to rise by 4 percent. Of course these are just educated guesses by consumers who are responding to the current market. This survey reflects the attitude of consumers to the real estate industry. This gives you an idea of the general “feeling” of the industry that bare figures cannot.

According to 70 percent of those questioned in the survey felt now was a good time to buy a home. Of course, the reverse is also true. It is also a hard time to sell a home. If you have the cash and the credit to be a buyer in this difficult economy, you can call the shots. This is a buyer’s market and you have a wide selection of properties and prices you would not have had access to three or four years ago.

However, the Fannie Mae survey was not all good news for buyers. Another point most consumers agreed on was in a lack of confidence in the ability of investors to sell the properties they buy at a profit. The old saying “as safe as houses” is no longer true in the minds of many consumers. So how does this lack of trust in the market affect the opportunity created by lower house prices? The current market seems to be especially designed for first-time buyers and people investing in a home to live in. If you are looking for a home to live in for the foreseeable future and have the cash and credit to buy it under the more stringent credit environment we are now in, it maybe just the time for you to buy a home.

The California Housing Finance Agency is California’s main housing agency. It has several mortgage assistance programs designed to both help first-time buyers purchase a home and assist those that already have a home keep it. Those programs designed to protect Californian homeowners from foreclosure are under the Keep Your Home California program, which provides up to $2 billion in cash for foreclosure prevention programs. However, previous eligibility criteria was too stringent to allow many struggling homeowners qualify for assistance. The California’s Housing Finance Agency has reduced the requirements of these programs to help more struggling homeowners benefit from them.

Unemployed Workers

Under the new rules unemployed workers who are at risk of losing their homes can request federal mortgage assistance of up to $3,000 a month. Similarly, homeowners who are facing financial hardship can apply for up to $15,000 a family to reinstate mortgages at risk of foreclosure. Even homeowners who have no choice but to let their homes go can apply under the new rules for assistance for relocation expenses. These and many other changes have been backdates to mortgages originated after January, 1, 2009. This means that even if your application for help previously put down, you may reapply and see it approved under the new rules. 

These changes have come after the California Housing Finance Agency collected information on the existing programs and identified the areas where improvements were required. One of the main factors considered were the ongoing high-rates of unemployment in California which increased the risk of households, which had previously being regular with their mortgage payments, would lose their homes to foreclosure.

The California Housing Finance Agency acts  as an intermediary between the Housing and Urban Development and servicers in some programs and as principal program manager in others. The servicers used by the CalHFA include the Guild Mortgage, GMAC, the California and the Department of Veteran Affairs. Funding for the programs originates from the Housing and Urban Development Department and the Dodd-Frank Act. Funds of up to $1 billion have been assigned to unemployed workers struggling to pay their mortgage and over $450 million will go to the State of California. Other states that have relaxed the eligibility criteria of their mortgage assistance programs and will receive assistance from the Dodd-Frank Act include Delaware, Idaho, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

One of these programs, is the Emergency Homeowner Loan, which is available for unemployed workers who had an income of 120 percent the median income and who had seen their income drop by at least 15 percent since they lost their job.

It seems like the much-awaited Emergency Homeowner Loan Program may still see the light of day. It was deemed overdue when it was first conceived in the beginning of 2010 and it is considered much more so in July 2011. Yet, after it was approved in the House of Representatives in March 2011 it only awaits the signature of the Senate for approval. There are thousands of unemployed workers which await this (or any other) program to assist them with their mortgage payments. If passed by the senate

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the program will provide loans of up to $50,000 (estimates set the average loan at $35,000) to around 30,000 unemployed workers. Who will receive this assistance? What are the requirements or eligibility criteria for this mortgage assistance program? Although some of the details have still not been published, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has provided a summary with the main requirements applicants must meet to qualify for bridge-loans under the Emergency Homeowner Loan Program. This article will list and comment on these requirements.

Income

Obviously, this program is not targeted at the wealthy or those with enough assets to care for themselves. In order to focus the target group of the program, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has limited the scheme to unemployed workers which had a household income equal or less to 120 percent of the area median income (AMI) in their region. This income includes, wages and salary workers as well as self-employed workers. For example, the area median income of San Francisco, California, in 2010-2011 was $93,400. Only applicants with total incomes of $112,080 or less can apply for this program.

However, the total income is not the only income requirement. Applicants must also have seen an income reduction of at least 15 percent since they lost their employment. If there has not been a significant reduction in income since unemployment the unemployed worker must use the income available to him to continue paying the mortgage.

Delinquency

Applicants must be already three months or more behind their payments and must have already received a notice from their lenders informing them of an intention to foreclose on their mortgages. Proof of this may consist of any type of written notification between the lender and the borrower that indicates three months have gone by since the last mortgage payments were made and the intention to foreclose on the mortgage.

Ability to Repay

The applicant must also be reasonably likely to repay the mortgage within two years of entering the program. This is determined by the total debt to income ratio of the applicant. To qualify the debt to income ratio of the applicant must be below 55 percent. For example, if your monthly income is $2,000 your housing costs must be below $1,100 a month.

Residence

A final requirement for all applicants is that they must live in the home they are requesting financial help for as their main place of residence. This program cannot be used for investment or vacation homes.

Do you know what a mortgage servicer is? Many borrowers do not know that the company which receives their monthly payments and sends nasty letters when they are behind on their payments is often not the company or investor that sold them the mortgage in the first place or even the current investor. In the mortgage industry there are three main players, mortgage originators, mortgage servicers and mortgage investors. Mortgage investors put forward the money for the loan, mortgage servicers handle the payments and communication with the borrowers and mortgage originators sell the mortgage. In some cases, all three roles are played by the same company but often these roles are split between specialized companies.

Of course, throughout the life of your mortgage fees are paid to the companies that manage your mortgage. The origination fee you pay when you sign for a mortgage is part of the payment mortgage originators receive. Every month interest is paid to the mortgage lender and a portion of the interest and mortgage fees goes to the company that manages your payments. These fees do not stop when you are behind in your payments and you are applying for a mortgage modification.

Mortgage modifications are paperwork intensive procedures which require a lot of research and communication between borrowers, mortgage servicers and mortgage lenders. This may help you understand why mortgage modifications often take so long to get processed even when borrowers clearly qualify for them. Mortgage servicers receive a fee for their work during mortgage modifications. However, the rules that regulate how much they receive have just been changed.

Fannie May requires mortgage servicers to only charge a fee, if the loan modification is approved. That has been the case for some time now. However, how much mortgage servicers can charge has recently changed. Why? Fannie Mae states recent simplifications in the mortgage modification process as a basis for the reduction in fees charged by servicers under the government sponsored mortgage assistance programs. The current limit is 0.25 percent of the mortgage amount or whatever the mortgage servicer received before the loan modification.

The maximum allowed servicing fee for mortgage modifications is not the only change announced by Fannie Mae. Mortgage investors and mortgage servicers must also adapt to changes in foreclosure time frames and rules on mortgage delinquency management. Now, if mortgage servicers exceed the allowed time frame to assess a loan modification, Fannie Mae will impose penalties so servicers remediate the problem and improve their performance.

Our previous article introduced the two main factors lenders consider when assessing your mortgage application: your ability to pay it and your willingness to do so. Let’s delve a little deeper into the minutiae of how these two factors are calculated.

One way of calculating your ability to pay a loan is to assess your housing expenses to income ratio, also known as your debt to income ratio. Although there is no magic income to debt ratio that all lenders use to assess a loan modification, many lenders consider the government’s Making Home Affordable requirement of 33 percent debt to income ratio as a good guideline. What does this mean? The debt to income ratio of a borrower describes what percentage of their monthly income is used to pay for housing expenses. For instance, if your household has an income of $4,000 and you pay $2,000 towards your housing expenses, you have a debt to income ratio of 50 percent, which incidentally would be way to high for a reputable lender to approve. So if you are in the business of applying for a mortgage, reduce your fixed debts, such as car loans, credit card payments and other loans before you apply so your net income looks better when compared to your housing expenses. 

Is he willing to pay the mortgage?

Walking away from a mortgage seems to be more and more common among homeowners. Although it is understandable that many homeowners decide to simply let go of their homes and stop paying their mortgages when the market value of the house is much lower than the balance remaining on the mortgage, this is little comfort for lenders who end up with a property they can’t sell and holding a large foreclosure bill for the privilege. It is a priority for lenders to assess the likelihood of you being willing to pay back the mortgage. How can they do that? By looking at your history and financial background. They will run a credit check on you and see how your have managed your finances in the past. Do you regularly max out your credit cards? Have you declared bankruptcy? Have you ever been through a foreclosure? What kind of debts have you incurred in the past? How regular are you with mortgage, rental or even service (water, electricity, phone or satellite) payments? All these builds up your financial profile and helps lenders decide what kind of a borrower you are. Of course, the more reliable you appear to lenders, the more likely they are to approve your mortgage and provide you lower interest rates.

The American dream of owning your very own home is, in most cases, just that: a dream, if you do not have the required down payment to buy it. Down payments are a useful instrument for lenders who want to ensure the borrower has the financial wherewithal to pay the loan’s monthly payments. By paying a down payment the borrower is immediately creating equity for the lender so that if the borrower defaults on the mortgage some of the expenses of foreclosure and reselling the property are covered. Of course, a down payment also helps buyers reduce the interest paid on their mortgage and speeds up the repayment process.

However, down payments are also a huge barrier for many families who may be able to afford the monthly payments of a mortgage but struggle to put together the money for a down payment. Nevertheless, owning your home continues to be one of the main financial goals of American families. In the United States two-thirds of all households own their home. So, if you feel you will never be able to buy a home because you don’t have the cash for a down payment, you can be sure that many others have been in your position and are now homeowners.

This series of articles will look into one of the main obstacles to getting a mortgage and buying a home: the down payment and how buyers can go about finding the resources to pay for it. However, our first question is much more general and one all home owners should ask themselves before applying for a mortgage. The question is: Why Buy A Home? The truth is buying a home is not for everyone. Although buying your own home can provide personal satisfaction, tax savings, a sense of community, stability and an investment in the future, it doesn’t come without its issues. Buying a home comes with added expenses, such as property tax, general maintenance and repair expenses.

However, if you are reading this article, you are probably already sure about the benefits of buying a home and simply require a little help to find the down payment you need to get the ball rolling. The truth is the typical 15 to 20 percent down payment is simply too much money for most families to save. For instance, a family might be able to afford an $800 to $1,200 mortgage payment for a $300,000 home, but find it impossible to cover the $60,000 down payment traditional lenders require. Thankfully there are methods you can follow to reduce a down payment to 5 or even 3 percent of the property’s price. Our next article will explain how you can get lenders on board and pay less for your down payment regardless of where you live and the value of your home. .

The series of storms, tornadoes and flooding that have hit Alabama have caused thousands of families to lose their homes and increased the number that face foreclosure due to the financial and employment consequences of these disasters. The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has reacted by announcing disaster assistance to victims. On April 29, 2011, Shaun Donovan, Secretary of HUD, stated he would speed the processing of federal disaster assistance to people affected by the storms in Alabama. This relief will come in the form of foreclosure assistance, Mortgage Help and other forms of financial assistance to families in the area. This article will look at some of the avenues HUD is using to allocate resources where they are needed the most.

Foreclosure Relief

Families affected by the storms will receive an immediate 90-day respite from any foreclosure and broader forbearance on mortgages with the FHA under foreclosure. This will grant homeowners a chance to arrange their finances and save their home from foreclosure.

Mortgage Insurance

Victims of natural disasters will also receive 100 percent mortgage insurance on loans they apply for to rebuild their homes or buy a new one. Banks and other lenders can apply to the FHA for up to 100 percent insurance on the loan’s balance including closing costs. The purpose, of course, is to stimulate the investment of money in the disaster area and help homeowners with the daunting task of rebuilding their home or finding a new one.

Home Rehabilitation and Mortgages

HUD also provides victims with mortgage insurance so they can finance their mortgage and the rehabilitation of their damaged home with a single mortgage. Effectively, HUD is covering the lender’s risk so that banks and other lending institutions are willing to offer loans to families who would otherwise not qualify for credit.

Relocation of State and Federal Funds

HUD provides states with Development Block Grants and HOME programs which are used for a variety of purposes. Communities and institutions in Alabama have been authorized to redirect these funds to cover the cost of emergencies and critical needs. The same institutions have also been granted with special authority to expedite the allocating of funds to speed up the repair and replacement of damaged homes.

These are only some of the programs and aid resources available to victims of natural disasters. If you want to find out more about what programs you can apply for if you have been affected by the Alabama storms, tornadoes and flooding, click here. Programs you will find in this section include the Disaster Housing Assistance, the Reprogramming of Public Housing funds and Assistance from Ginnie Mae.

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