Uncategorized – Page 4 – Trevor Curran

Mortgage Modification Murder: Homeowner Beware!!!

The lowlife mortgage modification scam artist has committed financial “murder.” The crook has taken not only this homeowner’s hard-earned cash, but caused the loss of a home and a substantial financial asset for the family.

I received a call yesterday at our office from a homeowner in Virginia. He was looking for some kind of FHA mortgage modification company and found us instead in his Google Search. Our company is not licensed in Virginia; neither do we do mortgage modifications. We just do plain old-fashioned mortgage originations, helping people buy homes and doing some refinance work, too.

I spent a few minutes with this gentleman on the phone cautioning him against mortgage modification fraudsters. I told him about the many scams being perpetrated by modification companies seeking to take money from unwitting homeowners while delivering zero satisfaction or assistance. I pointed him instead to the HUD.gov website to seek out a mortgage counsellor who might better assist him with his dilemma. I told him, too, that an attorney was probably his best option.

One of our Loan Officers told us of a man he met who is losing his home to foreclosure. A little over a year ago this man had a perfect mortgage payment history. For whatever reason, he decided he needed to modify his mortgage. He hired one of these mortgage modification murderers and paid thousands of dollars in fees to the fraudster. The crooked scam-artist told the man to stop paying his mortgage; upon the advice of his paid-professional-mortgage-modification-expert, the man did indeed cease paying his mortgage.

There was no modification; no call was ever made the the Lender to negotiate on the homeowner’s behalf. Money was stolen from this man and his family; now they are losing their home to foreclosure. The lowlife scam artist has committed, IMHO, financial “murder.” The crook has taken not only this man’s hard-earned cash, but caused the loss of a home and a substantial financial asset. Disgusting.

Homeowners beware. Too many of you who I speak to or hear of are doing exactly what too many of you did during the boom years: you’re following a dangerous path, ignoring the advice of seasoned professionals, and you’re allowing yourselves to be duped out of your homes the same way many of you allowed yourselves to be duped into bad mortgage loans.

If you feel you need help modifying your mortgage, contact your Lender directly. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, TRY again. If you don’t have the time for that because you are busy working hard to pay your mortgage and your bills, then hire an attorney. Pay your attorney a retainer fee and let a licensed legal professional work on your behalf. If you don’t have an attorney, get a referral from family or friends, or consult your local bar association. You can find local help here, on the American Bar Association website.

President Obama and Congress have provided Homeowners with an opportunity to refinance or modify as part of the 2009 Stimulus Package. Find United States Government help here: Making Home Affordable.

A list of HUD Approved mortgage counsellors can be found here: Foreclosure Avoidance Counselling

I welcome Comments for all my blog entries. I will be happy to review and approve all legitimate comments provided by readers of tcurranmortgage.com. I do not permit unfettered access to comments for obvious reasons: mortgage spammers and their ilk. If you wish to Comment on any entry, please do so and I will quickly review and approve. Thanks for reading tcurranmortgage.com. Hope that helps!

They’re BACK. Mortgage Losers/Thieves/Lowlifes Return To the Industry

All those mortgage losers who put this industry and the economy in the toilet are returning to prey on consumers once again.

We’re seeing it. All those mortgage losers who put this industry and the economy in the toilet are returning to prey on consumers once again. They’re returning because opportunities abound to separate hard-working homeowners and homebuyers from their money.

We’re hearing of people getting back into the mortgage business after the long cold “winter” of 2007-2009 when business was hard to come by and only the brave and the bold stuck it out to continue hard-earned careers. These mortgage-professional-wannabees are coming back because low interest rates and a newfound sense of optimism are bringing buyers back and opening up homeowners’ minds to the idea of refinancing.

The Associated Press reported of a warning from Senator Charles Schumer about these mortgage losers. The Senator it seems is also aware of the return of these crooks looking to ripoff consumers. Read more HERE

More than ever when shopping for a mortgage the words “Buyer Beware” ring true. Look for those mortgage professionals with substantial experience and preferably those who you find through a referral from a friend or family member, or your tax professional or attorney. Searching the internet for a mortgage professional is, IMHO, a recipe for disaster. You’re likely to come across many alleged experts who only want to tell you what you want to hear just to get your business. Once they get you to the closing table, everything changes and you can watch your money evaporate from your wallet.

I’ve recently cautioned against working with non-FHA approved mortgage people. These are yet another class of mortgage lowlife who pretend they are allowed to originate FHA loans. Worse, they pretend to know “all about” FHA loans. I just spoke on the phone while writing this blog entry with a young man who told me how he encountered many such people who claimed they could approve him for an FHA loan on a Co-Op apartment purchase. He told me they all seemed very happy to want to separate him from his money for application fees and the like. He contacted me to ask about getting an FHA loan for a Co-Op. He seemed to know already that such a loan was not available, but thought it’s because FHA doesn’t insure Co-Op loans. In fact, FHA DOES indeed insure Co-Op loans (FHA is an insurance program; FHA doesn’t make the loan, they insure the Lender’s loan in the event of foreclosure). I explained this fact to him. The problem with FHA and Co-Op loans is there are no Lenders who provide such financing.

No conversation about mortgage lowlifes would be complete without a mention of those poor homeowners trying to do a loan modification. As I mentioned recently, there are many scams out there with alleged “loan modification experts” very willing to take thousands of dollars in fees from distressed homeowners while providing absolutely nothing in return: no modification, no saving of the house, nothing, nada, zilch. Many of these crooks are, in my opinion, former mortgage losers who have changed their crime tactics from putting unsuspecting people into terrible sub-prime loans. Now they seek to steal your money—and your home—by pretending to counsel you on modifying your loan. BUYER BEWARE.

If you truly feel you wish to modify your loan contact an attorney. Or do it yourself.

On a sidenote, I attended a job fair yesterday seeking to recruit salespeople for the company where I work. I met the recruiters from the FBI and asked them to please, “…hire more people today and arrest more mortgage brokers.” They laughed and asked what I do. “I’m a mortgage broker!” I replied. “Please, I’m serious,” I continued, “these people have destroyed my industry, please hire some good people today and go out and arrest more mortgage brokers.”

Postscript: To the young man who called for advice on FHA and the Co-Op loan: Thank you for your kind compliment about tcurranmortgage.com and thank you for stopping by to read my rantings!!!

U.S. Warns Mortgage Fraudsters Are Eyeing Rescue

Fraudsters typically charge troubled borrowers an up-front fee to help them get relief from burdensome housing payments but fail to deliver any aid.

Mon Apr 6, 2009 12:44pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fraudsters are using the publicity around foreclosure-prevention plans to lure desperate homeowners into costly scams, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday.

As the housing crisis has intensified and the government has hatched several plans to aid troubled borrowers, the number of mortgage scams has mushroomed, several government agencies said at a press conference.

“American homeowners desperately need the relief this program offers, but the very last thing they need is to be taken advantage of as they try to hold on to their homes,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told reporters.

Fraudsters typically charge troubled borrowers an up-front fee to help them get relief from burdensome housing payments but fail to deliver any aid.

The Federal Trade Commission, a consumer-protection agency, has targeted several fraudulent companies with names that sound as if they are affiliated with the government. A company called “Federal Loan Modification Law Center,” for instance, has been targeted by the FTC for exploiting troubled borrowers.

According to the FTC, the center charged consumers as much as $3000 in cash but did very little work trying to secure new loan terms from the lender.

The Treasury’s fraud investigation unit said that it found nearly 180,000 suspected cases of mortgage fraud between July 2002 and July 2008.

A senior administration official said policy-makers are not concerned troubled homeowners will exploit existing aid programs because sufficient safeguards are in place.

“The focus of the loan modification efforts is going to be on getting people into affordable mortgages. It will be done in a way that requires full documentation of income and quite-stringent data collection,” the official said.

A bigger concern, the official said, is scam artists who would prey on troubled borrowers.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5354LE20090406?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

The Miracle Rehabilitation Loan known as the FHA 203k Loan

A fundamental look at the miracle program known as FHA 203k.

So many Buyers today are eager to purchase homes at below market prices. Often these homes are in need of serious repairs or improvements to update the property. The 203k Program handily meets the needs of Buyers today. I personally have originated and closed dozens of these loans back
in the early 1990’s in Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant under President Clinton’s Inner City Rehabilitation Initiative. Often we were financing a complete gut renovation of an abandoned Single Room Occupancy (SRO) residence. The Buyers usually paid a price around $50,000 and I would find FHA 203k Financing in the range of $250,000 to cover the purchase and the renovations. Under the provisions of the rehabilitation, the Buyer of such an SRO would convert the Certificate of Occupancy from rooming house to legal 2, 3 or even 4 Family home. The 203k allowed for just such a change and the costs involved, including Architectural fees, Plans and Permits, not to mention the construction costs.

Toay this miracle program allows a Buyer to purchase a home and obtain the monies for repairs or home improvements all rolled into a single loan with a SINGLE monthly FIXED RATE payment. The repairs can cost as little as $5,000 or can run as high as necessary to gut-rehab a home. The limit on
the repair monies that can be included in the loan is the Loan-To-Value (LTV) Limit based on statutory FHA Loan Limits in your area (see below). And this LTV percentage is calculated based on the value of the house AFTER improvements.

The 203k program even has a provision allowing the Buyer to request that up to 6 months worth of mortgage payments be included in the loan so they don’t have to pay two monthly housing
expenses—rent and mortgage—while the house is under construction.

With more and more bank-owned “REO” properties offered for sale, Buyers will need the 203k
Program more than ever before.

203k Interest rates run higher than market, usually about 1% higher, but this is still an ideal program to help Buyers achieve their goals of homeownership while simultaneously updating or renovating a home for the lowest possible cost.

Highlights of the 203k Program:

>Buyer can obtain the cash needed to conduct improvements on a home
purchase folded into the same mortgage loan needed to purchase the house.

>Borrower must qualify according to regular FHA Underwriting criteria with regards to Income, Assets and Credit.

>The Program is only open to Owner-Occupants; no investors permitted. BUT you do NOT have to be First-Time Homebuyer.

>No Income Limits; no minimum income requirements. No geographic limitations, with the exception that the property is here in the good ol’ USA!

Purchase + Improvements = ONE Mortgage and ONE Monthly Payment

Current FHA LOAN LIMITS under the 2009 Stimulus Bill for the New York Metropolitan Region:

1Fam: $729,750

2Fam: $934,200

3Fam: $1,129,250

4Fam: $1,403,400

FHA Basics:

* No Reserves on 1 and 2 Family homes (but it helps!)
* 3 Months Reserves required on 3 and 4 Family homes
* 3.5% Downpayment
* 6% Seller’s Concession
* Credit Scores down to 620 (down to 580 with some Lenders)

There you have a good fundamental look at the miracle program known as FHA 203k.

Do you have questions? Click on ASK TREVOR and I’ll respond to any and all inquiries, even if you’re not buying a home in
New York State.

Check out my Trulia profile HERE

Check out my Zillow profile HERE

Find me on TWITTER: @tcurranmortgage

Happy House Hunting!

FHA Is Good For New York

Given the high hurdles for potential purchasers to overcome with regards to credit and cash in the New York Metro Region, the FHA program eases the path to homeownership.

The FHA is the Federal Housing Administration, a division of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The FHA has been one of the single best ways for homebuyers to purchase a home since its inception in 1934 under FDR’s New Deal.

FHA guidelines make the experience of homeownership more accessible to more people. The guidelines are designed in such a way as to provide Lenders with more flexibility. The FHA is an insurance program whereby the mortgage loan is insured by the United States government. Further, FHA is the only Federal agency that is totally self-funded; FHA does not take any taxpayer money!

Some of the many wonderful features of FHA Insured mortgage loans:

-Low downpayment requirements: 3.5% of the purchase price

-Purchaser’s can use more of their monthly income to qualify for a loan

-Downpayment can be 100% gifted by a family member or employer

-Credit score requirements are lower than for Conventional loans

-FHA Loans are fully assumable (subject to the new purchaser’s ability to qualify for the loan)

-A Seller can contribute up to 6% of a Purchaser’s closing costs. This is especially useful in the NY Metro region where closing costs average 6%. This allows a potential Purchaser to own a home with a substantially lower cash requirement than Conventional loans. (See Closing Costs In NY for more information about closing costs in NY)

1. Cash requirements lower: If a Purchaser obtains conventional financing with a 5% downpayment, the total cash required on a $475,000 Single Family purchase would be approximately $60,000 (downpayment, closing costs and 2 months PITI reserves). The same Purchaser using an FHA loan would need approximately $20,000 (3.5% downpayment; Seller can pay the Purchaser’s closing costs and no reserves are required).
2. FHA allows for a higher “Debt-To-Income” ratio. Also, FHA allows on a single family or condo that the Purchaser can have Non-Occupying cosignors from the Purchaser’s family assist in qualifying for the mortgage loan.
3. Credit scores lower: FHA does not have a credit score requirement. However, Lenders are permitted to overlay their own Underwriting criteria on FHA guidelines. Currently the credit score standard among most Lenders for an FHA loan is a minimum credit score of 620 (some Lenders go down to 580). For a Conventional loan with PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) a Purchaser need have at least a 720 credit score.
4. Expanded Opportunity to Purchase: On any given day there are many people wishing to purchase a home who don’t have the money for a large downpayment PLUS closing costs. Living in New York is expensive. For the average New York family earning approximately $100,000 annually to save $60,000 is an extremely difficult undertaking considering the high housing expense and other high cost of living expenses. Saving a $20,000 downpayment is an easier exercise thus making the dream of homeownership more accessible.
5. After Purchase Marketability: The FHA Purchaser in today’s market is effectively locking in today’s interest rate for a future homebuyer in the resale of the home. For example, if a Purchaser of a Single Family home closed today at a 30year fixed rate of 5.375%, that purchaser/owner could conceivably resell the home seven years from now to a person who would assume the FHA loan at today’s rate. If rates are higher in the future, this makes for a more opportune marketing potential.

In conclusion, the FHA program surprises potential homebuyers with its accessibility. These are people who never thought they could own a home. Specifically to the New York market, given the high hurdles for potential purchasers to overcome with regards to credit and cash, the FHA program eases the path to homeownership.

More about FHA and where to find an approved FHA Lending Institution at The FHA Website.

Beware Using Non-FHA Approved Mortgage Brokers

Work only with an FHA approved mortgage broker with a Mini-Eagle or an FHA approved Lender with a Full Eagle.

Since the FHA Insurance program is pretty much the only way to get a mortgage these days, I’d like to caution you against working with any mortgage professional that is not approved by HUD to originate FHA Insured Loans.

The process of obtaining such an approval is difficult and expensive. When a mortgage broker is approved, the office receives what is known as a “Mini-Eagle.” The Mini-Eagle is the permission from HUD to originate FHA loans. A Direct Lender, approved by HUD, has a Full-Eagle.

As we become more and more aware of the excessive lengths some unscrupulous mortgage people will go to in order to make money without paying any attention to legalities, ethics, or professional conduct, we need also understand these same lowlifes will try to jump on any bandwagon in order to make a buck.

Fact is the regulation is in place to prevent anyone from jumping on the FHA bandwagon. That regulation is the Mini-Eagle and Full-Eagle.

FHA does allow in certain instances a Non-FHA Approved mortgage broker to recommend a client to a Full-Eagle Lender and to act as a consultant for the client. This permission is limited to consulting and the fee is limited as to how much the consultant can earn. The consultant is paid by you, the client. Consultant means exactly that: advice, counseling and consulting. The Non-FHA approved mortgage professional cannot originate the loan, cannot write the loan application or become involved in any aspect of the process for loan approval. For that you will work directly with the Lender.

Think of the Non-FHA approved mortgage person as a facilitator who connects you with a Lender, is available to answer your questions and offer advice on the program, but cannot do anything more than that.

Beware of the mortgage people walking around saying, “I can do FHA loans.” More often than not these lowlifes are not FHA approved and they plan on convincing you to doing a loan application with them for an FHA loan. “I’ll find an FHA Lender for you. Sign here.” This is ILLEGAL.

Further, this consultant doesn’t have any real standing in terms of accessing information about FHA products or interacting with the Lender to get your loan processed timely for an approval.

Why should you pay one of these people when you can easily find and work with an approved and experienced FHA mortgage professional?

These folks are just trying to take your money by joining in the current mortgage market opportunity without making the proper professional investment (in time and money) to obtain the proper licensing.

Work only with an FHA approved mortgage broker with a Mini-Eagle or an FHA approved Lender with a Full Eagle. You can find listings of both types of Mortgage Company in your area by visiting www.fha.gov and entering your zip code.

Why You Need To Look At Your 401k Statement

One of the prime methods to getting a mortgage loan approval during the current mortgage-underwriting climate is proving you have reserves: those dwindling 401k accounts might be useful after all.

Mortgage Loans are difficult to obtain these days. Underwriters at Banks are about the craziest I have ever seen in 20 years as a mortgage professional. Arguments over the interpretation of an underwriting guideline—the kind I used to win back in the 90’s—are frequently Cold-War-style standoffs: there is no clear winner, you see it your way, and I see it mine.

Folks think Underwriting a mortgage loan application is some kind of objective exercise. It’s not. Underwriters are human and they are subject to the same day in and day out challenges all the rest of us humans face, with one difference. If the Underwriter is having a bad day, or, in our current market, a BAD YEAR, that Underwriter is making obtaining a loan approval an impossible endeavor.

As a mortgage originator, I have to “pre-underwrite” each and every client’s situation. I have learned to “roll with the punches” as it were to find strengths in any given loan application and help my client get the loan approval for the home they wish to buy or refinance. I’m watching how Underwriters are reacting to market conditions or the directives they are receiving from their bank employers (too often confused and muddled) to gauge the best path to loan approval for my clients.

Thus I look for every little bit of ammunition I can find in order to fight the good fight when I’m prequalifying a client.

One nice bit of artillery is the ubiquitous 401k or retirement account. Underwriters like “reserves” on a loan application. Reserves is the money you have left over after closing on a mortgage loan; it’s the money you didn’t spend on downpayment and closing costs. In the event you experience some life catastrophe in the future, like a job loss, you can use the reserves to pay your mortgage every month while recovering from said catastrophe (finding another job).

Reserves are required for two months’ worth of mortgage payments for Conventional (Non-Government) financing. The FHA does not require reserves for 1 or 2 family home financing; 3 and 4 family homes require 3 months’ reserves. Those are the guidelines, but let’s talk about getting your loan approved during the toughest mortgage underwriting era I’ve ever seen. Reserves count a lot; the more you have, the higher the probability of a loan approval, especially if your application is weak in any of the other areas of loan underwriting (IAC, or Income, Assets, Credit).

Often, my clients come to me for prequalification with their standard documentation in hand: paystubs, Tax returns, bank statements. I always request but never seem to encounter proof of any retirement accounts, like 401k statements. And when I ask my clients, “Okay, you don’t have the statement with you, but how much is in your account right now?” I am often met with blank stares.

Folks just don’t know. Considering how much money they may have lost in those retirement accounts in recent months, they don’t want to know.

I understand a lot of us don’t want to face the bad news of dwindling retirement funds due to markets falling and investments failing. But you need to open up that 401k statement if you’re planning on applying for a mortgage. Those monies, eviscerated by market forces though they may be, can be very useful on a loan application.

In fact, I’d be so bold as to say that right now, one of the prime methods to getting a mortgage loan approval is proving you have reserves. So get out those statements this chilly Sunday afternoon and face the music. Put your 401k statment together with your other documents you’ll need for the loan application. Doing so might be the difference between getting a mortgage approval, or not.

FHA: Mortgage Solution for 2009

The FHA program was created to make it easy for families to acquire their own homes. I say this often these days, “The FHA is the ONLY game in town.”

When I started in the mortgage business in 1989 I was introduced to the FHA Insured mortgage loan. As a Mortgage Banker, the loans I made were typically FHA as this had long been the province of mortgage bankers in general.

During the Sub-Prime “Boom” I found myself often confronted with clients who, in my professional opinion, were prime candidates for FHA financing. The problem with the boom times and FHA was simple: there is a limit to FHA loan amounts, and during the boom, those limits were far below what was needed in the marketplace. FHA loan limits had not kept up with market price advances.

Now, the FHA limit here in the NY Metro region is $625,500 for a single family home. This is something we can work with.

The FHA loan program was created in 1934 during The Great Depression as part of the New Deal. The concept was simple: turn a nation of renters into a nation of homeowners. At the time, 70% of the United States population rented. The FHA program was created to make it easy for families to acquire their own homes. To this end, the FHA was spectacularly successful.

I like that there is so much rich American history associated with the FHA. I have always loved helping my clients obtain their dreams of homeownership with the FHA program. And I am thrilled that during these terrible economic times the FHA has once again come to the forefront to create possibilities of homeownership. I say this often these days, “The FHA is the ONLY game in town.”

And I like that.

I’ll write more about FHA, in the meantime, visit FHA’s website for more information about this wonderful loan program.

A New Hope…just like the Old Days

As a new sense of optimism sweeps into the housing market, the old-fashioned way of getting your mortgage comes once again into vogue.

There’s a feeling of hope we’re seeing from new clients; they want to buy homes. Monthly payment leads the day when it comes to determining if they can buy a home, not the rate, not the state of the economy, not the state of the housing market. And that’s just like the old days.

The hope is driven by the idea there will be a new President, a new administration, and a new attitude in Washington.

These people are coming out in the cold, looking at homes, asking questions, making offers and ultimately buying a home. Many of them are being qualified using another traditional mortgage “standard” the FHA Insured mortgage loan.

FHA has been around since The Great Depression and is still, in my humble opinion, the best way for a family to purchase a home. FHA financing allows for a more “human” understanding of a borrower’s qualifications; lower credit scores (not “deadbeat” credit, just the stuff life throws at you), lower cash required for downpayment (important in the NY Metro region where the cost of living and closing costs are so high), and the ability to use more of your income to qualify for the loan.

I’ve performed miracles using FHA loans throughout my career; and a lot of plain old boring loans that didn’t require a miracle, just a human touch.

FHA is a government insurance program; it’s not a bailout. The bank makes the loan, Uncle Sam insures it against foreclosure. So an old program comes into it’s own just in time. As a new sense of optimism sweeps into the housing market, the old-fashioned way of getting your mortgage—with some help from the government through the FHA—comes once again into vogue.

Yay for that.

Bring The Boys Back Home

Today is Veteran’s Day. Don’t forget to stop for a moment at the 11th hour of this 11th day and remember those many young soldiers, sailors and airmen who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.

Think, too of the many military personnel around the world bravely serving today. Hopefully soon, many of them will be coming back home safely to their families.

There is another group of veterans who need to be brought back home: The Norfolk Four.

These are four young sailors who confessed to a crime they didn’t commit, were convicted of rape and murder based solely on their confessions, and today remain imprisoned even though the actual killer has been found and convicted.

Remember the Norfolk Four today; hope these young men come home soon to their families.