Martin Wareing's Q&A

Dear PC in SD,CA is loaded with a monster backlog of housing inventory.  Be patient with what you need to do to prepare for home ownership. Most lenders are not warm and fuzzy to you simply because you would not be able to close and so they will not be paid.  We are not paid to give advice either, but do it to help.  The only thing you have currently to prepare for ownership is the "want" to own.  If you apply for a loan and show you have not paid, the others, what will that tell the lender? If you or your hubby in unemployed, what would the "means to repay be"? You write that you are loyal, but your credit score says otherwise.  I am not being harsh, I am being honest.  Someone in CA will court you and take your money and waste your time being "nice to you". If you are ready to work hard to reach your dream, contact the chargeoffs and get settlements.  Start saving money, save 10% of your home price.Know where every dollar goes.  Bduget for 30% or less of your Gross monthl income to be your mortgage PITI  payment. Make sure all of your debts do not exceed 45% of your gross income.  Sounds hard..?  It is to a point, but is really just discipline.  We are cleaning up what was easy. Do not Finance a home until you can be approved for an FHA or CONV loan... if not.. chances are..... you will repeat what others have done in front of you.. I would caution agaist the CREDIT CLEANUP PATROL..  You need written settlements to really rid the bad scores.  Good luck and I wish you well.  CA Real Estate will drag for a while (like FL) until WAGES increase... :)

Contact your servicing lender.  It is their loan; hence they are the ones who may or may not modify their own terms in agreement with you, presently.  The "not so good" credit simply means you have minimal "other" options.  Walking into Lender "B" and showing you are struggling to pay Lender "A" is not a good first impression.  Good luck, but it usually comes down to the lender recognizing a "larger" loss if they were to foreclose on the home versus "modifying the rate" and you keep the potential higher loss.  There are piles of backed up delinquent home loans, but the system in place is attempting to control the flow of repossessions (flood) coming to the market at a given time.  Short answer:  contact your lender.  Stay persistent. 

Run....Run Forrest Run....  Just having a little fun; however, sight unseen..... Desperate Builders do desperate things.  I would rethink and make sure I was very long-term comfortable with my decision... They are having issues getting anyone to finance it... Will you when it comes time to sell????  Just weigh those scenarios in your choice.  If you still want it and it is great, wonderful and have a great time there.  If you really think you could easily sell it in the near to mid future without taking a major loss of money and/or your credit.....  I think you are not beign realistic.  Reading your first 3 sentences says it all to me.  I wish you well in your decision.

home,Do not worry about a seller and their agent's anxiety attack.  Remember, we just witnessed the FEDS seize and chain down Taylor, Bean & Whitaker recently....  All of the pending closings were not funded...  Colonial Bank... gone  now BB&T.. so, the true meaning, the deal is not done until it is done is a little more a reality in some cases.  Who cares if they call and snoop...  They are simply nervous... It is a Buyer's Market anyway.  You will be fine. Good luck on your purchase and enjoy your new home.

BMW,If you have a good product and you have great homeonwers along with it; I would thinkg some type of local bank would or mortgage company would look at a business plan of sorts.  It is not in favor right now, but again, sometimes making investments in people while the vast majority is in retreat mode could be a great opportunity.  Good luck to you and if any of the FL lenders can help furhter, just contact them directly so that this board does not get cluttered too much.  Wish you well.

They can't "change the term"... However, they can, and many have, simply freeze the line where it is or effectively close it while leaving the lending terms in tact (ie. rate and principal & interest due dates for example). My line was trimmed, but luckily,  I was not near the limit, so it did not effectme; however, mamy are seeing their lines closed and so they are cash-flow strapped.  It could happen either way.  Hope it works out for you.

HARP does not apply to 2nd loans. That is true.  5.5% is good.. Take it.  It is something and although it is not 5%, if HARP was not in place, you would be playing a HARP wishing for a reprieve.  Looking back, it was the 80/20 that is the achilles here. No blames on the lenders here in this case as you bought without a down payment and that was the way it was done over the last 5-7 years.  Sorry for your situation, but take them a step at a time.  It is the big one (1st mortgage) that a rate change will make the greatest payment impact. The 2nd and its crappy rate just "looks" bad, but it is 1/4 the size, so the last thing you want is a 1% drop on the 2nd and nothing from the first.  Finally, 2nds are in the danger zone and are higher risk.  Higher risk... higher rate... That part is simple lending economics.  If you can make 3 payments with WELLS, start the dialogue with Bankywide and see if you can get a "commitment" of sorts today with simply proving payment ability for the next 90 days. I wish you well.

The main answer lies between you and your servicing lender.  In the case that the home is sold short and you do not make up the difference at closing (laying the short on the lender); you will be basically ineligible for a mortgage in most, if not all, cases for 2-3 years.  Even then, credit scores and a healthy down payment would be needed. I would suggest weighing the "cost of selling" versus the "cost of future financing" for big ticket items.  If it is possible to "bite the bullet" and over the short here yourself, you might be better off over the longhaul.  That answer lies with your decision.  If you shortsale and the lender eats it, there is not a way to avoid negative implications on your credit history that I am aware of; hence the moratorium for financing.  FNMA and FHLMC will know if they were not fully repaid.  Be careful of that type of advice and water-cooler banter.  I wish you well.

A Florida manufactured home.... That is tough and treated about as warmly as a condo-conversion these days to most people.  I would urge you to exhaust all efforts with your current servicing lender.  Check to see if your loan is owned by FNMA or FREDDIE MAC,  as that will make a huge difference in your options (in the open market) as well. Even if the loan is not owned by them, still pursue a REFI with the servicer.  They already have your loan and it is more the collateral type than FL in this case.  I am just up the road and know what you are feeling.  We are in a very sluggish place and the harsh realities of vanished equity is sobering to us all.  I wish you well.

Not MM QBing at all.  I was just pointing out that they were turnin and burnin while the rest were retreating.  Nobody could have foreseen what was happening behind the scenes for sure and sorry for the issues it caused you GVD.  It is sad and piles of resumes are flying around Central FL as a result.  They were/are the largest employer in their town.  It's a mess.  I wish you well.