Lenders Increasing Extension Fees

I’m receiving notices from a couple  of the lenders we work with that they are temporarily increasing rate lock extension fees due to Fannie Mae’s increased guarantee fees (LLPA) that will hit us in 2014.  An extension fee is an additional cost that may be charged in order to keep a rate locked when the rate lock is expiring.

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Fannie Mae to increase minimum down payment in November

Fannie Mae is scheduled to update their automated underwriting system (aus) Desktop Underwriter (DU) to DU Version 9.1 on November 16, 2013.  In their release notes from August 20, 2013, Fannie Mae reveals that for they will increase the minimum down payment from 3% to 5% for Fannie Mae conventional loans.

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Home Affordable Refinance Program: HARP 2.0 Updates

I’m pleased to share with you that we are working with lenders who are once again offering HARP 2.0 refinances with no appraisals (no loan to value requirements). Last year, our Freddie Mac resource for loan to values over 105% decided to pull out of the market, we now have another lender who is offering this product without loan to values overlays. This is great news for Washington state home owners who have lost equity in their homes (are underwater) and have a mortgage securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac prior to June 1, 2009. 

For more information about HARP 2.0 refinances, please check out my reference guide.

We also received updated guidelines from one of our Freddie Mac HARP lenders for loan to values 105% and lower offering reduced income documentation and expanded debt-to-income ratio guidelines. It’s nice to see lenders loosen up a bit on some of their underwriting overlays!

Fannie Mae HARP refinances are still readily available.

For your HARP 2.0 refinance rate quote on your home located anywhere in Washington state, please click here.

HARP 2.0 Refinances are available for:

  • mortgages that were securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac prior to June 1, 2009
  • primary residence, second/vacation homes or investment property
  • mortgages that have not yet taken advantage of the HARP refinance program
  • existing private mortgage insurance (including LPMI) is allowed in most circumstances

I am required to use the following language if I am soliciting business…and of course, I would love to help you with your HARP (or any) refinance for your home located in Washington State:

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have adopted changes to the Home Affordable Refinance program (HARP) and you may be eligible to take advantages of these changes. If your mortgage is owned or guaranteed by either Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, you may be eligible to refinance your mortgage under the enhanced and expanded provisions of HARP. You can determine whether your mortgage is owned by either Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae by checking the following websites: www.freddiemac.com/mymortgage or http://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup

NOTE: If your Washington state home currently has an FHA mortgage, owner occupied or investment property, we can help you refinance without an appraisal – regardless of your home’s current value. 

I’m happy to help you with your home refinance or purchase needs as long as your home is located in Washington state, where I’m licensed to originate mortgages.  For mortgage rate quotes for homes other than HARP, please click here.

Reader Question: WHEN did Fannie Mae securitze my mortgage?

This question is from a comment on one of my blog post addressing HARP 2.0’s eligibility date (Home Affordable Refinance Program), which many home owners have found to be a source of frustration. In order to qualify for the HARP 2.0 program, the mortgage must have been securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac prior to June 1, 2009. Securitization takes place after the closing of the loan and is completely out of the borrowers control.

This person is being told their loan was securitized YEARS after it closed in 2003. It is possible that the lender had to wait a long period of time before being able to sell the loan to Fannie. 

I highly recommend checking Fannie Mae’s site at https://www.knowyouroptions.com/loanlookup to verify if and when your mortgage is securitized by Fannie Mae. 

Fannie Mae recently made improvements to their loan lookup site with getting rid of their terrible (sometimes comical) “bot” filter by replacing it with the borrowers last four of their social. 

You will need to enter in the information of the primary borrower from when the mortgage was obtained. The site can be picky as to your address, for example, Ave vs Avenue; so you may have to try re-submitting your information.

“Match Found” means that Fannie Mae shows they have a mortgage on this property and that it may qualify for HARP 2.0. The improved site also provides the date the loan was securitized. A “match found” response does not guarantee that someone will qualify for the HARP 2.0 refinance program.

Fannie Mae HARP 2 0
 

Back to my reader…

Should you verify with Fannie Mae’s site that your property was securitized with Fannie Mae prior to June 1, 2009, I would contact a local licensed mortgage professional to help you with your HARP 2.0 refinance.

I’m not sure what “independent site” was used to verify. Fannie Mae’s site would be the ONLY site I would use for verification of a Fannie Mae securitized mortgage.  

Should you find that your mortgage was securitized after the June 1, 2009 cut-off date, you may have to wait and see if Congress passes HARP 3.0 (aka #myrefi) which hopefully will remove the cut-off date. 

In my opinion the cut-off dates with the HARP 2.0 programs are hurtful for consumers who had no control over when their mortgage was securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. I hope HARP 3.0 is available soon.  When and HARP 3.0 is available, I will be sharing that information here on my blog.

By the way, Freddie Mac also has a website for verifying if your mortgage was securitized by Freddie. If your conforming loan was not securitized by Fannie Mae, the next step is to try Freddie Mac’s site to look up your loan: https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/   Fannie Mae has a majority of the “market share” which is why I recommend trying Fannie Mae first.

If your home is located anywhere in Washington State, I’m happy to help you with your HARP(or any) refinance.

What are your odds of getting a HARP 2.0 refinance?

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 4, 2012: Odds are back to being a little tricky if you have a Freddie Mac securitized mortgage….bummer!  Most of my lenders are limiting us to 105% LTV for Freddie Mac and unlimited LTVs for Fannie Mae.

UPDATE MAY 12, 2012: ODDS ARE GREATLY IMPROVED!  We are now working with several lenders who are allowing expanded (unlimited) loan to values, including mortgages with existing private mortgage insurance and lpmi (as long as the mortgage insurance can  be transferred).  For a quote on a HARP 2.0 refi for your home located in Washington, please contact me.

Many home owners who have been patiently waiting for the expanded guidelines offered with HARP 2 to become available have found frustration. I’m being told that we are going to have the ability to originate HARP mortgages for my clients beyond 105% loan to value “soon” but as of the publishing of this post, I’m still limited to 105% LTV based on Fannie or Freddie’s estimated value of your home.  

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UPDATE 4/19/2012: Mortgage Master Service Corporation is adding several lenders who are allowing us to do unlimited loan to values! Stay tuned – I’ll have an exciting announcement soon!  

UPDATE 5/12/2012: WE’RE COOKING WITH GAS! WE NOW HAVE LENDERS WHO ALLOW EXPANDED LTVS WITH APPRAISAL WAIVERS FOR HARP 2.0.

Click here for your rate quote for your home located anywhere in Washington.

HARP 2 is the Home Affordable Refinance Program which is available to home owners who have their mortgage *securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac prior to June 1, 2009.  *NOTE: this is different than who you make your mortgage payment to (your mortgage servicer).

This program is intended to be a giant band-aid with our housing by allowing qualifed home owners to refinance their underwater mortgages, reducing their mortgage payment and/or term and hopefully stimulating the economy with the extra cash flow. Many are supposed to qualify without having an appraisal – it’s intended to be a streamlined process. It is streamlined and available…for some. For many it may feel like throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks.

What are your odds of obtaining a HARP 2 refinance? It depends on what your scenario looks like. I’ve successfully closed many HARP 2 refinances without (and with) appraisals for both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae securitized loans. Here’s what I can tell you now (remember, this is my opinion and subject to change…hopefully soon). This is not intended to discourage you from trying to obtain your HARP 2 refinance.

Your odds are strongly in your favor if your loan to value on your first mortgage is 105% or lower and if you do not have any private mortgage insurance. Zillow has seemed to be fairly accurate for estimating value. However the ultimate say on if the value is acceptable to create an “appraisal waiver” is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Your odds improve more if your mortgage is securitized by Fannie. Freddie seems to be a bit pickier with approvals and sensitve towards new debts or debt to income ratios. 

Second mortgages or HELOCs have not been a huge issue [knock on wood]. Most second lien holders have been cooperative and agreeing to subordinate their lien position – even without an appraisal.

Private mortgage insurance is still not where it needs to be with the HARP program. If you have any type of private mortgage insurance, this is an additonal “layer” to work with for your loan approval. The pmi company needs to agree to have the insurance transferred to the new loan and the new lender needs to accept the new pmi.  With pmi, your coverage amount will stay the same AND private mortgage insurance companies treat the transferred coverage as a “new loan” (you may be stuck with that pmi for a while on a new HARP loan).  Your odds are better with pmi if your loan to value is 95% or lower.

UPDATE 5/12/2012: HARP 2.0 mortgages with private mortgage insurance are not as much of an issue as long as the existing private mortgage insurance can be transferred or if the lpmi can be converted to borrower paid mortgage insurance. Most private mortgage insurance companies are agreeable and we work with lenders who are accepting transferred mortgage insurance. 

Odds are worse if your the company who holds your pmi is United Guarantee. UGIC is not cooperating as much as the other pmi companies. UGIC is participating in HARP, however they are not waiving the reps and warrants on the original file. Therefore they request and require the original package from the current mortgage servicer and it takes a lot longer than the other MI companies.

Current odds are [NOT] lower if you have LPMI (lender paid mortgage insurance). Your best bet may be to try your existing mortgage servicer to see if they can help you with your HARP 2 refi. It’s my understanding, some mortgage servicers are refusing to help their very own clients with this program.  Depending on the type of lender paid mortgage insurance (how the premium was structured) it may be fairly simple to help you with HARP 2.0.  Just like regular pmi, as long as the private mortgage insurance company allows it to be transferred and be “borrower paid” (some lpmi loans can be coverted to bpmi – borrower paid), we have lenders who will accept the pmi. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GO BACK TO YOUR BANK OR MORTGAGE SERVICER WITH AN LPMI HARP 2.0 REFINANCE.

Again, I looking forward to sharing with you that I have unlimited LTVs and can help any Washington borrower who has pmi or lpmi but it’s just not the case “right now”. We are working on bringing on more lenders who may allow expanded guidelines that other banks seem to be restricting. Currently, I can help most borrowers who need a HARP 2 refi as long as the loan to value doesn’t exceed 105% per Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac’s estimated value of your Washington home.  UPDATE 5/12/2012: With the lenders we now work with, we have no loan to value restrictions for Fannie or Freddie and pmi or lpmi is probably not an issue. 

It’s very frustrating to see the overlays banks and mortgage servicers have put on the HARP 2. Banks are limiting the availability of a program that is designed to help stabilize housing and the economy. This needs to change. HARP needs to be widely available to all home owners who qualify. 

I’m happy to review your HARP 2 scenario for your home located any where in Washington. I have successfully helped many home owners refinance with the Home Affordable Refinance Program, including investment properties and second homes. 

If you would like me to provide a rate quote for your HARP 2 refinance, click here.

I am required to have the language below if I am soliciting your Home Affordable Refi for your home in Washington…and yes, I would love to help you with your HARP (or any) refinance:

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have adopted changes to the Home Affordable Refinance program (HARP) and you may be eligible to take advantages of these changes.  

If your mortgage is owned or guaranteed by either Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, you may be eligible to refinance your mortgage under the enhanced and expanded provisions of HARP.

You can determine whether your mortgage is owned by either Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae by checking the following websites:www.freddiemac.com/mymortgage orhttp://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/