There has been a lot of buzz about what is being done to help homeowners with negative equity positions. And after Obama's speech it has gotten stronger.
The odd thing is that help has been here for the last few years with the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). However, it recently underwent some revisions that should help may that were unable to utilize the program before.
The most important one has to do with negative equity. Previously there was a restriction has to how much negative equity yoo could have; that has been removed and there is NO longer a restriction.
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HARP is primarily for conventional loans and those loans that are backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. However, there are still some options out there for loans that do not fall in to these two areas. To find out if your loan is owned by Fannie Mae, go to http://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/ To find out if your loan is owned by Freddie Mac, go to https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/ Even if neither of them own the loan you should still contact a loan officer to see what your options are. Not to mention there are a few more guidelines that go along with these products.
Many homeowners are going back to the lender that they are making payments to in order to use this program, and as a result in many cases it is taking well over 120 days to get a refinance done. You can use ANY lender that offers the program and cut down the amount of time it takes for you to close and to save money.
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Initially the program was only open to loans that did not have mortgage insurance; now even loans with mortgage insurance are eligible. The big thing is that there is help out there and in order to find out what you might be able to do you should call a lender and find out. They will point you in a direction that will make sense. If it makes sense for you to work with your present lender; they should tell you that.
So what did we just learn? That with negative equity you can still most likely refinance and save money. Reduce your payment, reduce your term... the options are there, all you have to do is make the call to a lender. Heck, call me.
Tom Smith
952.431.1464
