The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan was signed into law on Feb 17th, 2009.
COMING VERY SOON
We are working hard to put this into play for homeowners. 

This plan is designed to help:
1)  Loan modification– Borrowers who are at risk of foreclosure or with high debt-to-income ratios for qualifying may re-structure their current mortgage through a loan modification.
2)  Refinance– Borrowers who lost value in their home and are currently ineligible to refinance will be able to if they have been current on their existing mortgage payments on their Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan. 

More details are expected to be announced by next Wednesday, March 4th, at which time Choice Finance^® may begin accepting refinance applications.

 As we know more we will let you know..  This is great news and will help lower monthly mortgage payments for so many people right now given the low interest rates available.

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David Wexler, Choice Finance^®

Mutual respect when refinancing your mortgage 
A new but old problem has popped up again in the mortgage industry due to the volatility of rates.  When to lock in your rate..and honoring that lock once it has been done.  Loan Officers should be telling not selling in my opinion.  When speaking to a prospective client, they should listen to the customers objective(s) and propose options.
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If the client feels that one of the proposal meets or exceeds expectations, the next question is “Should I lock?” and “What happens if rates get better?”  There is no simple answer.  We get rates from many wholesalers.  These banks all have different policies on floating down rates.  A lender that has the best rate one day, may have a terrible policy or no float-down policy at all.  The loan officer must communicate this to the customer.  “ I can get you X rate today but the wholesaler offering this does not have a float down policy.” Should you the customer be punished because of bank float down policy…NO, but (there’s always a but)…  What we say to the customer is “we ask you stand by us if rates improve by .125%, (in other words honor your commitment to lock).  If rates get better by .25% however, we will float you down.”  As long as the lines of communication stay open, we will resolve the rate issue.  We never want to punish the customer for locking with us.
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The most frustrating turn of events is when a customer says they just locked with someone else who gave a better rate.  You have a right as a consumer to continually shop your mortgage.  Isnt it fair however, to call your broker first and say, “I am being offered X, can you tell me why? can you match it?”  More often than not, the mortgage was priced out incorrectly, the competing loan officer didn’t know the full story, or sometimes, the timing is such that they called before us on a day when rates were better.  It happens. 
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We implore you to call the loan officer you have been working with, before locking in with someone else.  It is a professional courtesy.  Your loan officer and others have spent time on your file, rushing to get you closed as quickly as possible.  Our relationships suffer with our wholesalers when we cancel locks.  Often times most of the work has been done already…isn’t it fair to give the person you chose to work with in the first place the benefit of the doubt? 
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We commit to excellent service, excellent rates, and counseling form experienced Loan Officers.  We only ask that you commit to honest and frank communication.  It is a very competitive market.  We will do what it takes to earn AND MAINTAIN your business and trust.\-

-David Wexler of Choice Finance Corporation

Do I refinance now or do I wait and see what the market does? That is the question being asked by borrower’s everyday, and the answer is simple. If you’re happy with the rate and payment based on today’s rates, take it and run.

Mortgage rates are as volatile as they have ever been, with rate changes happening multiple times a day. A rate that is quoted in the morning may not be there the same afternoon. My suggestion is to be prepared to lock your rate if you are happy with the results your new loan will provide. I have seen many borrowers play the waiting game; hoping rates will get even lower than the already low rates, only to get burned when rates go up. The only thing that is definite about rates is that you won’t know they’ve hit bottom until they start going back up! Set a goal that you wish to accomplish with your refinance.

Whether it be saving $150/mo or taking 25,000 worth of cash from your equity while keeping your payment the same. Think big picture. Dropping your rate .75% may not seem like huge deal, but saving $70,000 worth of interest over the life of your loan is. I think if we have learned anything during the economic crisis, its to pay attention to all aspects of your personal economic situation and to expect the unexpected. Save what you can when you can, because the mortgage industry changes daily. It only takes one guideline change to turn a potentially easy transaction into a dead loan.

Josh Peretzman, Loan Officer with Choice Finance Corporation
301-881-8900 x225
888-475-0700 x225

D.C. area mortgage companies be careful…  Steve Jones called our office to directly solicit our employees.  He has been asked in the past to stop, and he has not.  It has come to the point of harassment.  I guess desperate times call for desperate measures (for some).

Steven Jones targets DC metro area mortgage companies.  He will call and leave a message with your LO’s like “hey Jim, Chris Miller referred you to me, please give me a call…“.  Sounds like potential business.   He will go through your entire website for loan officer names and he will call them all.

If you’re a mortgage company local to the metro dc area, let your phone receptionist be well aware of an enemy who is trying to take your employees. 

Today Steve claimed to be working for Access National Mortgage, www.accessnational.com.  I’m sure she works for any Employer willing to pay him to find employees.  I wonder if Access National would approve of Steve’s tactics if they knew what he is doing. 

Anyone in the business  long enough understands slimy cut throats exist… and as long as there is good money to be made in real estate and it’s financing, there will be the cream of the crap selling the other side’s greener grass.

Access National is out of Virginia, 1800 Robert Fulton Drive.  703-871-1300 or 800-931-0370, info@accessnational.com.  There’s no reason Steven Jones can’t be like the ethical Staffing companies out there who get their clients through referrals or advertising or networking, the same way every other business man and woman has to do it.  

Stop the circus from pitching their tent in your own back yard and let’s keep salesmen who spend their days providing no real value to society, exposed.  Spread the word and help protect yourself and others.

2009 mortgage landscape
Most prospective mortgage shoppers should be aware by now that mortgages are tougher to get.  “Stringent” is the word we keep hearing used to describe the tests for borrowers these days.  That’s putting it mildly!  The traditional touchstones of risk avoidance—solid credit scores, sizable down payments, documented income, sensible debt-to-income ratios and adequate reserves—are not just back in vogue, they are being judged with an even more critical eye.

Homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments or who are poised to do so in 2009 will find that mortgage lenders are more willing to try to keep them in their homes and avoid foreclosure than in previous years.  Lenders have learned a lot, but maybe not enough.  Major loan modification initiatives are underway at a number of the country’s biggest lenders:  Bank of America (and its Countrywide Financial unit), Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase, to name just a few prominent ones.

The FDIC, in its role as receiver of IndyMac Federal Bank, is vigorously and notoriously modifying mortgages of faltering borrowers in what they view as a lab experiment in avoiding foreclosures.  And there are programs at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA and VA to help troubled borrowers.  One thing is true of all these efforts. 

If a troubled homeowner doesn’t seek out assistance from their lender or respond to them when they take the initiative in seeking out the homeowner, there isn’t much they can do to help! Generally, the point of contact is the loan servicer’s loss mitigation department.   Unfortunately, borrowers whose loans have been securitized and are owned by investors may not be eligible for a loan modification if the investor is maintaining a hard line about such programs, so help won’t be available.  While lenders have varying approaches to modifying loans, some of the options being employed include:  freezing or lowering the mortgage interest rate; extending the term of the loan from to 40 or even 50 years; recalculating the monthly payment based on a lower principal amount (without actually lowering the principal balance) and cutting the loan balance.