Independant Foreclosure Review

"Were you in Foreclosure in 2009 or 2010?"
Have you been involved in a foreclosure? Even if your foreclosure has already been completed, there may be an opportunity to have your loan file reviewed. If the review finds errors in how your foreclosure was handled, you may be eligible to receive compensation.

Watch the following video for more information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd3skMm6NxU

 Owning your own home is one life's major milestones for most people. Unfortunately the upfront costs of purchasing your first home can deter many people from ever reaching that milestone.  It can be hard to save enough money for a down payment, closing costs, inspection, attorney's fees, and the list goes on and on. Luckily for you Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Rochester in cooperation with First Niagara Bank and HSBC offers a program that can help relieve some of that stress and anxiety. CCCS of Rochester's First Home Club is a program designed to help people looking to purchase their first home and people who haven't owned their own home in the past 3 years. Participants in the First Home Club are eligible for a $7,500 grant to be used towards a down payment and closing costs on their new home after completing a savings and education program. How the First Home Club works is very simple, participants agree to save their own money monthly on a plan ranging from 10 months to 24 months, during those months they attend 2 free workshops hosted by CCCS of Rochester, and at the end of the agreed time frame they get a $7,500 grant to use towards the down payment or closing costs on their new home.

The savings plan consists of committing to save at least $79.00 a month for 24 months, or if you can save more money a month the number of months you need to save is even less! At the end of the savings term you will have saved $1,875, which is a great start towards saving for your new home, but as a reward for your hard work and perseverance, the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York is going to add $7,500 to your own hard earned savings. This is money you will never have to pay back, as long as you stay in your new home for at least 3 years.

During this savings period you will also get to attend the free workshops provided by CCCS of Rochester, where you will learn about creating a spending plan, deciding how much home you can afford, and all there is to know about getting ready to purchase your new home including closing costs, realtors, mortgages, attorneys, inspections, etc. There will also be presentations by realtors and attorneys that have helped hundreds of others purchase the home of their dreams.

If owning your own home is one of your dreams, even if it is a couple years down the road give CCCS of Rochester a call and talk to one of our certified counselors for more information and to see if the First Home Club is right for you!

If owning your own home is your DREAM, let CCCS of Rochester help make it a Reality!

Supt. Lawsky Announces Agreement with Goldman, Ocwan, Litton on Groundbreaking New Mortgage Practices

Sale of Goldman's Subsidiary, Litton, Conditioned on New Servicing Practices

An article by the New York State Department of Financial Services

NEW YORK, NY (09/01/2011)(readMedia)-- Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin M. Lawsky today announced that New York's Department of Financial Services and Banking Department have entered into an agreement with Goldman Sachs Bank, Ocwen Financial Corp. and Litton Loan Servicing LP to adhere to landmark new Mortgage Servicing Practices. The agreement was required by the Superintendent as a condition to allowing Ocwen's acquisition today of Goldman Sachs' mortgage servicing subsidiary, Litton. With the Litton acquisition, Ocwen's mortgage servicing entity, Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC, will become the 12th largest servicer in the nation, handling a very large number of customers in foreclosure or facing possible foreclosure.

"This agreement provides important consumer protections for homeowners who have found themselves in dire straits due to the financial crisis," Superintendent Lawsky said. "Our agreement sets a new higher standard for the residential mortgage servicing industry, whose troubling foreclosure and servicing practices we have been investigating along with other regulators across the country. Goldman Sachs, Ocwen and Litton have now all agreed to put the rights of homeowners ahead of their profit margins by implementing these changes."

As a further condition to his issuance of a "No Objection" letter on the Litton acquisition, Lawsky obtained a commitment from Goldman Sachs to assist affected homeowners by writing down approximately $53 million in unpaid principal. Goldman's commitment will forgive 25 percent of the principal balance all 60-day delinquent home loans in New York serviced by Litton and owned by Goldman Sachs as of August 1.

Importantly, the agreement today is a condition of the acquisition and does not preclude any future investigations of past practices or release any future claims or actions whatsoever.

The new Agreement on Mortgage Servicing Practices that Goldman, Ocwen and Litton have signed makes important changes in the mortgage servicing industry which, as a whole, has been plagued by troublesome and unlawful practices. Those practices include: "Robo-signing," referring to affidavits in foreclosure proceedings that were falsely executed by servicer staff without personal review of the borrower's loan documents and were not notarized in accordance with state law; weak internal controls and oversight that compromised the accuracy of foreclosure documents; unfair and improper practices in connection with eligible borrowers' attempts to obtain modifications of their mortgages or other loss mitigation, including improper denials of loan modifications; and imposition of improper fees by servicers.

The Agreement makes the following changes:

1. Ends Robo-signing and imposes staffing and training requirements that will prevent Robo-signing.

2. Requires servicers to withdraw any pending foreclosure actions in which filed affidavits were Robo-signed or otherwise not accurate.

3. Requires servicers to provide a dedicated Single Point of Contact representative for all borrowers seeking loss mitigation or in foreclosure, preventing borrowers from getting the runaround by being passed from one person to another. It also restricts referral of borrowers to foreclosure when they are engaged in pursuing loan modifications or loss mitigation.

4. Requires servicers to ensure that any force-placed insurance be reasonably priced in relation to claims incurred, and prohibits force-placing insurance with an affiliated insurer.

5. Imposes more rigorous pleading requirements in foreclosure actions to ensure that only parties and entities possessing the legal right to foreclose can sue borrowers.

6. For borrowers found to have been wrongfully foreclosed, requires servicers to ensure that their equity in the property is returned, or, if the property was sold, compensate the borrower.

7. Imposes new standards on servicers for application of borrowers' mortgage payments to prevent layering of late fees and other servicer fees and use of suspense accounts in ways that compounded borrower delinquencies and defaults.

8. Requires servicers to strengthen oversight of foreclosure counsel and other third party vendors, and imposes new obligations on servicers to conduct regular reviews of foreclosure documents prepared by counsel and to terminate foreclosure attorneys whose document practices are problematic or who are sanctioned by a court.

Ocwen and Litton are immediately taking steps to implement these servicing practices. Goldman, which is exiting the mortgage servicing business with the sale of Litton, has agreed to adopt these servicing practices if it should ever reenter the servicing industry.

Should I Buy a House Because the Rates Are So Low?

Guest post by John Ulzheimer

Home values have plummeted across the country.  Mortgage interest rates continue to hover between 4 and 5%, a historical low.  Both seem to suggest it's a good time to buy a house.  So, is now the time to pull the trigger on a new mortgage?

There are a few things you should consider before you start looking for a house.  First, how comfortable would you be if you were to become "upside-down?"  That means you would owe more on the home than it's actually worth.

Property values continue to fall and there's really nothing to indicate they will stabilize anytime soon.  Point being, you might be buying on the way down rather that at the bottom or even on the way up.  Today some 28% of homeowners are in that same position and trust me, most of them wish they weren't.

Second, don't buy a house simply because the rates are low.  Too many people are focusing just on the interest rates and that's a bad idea.  Remember, when you borrow $250,000 to finance a home, you still owe someone $250,000.  Just because the loan has a very low interest rate doesn't make you any less in debt than someone who has a horribly high interest rate.

If you're going to buy a house then do so because you want the home, you love the neighborhood, the school district is good, or you're tired of renting. Don't do it just because the rates are low.  Think of the low rate as being the cherry on top, not the ice cream on the bottom.

Just because you're hearing advertisements for incredibly low interest rates it certainly doesn't mean that you'll actually qualify for those rates.  You better have killer FICO credit scores and you better have them at all three of the credit reporting agencies.  Remember, mortgage lenders pull all three of your credit reports and all three of your FICO scores and then use the middle of your three scores on which to base their decision.

And finally, you may have to pony up a 20% down payment to get those really low rates. The world of mortgage lending has changed dramatically since the end of 2007.  There are no more "liar loans" (when you would tell someone how much you made and nobody verified the accuracy).  There are no more "110 LTVs" (loan that were 110% of the appraised value of the home).  Sanity has worked it's way back into the mortgage lending environment, which means better credit is required and income has to be, well, real income.

John Ulzheimer is the President of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com, the credit blogger for Mint.com, and a Contributor for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. He is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring and identity theft. Formerly of FICO, Equifax and Credit.com, John is the only recognized credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry. Follow him on Twitter here.

If You Want to Improve Your FICO Scores…Paying Off Credit Debt Reigns Supreme

Guest article by John Ulzheimer of SmartCredit.com

When it comes to boosting your FICO credit scores there are a variety of strategies that will yield varying amounts of improvement.  Many people believe that getting negative information removed from your credit reports is the number one way to increase your scores.  This is correct but only if the consumer is successful at getting most, if not all, of the negative information removed.  Getting one of your twelve collections removed isn't going to do anything for your scores.

A much more actionable (and realistic) way to increase your scores is to pay off debt.  Not only is this a proven way to earn better scores but also it's practically immediate. Paying down debt can result in a better score in less than 30 days, which is lightening fast in the slow moving credit-reporting environment.

But before you crack open your checkbook you'll want to consider WHICH debt you're going to eliminate.  Why?  Because when it comes to improving your credit scores not all "debt elimination" is created equal.  In fact, paying some huge debts will yield little to no score improvement while paying smaller debts can result in meaningful score boost.

Using a scoring tool built by FICO, I recently simulated the following "pay off" scenarios and measured their impact to a FICO score of 630, which is clearly one that you'd like to improve.  Nothing other than the following actions changed on the credit report.

1) Paying off a $250,000 mortgage

2) Paying off a $35,000 auto loan

3) Paying off a $5,000 credit card

The results are as follows…

Paying off a mortgage loan of $250,000 improved FICO 630 to FICO 635

I've been telling people for many years that installment debt, even in large amounts, doesn't have much of an impact to your scores.  This is the quantification of that advice.  And while this is just a simulation, in 2010 I sold a house and eliminated a $249,000 mortgage and my FICO scores went up four points.

Paying off an auto loan of $35,000 improved FICO 630 to FICO 635

An auto loan is an installment loan (like a mortgage) and the effect of paying it off is equally unimpressive from a scoring perspective.  Don't get me wrong; it's nice not having a monthly car payment.  And, it'll save you big bucks not paying interest on a $35,000 loan any longer.

Paying off a credit card balance of $5,000 improved FICO 630 to FICO 665

Eliminating the credit card debt resulted in the largest improvement to the credit score, and really it wasn't even a close race.  Credit card debt is scientifically proven to be a riskier type of credit for lenders to extend, which means even smaller amounts like what was used in the simulation can have a significant impact to your FICO scores.  It also means if you can pay it off your scores will improve a lot, and very quickly.  And even if you can't pay off your credit cards 100%, your scores will still improve by paying it down as much as possible.

Now, where's my checkbook?

John Ulzheimer is the President of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com, the credit blogger for Mint.com, and a Contributor for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. He is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring and identity theft. Formerly of FICO, Equifax and Credit.com, John is the only recognized credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry. Follow him on Twitter here.