HARP 2.0 has been released, however there is confusion around the industry and also with consumers as to what the guidelines are. The program designed to help underwater home owners refinance to a lower rate seems to have gotten a shakey start.
is to provide an easily accessible educational workshop that will give consumers clear and concise information about everything they need to know about HARP 2.0
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL (1888PressRelease) April 17, 2012 - HARP 2.0 has been released; however there is confusion around the industry and also with consumers as to what the guidelines are. The program designed to help underwater home owners refinance to a lower rate seems to have gotten a shaky start leaving some homeowners confused as to where to turn.
Part of the reason for some of the confusion is the lack of participation or only partial participation in the HARP 2.0 refinance program also knows as the Home Affordable Refinance Program. HARP 2.0 was designed to allow home owners refinance regardless of the value of the home. In essence, if a loan is owned by FANNIE MAE or FREDDIE MAC, and originated prior to March 31st, of 2009 then the home owner would be eligible for refinance under the new HARP 2.0 guidelines regardless of the value of the home.
While this sounds like a major win for homeowners whose mortgage is owned by the Government Sponsored giants, the road to refinance has not exactly been an easy one to navigate thus far. The problem is that many lenders have super imposed what is known in the industry as Overlay Guidelines. This means that although both FANNIE and FREDDIE have agreed to purchase these HARP loans, the lenders themselves are limiting their exposure by adding additional guidelines above and beyond the minimum requirements. The end result in most cases is that many lenders are limiting the Loan To Value limits on HAR 2.0 despite the fact that the program was intended to go well beyond the 100% Loan to Value mark.
For the most part many lenders are curtailing the LTV at 125% of the current appraised values. In states like Florida where the average Home Owner may be well above the 125% Loan to Value mark, refinancing under HARP 2.0 may be quite challenging. Fortunately one company has stepped up to the plate and is not only offering a HARP 2.0 Refinance with unlimited Loan To Value limits for both Fannie and Freddie loans, but has also set out to make education for these HARP refinances readily available to consumers.
E Loans Mortgage in Central Florida has announced the release of their new online educational workshop for all things related to HARP 2.0. Their goal says E Loans Mortgage "is to provide an easily accessible educational workshop that will give consumers clear and concise information about everything they need to know about HARP 2.0". According to company president Steve Fingerman "We have been working on this system for quite some time and are excited to roll out this great tool." The online educational HARP workshop is webinar based so they can deliver the work shop to hundreds of end users simultaneously without having to worry about some folks being left out. This is the first program of it's kind and is being offered to Home Owners in Florida for free. E Loans Mortgage has no future plans to charge for the workshop and says they are just providing a valuable service to potential HARP 2.0 borrowers to help demystify all the confusion surrounding this program.
For information regarding the registration for the Free HARP 2.0 Education Workshop, Home Owners can visit http://www.myloanmodificationstation.com/Blog or simply go to the main site at http://www.myloanmodificationstation.com.