Real Estate Highlights: October 2007

Countrywide's Effort on the mortgage crunch! And a FREE seminar on Tuesday...

Countrywide offers 'home preservation' deal
Pacific Business News (Honolulu)Tuesday, October 23, 2007 - 9:33 AM HAST

"In the wake of the credit crunch and troubles with the subprime mortgage market, Countrywide Financial Corp. will refinance or restructure $16 billion in mortgages as part of a "home preservation program" aimed at keeping at-risk homeowners in their homes..." <-Read full story.

With the publishing of that news report, I will provide some tips given at a few recent "Short Sale & Foreclosure" seminars.

-Prepare your written explanation describing your financial hardship.
-Call your Realtor right away to find out what the market conditions are for your property.
-Call your bank before you miss a payment and discuss your concerns with them.
-Negotiate with the "Default Alternatives Dept" a.k.a. "Short Sale Group" or "Work Out Department". This is the department that will try to work out an agreement to prevent you from having a short sale or foreclosure.
-Call your bank early in the morning in their time zone's working hours before their day is filled with other complaints or problems.
-Consider asking for a bearance agreement that could allow you to postpone payments if your financial hardship is temporary.
-If you receive a package of documents from your bank requesting you to submit your formal application to do a short sale, be sure to completely fill out and provide all information. If anything is missing from the package, your request will be delayed.
-If you qualified for your loan based on "stated income" and are concerned that you may have exaggerated your income, you should probably still call your bank because they will avoid bad press or publicity questioning their routine practices of verifying your income. **Warning- if you falsified your income, it is a considered a crime of fraud!!! You should consult an attorney to know your options.**

Hopefully you aren't in this situation, but if you are or know someone who is I hope this information helps you keep the issue to a minimum. -Rick

FREE SEMINAR...
If you are interested in attending a free seminar on Tuesday October 30th 1230pm-4pm at the Ala Moana Hotel, please let me know. It is titled "Real Estate Investment Strategies-Growing Your Money Tree" and the topics and the speakers and sponsors are:
• Investment Strategies — Cris Bordon, Co-Director, Kobo Wealth Conservancy & Family Office
• Financing Your Investment Property — Zachary Stankovits, Principal Broker, Pacific Home Finance
• The Tax Deferred Exchange — Michael J. Yesk, Esq., Investment Property Exchange Services, Inc.
• Increase Wealth, Improve Cash Flow and Reduce your Risk — Troy Simmons, Regional Vice President, Spectrus

I can email you more specifics and also try to get you reserved for a seat. The speaker, Michael Yesk is especially worth listening to!!

--Rick

<-- Click for Disney's press release.

West Oahu is going to be getting some additional exposure soon. This plan sounds like a good idea to spread the job sources out in that side of Oahu. More people will be able to find work and live near the area they work! - Rick