Now Is The TIme To Point Your Future Toward Blue Skies

Online, February 22, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Stop Foreclosure in Denver MetroNOW IS THE TIME TO POINT YOUR
FUTURE TOWARD BLUE SKIES

Chances are, you never imagined that you could owe more on your home than it was actually worth. After all, no one buys a home expecting that its value will drop.But that's the situation that about 25 percent of homeowners in this country have foundthemselves in. Upheaval on Wall Street has gotten a ton of attention, but individual homeowners have largely been left to their own devices.

The U.S. Housing Crisis is a national epidemic affecting homeowners at every income and education level-people who have played by the rules, paid taxes, and gotten a good start on their own piece of the American Dream.
And then the game changed.
• Home values did the unthinkable: they dropped
• Millions of people lost their jobs.
• Homes were lost to foreclosure. In fact, 7.9 million since
2007.

Rest assured, you don't have to be counted among that statistic. Help has arrived. Federal and State governments,local agencies, and major banks have all upped their game, determined to stem the tide of foreclosures and stabilize homeownership.

THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES TO LETTING
YOUR HOME FALL INTO FORECLOSURE!

Foreclosure results from non-payment of a mortgage and is the final step in a delinquency proceeding. Far too often, homeowners don't reach out for help before letting this happen. The unfortunate fact is there's a lot more to foreclosure than losing
your home. Foreclosure carries long-term consequences.

Rest assured, foreclosure almost never needs to happen-especially in the current environment. Here is a quick rundown of alternatives.

If you owe more on your home than what it's currently worth and have experienced a financial hardship:

•You may qualify for a Short Sale. These days, most banks would
rather agree to a sale price that is less than the amount owed, than get stuck with another foreclosed property on their books. As an incentive to pursue a short sale, many lenders are even offering cash incentives. The U.S. Treasury's Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) Program also offers cash incentives to qualified homeowners, and has helped to streamline short sale processes.

• A Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure is an option that enables you
to transfer the ownership of your property back to the bank-
releasing you from further loan payment obligations. A CDPE
agent can let you know whether or not cash relocation assistance
is available under HAFA.

If you would like to stay in your home and have fallen behind on payments due to a short-term financial setback such as an unexpected expense or a temporary loss of income:

•A Forebearance allows you to suspend payments for a specified
time period. At the specified period, the missed payments are
either repaid in full or added on as an extension to the term of
the loan.

• A Repayment Plan is similar to a forebearance, although the
increasing the existing mortgage payment until the mortgage is
brought back up to date.

If you would like to stay in your home and have fallen behind
on payments due to a long-term financial setback such as a job
loss or a sustained drop in income:

You may be eligible for a permanent loan modification, either
through your lender or the Home Affordable Modification
Program (HAMP) administered by the U.S. Treasury. A loan
modification results from an agreement between you and your
mortgage company, and results in a permanent change to the
original terms of your mortgage in order to bring your monthly
payment in line with your current budget. HAMP modifications
ensure that monthly mortgage payments are no more than 31
percent of your monthly income before taxes.

If you are up to date on your payments but unable to refinance
because the market value of your home is less than your
mortgage:

The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) was created
to enable underwater borrowers with mortgages backed by
Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae and are current on their mortgage
payments to take advantage of historically low interest rates.
The recently revised HARP 2.0 extends eligibility regardless of
how big the difference is between how much you owe on your
mortgage and the value of your home.

IS A SHORT SALE FOR YOU?

If you are no longer able to make your home payments, and
you owe more on your mortgage than your home is worth,
you're in good company. An estimated one fourth of all U.S.
homeowners are Upside Down on their mortgage-meaning
Real estate agents who have achieved the Certified Distressed
Property Expert (CDPE) designation serve as a liaison to the
entire landscape of resources available to help homeowners
in various stages of financial distress. CDPE agents can also
identify schemes devised by scam artists who are in the
business of making a bad situation worse.

Often the best solution for homeowners in this situation is
a short sale in which the bank agrees to accept less than is
owed on the mortgage.

WHY WOULD A BANK AGREE TO LET A
BORROWER OFF THE HOOK FOR LESS
THAN THE AMOUNT OWED?

Banks aren't in the real estate business. They don't want to
own your home. And because banks were as blind sighted
by the foreclosure crisis as everyone else, they already have
more homes on their books than they can expect to sell in a
year. If there's one word that describes how banks feel about
foreclosures right now it's:
ENOUGH!

As a result, many banks are now offering cash incentives and
have speeded up processes to encourage short sales. You
may qualify for a short sale if you:
• Owe more than your house is worth
• Can prove financial hardship
• Are unable to afford your current mortgage payment

The federal government, along with many state and local
agencies, have also stepped up their foreclosure prevention
initiatives. Key among the foreclosure prevention initiatives
is the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA)
program. Homeowners who qualify for a HAFA short sale get:

• $3,000 in relocation assistance
• The reassurance that the foreclosure process will be
halted during the short sale process
•A waiver on deficiency judgments following the sale,
meaning the lender will not seek to collect the difference
in the amount of the mortgage and the sale price
The situation is complicated and the stakes are high. Never
has it been more important to have a local market advocate
on your side.

Ethan Besser offers free confidential consultation and help navigating the option that best suits your situation and can be reached at 303-856-8980.

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