YES – we are actively helping Florida homeowners with mortgage loans being serviced by Wells Fargo and they are telling us they are irritated. with them since they aren’t getting help from Wells Fargo or are uncovering that the HARP interest rates or HARP costs for closing are – shall we say – LESS than competitive. Really? In 2012, people working at the big banks are still trying to take advantage of home owners? CMP has fielded many calls with frustrated and fed up home owners looking for real, honest advice about their Florida Harp refinance.

[There is certainly nothing wrong with having a job in a call center, but it does not necessarily mean that you want to have them learning on you or even worse, manipulating their advice to serve their own commissions.]

I shared with A. Zibel with the Dow Jones today that many Florida homeonwers are reaching out to us because they are being quoted higher interest rates and high closing costs from call center reps at big banks. AND they are telling home owners that, “they are the only ones that can do a HARP loan for them.” Wow. Now I am as mad as these home owners! The good news is many people continue to look for more information. The bad news is it is impossible to know how many people accepted those worse terms because they believed the call center reps!?

Get the facts – www.ForidaHarpGuide.com

Join our CLOSED Facebook Group | Apply for HARP now.
Certified Mortgage Planners and Chris Brown are nationally recognized HARP Experts for the Florida HARP Loan Refinance Program.

Jamie and Trish came to us with some financial pain.  They were introduced to us through one of our Realtor partners after having spoken to her about a short sale.  They didn’t want to sell their home but didn’t know what their options were.   Since their agent was a true professional and not only interested in their own commissions, she introduced Jamie and Trish to us for a conversation as to whether HARP was the right fit for them.

The timing couldn’t be better for Jamie and Trish – with Harp 2.0 aka “unlimited loan-to-value HARP” they have a new found hope.  Things have been tough for them over the last few years and cash flow is at a premium.  Since they owed 202% of their homes value – there were no options to keep their home until now.  Here is what they are able to do now to save their home:

Existing Loan             New Loan

Balance $168,889               $172,750

Interest. rate  6.625%                 4.50%

P& I Pmt. $1,152.56           $ 875.30

Monthly Savings = $277.26

In order to help create an emergency fund for Jamie and Trish, we also made some strategic choices to place some money in their savings account.  It began with being able to pocket their March 1^st payment ($1,360.00), not have a payment due April 1^st($1,360.00), plus they will receive their escrow refund ($1,457.00) after closing.  This will allow Jamie and Trish to create an instant emergency cash cushion of $4,177.00.  This was money they did not have set in place for emergencies!

Now – not only do they have a lower payment from here forward of $277.26 every month, but they have an instant cash cushion [the first step to creating wealth] of over $4000.

It’s April in Longwood and warmer weather is coming. It’s Spring Cleaning season. Do you have a checklist?

In some households, spring cleaning is an annual ritual, taking anywhere from a full day to an entire week to complete. Room-by-room, foot-by-foot, dust, dirt and grime are replaced with cleanliness and shine.

No matter in which way to you choose to tackle your chores, though, the people at Real Simple have you covered. The magazine’s website provides a thorough, detailed walk-through of the most common spring cleaning tasks. It also offers a “shortcut” series.

For example, the section of cleaning area rugs and rooms with wall-to-wall carpeting is a chore Real Simple lists as lasting “a morning”. The shortcut version, however, is noted to take just 10 minutes.

Some of the other areas covered in the Real Simple spring cleaning guide include :

• Windows (4-6 hours long version; 15 minutes each “shortcut” version)
• Curtains (30 minutes per panel long version; 10 minutes per panel “shortcut” version)
• Upholstery (25 minutes per piece of furniture long version; 5 minutes per piece of furniture “shortcut” version)

You’ll need tools for your spring cleaning tasks including special cleansers, sponges, rags and vacuums. In some cases, you may want to rent equipment from a local hardware store. For example, deep-cleaning an area rug with a steam cleaner may be more time-effective than scrubbing it clean by hand.

Then, after completing the above chores, remember to flip your mattresses, change your air filters, and test your smoke alarm batteries.

Keep track of what you’ve done, and what’s left to do, with this classic, 3-page Spring Cleaning Checklist from Martha Stewart.

After a brief run-up two weeks ago, mortgage rates are back below 4 percent. It’s good news for home buyers and mortgage rate shoppers of Lake Mary because with lower mortgage rates come lower mortgage payments.

According to Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the national, average 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate fell to 3.99 percent this week from last week’s 4.08 percent.

Last week had marked the first time since December 2011 that the benchmark rate crossed north of 4 percent — a span of 16 weeks.

And, it wasn’t just rates that got cheaper this week — closing costs dropped, too.

Freddie Mac’s survey showed that the average number of discount points to accompany a 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell one-tenth of a percent this week to 0.7, where one discount point is equal to one percent of your loan size.

As a real-life example, a $200,000 The Crossings mortgage with an accompanying 0.7 discount points would be subject to an additional $1,400 one-time closing cost. Last week, that cost was $1,600.

Note, though, that these are average mortgage rates for the nation. On a local level, rates may be higher or lower, and so may the accompanying number of discount points.

For example, in this week’s Freddie Mac survey, each U.S. region boasts its own “average rate” :

• Northeast Region : 4.00% with 0.7 discount points
• West Region : 3.94% with 0.9 discount points
• Southeast Region : 4.01% with 0.8 discount points
• North Central Region : 3.99% with 0.6 discount points
• Southwest Region : 4.02% with 0.8 discount points

These rates are each well below the average rates of a year ago when the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 4.86%. 

Low mortgage rates can’t last forever so if you’ve been wondering whether now is a good time to buy a home or refinance one; or whether rising rates will harm your monthly budget, the answer may be yes. A weak economy held mortgage rates low last year. An improving economy should push rates higher this year.

Talk to your loan officer and review your home loan options. Looking ahead to spring and summer, mortgage rates appear poised to rise.

Sales of “new homes” fell to the lowest levels in four months last month.

According to the Census Bureau’s monthly New Home Sales report, 313,000 new homes were sold in February 2012 on a seasonally-adjusted, annualized basis, representing a 1.6% drop from the month prior.

A “new home” is a home for which there has been no prior owner nor tenant.

At first glance, the data looks negative for the housing market; a suggestion that the well-publicized housing market recovery may be slowed. However, within February’s New Home Sales report are three important counter-statistics worth mentioning.

First, although annualized home sales volume slipped 5,000 units in February, this occurred as the number of homes for sale nationwide remained constant at 150,000. This is the fewest number of new homes for sale since at least 1993 — the first year that the Census Bureau tracked such data.

A small home supply promotes rising home values when buyer demand is rising and, in February, buyer demand held firm.

A second reason to remain optimistic on housing is that New Home Supply was 5.8 months in February. This means that, at the current pace of sales, the entire new home inventory will be “sold out” in 5.8 months.

Housing experts say that when home supplies fall below 6.0 months, it’s bullish for housing.

And, as a third reason to look past the New Home Sales headline figure, last month’s reporting Margin of Error was huge.

According to the government, the February New Home Sales data was published with a ±23.9% margin of error. This means that the actual New Home Sales sales volume may have dropped as much as -25.5%, or may have climbed by as much as +22.3%. 

Because the range of possible values includes both positive and negative numbers, the Census Bureau assigned its February data the “zero confidence” label.

It will be several months before February’s New Home Sales data is revised. Until then, buyers in Lake Mary would do well to take cues from the real estate market-at-large which shows steady, gradual improvement. 

If your 2012 housing plans call for buying new construction, consider using February’s results as a window to “make a deal”. As the year progresses, great values in housing may be gone for good.