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Exciting News! FHA Is Allowing People that Suffered through Recent Economic Hardships to Apply for a Home Loan with the FHA Back to Work Program.

In the not so distant past people had to wait 3 years or more after suffering through a financial hardship. Bankruptcy, foreclosures and other major financial disasters would sideline people for a number of years before they could buy a house again. However, all that has changed with the FHA Back to Work Program.

Previous Guidelines

For years the FHA program has helped people finance the purchase of a home with a modest 3.25% down payment. In general, the FHA rules for credit and employment history were more forgiving than conventional loan guidelines. However, there were strict rules about waiting a significant length of time after filing bankruptcy, losing a home to foreclosure, getting a loan modification or a deed-in-lieu.

New Guidelines

The Back to Work program waives waiting periods based on certain hardship situations. People that have suffered through the following types of problems are no longer forced to wait multiple years to apply for an FHA loan

* Bankruptcy (either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13)

* Short sale of previous home

* Foreclosure

* Modification of previous mortgage

* Sale of a home due to pre-foreclosure status

* Deed-in-lieu

Due to the recession of the past few years the government has given FHA the ability to relax their rules in order to help people qualify for home loans. Now people will only have to wait 12 months.

Meeting the New Qualifications

For borrowers that have faced a hardship like the ones described above they will need to meet a few qualifications.

First the borrower will need to prove that their current financial condition is recovered from the impact of the financial hardship.

Second, the borrower will need to provide proof that their income declined by a minimum of 20% for 6 months or longer. This can usually be shown by presenting federal tax returns and the supporting W-2 forms.

Finally the borrower will have to agree to complete a counseling session aimed at educating home buyers.

In addition to these items the borrower must re-establish their credit. This does not mean that the scores must be 700+. However, once the hardship has ended the borrower will need to have good payment history on all credit accounts in order to prove that they are able and willing to make their monthly obligations.

Types of Borrowers

The Back to Work program can be used for people buying their first home as well as people buying their second, third, fourth, etc. home. It can also be used with the FHA 203(k) program for people that wish to renovate or modernize a home. Even people that are currently in a Chapter 13 plan could be approved for the FHA back to work program. The court will have to grant permission for the loan and the borrower will have to meet the other requirements.

The recent recession has hit a lot of people and left a lasting impact on them. The Back to Work program is aimed to help these people put the past behind them and return to the stability of owning a home.

Additional Mortgage Information: Mortgage Home Loans Financing

If you have a home loan through Bank of America and you are currently concerned about making your payments or your home is worth less than you owe, you may qualify for a short sale incentive from BoA. They refer to it as an 'enhanced relocation assistance payment'. To qualifying home owners/sellers, this could mean a check given to you for up to $30,000 after a successful short sale closing! Trust me, this is no scam. Here is a recent email that was sent to Bank of America Short Sale Specialists, like myself.

My name is Michael Collins, real estate agent and broker at Rock Realty. If you are currently considering a short sale in Wisconsin, I would be happy to walk you through the process and answer any questions you may have. I am certified as a Short Sales & Foreclosure Resource through the WRA.

Realtors® who have earned the SFR certification know how to help sellers maneuver the complexities of short sales as well as help buyers pursue short sale and foreclosure opportunities. The certification program includes training on how to qualify sellers for short sales, negotiate with lenders, protect buyers, and limit risk. Call my cell at 608-921-8536 and we can see if you qualify for any of these incentives.

Also feel free to fill out our simple
Short Sale Home Evaluation Form

Additional Short Sale Information

• Is a Short Sale right for my home?
• Half of Homeowners Underwater on their Mortgage
• Buying a Wisconsin home after a Short Sale or Foreclosure
• Benefits of Buying an Owner-Occupied Wisconsin Short Sale
• Tips for Buying a Wisconsin Short Sale

If you receive a letter from Chase Bank stating that you are eligible for a short sale incentive, please do not throw it away. It is not a scam. Distressed home owners have been receiving these letters for over a year now, and guess what? They are the real deal!


Real estate agents and Realtors® have been reporting that their clients are getting large checks cut to them at closing. In some cases, as much as $30,000! Yes, Chase Bank is not only forgiving the debt on a short sale, they are giving the current sellers/owners a check at closing. Don't believe it? See an example letter below:


My name is Michael Collins. If you are currently considering a short sale in Wisconsin, I would be happy to walk you through the process and answer any questions you may have. I am certified as a Short Sales & Foreclosure Resource through the WRA. REALTORS® who have earned the SFR certification know how to help sellers maneuver the complexities of short sales as well as help buyers pursue short sale and foreclosure opportunities. The certification program includes training on how to qualify sellers for short sales, negotiate with lenders, protect buyers, and limit risk. Call my cell at 608-921-8536 and we can see if you qualify for any of these incentives.


Original Post -
Chase Bank Short Sale Seller Incentive


Additional Short Sale Information


• 

• Is a Short Sale right for my home?
• 

• Half of Homeowners Underwater on their Mortgage
• 

• Buying a Wisconsin home after a Short Sale or Foreclosure
• 

• Benefits of Buying an Owner-Occupied Wisconsin Short Sale
• 

• Tips for Buying a Wisconsin Short Sale

Normally there are two ways most REO agents handle their utility bills but wait, there is a third:

1. Pay each bill with a check and set the check aside for several weeks until it is due to minimize the leverage of funds

2. Pay by bill-pay through your banking website which only takes daunting hours of your time due to hundreds of accounts that are no longer used or require deletion

3. Use Realty Pilot's Concourse 360 to create the record of the check file and print one check for each utility company at the end of the month

Let's face it banks don't pay a management fee for properties as an REO and the longer the hold time of a property the more free labor the banks are squeezing out of you. One of the most important things to know is where your break even number with days to hold a property is. Is it based on the number of tasks that are involved, is it due to the price of the home or is it the amount of time the home stays in your inventory? All of these are concerns but the one most important is hold time. The longer the hold time the more chance the REO asset will cost you money rather than make you money. So what do you do? First, pin point what costs you money then find a way to minimize those costs. Since this blog is about utilities I am going to let you in on a little secret.

Utilities will cost you money by the amount of time spent paying the bill-pay through your bank and takes money out of your pocket immediately. They will also cost you money printing numerous amounts of checks every month only to release them strategically hoping not to miss one and you still have to scan a copy of that check for the invoice record. Additionally there could be deposits and bonds involved to support the volume of bills under your own name. So what do you do?

Realty Pilot's Concourse 360 has come up with a very unique check writing system that allows you create the check file within their system right from the expense record that looks just like your check without printing and scanning. This check file stays with the expense that is tracked for each property. This allows the agent to pay all bills for a utility company on one check at the end of the month. So now you only have to print one check for each utility company and your money is not immediately dispersed allowing you to reduce the amount of time your funds are leveraged for the bank or asset company.

Keller Williams Realty Associates may be taking the day off on Thursday, May 13, 2010, but it will hardly be a day of rest. Over 25,000 associates across the United States and Canada will spend their day off by giving back as part of the company’s community service initiative: RED Day.

Short for “Renew, Energize and Donate,” RED Day was created to unite Keller Williams Realty offices and associates in an international day of service. During RED Day 2009, over 25,000 Keller Williams associates participated in activities ranging from food and blood drives to cleaning up trash in public parks, doing yard work for neighbors in need or revamping gardens at nursing homes. Last year on RED Day, the company donated over 130,000 hours.

As part of the RED Day effort, Keller Williams Realty of Tracy has chosen to spend the day with McKinley Elementary, one of the 1st schools to be established in Tracy, CA. We have found that this aged site is lacking an outdoor sports field & sports equipment and many of the 450 children come from families with little to no income, making necessities such as paper and pencils a rarity. With the majority of students being on free or reduced lunch and/or breakfast, these teachers and staff have many obstacles to overcome in order to provide the learning facility that each and every child deserves.

We’ve made a commitment to McKinley Elementary to donate 450 backpacks filled with school supplies to start out the 2010-11 school year on the right track. We are reviving the sports field and building a soccer goal for the kids and their soccer field. We’re also hosting a BBQ for the staff and enjoying an afternoon of outdoor play with all the students; DJ playing Kids BOP, activity booths, raffle prizes and soccer play with Troy Dayak of Dayak’s Den.

The Silveria Team has raised nearly $1,000 of cash donations to contribute toward the school supplies. We’ve received gift cards and meal vouchers from many local businesses, which we greatly appreciate.

We are all very excited to spend the day with the students and staff of McKinley Elementary. We would like to invite you all to join us in our RED Day activities. We will start our day at 8:20 AM and stay until school lets out in the afternoon. If you would like to make a donation of school supplies, soccer equipment, raffle prizes or your time, we would love to hear from you.