Mortgage Lending – Specializing in FHA and VA and Revers Equity Loans

I have been doing FHA loans since 1972 (I started when I was 3 years old) and it used to be easy. We would underwrite a loan based on common sense underwriting. 1) do they pay their bills 2) do they make enough money to pay the bills 3) is their job stable. It was pretty simple. Did we make some mistakes, damn right we did and we were expected to make some. However credit scoring is infallible, haven’t you heard? If the computer says you can buy, you can buy. If you have a low score does it matter? Why? What about identity fraud? What about circumstances outside of your control? They can get it off your file but sometimes the damage has been done. Letter writing isn’t going to fix that.
I think we have to have attorney driven credit repair because attorneys wrote the laws to benefit attorneys. This is a fact and we all know it to be true.
The rules are the rules.
We have to follow the rules and the rules were written by and for attorneys.
The average person doesn’t understand the process enough to do this themselves. I know the government wants us to explain to the buyer they can do this themselves and they are 100% true. I also have delivered horses, cows, and pigs but both my daughters and my two wonderful grandchildren were born in the hospital with specialists that deliver babies. The attorneys are the specialists. Sure we can do the credit repair ourselves but what happens if ???
Mom and Pop credit and online repair shops are popping up everywhere. In my opinion this shows the need for someone to help the buyer and we also know the mom and pops are usually just letter writers and can often times do more harm than good.
One of the things we need to keep a very vigilant eye on is self regulating our new industry. We all have already seen the crooks, fraud merchants and their kind. We absolutely cannot let it get away like we did in housing. When you run across a crook or shyster, report them. It is your duty to your country as well as your profession. Charlatans have been around for years. I have heard of companies that promise the moon and get tremendous prices. Bad things happen to good people. We can help those people . A score is a number while people are still people. Another thing, do no harm. Building false files, getting new identities, trying a person with no credit to an account that belongs to a person with good credit, these things are possible but, not only are they fraud, they are wrong.
Medical bills and collections are only deductible to the doctor if the doctor makes ever effort to collect the debt. What is proof the debt collection was attempted? Hand it over to an attorney for collection (guess who wrote that law?) my guess is it wasn’t Joe the Plumber.
“The first thing we do,” said the character in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, is “kill all the lawyers.”. While I wouldn’t go that far I do believe we should fight fire with fire. The lawyers write the laws that require lawyers to understand them, lawyers to fight them, and lawyers to change them.
We keep voting lawyers in and they keep writing laws that make sure they have work. And we act surprised. Maybe if we started voting for strippers we would all have a pole in our living rooms, be in better shape, and even if we weren’t any better off we would have more fun.
As I stated earlier, I have been helping people fix their credit forever but now I have formed a joint venture with National Credit Federation and let their 20,000+ attorneys do what they do best, litigate. I sell they sue. Works for me. My personal NCF website is correct credit legally.
If you are a Realtor, builder, lender, or any profession that has buyers that need a certain credit score to qualify to buy your product, I think you absolutely have to either be in the credit repair business, have someone in your office that is, or have a referral partner that understands that it is hard enough to sell a home but it is especially hard to work hard and watch your buyer get turned down because of something correctable. At Correct Credit Legally we utilize the attorneys. This is their business, they made the rules and we can either play by those rules or fail. I think the choice is ours. I am always looking for partners.

Clyde Rowland

We have been watching how individuals and families are being hurt by bad credit scores on an increasing level.  Credit reporting companies are in the business, by business we mean making profits, of keeping credit information of any kind.  Credit Bureaus do not care in any way what is on your report.  They just put whatever information they can obtain from multiple sources.

Now add the fact that they are also in the business of selling repair services to the information they place on your name even if it is wrong.  This “business” has become a legal battle that you will find difficult to navigate and near impossible to fix without the help of an attorney of your own.

A service started sometime back which attacks the problem of credit repair through a legal services membership.  By joining this service your costs of the credit fight are greatly reduced.  Do not just think you can call and get a credit report fixed.  To be honest you could accidentally make your score even worse.  Hire an attorney based company and get your score fixed right.

We recommend Correct Credit Legally as the best choice for the battle of your credit score.  Fight back.  Transunion, Equifax and Experian respect a legal service much more than you personally.

FHA Mortgages Aid Borrowers in Need

We are happy to announce we also offer the FHA Secure Loan to help you protect your home from foreclosure.  This program is designed to help you prevent your home from going into foreclosure from the interest rate increases from the sub-prime adjustable rate loans.

Excerpt from the New York Post December 16, 2007
“As mortgage delinquencies continue to expand, a bill that would help financially-strapped New Yorkers was passed in the Senate on Friday…The Senate measure would raise the ceiling on home prices covered by the Federal Housing Administration Secure Loan to $417,000 from $363,000 – which should help out thousands of additional area homeowners. The House measure pegs the limit at $500,000…

“The FHA program has been a smashing success – more than 43,000 families saved their homes in a little more than three months. ‘The FHA Secure Loan program is better than the rate-freeze program,’ said Gregg Marcus, the managing director of Somerset Mortgage Lenders, a 28-year old mortgage banker based in Melville, ‘because it offers a permanent fix’…

“Victor Stuart was 23 years old when he and his wife bought their dream house in Flushing – putting down no money and getting a $190,000 fixed-rate mortgage to cover 100 percent of the cost of the wood-frame house. The $1,700 monthly nut was easy. But then things went bad. Real bad…’While I was able to stay current on my mortgage, I started running up some serious credit card debt…’ In 2000, unable to keep up with the credit card debt, the Stuarts took out a second mortgage, a five-year, fixed-rate loan for $80,000 at 12 percent. This past August, the ARM reset to 11.13 percent and the monthly bill soared 33 percent to $4,000. “There was no way I could have survived at that level,” said Stuart…” In September, just weeks after President Bush unveiled the FHA Secure Loan, the Stuarts qualified and closed on a 30-year 6.75 percent fixed-rate mortgage. The monthly payments are $3,000 – about $1,600 a month less than under the reset ARM plus taxes. The family is able to keep their home and the weight of unwieldy bills has disappeared.”

Short Sale may not be the benefit home owner’s with falling values are promised.

Taxes are going up, insurance is going up, properties values are dropping, why not take the short sale and let the bank take the loss?  Sound like the answer doesn’t it, you walk from the home you either over mortgaged, over paid for, or turned into a credit card with easy home equity loans.  Trouble is, the bank may be in this with you but they are not going to write the check and let you just go on your merry way.  At best they will take the price your buyer offers, subtract your loan and take the loss.  This may be $100,000 or more.  But don’t think it is over at this point.  This $100,000 is money you owe the bank.  This is now an unsecured debt but it is still a debt that you owe.  Your options are, convince the bank you are too broke to pay, sign a new note on the new loan to pay the bank the shortfall, file bankruptcy.  Not only is this not a very pretty picture it will get worse.  Your credit will be destroyed, you income could be garnished, you may be forced to liquidate some of your assets to lower the banks loss and when you think you have it all figured out, the IRS can treat the difference between the amount you owed and the amount the bank lost as regular income.  What options do you have?

I had a customer tell me he talked with the bank about a short sale on an investment property that he was having trouble renting or selling.  He had an offer on the property at a $200,000 loss so he asked the bank to take the money and the property.  He was shocked when the bank asked to see his tax returns, bank statements, financial statements, etc.  He couldn’t imagine why they needed to know his financial condition.  He never thought if the bank loses $200,000 they would just say, “Oh well, it happens”.  Banks don’t do that.  If the banks lose another 100 billion dollars on short sales this year where do you think that money is coming from?  You guessed it, your favorite Uncle Sam will have to bail them out some more.  Come on folks, we are all in this together.  There are financial consultants hawking get rich schemes with short sales.  In my opinion, this is what we always called bottom feeding.  The sudden offer that comes to my customer, after talking with his real estate agent about options if he can’t sell the property soon has a sudden miraculous ending.  The real estate agent knows an investor that is willing to make an offer and bail by customer out.  Nothing is said about what happens to the seller after the short sale, nothing is even really negociated about price.  Bottom line is you have a may have a problem your white knight.  I don’t mean to say the real estate agent is conspiring against you.  I don’t mean to say the “Investor” is conspiring against you.  And I don’t mean to say the bank to conspiring against you.  What I am saying is you need to use the Short Sale Option as just that, an option.  Your bank will negotiate with you better if they think you are negotiating with them in good faith. If you have no other options then the Short Sale may be your answer just be prepared to have your credit destroyed, your assets levied, and consider filing bankruptcy.  That is the ugly truth about Short Sales.  If you do have some assets worth protecting, maybe you should lower the rent for a year or two while allowing prices to stabilize and values to go back up.  It will take years for the housing market to rebound but all markets swing like a pendulum and we are on the down swing.  But it will turn and rebound.  We as a country created this monster by thinking prices could only go up and up and up.  Well guess what we were wrong.  But giving up, selling the house to speculators and expecting the banks to bail us out is not realistic either. A recession is when your neighbor is out of work.  A depression is when you are out of work.  You neighbor is out of work and you may be soon.  But all the negative talk, doom and gloom, etc is not going to correct it.  There are programs available to help you out of the problem.  There is no program that will work for everyone.  But there are programs out there that may help you.  For instance the FHA Refinance loan will allow you to finance up to 97.75% of the appraisal value of your home at a lower fixed rate loan.  Maybe this is not enough to pay off the balance on your existing loan and maybe this might be a place to ask the bank to reduce the balance to allow you to pay them as much as possible without the short sale, foreclosure, bankruptcy process.

Do you have a Short Sale horror story to share, email me at clyde@clyderowland.com

Anytime you can buy the house you can afford and stop paying rent is the right time to buy and with prices coming back down to realistic prices once again, it may be your time. We are a society of home owners. Our tax laws are favorable to home ownership and I think the American Dream still exists and today is the perfect time to find your piece of that dream.

Is it time for you to kiss your landlord goodbye?
The high prices were a bubble and only a bubble. All markets have them. Remember the tech bubble? That one cost me dearly. Microsoft was $120 per share and was going straight up. Well, I stopped that silliness by buying high and selling low. I bought into the high tech stock market and the market immediately said “whoops, if Clyde is in we are too high”. The same thing has happened in the housing bubble and the one thing all experts are agreeing on is, the party is over. If you bought low and sold high, congratulations. If you bought at the top the Short Sale may be your only way out but remember, the short sale is not a get out of jail free card. It comes with some heavy side effects. See my article on Short Sales if you think it is for you. If you can get out of the property without a short sale and just lose some money that may be a better course to take. Either way, talk with experts and I am not talking about Joe at the local bar. You should talk to your Realtor and CPA. Remember, if you sell that over priced property at its true value you can replace it with a new property at true value and you may find you have just as much house at a smaller cost. The housing crisis is over according to the Wall Street Journal and maybe they are right. I hope so. The housing bubble started to pop in 2005 when prices were at their peak. Since then prices have dropped drastically around the country. Interest rates are lower and homes are becoming affordable again. Short sales may be bad for sellers but they can be great for buyers. I am making a loan on a house with a $190,000 mortgage that is being sold for $139,000. The house is a nice 3 bedroom 2 bath starter home and even has a pool. It never on its best day was worth $190,000 but it is a great buy at $139,000. The taxes and insurance will be lower with a value of $139,000 instead of $190,000 which also helps make this an affordable home. We are looking at a total package of; sales price $139,000 with 3% down payment and an FHA mortgage at 6% for a 30 year fixed. This is an affordable home and is located in St. Petersburg, FL which historically is not considered as the cheap seats to live. This young family has found their American Dream and you can be next. Clyde Rowland

http://www.floridahomeconnection.com

http://www.clyderowland.com

Affordability in housing – America’s Crisis Part 2
The American Dream is owning your home. That dream has always held a special attraction for America. Until recently we were posting gains every year as more and more renters were able to buy their first home. This has changed.
The press likes to lay the blame at the feet of greedy lenders, Realtors, Builders, and anyone else that they can write negative press about in order to sell their story. While is is true that greed and corruption was a contributing factor, it is not that simple. There are many reasons the average potential home buyer is unable to buy that home.
Price – It is just too easy to say the homes today are overpriced but rather than say the home is too expensive maybe we should look at the various reasons homes are not affordable anymore.
Land costs are high. We can no longer just build the home on some acreage from our daddy’s farm. Now we need subdivisions. Subdivision come with a lot of regulation, sewer systems, water systems and paved roads. While all these things are necessary in order to protect the environment and help to insure quality of life, they are not cheap.
Cost of construction. We no longer just throw up basic shelter. Our homes are getting bigger, better, and more expensive. This is a good thing but 12′ high ceilings are not only expensive to build but they require a lot of power to heat and cool. While this is nice to live it does not help keep housing affordable.
Taxes – There is an old saying that you can never escape two things, death and taxes. This is true and while we know we need to pay taxes, can we really expect the home owner to shoulder the total burden? In Florida we are trying to lower the tax rate on home owners to help keep housing affordable. Critics say a tax cut for home owners does not reward the renters. OK, they are right. However walking a batter in baseball doesn’t help the running back in a football game does it? Come on folks. We are talking about tax reform to help keep the American Dream affordable for the home owner. If we made it so the renter could afford to buy their own home, just maybe, they would become home owners and would then get the benefit of lower property taxes. Should not the person that saves, budgets, and buys their home get more relief from property tax than the person that doesn’t?
Insurance – In my opinion, the insurance industry is abusing the system. Florida has been taking them to task and the ugly truth is coming out. One man’s method of creative accounting in order to maximum investor returns and minimize risk may be anther’s way of cooking the books. Reinsurance through a sister company is not, in my opinion an acceptable way of lowering risk. It is a way of putting a large chunk of profit that is there for public scrutiny and moving it to the private sector and protecting it from government regulation.
My suggestions:
FHA has been here since 1934. It was started during the depression to help promote home ownership and has done an excellent job. We got away from FHA because we thought we could speed up closings by not documenting information required by any competent underwriter before approving a loan. We specialized in loans that did not require the buyer to be able to afford the loan. If you had a high enough credit score and told us you could afford the house, the loan was approved. We need to go back to basics. We can never prevent foreclosures but we can reduce the number of foreclosures by making loans people can afford to people that want to own a home.
Insurance – we need nationwide catastrophic insurance. The basic concept of insurance is to spread the risks. This means, when there is a loss, instead of the one home owner losing $100,000, 100,000 home owners each lose $1.00. Sounds kind of basic and simple doesn’t it. However, most if not all insurance companies, now have different companies in all states so they can avoid excessive claims. A storm in Florida can take all the reserve the company has in Florida but not the profits from Nebraska. This is a good business plan for the insurance company but it keeps costs to the home owner high. They can base their loss models on a bad year in Florida while keeping record high profits in a different area. The government is already taking the risk by protecting the reinsurance companies, allowing the insurance companies to avoid having to cover the homes that may suffer damage and only insure the homes in very low risk areas. This is not spreading risk, this is profiteering. Since the government is taking the risk shouldn’t they also take the income as well. In Florida most home insurance companies don’t insure homes, the State of Florida does. The insurance company does insure the cars because the risk is lower and the policy is a higher income item they can profit from. Don’t get me wrong, the insurance company deserves to be allowed to operate their business without government interference. However, when they are hurting the American people by their actions, the government is duty bound to step in and make them stop and do the right thing. If they want to hide behind smoke and mirrors and refuse to cooperate with the government, revoke their license and let them go to OZ where smoke and mirrors is allowed.
Taxes – This has to be a joint venture between the government and the home owners.
To the government — We have to lower taxes to keep people in houses and to let renters move up and become home owners.
To the citizens — We have to realize the government can’t just keep spending on every project available and still lower taxes. We may have to decide just what services the government must provide, what services are needed, and what services are luxuries. Then we may have to give up some luxuries.
In Hernando County Florida the sheriff has to cut his budget. The first item he suggested was cutting back on protecting the little children. This is a cheap shot. No one wants the children put at risk and the officials know it so that is their first response to any budget cut request. Some items that could be cut like putting off new purchases until the tax base supports it. Looking at staff for most efficiencies in utilizing employees, etc. Let’s work with the government officials to make government efficient and we can do the same of more with less taxes. Dumping on little children, the handicapped, the old and infirm are just scare tactics.
John Kennedy once said, ” ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”. This sounds great, kind of like the perfect soundbite. But think about it. Do we need government to do everything for us? We have people that can volunteer for some of the small services provides to us at “no cost” by various agencies. Again, this is simplistic and while it is not the solution maybe it can help.
There is no easy solution but I think we need to accept some simple facts:
The government can’t provide every service we may want but they can provide what we need. Our government was never designed to provide us with everything. Thomas Jefferson said this about government, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. ” He also said: ” Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have …. The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.” I included those quotes to show the intent American was founded upon and, I think we will all agree the tax and spend government is not exclusive to any one political party, but we must control this if we are every to have Affordable Housing again.
At Land Home Funding we specialize in FHA, VA and First Time Home Buyers. We have been helping people find their American Dream since 1972.
Clyde Rowland

How to repair your credit score.

You can’t buy a house because your credit score is too low. What do you do?

1. Complain that it’s not fair and rent forever.
2. Blame it on someone else, your ex wife or husband, sickness, loss of job, etc.
3. Learn from your mistakes, have your credit professionally repaired, go forward with your life.

If you chose number 3 we have a program for you. Before we start let me tell you some important facts about credit scoring.

1. Scoring is not necessarily fair.
2. Scoring is not necessarily accurate.
3. Scoring can be improved.
4. There is no quick fix.
5. No removal of accurate information from your file
6. No 30 days and it never happened.

It did happen and we can help but we can’t undo years of bad habits, bad luck, or bad times just like that. Not only do we not have a magic wand, no one else does.

Some of the lies you will here by credit repair agencies.

We can get you a new file

They can get you a new social security number which will not have any of your old history attached. That is possible, it is also illegal. Those pesky people with the initials FBI call that FRAUD. You have a credit problem do you really think federal time in prison will improve your credit score? Actually it will.

Credit history, good or bad, stays on your record for 7 years so if you get caught for loan fraud and go to the big house for 7 years, your credit history should be all cleaned up when you get out. You should have a clean no file sort of like the file you would have if you did the FRAUD thing that got you in prison in the first place.

Enough of that negative stuff. There are legal steps you can do to improve your credit score.

These things are 100% legal and will put your credit score back on track. You should be able to buy a new home, car, legally obtain credit cards and all legally and at decent market rates.

http://www.clyderowland.com

http://www.correctcreditlegally.com

http://www.floridahomeconnection.com

A low credit score doesn’t just keep you from getting a new home.  Credit scoring is now in use by most lenders including auto loans and credit cards. Even your insurance prices are influenced by credit scoring.  However, most people don’t realize there are legal ways to boost your credit scores by correcting your credit report.  There are three credit repositories that report your credit history and all three use different methods of reporting which is why you usually have three different scores.

Trouble is the law states the credit repositories can only report credit for seven years from the date of last activity.  The same law that gives the repositories the right to report your credit also suggests they should correct any mistakes.  They do not always correct mistakes unless we point them out and challenge those errors.  Also you can have a past due or collection with a doctor or creditor that has been reported by four different collection companies.  That will drastically lower your score unless we challenge those and have them removed from your credit report.  This can greatly increase your score.  One other thing you need to know.  FHA does not rely on credit scores.  They consider credit history instead of the score.  We call this underwriting the loan and evaluating the ability of the individual buyer to repay the loan.  It has worked since 1934.  Credit scoring has only been around since the 1980’s.  In my opinion relying on credit scoring instead of prudent underwriting has played a big part in the mortgage crisis we are having today.