Chances are you have never heard of force place insurance, but if you are a distressed homeowner trying to make your mortgage payments, you may be familiar with it if you have let your homeowners insurance lapse. Lenders need to protect their asset, and if you let your insurance lapse, they immediately force a policy in place to protect their investment. The cost is added to your mortgage. You would think that this benefits the homeowner also, but in reality,  another source of revenue for the lender. How? The force place insurance is often much more expensive than a typical consumer policy. Add to that that the … [Read more...]

The Federal Housing Administration, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac put new rules into place  that will require lenders to review and respond to short sale requests within 30 days and make a final decision within 60 days. The new rules go into place June 1st. If you are thinking about short selling your home, call The Hagley Group for a free consultation. Why choose The Hagley Group to short sell your home? 100% short sale approval rate since 2006; We have successfully closed hundreds of short sales; We have relationships with all major lenders; Your lender pays our commission; We have … [Read more...]

The Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Relief Act is set to expire at the end of 2012. This act, first implemented in 2007, gave taxpayers the relief of not having to pay income tax on debt that was forgiven through a short sale, loan modification, or foreclosure. The good news is that the Obama administration is considering extending the  The Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Relief Act through 2014, which makes sense. Not extending this bill would fully plunge homeowners deeper into debt, making financial recovery in their lifetime, in my personal opinion, nearly impossible. Fast Facts about The Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Relief … [Read more...]

Improper foreclosures, robo-signing, missing paperwork...and the feds come to the rescue with $26 billion (California will receive $12 billion) over the next three years to help homeowners: With mortgage write downs; With re-fi's for homeowners who are underwater but current on their mortgage; And up to $2000 for homeowners that were victims of improper foreclosure. Excuse my language, but I call bullshit on all of this. Let's start with the $2000 for the folks whose homes were foreclosed improperly. Would you like a side of government cheese with that? Lenders have ruined homeowners credit, making it hard to … [Read more...]

Keep Your Home California, a state agency developed to assist struggling homeowners (and backed by a $2 million federal budget) has made it easier for for folks to get information by text, tweet, social media, or a re-designed website. In addition to homeowners learning about available programs, they can also see success stories, and find out if they are eligible for certain programs. The programs range from monthly assistance to unemployed homeowners, relocation money for families to relocate after a short sale or foreclosure, to as much as a $100,000 principle reduction program. To use your smart phone,  text … [Read more...]

  I am getting more and more requests for short sale information from distressed sellers in Gale Ranch and Windemere in San Ramon. The requests are coming from sellers with property values $800,000 and above, and these sellers are unlike sellers in the lower price ranges. First of all, the majority of these sellers are embarrassed, and their first question is usually "do my friends have to know I am short selling my home?"  The answer to that is no. I do have to disclose to agents in confidential remarks that the home is a short sale, and those agents will let their buyers know that it's a short sale. … [Read more...]

Times are tough and there are a lot of scammers out there promising loan modifications and lower monthly payments - for a fee. If these offers seem to good to be true - chances are it's a scam. In fact, it is illegal to charge homeowners upfront for a loan modification.   Your best bet to avoid getting ripped off is to make sure you are using a licensed Realtor. You can verify that a person is licensed by visiting The California Department of Real Estate. You can also see if the agent has any disciplinary action against them.   If you have been turned down for a loan modification, a short sale may … [Read more...]