You can find quick answers to frequently asked questions here.

You can access a series of helpful expert interviews, on foreclosure, short sales, rescue scams and refinancing here.

You can also connect to a counselor through United Way Housing, healthcare, family needs, financial counseling and emergency services by dialing 211.

We’d like to thank all of the non-profit organizations who have participated here and helped to make this blog a valuable community resource.

Homeowners will have an opportunity to meet one-on-one with their mortgage lender or a HUD-approved housing counselor. You can find out if you qualify for the, Obama Administration’s, Making Home Affordable Program or other options from your lender.

IF YOU GO:

Bring the following:
Monthly mortgage statement;
Information about other mortgages on your home, if applicable;
Two most recent pay stubs, documentation of income you receive from other sources or most recent quarterly profit and loss statement if self-employed;
Two most recent bank statements;
Account balances and monthly payments for credit cards and other debts;
Estimates of other monthly expenditures (such as utilities, insurance and medical bills).

San Jose Convention center is located at 150 West San Carlos Street San Jose, CA 95113

Parking is $7/day across the street at the Almaden/Woz lot.

Light Rail accessible via the Alum Rock-Santa Teresa and Mountain View-Winchester lines.

For more information:
• Homeowner’s HOPETM Hotline at 1-888-995-HOPE (4673).
• MakingHomeAffordable.gov or HopeNow.com.

Our partners at the California Reinvestment Coalition released a special report last week titled, “From Foreclosure to Re-Redlining -How America’s largest financial institutions devastated California Communities.”

The report “looks at how banks, including the largest financial institutions, have acted in five California cities (Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, and Stockton) over the last three years. The report utilizes neighborhood-level analysis to show the combined negative impact of predatory lending, concentrated foreclosures, inadequate
foreclosure prevention solutions, and lack of access to mortgage lending credit to
help sustain and revitalize neighborhoods.

What the data indicate is an alarming trend of dispossession in neighborhoods with high concentrations of African American and Latino residents. Not only have these areas received a devastating amount of predatory home loans—and subsequent defaults—but they also
receive markedly low numbers of loan modifications and an accompanying bigger
drop in the origination of new conventional or prime loans than other
neighborhoods.”

The CRC sites 4 Key Challenges:

• Lack of transparency for foreclosure prevention efforts
• Lack of accountability for banks
• Need to reverse the neighborhood impacts of redlining, toxic loans, foreclosures,
inadequate loan modification outcomes, and lack of access to credit
• Loss of household and community wealth

They recommend 5 action steps:

Pass Strong Regulatory Reform: CRA and CFPA
Pass Strong Regulatory Reform: CRA and CFPA
Improve Home Affordable Modification Program
Enforce Fair Housing and Fair Lending
Enforce Fair Housing and Fair Lending

You can read the full report here.

The message hasn’t filtered down to everyone, though. If you are renting a property that is in foreclosure, you may get a 60 or even 30 day notice to move. Don’t accept these notices at face value, is the advise of attorney Shirley Gibson, they may not be legal. Here’s more advise for renters from Shirley Gibson of the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo:

Free legal help is available to you from your local Legal Aid Society. Click here for a list of KTEH’s partners who can help with legal and other foreclosure issues.

The new law also requires those offering loan modification services to inform clients that the same service is available free from non-profit HUD approved Housing counselors. For a list of HUD approved Housing counselors click here.

Below is the complete press release about the new law:

“On October 19, 2009, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger held a press conference to highlight the signing of legislation that will prevent homeowners from being negatively impacted by fraudulent mortgage practices. Real Estate Commissioner Jeff Davi was one of the officials present to support these laws, including Senate Bill 94, which became effective immediately. Under this new California law, no person or firm offering residential loan modification assistance can collect upfront fees from borrowers to perform these services. For more information on Governor’s press conference visit http://www.gov.ca.gov/speech/13658/.

“Given the widespread abuses involving the collection of advance fees in connection with loan modifications, this bill was a necessity,” stated Real Estate Commissioner Jeff Davi. “This urgency measure will go a long way to provide needed consumer protection to homeowners who have been negatively impacted by the economic downturn and are facing possible foreclosure,” said Commissioner Davi.

The California Department of Real Estate is currently investigating over 1,300 loan modification complaints and, in just the past 12 months, has issued nearly 400 desist and refrain orders and accusations against individual respondents for illegally collecting advance fees. Most of the cases involve a scammer who has collected an advance fee in exchange for a promise that the homeowner will receive a sustainable loan modification; yet once the fee was paid little or nothing was done to get the borrower’s loan modified. A list of persons and companies that the Department has taken action against can be found at http://www.dre.ca.gov/cons_drs.asp.

Senate Bill 94 goes right to the heart of the fraud. The measure prohibits any person, including real estate licensees and attorneys, from demanding, claiming, charging, collecting or receiving an upfront fee from a borrower in connection with a promise to modify the borrower’s residential loan or to do some other form of mortgage loan forbearance. The advance fee prohibition for loan modification and forbearance services applies to residential property containing four or fewer dwelling units.

Furthermore, Senate Bill 94 applies to anyone in California performing loan modification services as well as to those outside of California who offer these services to California consumers. It also mandates any person performing loan modification services for a fee to disclose to the borrower that similar services are available from approved non-profit housing counselors free of charge.

A list of nonprofit housing counseling agencies approved by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is available from the local HUD office or by visiting www.hud.gov”.

Those individuals and entities not in compliance with the provisions of SB 94 should be reported to the Department of Real Estate. Generally, before an individual or company may lawfully perform loan modification services they must obtain a license from the Department of Real Estate or be licensed as an attorney acting within the scope of his or her license. Consumers can get information on how to file a complaint or may check the
license status of a company or individual by going to the Department’s web site at www.dre.ca.gov.”

WASHINGTON, DC — Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE) is implementing the Deed for Lease™ Program under which qualifying homeowners facing foreclosure will be able to remain in their homes by signing a lease in connection with the voluntary transfer of the property deed back to the lender.

“The Deed for Lease Program provides an additional option for qualifying homeowners who are facing foreclosure and are not eligible for modifications,” said Jay Ryan, Vice President of Fannie Mae. “This new program helps eliminate some of the uncertainty of foreclosure, keeps families and tenants in their homes during a transitional period, and helps to stabilize neighborhoods and communities.”

The new program is designed for borrowers who do not qualify for or have not been able to sustain other loan-workout solutions, such as a modification. Under Deed for Lease, borrowers transfer their property to the lender by completing a deed in lieu of foreclosure, and then lease back the house at a market rate.

To participate in the program, borrowers must live in the home as their primary residence and must be released from any subordinate liens on the property. Tenants of borrowers in this circumstance may also be eligible for leases under the program. Borrowers or tenants interested in a lease must be able to document that the new market rental rate is no more than 31% of their gross income.

Leases under the new program may be up to 12 months, with the possibility of term renewal or month-to-month extensions after that period. A Deed for Lease property that is subsequently sold includes an assignment of the lease to the buyer.

For additional information about the Deed for Lease Program, including full details on program eligibility, please review the Guide Announcement on www.efanniemae.com.

When you get to Freecreditreport.com, you are asked for your credit card information. This message is in small print at the bottom of the form:

“When you order your free report here, you will begin your trial membership in Triple AdvantageSM Credit Monitoring. If you don’t cancel your membership within 9 days of enrollment, you will be billed $14.95 for each month that you continue your membership…..” Yikes!

The Federal Trade Commission would like FreeCreditReport.com to change it’s tune. A government-mandated site already exists where you can get a free credit report by law.

You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit agencies once a year. Visit annualcreditreport.com, it is the only authorized online site under federal law. This will enable you to check your credit 3 times a year. Experts say, for the majority of consumers, that’s enough.

For more info on free credit reports and how to access them, click here.

“To help prevent California homeowners and homebuyers from being negatively impacted by the fraudulent mortgage practices that have arisen in the aftermath of the national foreclosure crisis, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation to increase protections for consumers in the lending market and provide law enforcement with more tools to crack down on deceitful mortgage practices. These bills aim to strengthen California’s reverse mortgage laws by providing senior homeowners with greater consumer protections when considering reverse mortgage agreements, make it a felony to commit fraud in connection with a mortgage application and promote responsibility and accountability in the real estate market.”
Read the rest of the release here.

There maybe a light at the end of the tunnel for Mortgage holders without jobs.
Last week Adam Weinstein reported a new FDIC proposal, that called on banks to drop mortgage rates for the under and unemployed, in the Default Servicing News.
Here is an excerpt of his report:

‘As rampant unemployment sours the mortgage industry, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is “encouraging” its partner banks to do more to help borrowers troubled by job losses or underemployment.
In a press release last week, the agency called on banks that acquire the FDIC’s failed institutions to drop mortgage rates for half a year or more for borrowers whose livelihoods have been ravaged by the economic recession.”
To read the full article, click here.