Over the last couple of years, the government has made many attempts at trying to help home owners keep there homes.  Many of these attempts have been disappointments at best or all out failures at their worst.  There are a couple of programs though that are working to help home owners lower their mortgage payments, and get them into good, stable 30 year fixed mortgages.  The two programs I speak of are the DU Refinance + and the Freddie Mac Open Access and they are part of the Making Home Affordable Program.  These two programs are designed for home owners who have seen a decline in their properties value, but have still kept making their payment on time.

Here is a brief synopsis of how the program works and what is required to qualify for it.  These loan programs will allow a home owner to refinance their 1^st mortgage into a 30 year fixed mortgage without mortgage insurance, even if their new first mortgage is more than 80% of their homes value (up to 125% of the homes value).  You have to qualify the same way you would with a regular refinance and the rates will (in many cases) be similar to what you would get if you were refinancing with an 80% loan to value (LTV).  There are two main requirements for this program though.  First, your loan must be serviced by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.  To check this go to the website http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/loan_lookup.html and follow the links.  Remember too that just because you are not making your monthly payment to Fannie or Freddie, doesn’t mean they aren’t the servicer.  Either check the website above or give the Kunselman Team a call and we can look it up for you.  The second qualifying factor for this program is that your original first mortgage had to be for less than 80% of the homes value at the time you got the mortgage.  So if you have had or currently have mortgage insurance on your mortgage, you don’t qualify for this program.  That being said, there may still be options for you as long as you have not missed any of your payments.  You are allowed to have a 2^nd mortgage on the property (this is perfect for all of you who got an 80/20 when you bought or refinance) as long as the existing 2^nd mortgage company is willing to re-subordinate their mortgage.  You cannot get cash out on this refinance but you can save a lot of money by lowering your interest rate.

The Kunselman Team has helped many home owners with these amazing programs, and have lowered some peoples interest rates by over 1.50%.  The Making Home Affordable Programs are shining diamonds in the trash pile of the many failed government programs out there and while it won’t work for everyone, it may just work for you.  So give The Kunselman Team a call to see if you qualify and take advantage of the low interest rates before they go up.