Other changes to the program include:

• Removal of occupancy requirements. Previously a homeowner had to have lived in the property within the previous 12 months.
• The $3,000 relocation assistance is now limited to owners or tenants living in the house at the time of the short sale.
• Mortgage payments may now be allowed to exceed 31% of the homeowners’ gross monthly income.
• Second lienholders may now be able to receive up to a maximum of $8,500, up from the previous limit of $6,000.
• The best news for homeowners who do a HAFA short sale:  The Credit Bureau Reporting will now be Account Status Code 13 (paid or closed account/zero balance) or 65 (account paid in full/a foreclosure was started), as applicable. This will minimize the damage to one’s credit score.

For more information about how the short sale process works, or about any other foreclosure alternatives you may qualify for, call us today. We can help you alleviate the burden that the threat of foreclosure brings, and we can develop a strategy to help you breathe a little easier. When we talk, we will explain how the process works in detail and answer any questions you may have.

Spencer & Margaret are Realtors and owners of Ocean Breeze Real Estate and are a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) team.

Phone: 805-709-7646 & 805-709-8535. Email: OceanBreezeRE@gmail.com.

View our homes for sale at www.OceanBreezeRealEstate.com.

This is not intended as legal, technical, or tax advice. Please speak with a licensed professional before making any decision. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed as of the date of writing.

Spencer & Margaret Morris specialize in short sales in Pismo Beach California and all of Five Cities, Santa Maria and the Central Coast California.

• An eligible borrower cannot have missed a payment in the last 6 months and have not missed more than one payment in the 6 months prior to that.
• Must have a credit score of 580 or higher.
• Current loan balance must be within loan limits for an FHA-back mortgage in our area. For the Pismo Beach/Central Coast area and all of San Luis Obispo County, that limit is $687,500.
• Must be one’s primary residence.

We will keep our eyes on this new legislation. In the meantime, if you are underwater and are having trouble making your payments, contact us today to see what options are available to you at this time. We can help you alleviate the burden that the threat of foreclosure brings, and we can develop a strategy to help you breathe a little easier. When we talk, we can answer any questions you may have.

Spencer & Margaret are Realtors and owners of Ocean Breeze Real Estate and are a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) team.

Phone: 805-709-7646 & 805-709-8535. Email: OceanBreezeRE@gmail.com.

View our homes for sale at www.OceanBreezeRealEstate.com.

This is not intended as legal, technical, or tax advice. Please speak with a licensed professional before making any decision. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed as of the date of writing.

Spencer & Margaret Morris specialize in short sales in Pismo Beach California and all of Five Cities, Santa Maria and the Central Coast California.

What does a Pismo Beach/Five Cities and Santa Maria homeowner need to do? You must contact your servicer (the lender to whom you make payments). If you have been unemployed for up to 6 months, your servicer can make the decision to have you participate in the program. If it’s been over 6 months and up to 12 months, Freddie Mac also has to approve it. A person must be unemployed and must apply–it’s not automatic.

When the homeowner is re-employed, those missed payments will either need to be caught up or the lender may tack the missed payments to the back end of the loan. In any case, it isn’t a “free” period. If a homeowner with a Freddie Mac loan is unemployed for a longer term, the foreclosure process picks up again, so it is not an answer for everyone. But for the homeowner who is unemployed for a short term, it could make the way for him/her to be able to keep the house.

For more information about foreclosure alternatives you may qualify for, call us today. We can help you alleviate the burden that the threat of foreclosure brings, and we can develop a strategy to help you breathe a little easier. When we talk, we will explain how the process works in detail and answer any questions you may have.

Spencer & Margaret are Realtors and owners of Ocean Breeze Real Estate and are a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) team.

Phone: 805-709-7646 & 805-709-8535. Email: OceanBreezeRE@gmail.com.

View our homes for sale at www.OceanBreezeRealEstate.com.

This is not intended as legal, technical, or tax advice. Please speak with a licensed professional before making any decision. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed as of the date of writing.

Spencer & Margaret Morris specialize in short sales in Pismo Beach California and all of Five Cities, Santa Maria and the Central Coast California.

As a real estate professional team who has earned the Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) designation, our mission is to ensure that you or anyone you care about does not add to that statistic.

The unfortunate fact is that so many homeowners who have played by the rules and never imagined that they could be facing foreclosure are now in a very tough situation.

More than one in four homeowners owes more on their mortgage than their home is worth. On top of that staggering statistic is the fact that millions of homeowners are unemployed, or underemployed and falling further behind every month.

Sound familiar? Rest assured you are not alone.

If you feel that you are headed toward foreclosure, or if you are avoiding facing that fact, the sooner you reach out for help, the better your options.

We help distressed homeowners work through every aspect of the denial and discouragement that accompanies a mortgage which is no longer manageable, and in the process, move toward financial solvency.

If you or someone you care about is ready to tip the scales back toward financial solvency, contact us today and let’s get started.

Spencer & Margaret are Realtors and owners of Ocean Breeze Real Estate and are a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) team.

Phone: 805-709-7646 & 805-709-8535. Email: OceanBreezeRE@gmail.com.

View our homes for sale at www.OceanBreezeRealEstate.com.

This is not intended as legal, technical, or tax advice. Please speak with a licensed professional before making any decision. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed as of the date of writing.

Spencer & Margaret Morris specialize in short sales in Pismo Beach California and all of Five Cities, Santa Maria and the Central Coast California.

Currently 10.9 million or 22.5% homeowners with a mortgage owe more than a property is worth. This animated video explains what it means to be upside down on your mortgage or owe more than the home’s value.

If you are one of those homeowners who owe more than your home is worth and are struggling to make the payment, help is available. Contact us at Ocean Breeze Real Estate to talk about your options. You can call us at 805-709-7646 (Spencer) or 805-709-8535 (Margaret) or email us at OceanBreezeRE@gmail.com. Whether your home is located in any of the towns/cities of San Luis Obispo County or Santa Maria, we can help you!

Here are the key changes:

• Borrowers will be able to refinance no matter how underwater they are. Borrowers have to have made their last 6 payments and not missed more than 1 payment in the past year. They also must have a job or another source of reliable income.
• Appraisals are not required if the lender can obtain a reliable automated valuation.
• Eliminates fees for borrowers who refinance into a 15-year loan and lowers fees for others.
• Extends the end date for HARP to December 31, 2013.

If you would like more information, feel free to contact us.

Spencer & Margaret are Realtors and owners of Ocean Breeze Real Estate and are a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) team.

Phone: 805-709-7646 & 805-709-8535. Email: OceanBreezeRE@gmail.com.

View our homes for sale at www.OceanBreezeRealEstate.com.

This is not intended as legal, technical, or tax advice. Please speak with a licensed professional before making any decision. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed as of the date of writing.

Spencer & Margaret Morris specialize in short sales in Pismo Beach California and all of Five Cities, Santa Maria and the Central Coast of California.

You may be upside down on your mortgage and experiencing a hardship that is disrupting your life and your peace of mind. Right now you most likely want to get out from under the weight of the unaffordable mortgage and never get into homeownership again!

But in time your feelings towards home ownership will change. The desire to have your own place and be able to fix it up the way you want, have family come stay with you if you so desire, to be able to have pets without having to get permission or paying large deposits are amongst the reasons we all want our own home. There is something stabilizing about owning your own home when you can sustain the mortgage payment. And you can’t be kicked out because the landlord quit making the payment or decided to sell the home or move back into it.

The reason I mention this is because most people in a distressed situation just walk away from an unaffordable mortgage and let the home go to foreclosure without ever seeking help or trying to sell the home in a short sale. There are many consequences in doing that including a lower credit score, having more difficulty in getting a car loan or any other kind of loan, having a foreclosure on your public record, employment issues, and you can’t buy another home for 7 years, versus 2 – 3 years for a short sale.

If you owe more than your house is worth and are experiencing a financial hardship, give us a call to find out what your options are. We want to help take the weight off your shoulders and let you start sleeping restfully once again. And yes, the day will come when you want to own a home again and it will be possible. Get a fresh start!

When we talk, we will explain how the process works in detail and answer any questions you may have.

Spencer & Margaret are Realtors and owners of Ocean Breeze Real Estate and are a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) team.

Phone: 805-709-7646 (Spencer) & 805-709-8535 (Margaret). Email: OceanBreezeRE@gmail.com.

View our homes for sale at www.OceanBreezeRealEstate.com.

This is not intended as legal, technical, or tax advice. Please speak with a licensed professional before making any decision. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed as of the date of writing.

Spencer & Margaret Morris specialize in short sales in Pismo Beach California and all of Five Cities, Santa Maria and the Central Coast California.

As recently as a few months ago, if you would have told a real estate agent who specialized in short sales in the Pismo Beach area and Santa Maria that they’d be raving about a lender’s stellar service and rapid approval times—not to mention significant cash incentives for financially strapped homeowners for pursuing a short sale—you’d have gotten some strange looks.

That’s all changed. And it’s changed faster and to a greater extent than most real estate
professionals ever could have imagined.

With a glut of bank-owned properties dragging down the recovery of the real estate market, as well as the national economy, major lenders are more eager than ever before to avoid foreclosure. So they’ve sharpened their focus on short sales. Big time.

The biggest lenders in the country have staffed up to ensure rapid processing of short sale applications. They’ve ponied up with cash incentives at closing for homeowners who pursue a short sale. And they’re proactively reaching out to CDPE agents and putting them in touch with delinquent borrowers.

This is big news and the media has not really caught onto it yet. What’s important for you to know is that whatever you’ve read or heard in the past about long lag times and frustrations with short sales is probably no longer the case.

As a member of the CDPE community, I’m tapped into major lenders and on top of major developments affecting short sales and bank-owned properties.  Feel free to contact us at Ocean Breeze Real Estate any time at OceanBreezeRE@gmail.com or call us at 805-709-7646 (Spencer) or 805-709-8535 (Margaret) if you or anyone you know is struggling with an unmanageable mortgage.

The Treasury department has clarified guidelines for the HAFA short sale program for military service members who have a “Permanent Change of Station.” Previously that was not considered a hardship unless there was a decrease in pay. But many military families are upside down in their home and with a permanent change of station, if the service member does not have enough liquid assets to continue making the payments, this will now be considered a financial hardship so that Vandenberg military homeowners may qualify for a HAFA short sale and receive $3000 at closing. There no longer has to be a decrease in pay.

For more information about how the short sale process works, or about any other foreclosure alternatives you may qualify for, call us today. When we talk, we will explain how the process works in detail and answer any questions you may have.

Spencer & Margaret are Realtors and owners of Ocean Breeze Real Estate and are a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) team.

Phone: 805-709-7646 & 805-709-8535. Email: OceanBreezeRE@gmail.com.

View our homes for sale at www.OceanBreezeRealEstate.com.

This is not intended as legal, technical, or tax advice. Please speak with a licensed professional before making any decision. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed as of the date of writing.

Spencer & Margaret Morris specialize in short sales in Pismo Beach California and all of Five Cities, Santa Maria and the Central Coast California.

• It can have a lesser effect on your credit score and you will recover more quickly
• You can buy a home again in as soon as 2 years vs up to 7 years for a foreclosure
• A foreclosure remains on your public record for 7+ years. A short sale is not reported on your credit history
• A foreclosure can affect current employment if you’re in a sensitive position and can affect future employment as many employers require credit checks for job applicants
• The lender can’t come back on you after the sale for the amount they “forgave” here in California
• You will not be taxed on the “forgiven” amount when the short sale is your primary residence in most circumstances if the short sale is completed by the end of 2012
• If you qualify for a HAFA short sale you will receive $3,000 at closing to move and get on with your life. Contact us to see if you qualify!

As you can see, there are many benefits of a short sale for Pismo Beach area and Santa Maria homeowners. Short sales take a lot of time to complete but the process is getting faster. A seller needs a good, experienced realtor who will stay in close communication throughout the process with the lender, the seller and the buyer’s agent.

For more information about how the short sale process works, or about any other foreclosure alternatives you may qualify for, call us today. We can help you alleviate the burden that the threat of foreclosure brings, and we can develop a strategy to help you breathe a little easier. When we talk, we will explain how the process works in detail and answer any questions you may have.

Spencer & Margaret are Realtors and owners of Ocean Breeze Real Estate and are a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) team.

Phone: 805-709-7646 & 805-709-8535. Email: OceanBreezeRE@gmail.com.

View our homes for sale at www.OceanBreezeRealEstate.com.

This is not intended as legal, technical, or tax advice. Please speak with a licensed professional before making any decision. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed as of the date of writing.

Spencer & Margaret Morris specialize in short sales in Pismo Beach California and all of Five Cities, Santa Maria and the Central Coast California.