Does The HARP Program Work?

  The H.A.R.P., Home Affordability Refinance Program, program offered to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgage note owners to refinance at today’s lower rates.  So simply yes the program works.  The program allows for home owners to refinance regardless to your loan to value.  The catch is your mortgage most be owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac before May 31, 2009.  So who owns your mortgage note? 

  Most people do not relies that the bank they are paying their current monthly mortgage bill to does not own their mortgage note.  Most of the time the bank you make your monthly payment to is acting as a “Servicer” for that actual mortgage note holder.  You can do a web search for does Fannie Mae or does Freddie Mac own my loan and follow the steps.  If you have a loan match before May 31, 2009 then you are eligible for the program. 

  Here is the tricky part, you have to find the right Lender to meet your needs.  May people get discouraged because they get told their bank cannot do their loan.  Well this is correct more times than not.  The reason is because not all mortgage lenders offer the program as it is intended.  Banks, Brokers or Mortgage Bankers offer programs with what they feel is safe to them.  This is very complex but if you think of banks as car deals this makes more sense.  For example you would not take your Chevy to the Toyota dealer to get fixed.  Yes the people at the Toyota Dealer could get the job done in most cases but not efficiently.  So your cost would be much higher than if you just took your car to the Chevy dealer to begin with.  The average person simplifies the mortgage process and yes the banks take advantage of this lack of knowledge.  Was anyone surprised that Wells Fargo posted huge profits as few months ago?  All of the big banks are doing very well in a down economy, imagine that. 

  So what is the HARP program?  The HARP program is a refinance opportunity that allow you to refinance your current loan to a new 30 year fixed mortgage.  HARP is not a loan modification.  The program does not require you to be late on your mortgage payment and it does not damage your credit score.  Frankly if rewards those people that are keeping up with their mortgage payments.   

  There is only one company that I am aware of that offer the HARP program regardless to your loan to value.  It is MN Capital and you can visit them on line at www.mn-capital.com 

The HARP program is currently scheduled in terminate on Dec. of 2013.  If you are still considering taking advantage of the HARP program then you might want to get moving before the program is over.  With the rising real estate values there is little reason for Congress to extend the current HARP program or roll out the rumored HARP 3 program.    

         

The Misunderstood Real Estate Market

  The available inventory of homes for sale is shrinking to alarming low levels when compared to the total amount of reported foreclosures.  The banks are clearly in position to manipulate property values yet again and the media is talking about it.  Where are the true journalists and why are they not talking about this?  Roughly 85% of all MLS listings are bank owned or short sell properties today.  If the banks regulate the amount of available properties for sale then they can artificially keep values up.

  This hardly seems fair in the big picture that the banks would regulate available properties for sale to raise selling values.  We all know that the banks are holding down refinance values with pending short sell or REO listings.  This is clearly a manipulation of values when we all know that the Bank owned properties sell for much more than the listed price.  I have seen people offer as much as 85,000 over the asking price and still not get an excepted purchase offer.

  I am sure that the Banks are yet again going to blame Brokers for the housing bubble and the average person is going to believe it because they do not understand how the system works.  The Banks are blaming Brokers to hide much like Obama blames Bush whenever his popularity starts to slip.  This is simple old fashion smoke and mirrors. 

  This lack of true real estate journalism is much like the sport beat writers that watch a professional athlete cheat on their spouse and says nothing.  Is it because the reporter is afraid that they will not be granted future interviews with athletes if report exposes the athlete?  Why is it we only hold people accountable if money is involved?  I am just saying that both the professional life and the personal life should be accounted for before we praise anyone.  I am sure Burney Madoff was a great guy to sit and discuss finance options with at one time.  Today the man is trashed, as he should be, because he took money from people.  Is there no moral values left today?         

  Just a few months ago the CEO’s of several of the large banks where in front of Congressional hearing while several Congressmen were grand standing.  The Media seems to not want to talk about it.  Some of the CEO’s stated that they did not want to sell the assets in question that they are sitting on because they believe that the assets are under value.  The assets in question are the foreclosed homes that the banks are holding.  So instead of forcing the banks to sell these properties to raise capital the Fed gives the banks billions at nearly no cost.

  So let’s put this in prospective, the Fed gives the banks billions to ride out their own bad business practices and the tax payers are picking up the cost.  Not only is the tax payer paying for the bailout cost in terms of additional taxes we are also paying in terms of extremely high credit card interest.  Also Fannie Mae has set the mortgage guidelines so high that it is difficult to obtain a home mortgage today. 

  Obama has been talking about his HARP mortgage program and forgets to tell us that the banks have no where to sell these HARP loans once they are done.  Banks today do not hold their own loans.  Banks today facilitate the loans and service the loans but they do not hold the paper.  The actual note holder is whom ever purchases the M.B.S. on the Mortgage Bond Market.  M.B.S. or Mortgage Backed Securities are sold on the Mortgage Bond Market and not the Stock Market.  The average person knows very little about how the process works so here is a graph on how the money is transferred from top to bottom. 

 

  Everyone is to blame from the Fed’s to Joe homeowner for the Housing Bubble.  It is now time for reasonable guidelines to be set by Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac and time will correct this problem.  The Capitalistic system will fix itself in spite of whoever is President, Vice President or even a Congressman as long as the system is allowed to correct itself.    All of these quick fixes only prolong the inevitable and end up costingmore in the long run.