You might be a victim of a scam if:

• You are told you will get a federal incentive to walk away from your mortgage
• You are asked to pay upfront for counseling
• You are pressured to sign papers immediately
• You are asked to sign your house over to a company or person who is not working with your mortgage company
• You are asked to make a mortgage payment to someone other than your mortgage company without their approval
• You are guaranteed a successful short sale or mortgage modification
• They claim to be a representative of the federal government

If you believe that you are a victim of a scam, you should contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or visit their Complaint Assistant https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov.

photo credit: Casey Serin

Times are indeed changing when it comes to the mortgage game. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, at a recent press conference, said, "The bottom third of people who might have qualified for a prime mortgage in terms of, say, FICO scores a few years ago cannot qualify today," because of stricter standards from mortgage providers. In 2010, about one in four applicants was denied for a mortgage loan. This represents an 18% increase since 2003, reports the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. Bob Ryan, acting commissioner for HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) said that money is "flowing, its stable, its tightened from the boom years, but its there." Keith Gumbinger of mortgage information provider HSH Associates says there is a belief that you cant get a new loan, but thats not the case at all. According to Tuck Bradford, in order to have your mortgage backed by "the big guys" i.e., Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, a borrower must meet the following guidelines:

• Be able to pay 20% of purchase price as a down payment, plus any closing costs.
• A credit score of at least 620.
• A high-enough income to cover monthly mortgage payments usually no more than 28% of gross income should go to mortgage payments.
• A loan-to-value ratio of at least 80% in order for the home value to be greater than the loan balance in the event of default.

Oddly enough, however, some potential borrowers are finding it difficult to get funding even with great credit. A loan officer in Westport, Connecticut had a client who was trying to refinance his home and ended up having to do a short sale due to one imperfection on his credit report. Since the homeowner ended short selling his home, hell have an even bigger blemish on his credit report for several years.

The Federal Housing Administration can help those who have been rejected by conventional lenders. The FHA is intended to help working-class Americans achieve home ownership, and therefore, has less stringent lending rules. FHA requires minimum credit scores of 580 for a 3.5%-down loan and 500 for a 10%-down mortgage. There are, of course, some banks that require higher credit scores in order to protect their investments. If you have less-than-perfect credit, FHA is willing to overlook it as long as you have other favorable factors to counter-act the bad. You may even see borrowers with a bankruptcy or even a past foreclosure on their records receive FHA financing. Such stains make any financing more difficult but not impossible.

Read more.

@DenverShortSale is a Metro Brokers Realty Oasis driven company.  Having a successful short sales takes many people to work the transaction from start to finish.  Here are a few of our recent experiences and sucess with short sales with all areas and all price ranges.

There are many circumstances that will determine if a lender provides "Cash For Keys".

But in this particular case, the sellers did very well.  Beats foreclosure hands down.

6/24/11

Mark,

Thank you so much for all you did for us at a really stressful time.  You and Sam were on top of everything and had answers when we called you.  These are some important points that happened as we were going thru a short sale.

                Foreclosure sale date was postponed.

                Lender did not hold us responsible for the deficiency of the note.

                We received $23,000 at closing for participating in the short sale process.
                $3,000 from the HAFA Program and $20,000 from Chase.

If you know of others that are going thru the same circumstances they can call us if they would

like.  You have are numbers.

Sincerely,

Walt & Marlene Klein

photo credit: Jean-Michel Reed

Assessed property values in Colorado declined in 2010 and are expected to decline more in 2011. The last time Colorado experienced a decline in assessed property values was in the 1980s with the oil bust and savings-and-loans collapse. A report was issued by the nonpartisan Legislative Council as part of the December economic recovery and forecast prestentation made for Colorado lawmakers. The report attributed the decline in assessed property values to a decrease in oil and gas prices, a poor real estate market and the downturn in the economy.

The property assessment rate should stay at 7.96 percent through June 2013. The state is required to make up for the lost local property-tax collections for education, therefore lawmakers will need to cover $140 million for schools in addition to the expected budget shortfall of up to $1 billion during the 2011-12 fiscal year.

The forecast report mentioned that Colorado's economy is continuing to recover at a slow pace. Job growth isn't nearly fast enough to make up for the large numbers of unemployed workers. High debt levels, a weak real estate market paired with financial institutions holding troubled mortgages also is slowing the recovery. Another issue is the high inventory levels for residential and non-residential properties. Prices could decline even more before stablizing and eventually rebounding. It predicted that assessed property values for residential properties will decrease 10.4 percent in 2011. High foreclosure levels, tight mortgage financing and the economy downturn all are contributing to the falling Colorado home prices.

Read the entire article at www.DenverPost.com.