With Making Home Affordable (MFA) President Obama allocated $75 billion to assist 4-5 million at risk homeowners (that's $15,000 per home.) We're gonna change the focus for this diary a bit. It will now focus on at risk homeowners who have applied, or may apply, to MHA. How is MHA working for you? Rate your own experience in the poll below. Here are some factors to consider:
∙ Availability of qualifying information for MHA at official sites like Making Home Affordable
∙ Helpfulness of the counseling services to which your lender referred you
∙ Availability of useful coverage of MHA in media, pro or con.
∙ Helpfulness of your lender in processing your application
∙ Fairness of your lender's final determination of your application.
Have I missed anything? The life of this diary will be in your comments ahnd stories about how MHA has helped or hindered you, guided or misled you in your attempt to work with the program as President Obama said it would work.
OK, here's an update. If you have good information, drop it in the comments and I'll post it here next week. Some news items
Here's a July 1 Obama administration announcement confirming that MHA needed retooling. HUD SECRETARY DONOVAN ANNOUNCES EXPANDED ELIGIBILITY FOR MAKING HOME AFFORDABLE REFINANCING
From Florida: Foreclosures mount as govt expands Making Home Affordable program to help more troubled homeowners
USA today coverage of the June 30 announcement expanding MHA coverage.
Some information on making MHA work for you:
If you haven't seen them - and your lender may not want you to see them - here are the FULL Treasury Department guidelinesfor MHA. They tell a very different story from the short SUMMARYwhich also comes from the Treasury Department.
Some tips from National Association of Realtors on What Should You Do If You Think a Servicer Isn’t Following the Making Home Affordable Program Guidelines
These tips are for Realtors trying to help clients. The following could be really helpful, it sounds like Fannie is taking complaints and working to resolve issues:
contact the servicer . . . so you can appeal the issue to a supervisor. Be sure to identify the specific provision of the guidance that you believe is not being followed. If the supervisor cannot or will not correct the problem, call 1-800-7Fannie to report the disagreement. Fannie is administering the program for the Treasury Department and will work to resolve the issue.
And here are some tips from an Arizona lawyer who says that finding the right lending official to negotiate with is key to success in qualifying for MHA. (And as always, of course, lawyers want you to hire lawyers to do this for you.)
That's it for now, Dear Diary.