Unfortunately, in today’s economic conditions, bankruptcy has often been the only way a family could get a fresh and new start. Which brings the question, can you get a VA Guaranteed Home Loan if you have a bankruptcy?

With the recent economic recession just barely behind us, many veterans and military personnel are now in the position of looking for a new mortgage after having gone through a bankruptcy.

Some of the most common questions asked regarding bankruptcies and VA loans are:

• Can I even get a VA loan after a bankruptcy?

• If so, how long do I have to wait?

• What can I do to increase the likelihood of getting approved for a new VA loan after a bankruptcy?

The good news is that as of today, the VA underwriting guidelines are far more relaxed than the guidelines for conventional or FHA loans.

With that said, let’s now go ahead and take a look at the different types of bankruptcies and how they impact VA loans…

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 bankruptcies are essentially when the borrower is freed of all liability from creditors. VA loan guidelines typically call for a 2 year waiting period after a Chapter 7 bankruptcy before you can receive VA financing again.

We say “typically” because there are extremely rare circumstances in which the 2 year waiting period will be reduced to 1 instead. You would have to be able to show that circumstances beyond your control (such as losing a job or medical problems) were the driving force behind your financial hardship.

This 2 year requirement may seem harsh, but compared to the guidelines for conventional loans that call for a 4 year waiting period, it really is quite reasonable.

Chapter 13

Chapter 13 bankruptcies involve the establishment of a repayment plan instead of being cleared of liability.

Veterans and military personnel can qualify with VA loan guidelines even when they are still in Chapter 13 bankruptcy. However, you will have to show that you have made a minimum of 12 payments on-time and be approved by the court trustee for the loan.

Please note that once the Chapter 13 bankruptcy is complete, veterans are instantly eligible for VA loans again, whereas conventional loan guidelines still require a 2 year waiting period.

Even after you have finished the bankruptcy process, there are still actions you can take to increase your likelihood of qualifying for a VA loan after bankruptcy.

For example:

• Reestablish your credit as soon as possible if you do not have any creditors after the bankruptcy process. Remember, approving a potential borrower with no credit can be just as difficult as approving a borrower with bad credit!

• Once you reestablish credit, be sure to always make payments on time.

• Get in the habit of checking your credit at a minimum of once a year. This will give you an idea of where you stand, especially when you begin shopping for a VA mortgage.

• Upon the discharge of your bankruptcy, send a copy of all your discharge paperwork (including all applicable schedules) to the three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Contact me

Navigating the mortgage approval process doesn’t have to be daunting. With me on your side those hurdles can be overcome. I am available right now to help you with the loan process and know the ins and outs of FHA, VA, USDA and conventional financing. If you want to buy a home using an FHA loan or refinance using VA, I am here to help. Contact me at Alpine Mortgage Planning, 1200 Executive Pkwy., Ste. 100, Eugene OR 97401, 541-342-7576/541-221-3455 cell or by e-mail. Only you can make the choice it is time to get the process started.

Zillow announced this week that they had acquired listing syndication platform Postlets.

A visit to the Postlets website shows that it is now listed as a Zillow company. I am seeing this as another step in Zillow becoming the major real estate force nationwide. They have already become more searched than all other real estate sites.

Zillow, from my view, started their rise to fame in the real estate market by offering free evaluations as to what someone’s home was worth, most often in the early days, a long way from reality. But with more and more information coming into the platform those discrepancies have gotten smaller over time. What this addition will do is add more funneling to the Zillow platform.

Many Realtors® are using the Postlets for posting ads on platforms like CraigsList and BackPage. By doing this in the future, I can see Zillow getting more advertising revenue as the platform funnels more into Zillow. I could be a bit paranoid about this, but that is where I see this acquisition going.

I am offering to the Realtors® I deal with another way of posting to CraigsList, BackPage, Zillow, Trulia and other platforms with single property websites. This program uses a lot of the same sources, but keeps the referrals closer to the posting Realtor®.

If you are a Realtor® in Oregon, Washington or California, I would be happy to show you the program. I think it is the best platform around and lets the Realtor® keep control of the business.

Contact me today either through my e-mail or at 541-743-2966 for a demonstration of the future of online listings.

A divorce can have a huge impact on VA Guaranteed Home Loan for the Eugene/Springfield veteran. Or, it can have little to no impact.

Let’s go ahead and start off with the basics.

First, let’s look at a scenario where the VA loan is only filed under the veteran’s name.

The VA loan guaranty is only available due to the veteran’s eligibility for the loan.

After the VA loan is processed, the guaranty will remain with the mortgage even if the borrowing veteran or member of the armed forces stops living there. The only way the VA loan guaranty will be removed is if the loan is refinanced by the former spouse into a conventional mortgage, which will then make the military borrower again eligible for a new VA mortgage.

Jointly held mortgages are a little different from the above process.

The name of each spouse is on the mortgage, and if they both work the couple may qualify for a higher loan amount with their combined income than either would individually.

Only one spouse needs to be a veteran or military service member and eligible in order to get qualified for a VA loan. After the VA guaranty is committed to a mortgage, it is no longer attached only to the veteran borrower.

This is what makes joint mortgages a little tricky when it comes to divorce, especially since few ex-spouses will want to maintain a joint mortgage together. With this in mind, there are a few potential situations that can arise:

• The ex-spouses can sell their property and divide the equity or debt.

• They can designate sole-ownership of the property to one person and then refinance the mortgage into the name of just one borrower.

• If neither ex-spouse can qualify for a loan on their own, the original mortgage will remain until the property is sold. In this case, the veteran will not be eligible for another VA loan as long as the original mortgage remains.

After the mortgage is terminated, the veteran can apply for a new loan guaranty. Normally, there will not be any change from the original eligibility.

It is critically important that after the divorce a complete copy of the divorce decree and any payments to the ex-spouse are documented. You should also be aware that any negative credit surrounding the VA loan will come back to the veteran, even if the non veteran spouse has the property and is supposed to be making the payments.

If you have a VA loan and you’d like to get a VA IRRRL loan (also known as a VA Streamline Refinance), there are also some things you should keep in mind if you are going to get divorced, married, or re-married.

During your regular VA loan application process, each of the borrowers whose names appeared on the loan was reviewed by the VA. Since VA IRRRL loans do not require a credit check, you are required to keep each borrower from the original loan on your VA Streamline Refinance.

Unfortunately, there is no way to remove a borrower for a VA Streamline Refinance except through the death of one spouse.

In order to get a new VA loan during or after getting a divorce, you will be required to follow the steps of your first VA loan.

However, if you are getting married, already have a VA loan and decide to get a VA Streamline Refinance, you are allowed to add your new partner to the loan.

Contact me

Navigating the mortgage approval process doesn’t have to be daunting. With me on your side those hurdles can be overcome. I am available right now to help you with the loan process and know the ins and outs of FHA, VA, USDA and conventional financing. If you want to buy a home using an FHA loan or refinance using VA, I am here to help. Contact me at Alpine Mortgage Planning, 1200 Executive Pkwy., Ste. 100, Eugene OR 97401, 541-342-7576/541-221-3455 cell or by e-mail. Only you can make the choice it is time to get the process started.

Mortgage insurance for FHA Insured Loans will go up more than 25 % on any new loan that begins after April 19 for purchases and refinances in Eugene/Springfield.

The yearly (paid monthly) mortgage insurance factor is currently set at .9% of the loan amount and will be jumping to 1.15% in April. This is for 30 year fixed loans over 95% loan to value (LTV). A similar increase will take place for those under 95% LTV.

This will be a difference of $31.25 on a $150,000 loan amount. Properties identified and applications started before April 19 will be under the current mortgage insurance factor.

Contact me

Navigating the mortgage approval process doesn’t have to be daunting. With me on your side those hurdles can be overcome. I am available right now to help you with the loan process and know the ins and outs of FHA, VA, USDA and conventional financing. If you want to buy a home using an FHA loan or refinance using VA, I am here to help. Contact me at Alpine Mortgage Planning, 1200 Executive Pkwy., Ste. 100, Eugene OR 97401, 541-342-7576/541-221-3455 cell or by e-mail. Only you can make the choice it is time to get the process started.

In this tutorial you will learn the quick and easy steps necessary to add videos to your WordPress website using the embed codes that are available on most internet web hosting video sites. NOTE: If there is no embed code available on the website were the video is hosted you may want to Embed Videos Using the URL.

1. Locate the video you want
2. Locate the embed tab, button, etc. – This can be located in different places on different video hosting websites
3. Select the options (if available) that work for your website (i.e. size, color, etc.)
4. Copy the embed code by highlighting the code (hold your left mouse button down while moving over the code) and either right click to copy or press ‘Ctrl+C’ on your keyboard to copy
5. Paste the embed code on the desired webpage under the ‘HTML’ tab
6. Be sure to press either ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’: NOTE: you can ‘Preview’ the page before publishing it if you like

For a visual tutorial please see the screenshot below. CLICK THE IMAGE FOR A LARGER VERSION!

How To Add Videos Using The Embed Code is a post from: My WordPress Tutorial

©2011 My WordPress Tutorial. All Rights Reserved.

.

How To Add Videos Using The Embed Code is a post from: Test Account

©2012 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.

In life there are times that are bitter and there are times that are sweet. Today is a day that combines both of those emotions and creates a bittersweet moment. As of today, Positive Real Estate Professionals has new owners. Those new owners are Tony and Darcy Cannon. They are excited about this new venture in their lives and we hope that many of you will be excited as well.

Now before anyone freaks out over this change, let me explain. Back in November of 2008 Positive Real Estate Professionals began as a contributor network and then in March of 2009, we transitioned it to a multi user network. Now, the reason behind moving it was to expand it’s membership and while giving them more accessibility. Joining me in this task was the co-owner of R & D Art, Rich Dansereau.  Our goal for PREP was to be able to give people in the mortgage and real estate industries an affordable option to a blog site that had features comparable to websites. Since then, we have developed the network to be able to hold blog sites as well as static sites. We have also been able to give our diverse membership of real estate professionals options for contact forms as well as ways to show properties or book inspections.

In August of 2009, we started Spoiled Pet Cafe. We never fathomed its rapid expansion. We went from 2 days a week at 3 hours on Wednesday and 5 hours on Saturdays to one full weekend every month to 45 weekend shows scheduled for 2011. We knew that something eventually had to give. In November of 2010, I started looking for someone to take over PREP and carry on what we had envisioned. I have known the Cannons from ActiveRain where we met back in 2007.  I had followed their journeys from that point on and knew of Tony’s love of photography and Darcy’s endless computer hours for their business. This led me to ask them if they had interest in purchasing PREP. After our first talk, we agreed that the first of the year would be a better time. Yesterday, we finalized the sale.

Darcy and Tony might be the most dedicated couple that I know. They work their butts off for their clients and that was the type of person/people that we were looking for to take PREP to the next level. We have agreed to stay on with PREP for 6 months as trainers and consultants and then another 6 months as consultants if they need us. This will allow them to acclimate themselves to the network. Since they already have an account with PREP they are familiar with our members as well as how the network operates from a member’s standpoint. This will give them a working knowledge of the system.

While we are excited to undergo this change, we are also saddened with selling of PREP. With that said, we have to keep our clients in mind first and foremost and do what is right for them. We want to thank each and everyone of you for your support over the last 2.5 years and if we can do anything for you, please contact us.

Introducing The New Owners Of Positive Real Estate Professionals. is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2012 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

Lane County no money down USDA Rural Guaranteed Home Loans can be stopped or slowed down by a collection. Do you know if you have collections? Do you know what to do about them?

People have collections for various reasons, some people even have collections that they are not aware of. Most often I have seen collections fall into three basic categories:

1. Medical Collections, often the amount that insurance didn’t pay or wouldn’t pay. Sometimes these collections are unknown to the potential buyer due to ignoring the notice because they thought the insurance would take car of it.
2. Miscellaneous provider services like cell phones, city water bills and even library fines. This can also include unpaid parking and traffic tickets.
3. Unpaid credit accounts. Just because you don’t pay the account, doesn’t mean it goes away. Most credit companies will turn it over to a collection agency, some faster than others.

There are a couple of ways that a collection account can affect your application. First has to do with your credit itself. Collections may reduce your credit score several points to the point where you don’t qualify for a loan based on credit score being too low. Next is the potential of the collection account turning into something worse, a judgment. Collection creditors often will not pursue a judgment against a non home owner when they will against a home owners.

Because of the way collections could be handled differently for a home owner than for a non homeowner, the underwriter will often have to make a decision as to if a collection will have to be paid off to qualify for the USDA loan. In my experience, most underwriters are erring on the side of caution and often call for all collections to be paid off, which brings me to my next suggestion.

How do you find out if you have a collection? You are entitled to a copy of your credit report once per year and there are three separate credit bureaus, so I recommend you get a copy of your report from one bureau every 4 months. You can do this at www.annualcreditreport.com. If you are thinking about buying a home now, you should know what is on all three bureaus. You can do that by making application with me, we will discuss your credit and see ways to fix anything that is amiss.

If there are collections on your report, don’t pay them! WHAT? Yes, don’t pay them, it will make your credit score go down because one of the things credit reports look at is recency. If you pay it now, your score will suffer and if you currently have a high enough score to qualify for the loan, we can schedule payment of the collection(s) at closing.

The USDA Loan Program relies on the lender to provide good quality loans and the USDA rules say that the LENDER must determine if an open collection account would need to be paid before or at closing. As you can imagine, these rules will vary from lender to lender and will also change over time as tighter regulations hold lenders and individual underwriters personally responsible for their loan approvals.

Prior planning will help in your decision making. Knowing what is on your credit report will help you decide what you need to do now. That is why I work with my clients long term and help them prepare for buying a home either now or when the problems are solved. You might also review my recent posting about foreclosures. I also suggest you take a look at these webinars to find out more about the USDA program, credit and preparation for home ownership.

Contact me

Navigating the mortgage approval process can be daunting. You need someone on your side. I am available right now to help you with the loan process and know the ins and outs of FHA, VA, USDA and conventional financing. If you want to buy a home using an FHA loan or refinance using VA, I am here to help. Contact me at Alpine Mortgage Planning, 1200 Executive Pkwy., Ste. 100, Eugene OR 97401, 541-342-7576/541-221-3455 cell or by e-mail. Only you can make the choice it is time to get the process started.

Real Estate buyers and sellers are concerned with foreclosures everywhere, including Eugene/Springfield. However, what happens to the person who has had their property foreclosed. What are the long term effects?

First of all, I would like to discuss the credit implications. This trend has resulted in various opinions on the types of foreclosures (Short Sale, Deed in Lieu and Foreclosure) and its impact on a borrower’s FICO score. The following is from First American Credco, one the the credit agencies used for mortgage lending:

This topic, which is raised in news articles and other industry collateral, has generated many questions among members of our various sales channels; mainly, how score models calculate each type of foreclosure. After soliciting assistance from various individuals and resources – including each of the three major credit bureaus and CreditXpert – we have compiled the following information for your review.
While many people have associated a target point impact anywhere from 100 points on a Short Sale to 280 points on a foreclosure, Fair Isaac has told us that FICO risk scores do not distinguish between the three types of foreclosures.
There are so many variables in a consumer’s credit report (do they have collections or other public records?) in addition to the foreclosure account that a point impact is almost impossible to gauge. Further complicating the score prediction is how the foreclosure account is reported, and if a public record accompanies it.
Each article we’ve seen suggests that a Short Sale has less of an impact on an applicant’s FICO score than a Foreclosure, but downplays the fact that there could be legal action taken by the lender on the deficiency balance from a Short Sale. If this is the case, there would then be both a derogatory tradeline and a Public Record reporting. This is the same result as a Foreclosure; a derogatory tradeline plus the Foreclosure Public Record. Even without the Public Record filing there would still be the reporting of an MOP 8 on the Short Sale tradeline. This would have a negative impact on the applicant’s score equivalent to a foreclosure tradeline.
Finally, Short Sales are typically facilitated to those applicants who have encountered credit issues. These issues would be reflected in the derogatory reporting of other credit items within the consumer’s credit profile.

All of this means that the credit score for any of the options will be taking a huge hit. To get more credit information, check out my webinar on the subject:

Next, I would like to address what happens to your ability to purchase a home in the future. Remembering that credit changes all of the time, right now, if you have a foreclosure, you must wait seven years from the date of sale before you are eligible for a conventional loan. If you have a short sale or a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, the minimum time is two years and 20% down, or four years and 10% down. You will also need minimum credit scores, depending on the program.

For FHA, VA & USDA, although they could vary from lender to lender based on lender overlays, we have a 36 month minimum on foreclosures or deed-in-lieu or short sales on all three. However, of note, if the foreclosure was a VA loan and you want to get another VA loan, the deficiency balance has to be paid first. Additionally, a previous loan with USDA that resulted in a loss makes you ineligible for a new USDA loan.

Foreclosures can have a huge effect on your ability to borrow money in the future, not just for a new home, but also for a car purchase, making a difference of a 36% loan rate and a 5% loan rate. Sometimes, however, a foreclosure is the right way to go for a person. Sometimes, it may just seem the right way to go and in reality it isn’t. Ask a foreclosure counselor to find out for you. I believe the counselors at NEDCO are very helpful in this area.

Contact me

I am not a foreclosure counselor or a debt specialist, however, I am a mortgage advisor and am here for the long haul. Navigating the mortgage approval process can be daunting. You need someone on your side. I am available right now to help you with the loan process and know the ins and outs of FHA, VA, USDA and conventional financing. If you want to buy a home using an FHA loan or refinance using VA, I am here to help. I am licensed in Oregon, California and Washington. Contact me at Alpine Mortgage Planning, 1200 Executive Pkwy., Ste. 100, Eugene OR 97401, 541-342-7576/541-221-3455 cell or by e-mail. Only you can make the choice it is time to get the process started.

Hardest Hit Fund money will be available early next year for those who qualify and are selected to receive part of the $220 million allocated to Oregon through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Applications will be accepted for the program starting today through January 16. This is not a first come, first serve program, participants will be selected through a random selection drawing. Click on the image below to be taken to the website to find out if you qualify for the program and if you do, to apply for the program.

The Hardest Hit Fund will be available for at least 186 people in Lane County and will be processed by NEDCO. Those that apply will be contacted by NEDCO and scheduled a time for processing of their application.

The fund will make payments for 12 months or $20,000, which ever comes first, over the next year for those selected. NEDCO will begin intake interviews on Dec. 15 and the online application must be completed before an intake interview is scheduled. Last day to make application online is Jan. 14.

There are income and asset requirements that can be found as a potential applicant takes the Program Eligibility Test. The website is for all of Oregon, not just Lane County. Different counties will have different quotas of people they can help.

NEDCO is in need of volunteers to help out with the processing of applications. At this time, there is no way to gauge the number of applications that will be received. NEDCO is also handling the processing of Marion and Clackamas counties and will have offices open in those counties on Dec. 15. To volunteer to assist in the process, contact Desiree Moore, Hardest Hit coordinator, 541-337-2078, desiree@nedcocdc.org.

Also, pass the word on to friends, neighbors and anyone that may benefit from this program. Any time we can stop a foreclosure and give someone a chance to get on their feet again, it is a benefit for our neighborhoods.

For those that are not selected for the program, NEDCO has other troubled home owner programs that may assist them in their time of trial. Contact NEDCO at 541-345-7106 for more information or check out their website.

When I logged into Facebook this morning, I was greeted with the picture to the left. I am sure that many of you have already seen this. I am also sure that many started out the same way I did; looking for the path to add the ‘like’ button to your website. With that said, I decided to write a post explaining how to install this little tool to your website.

Before I begin, I thought I would share what this button can and will do for you. If you look to the right, you will see this button in action on our real estate network. As you can see at this point (originally published 4-22-2010), not many have used it. Over time, the number will grow and people will be able to share our network with their facebook friends a lot easier. All one needs to do is to click the ‘Like’ button once, and it adds them. Below is an excerpt from the facebook page explaining this a little better:

The Like button enables users to make connections to your pages and share content back to their friends on Facebook with one click. Since the content is hosted by Facebook, the button can display personalized content whether or not the user has logged into your site. For logged-in Facebook users, the button is personalized to highlight friends who have also liked the page.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a look at how we add this neat little tool to our own websites. If you look to the immediate left, you will see the picture of the Like Button Generator. As you can see, I have filled out the necessary fields to create this button for Positive Real Estate Professionals’ main page. Now, in theory, I could do this for each and every page that I wanted to on PREP, but at some point, you run into overkill.

Once all the pertinent information is entered, all you need to do is click on ‘get code’. When that is done, it will generate 2 codes; the first is an iFrame code and the second is a JavaScript code. Once you have selected which code you want to use, all you need to do is add this as a ‘Text’ or ‘HTML’ widget in sidebar of your website. If you do not have access to do that, then contact your webmaster and they can instruct you more on this subject. In some cases this can require coding added to the theme itself or some adjustments to certain parameters that can only be done by an admin or webmaster.

OK, now that we have the why and how to out of the way, let’s get down to the where. I thought long and hard about how I could help you get this tool on your site in the easiest way. I decided that I would add the direct link to the Facebook Developers social media ‘Like Button’ plugin page; http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like I hope that you find this post useful.

How To Add Facebook Like Button To Your Website is a post from: My WordPress Tutorial

©2010 My WordPress Tutorial. All Rights Reserved.

.

How To Add Facebook Like Button To Your Website is a post from: Test Account

©2012 Test Account. All Rights Reserved.