National Mortgage Servicing Settlement Launches Public Service Announcement – “Homeowner Help”

Earlier this month, it was announced that the National Mortgage Servicing Settlement would be launching a public service announcement. They are calling this public service announcement “Homeowner Help.” Together, Tom Miller, Attorney General of Iowa, and Shaun Donovan, HUD Secretary, announced this launch.

“Homeowner Help” is supposed to offer homeowners a helpful education on mortgage servicing settlement and the resources if offers. Various opportunities and options are available to homeowners and this public service announcement focuses on offering homeowners the information they need so they can find out if they can benefit from this settlement.

Currently, radio spots, TV spots and new websites are amplifying this message. According to the HUD Secretary, this public service announcement is creating a great opportunity for homeowners to get information they need on the opportunities and options being offered by the National Mortgage Servicing Settlement. This effort is supposed to help homeowners out, although there are certain eligibility requirements.

Homeowners can watch this public service announcement on television and it’s available on the radio too, in Spanish and English. New online tools are also being released to help homeowners remember to call the Homeowner’s HOPE Hotline or to check out the National Mortgage Settlement website.

The National Mortgage Servicing Settlement is a $25 billion agreement that will hopefully offer assistance to homeowners before they end up in foreclosure, helping to reduce the flood of HUD homes on the market today. Foreclosure listings are currently high, and this settlement will offer buyers some relief in many cases.

While HUD homes offer great buying opportunities to homebuyers, the government is working to stop the flood of HUD homes on the market with this new National Mortgage Servicing Settlement.

Foreclosures In Wisconsin

Many people outside of the Midwest think of Wisconsin as the home of the Green Bay Packers, Laverne and Shirley and of course, Miller Beer. However, there is a lot more to the Badger State than this. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a major center of biotechnology and genetics research as well as being the state capitol and a city which is consistently ranked among the most livable in the country. Milwaukee, the state’s largest city, is home to companies including Harley-Davidson, Marshall & Ilsley Bank and of course, Miller Brewing, among others as well as having a major university (the University of Wisconsin) of its own.

Despite all that Wisconsin has to offer, there are also a large number of foreclosures in Wisconsin on the market and these cheap homes are one of many things which are drawing new residents to Milwaukee, Madison and other Wisconsin cities as well as making home ownership affordable for current residents who choose to purchase repossessed homes.  Wisconsin foreclosure listings include affordable housing in virtually every part of the state, including some of the most desirable places to live in Wisconsin’s cities.
According to the latest information from the foreclosure listings site RealtyStore.com, there are currently 52,710 foreclosures in the state, with many of these REO properties being located in Milwaukee, Dane and Kenosha counties – especially the cities of Milwaukee, Madison and Kenosha and their suburbs. From the relaxed, yet cosmopolitan atmosphere of Madison and Milwaukee to Kenosha’s slower pace and location which makes it an easy commute to both Milwaukee and Chicago, there are plenty of choices that homebuyers can find when they search through Wisconsin foreclosure listings.

How Lease Options are Helping the Economy

In the current economic climate, buying a home has become a more difficult proposition. Mortgages are extremely difficult to get, even for those who have fair credit rates, not to mention those who have less than perfect credit. Since it’s harder than ever to buy a home, one new option that is becoming a popular choice for those who dream of having their own home is the lease option. This option gives potential homeowners the ability to move into a home without throwing away money on a traditional rental agreement. The lease option comes with some great benefits to both homebuyers and sellers as well as some great economic and community benefits as well.

Understanding the Lease Option

First, you may be wondering what is a lease option. Simply put, this option refers to a situation when a potential homeowner decides to rent a home for a specific time period and then is given the option the home when the rental period is up. The price for the home is predetermined, which means potential homeowners can lock in the purchase price in the beginning. In some cases, this is referred to as the rent to own option as well. While it’s not a new concept, it has recently seen a huge rise in popularity, since easy mortgages are a thing of the past.

How Rent to Own Works

When you decide to go with the rent to own or lease option, there are some specific steps that will be followed. First, before you ever move into the home, the buyer and seller (owner) will have to agree on the purchase price of the home. Other terms for the sale are agreed on at this time as well. The next step is for the buyer to pay a special fee to the seller in order to lock out other buyers. This gives them the right to buy the home and prevents the seller from being able to rent or sell the home to someone else.

After the purchase price is agreed upon and the lease option fee is paid, then the buyer can move into the home. For the agreed on length of time, the buyer will pay rent to the seller. In most cases, this rental period lasts between 1-3 years. Some of the rent that is paid during this time will be put towards the price of the home. This rent to own credit will reduce the amount owed when the buyer is ready to purchase the home. For example, the rent may cost $800 a month. $400 of that rental amount may be designated to be the rent to own option credit. This means that over two years, the seller will have accumulated $9600 that will go towards the purchase of this home.

Lease Options Help Homebuyers and Sellers

The great thing about the lease option is that it offers homebuyers and sellers some advantages. It provides a win-win situation that both will benefit from when choosing this option. The homebuyers will benefit from having extra time to improve their credit and to come up with a way to finance the home. Sometimes this can include saving for the down payment on the home as well. During the process, homebuyers have a place to live, which is a huge advantage.

The seller also enjoys some advantages when going with the rent to own option. They can take the home off the market and enjoy rental income while knowing they will be selling their home. It’s also fairly easy to find people who want to enjoy this option, which keeps buyers from spending months trying to deal with the hassle of selling the home.

Economic and Community Benefits

Of course, the lease option provides some great economic and community benefits as well. One way this is helping the economy is that it is helping to keep the real estate market moving. Those who have gone with the rent to own option in the past few years are now seeing their lease mature and they are going on to purchase the home. As people continue to choose this option, it offers a great way to keep the real estate market moving in a time when it’s extremely tough to get a mortgage. Also, since this keeps homes from sitting empty, it helps to boost prices for other sellers in the area. Empty homes sitting around drive down real estate prices, but the lease option helps to keep people in these homes.

Last, even the community benefits from people taking the lease option. This option puts families in homes instead of letting homes stay empty, which drives down home values in the area and can be a magnet for crime. In the end, the homeowners, sellers, economy and the community can all benefit from people choosing the rent to own route.

Will Foreclosures or Short Sales Drive the Market in 2012?

(From WeTalkForeclosures.com)

Bank foreclosures are not a pretty thing to say, definitely not from the viewpoint of someone who has taken out a home loan. In essence, they occur when a person who has taken out a home loan fails to be able to keep up with the repayments of his or her mortgage obligations. In bank foreclosures, it is the bank that has taken out a security interest in the person’s home.

Therefore, if said person fails to be able to pay back his or her mortgage obligations, the lender (the bank) has the right, thanks to the security interest, to go ahead with a foreclosure on the property. A foreclosure is particularly painful because it will harshly retard the ability of an individual to purchase any form of real estate in the future.

On the other hand, short sale homes options are an alternative to bank foreclosures, yet they are not as widely understood as the foreclosures. A short sale on a home is basically a compromise of sorts between the lender, the person who has taken out the loan and the seller of the property. A short sale is defined as the time when a lender assents to accept a mortgage payoff quantity that is less than what’s owed.

This is done for the strategic purpose of making sure that a sale of a property by a financially compromised owner becomes a reality. In essence, what the lender (the bank) does in a short sale is basically forgive the remaining balance of a loan.

With regard to how the rest of 2012 will shape up concerning bank foreclosures or short sales, it seems that short sales will be dominant. Sure, some sources that deal in the financial world have implied that it will be bank foreclosures of cheap homes that will continue to dominate in the 2nd half of 2012.

According to CNBC, under President Obama, from December 2011 to January 2012, bank foreclosures skyrocketed by an alarming 28 percent in just one month! That is based on information from Lender Processing Services. Greater than 230,000 bank foreclosures of cheap homes started in January alone!

However, the Calculated Risk Blog implies the opposite, citing that short sales have gone up in lots of places across the U.S., which stands in contrast to foreclosures, which have eased up. Furthermore, according to a March 2012 article in the Chicago Tribune, more and more big banks are utilizing cash incentives to tempt people to pursue short sales instead of foreclosures.

This seems to suggest that short sales will be the dominant route in the remaining part of 2012. A March piece in the Examiner.com predicts that short sales will increase in 2012 due to the so-called “robo-signing” settlement reached with the federal government.

All in all, it appears that there are more sources that are pointing to the dominance of the short sale in real estate for the 2nd half of 2012. Hence, it is a good bet to predict that short sales will edge out foreclosures in the 2nd half of 2012.

Buying foreclosures to rent them out: great investment option

When most people think of buying a house, they usually consider buying the property as a place for them and their families to live. They end up looking for the perfect home for their needs, and they spend a fortune on a brand new home that they can live in for many happy years.

However, what if there was a way to own the perfect home and still make an investment that will pay off for years to come?

For those who want to invest in a piece of property, you may want to consider bank foreclosures in order to rent them out.

While it may sound surprising, the truth is that buying a bank foreclosure doesn’t mean that you are getting a less-than-perfect house; all it means is that you are getting a home that the owners were unable to pay the mortgage on.

The homes are likely in great condition, and the truth is that you can recoup a good deal on an investment like this one.

The great thing about buying bank foreclosures is that you can get the house with a completely clean title, and thus you don’t have to worry about past liens or any encumbrances on the house.

These have already been taken care of by the bank – as they have to be dealt with before the lender can sell the house – and so you get a new home with a new title that you can easily buy and rent out without having to worry about the history of the home.

One of the best things about buying bank foreclosure for the purpose of renting them out is that you can find pretty much any kind of house you could want in any city in the country. There are dozens of foreclosures in any given city, and every bank and mortgage lender will offer you great deals and special offers on the houses they want to get off their hands.

This means that you can often find a house that will be ideal, and you won’t have to do more than walk into your bank and ask (obviously, it’s a bit more complex than that, but you get the idea).

There are some bank foreclosure homes that you will be able to find at prices that are substantially below market value, especially at foreclosure listings websites - but doesn’t mean that you will automatically get the house of your dreams at a dream price.

Most lenders will try to keep the house at its regular market value, as that is the only way that they will be able to recoup the investment that they made into the house. You may be able to find cheap homes, but it isn’t a guaranteed thing.

What is guaranteed is that most lenders will be fairly flexible when it comes to the conditions and the terms of the sale. Banks always try and get as much as they can from their investment, but in reality they know how to negotiate the real estate market very well and are great at financing property creatively in order to give the best deal to their clients as well. This means that you should have no problem finding a great financing option offered by the bank, and you will be able to find a mortgage loan that will suit your needs.

There is a downside to buying bank foreclosures, which is that there is going to be a lot of competition. The fact that the purchase process is so simple and that the title is clean means that there are always going to be a lot of people interested in buying the homes, so you may have a lot of people competing for the same home.

The truth is that investing in a foreclosure to rent out is a good idea, especially if you are looking for a way to secure your financial future. You can own a home and rent it out, thereby earning passive income for many years to come.

If you are interested in this option, you might want to check out the giant database of bank foreclosures at RealtyStore.com. You can find hundreds of gorgeous houses that have been foreclosed; foreclosure listings that you can invest in for the purpose of renting them out.