Thursday 31 May 2012

How The HARP Program Can Help You

By Flora Vinson


Many of you will have had or maybe still have mortgage repayment problems. You may have wondered how long you can manage to keep your payments current. Most of all you will be worried about what will happen if you are no longer able to pay. For some of you, help may be at hand with the Government's Making Home Affordable HARP program.

HARP stands for Home Affordable Refinance Program. It is designed to help those who have been unable to arrange refinancing of their mortgage. The reason for this would be that that your property has declined in value. To qualify there are several criteria you must meet. These are given in brief below but you should inquire from your mortgage provider, that is whoever you make your payments to, about your eligibility for this type of home finance scheme.

So these are the main points. You must not be in arrears where your mortgage payments are concerned. Indeed you must not have got into arrears during the past 12 months nor had any other problems regarding repayment. The LTV ratio, that is current loan-to-value ratio, must be more than 80%.

Essentially you should have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac sponsored mortgage. It should have been bought by either of them before 31 May 2009. The current LTV (loan-to-value) must be more than 80%. You must be absolutely up-to-date with your payments and have had no issues in this regard for at least 12 months. You should also not have been granted HARP assistance before unless you have a Fannie Mae loan which was refinanced between March to end of spring 2009.

If you think you may qualify contact your mortgage provider or either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac for more details and advice. Most mortgage companies are participants in this scheme but if by chance yours is not, then you can get the details from another provider. Try to ask more than one in any case and compare terms.

If you meet all the conditions, you will have to make an application. There are fees involved. harp program can make your life worth living again by easing your repayment burden.




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