About San Joaquin County, CA

The VA loans are steadily becoming more popular again. And yes, there are Vets that are having mortgage problems in this turning market and will need to get from under their loan. The VA may some different terms for what they call a short sale, and their rules are crisp and to the point. Here is a bit of information about a VA loan needing to short sale.

What do you know about a VA Compromise Sale (Short Sale)?

The VA Compromise Sale program is for homeowners who have already received a purchase offer on their home that falls short of the amount owing on their mortgage, and whose mortgage was negotiated through the VA Home Loan program.

Eligibility requirements: In order to qualify for the program:
- the seller must demonstrate financial hardship
- the home must be sold at fair market value based upon current market conditions
- there must be no second lien or other lien on the home, unless the value of that lien is deemed by VA to be “insignificant” (In situations whereby there are second liens or other liens, the seller can request that the lien-holder consider releasing the lien and converting the loan to a personal loan.)
- closing costs for the sale must be considered “typical” for such a sale
- the compromise sale must be less costly to the government than foreclosure would be
- the borrower must provide a statement explaining why they must sell the property
- a VA appraisal will be required - at homeowner's expense
- on loans that originated on or before December 31, 1989, the seller must be willing to sign a promissory note and enter into a payment plan to compensate VA for a portion of the compromise claim payment. This does not apply in California!

To protect the seller’s interest, the seller should make the sales contract subject to the approval of a VA compromise sale.

If the home was purchased with a VA Home Loan, the seller might be eligible for the VA Compromise Sale Program. If an offer to purchase is received that is less than the amount owing on the home loan, the homeowner can send a request to VA to undertake a “compromise sale” (or short sale). If VA approves the sale, they will pay the lender the difference between the purchase price and the amount owing on the VA mortgage, up to the amount that they guaranteed on the original home loan.

Call our team if you are in the Central Valley and have a CalVet loan, and you have looking to short sale.

The HARP 2.0 program is well underway. Homeowners do not miss out!

Homeowners whose current mortgage balance exceeds the value of their home…basically, you’re underwater on your mortgage; HARP 2.0 may be the golden key to a lower mortgage -payment.

The first requirement is that your loan is owned by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Check here to see if your mortgage is owned by either:

• Fannie Mae or call 800-7FANNIE (8 am to 8 pm ET)
• Freddie Mac or call 800-FREDDIE (8 am to 8 pm ET)

Other Requirements And Restrictions:

• Home must be your primary residence, no second homes or investment properties.
• Loans only sold to FNMA/FHLMC prior to April 1, 2009.
• No late payments for the past 6 months and only 1 late in the past 12 months.
• ARMs and 40 year mortgages are only eligible to 105% LTV.
• ​The mortgage cannot have been refinanced under HARP previously unless it is a FNMA/FHLMC loan that was refinanced under HARP from March-May 2009.
• The current loan-to-value (LTV) ratio must be greater than 80%

Get all the information you can on this program if you are a homeowner that need to refinance your property but yet you are underwater. Here is the link to find out all about this program:

• Making Home Affordable HARP 2.0
• Also, check out this link to see what Secretary of State - Donovan
  Written Testimony of Secretary Shaun Donovan - Hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking Housing and Urban Affairs - State of the Housing Market: Removing Barriers to Economic Recovery, Part II.

• Also as reference, here is a great post that explains the rules of HARP 2.0: The Home Affordable Refinance Program 2 (HARP 2) Explained

Spring into action - what does that mean to you? The word spring indicate that it will be an engeric time and a happy time. In the real estate industry we all hope that it will be a time of change in the market. That more homes will be sold and more homeowners will at the same time be able to keep their homes. We, as agents, are looking for First Time Home Buyers to come out and get off the fence and purchase that new home. Their Dream Home.

As a whole, the short sale maze is starting to look at the least a little better and we are still being told that the REO flood gates are going to open soon this year and that all the REOs that the banks were holding back on will be released.

The weather has been nice to us all winter as a whole (with some exceptions), but now it is time to Spring into Action. Here are a few suggestions....

• Grow your faith
• Spend more time time with family (this is the #1 suggestion)
• Promote and brand your business
• Tap into the social media network and use it to your benefit
• Get involved in your community
• House cleaning - better know as Spring Cleaning
• Buyers: get off the fence and go purchase that home you have always wanted
• Homeowner with mortgage problems: contact your lender and see if there is a program out there that will help you keep your home.
• Dust!

There are so many options. I strongly urge you to look around your neighborhood and get involved - it will make for a stronger community for your children to grow up in.

While there are several hardest-hit areas - Stockton, CA has been for years one of the nation's hardest hit housing markets and entered this year with the nation's second-highest rate of foreclosures.

One of the most important questions that many homeowners and industry professionals are asking is "why is so hard to get these lenders, loan servicers and the Federal regulators to introduce a nation-wide principal reduction program" - that they all have to go by?

I do believe it should be a choice here. Lets do what we know we need to do to get our markets back up and running smoothly again. Why kill the dead horse - underwater principal reductions need more than just a couple of banks agreeing to offer it to a few homeowners. This is a world-wide problem. Reduce all underwater mortgage to fair market value and keep it moving!

When you own a large % of the troubled loans and you know your policies and procedures are affecting so many homeowners -- and thus affecting the American Dream - how can you not encourage instead of rejecting the underwater principal reduction program? Federal regulators should help millions of homeowners keep their homes and hasten the end of the housing-market collapse by reducing the amount of principal owed by many of those who are underwater on their mortgages.

While some private banks have reduced principal owed on some underwater loans, DeMarco has so far refused to allow Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to do so.

We need to take action (write letters, make some calls) to show our support for the homeowners.

I am not sure why everything have to be so prolonged and made hard. Pull homes up from underwater... reduce the principal balance!

It is because Spring is right around the corner? Do you get the feeling that the market

is changing (slowly and without allot of noise)? Have you check out the MLS and compared the number of available listings vs how it was a couple of months ago? If you do not have access to the MLS are you following the real estate industry news and seeing that you are seeing the word "decline" more and more often.

A few months ago the word "decline" was associated with lenders and short sale approvals. Stay alert and welcome the good news - less homes are being sold these days. Now this is not the best news in the world for a real estate agent, but it is good to know that the communities, families and cities will not be affected as much with the foreclosures and turn over in neighborhoods.

With this going on:

• Prices will increase
• the Market will shift from a Buyer's market to a Seller's market
• Days on market will decrease
• Competetion to purchase the best homes will increase

This is a new industry behavior for the San Joaquin Central Valley. And it is a sign that the market is changing.