Colorado Springs Real Estate Connection

3 Tips on How to Refinance Your Colorado Springs Home to Avoid Foreclosure

Can you no longer afford the mortgage payments on your Colorado Springs home?
Are you afraid your bank will foreclose on your home?
Do you want to KEEP your home?

If you answered “YES” to these questions, you may be able to get help.

Here are some tips for possibly lowering your mortgage payment, avoiding foreclosure and KEEPING your home.

1. DO NOT PAY ANYONE to help you “modify” your mortgage.

Unfortunately, in times like these, there are “scammers” out there trying to take advantage of Colorado Springs homeowners in desperate situations. They charge and up front “fee” and then RARELY (if ever) follow through with helping the homeowner. Now the homeowner is out even MORE cash and may still lose their home to foreclosure.

Read the FTC Report: Federal and State Agencies Crack Down on Mortgage Modification and Foreclosure Rescue Scams

If you are interested in possibly modifying your loan to a payment/interest rate that you can better afford, YOU need to call your bank YOURSELF … for FREE. (Or see Below: Don’t Know Where to Start?]

If you think you have been the victim of a loan modification scam, you can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission: Visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).

Check out our Colorado Springs Real Estate and Mortgage Scams and Fraud Section

2. Contact your bank and ask about refinancing to a lower rate or modifying your mortgage.

Specifically, you may qualify for the Making Home Affordable Act if your loan was insured by Freddie Mac (www.freddiemac.com/mymortgage) or Fannie Mae (www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup):

From their site:

Refinancing
Many homeowners pay their mortgages on time but are not able to refinance to take advantage of today’s lower mortgage rates perhaps due to a decrease in the value of their home.

Modification
Many homeowners are struggling to make their monthly mortgage payments perhaps because their interest rate has increased or they have less income.

For More Information, Visit their Site: http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/

3. Contact Your Congressman.

“Several lawmakers whose districts are drowning in foreclosures are taking unprecedented steps to help people stay in their homes, including picking up the phone themselves to negotiate with banks on behalf of their constituents.” – Can’t refinance? Call your congressman (MSNBC 6/5/2009)

If you live in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District (to include Colorado Springs, Fountain, Manitou Springs, Monument, Canon City, Woodland Park, etc.) your congressman is Representative Doug Lamborn.

: Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

Be ready to share the details of your situation and how you think he may be able to help. Have all your loan information available as well as a record of all the attempts YOU made that the bank denied or ignored.

How to Contact the Congressman for Colorado Springs (and the rest of the 5th Congressional District)

Doug Lamborn

WASHINGTON OFFICE – 437 Cannon HOB, Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4422 | Fax: (202) 226-2638

DISTRICT OFFICE – 1271 Kelly Johnson Blvd. Suite 110, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Phone: (719) 520-0055 | Fax: (719) 520-0840

Don’t Know Where to Start?

If you are overwhelmed and don’t kow where to start … Call the FREE Colorado Foreclosure Hotline:

1-877-601-4673

“The Colorado Foreclosure Hotline connects borrowers with non-profit housing counselors who can provide information on a borrower’s options when facing foreclosure. Counselors can also act as [FREE] facilitators for communication between lenders and borrowers.” - Colorado Department of Local Affairs

Last Resorts – If you cannot refinance or modify the mortgage on your Colorado Springs home, but still want to avoid foreclosure, you may want to consider either SELLING your home (short sale) or renting it out. If this is the case, act immediately. Call us for a FREE, no-obligation, confidential consultation regarding your current situation.

We are a team of Certified Distressed Property Experts and have an EXCELLENT track record of helping folks sell their home to avoid foreclosure: 1.719.434.7525

Times are … interesting. We wish you the best of luck in your situation.

… and don’t forget to breathe.

Thanks for reading our Colorado Springs Real Estate Blog!
Posted By: Mariana Wagner - Colorado Springs Real Estate Agent - Wagner iTeam
The Wagner iTeam is a power team of Keller Williams Realty,
specializing in Colorado Springs Real Estate and Monument Real Estate
Pictures of Colorado Springs
(719) 434-7525

Posted on June 8th, 2009 by Mariana Wagner

National Real Estate News Update

SELLERS: Is Your Agent Really Representing YOU? (3 Reasons Why I DisTrust the “… or I Will Buy It” Guarantee)

I want to discuss FIDUCIARY DUTY the duties that YOUR agent the one that YOU hire to sell YOUR house – owes to YOU.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. There are several agents in our area that offer this “I will sell your house or I will buy it” guarantee. They may be very nice people with relatively good intentions, but I have a serious ISSUE (okay, 3 issues…) with what they are offering their potential Seller Clients.

Lets say you hire an agent who offers this “guarantee.” This agent owes you the following (from the National Association of Realtors®):

Loyalty: To act at all times in the best interest of the principal and to put those interests above all others, including yourself.
Obedience: To obey promptly all lawful instructions of the principal.
Disclosure: To disclose all known, relevant facts to the principal.
Confidentiality: To safeguard the principals secrets, unless keeping the confidence would violate disclosure requirements about the propertys condition.
Reasonable care and diligence: To diligently use real estate skills and knowledge when pursing the principals affairs.
Accounting: To account for all funds and property entrusted by the principal.

First: The beauty of a real estate agent (in most cases) is that WE DO NOT GET PAID UNTIL WE SELL THE HOMES THAT WE HAVE LISTED. We can dump all kinds of time, energy and money into marketing a home, but if it does not sell, we do not get paid. Quite the motivation for us to sell our listings, isnt it?

Well, if this agent has an investor buddy “waiting in the wings” … the agent basically has a guaranteed commission at the end of 60 days, or whenever the guarantee is. Does this really create an urgency to sell your home for top dollar in the shortest amount of time?
Second: Whose interests is the agent going to put first? You the Seller, who may or may not ever do another deal with this agent? Or, the “investor buddies” who are good for several deals a year = more commission in the agents pocket? I see this as a complete conflict of interest.

Third: Someone looking to sell their home DESERVES the absolute BEST service and LOYALTY from the agent that they hire. A GOOD AGENT should not have to offer a “guarantee” like this to sell a home. A GOOD AGENT should KNOW the local real estate market and have EFFECTIVE MARKETING in place to SELL YOUR HOME for the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time for the current market conditions.

In a day where foreclosures are out of control, there are many folks desperate to sell. A “guarantee” like this can be very enticing. Of course, there are always exceptions, and different personal situations call for different approaches. I just want you, the Seller, to understand the possible ramifications of accepting a “guarantee” like this.

Other Posts of Note:
Broker Bryants Post on Mortgage Fraud
Broker Bryants Other Post on Mortgage Fraud

Posted By: Mariana Wagner Colorado Springs Real Estate Monument Real Estate

Posted on August 17th, 2007 by Mariana Wagner

Credit Cleaning SCAMS …

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I just received an email from some company that asked: Is your clients credit history hindering your revenue?

What? What kind of messed up question is that?

The email went on to say: “We’ve removed thousands of negative items from our clients credit reports.” And went onto list “commonly removed items:

Late Payments
Charge-Offs
Foreclosures
Tax Liens
Collections
Judgments
Repossessions
Student Loans

Nowhere in the entire email did it mention that they work with people to remove INCORRECT information … Just NEGATIVE information.

What kind of scam is this?

(Sure, you can read the rest of this post, but now you can also watch the video!)

From what I understand, it looks like this company will somehow temporarily delete negative items on a home buyers credit report just long enough for them to buy a home and the agent to get paid a commission. Well, creditors are not very stupid (well, most of the time) and those negative items will eventually re-appear on the credit report. Right?

If you are sitting there thinking, “So what? As long as they get the house that they want and the agent gets paid, who cares?” then you should not be in this business. In fact, you should probably be in ANY business that involves people. You people make me so dang frustrated!!

Not only is this an ETHICAL no-no (why LIE about anything?), but it is harmful to everyone involved…

The Home Buyer. If this persons credit is so poor that the only chance of buying a home is by erasing the bad credit, then this person SHOULD NOT BUY A HOME … at least not until he or she gains a little more financial and economic maturity. The credit report is a symbol of how they behave financially. Do you really think that purchasing a home will CURE them of their irresponsible ways? No. No way. This scam will only put them in a situation where the home buyer will probably wind up in a foreclosure and an even WORSE credit situation.
Also, by providing a “false” credit report to the lender, isnt that a CRIME?
The Lender. The lender loaned the home buyer the money partially based off of the credit report, which was ultimately falsified. When (and I say “when” because “if” really isnt appropriate…) the buyer defaults on the loan, the lender will now be dealing with ANOTHER foreclosure. America has seen too many foreclosures already, IMHO…
The Real Estate Agent. If a real estate agent goes along with this “credit cleaning” scam, it just shows their unforgivable GREED. If an agent is so desperate that they need to resort to selling homes to non-qualified home buyers, then we have more than a credit-cleaning scam to deal with, here. Dont we? (I will not use this post to get into how many incompetent people are in this business, but this scam sure brings out the “winners” … )
The Credit-Scamming, er, Cleaning Company. How much money are they charging these non-credit worthy people to put them (ultimately) in a worse (foreclosure) situation? Fraud. Scam. Crime. What are the penalties for lying to lending institutions, besides a heavy conscious? The mail I received stated: “Creditors and credit reporting agencies have spent millions convincing Americans that credit repair is not possible. Dont be a victim any longer.” Their motto should read: “Be a victim to US instead.”

Credit reports SHOULD be personally evaluated at least once a year, to correct any WRONG information. But you do not need to pay a company for this. Any inaccuracies WILL be cleared up if you just fill out the appropriate credit-item dispute form, and supply proof that it is wrong. Thats it.

If your credit is jacked up because of things that REALLY happened, bills that WERE NOT paid or things that LIFE puts in your way, just own up to it. Make an honest effort to pay off your debt, and BEHAVE from this point on. Your credit report will start looking better as soon as you start behaving better. You need to EARN your good credit back.

For a copy of your credit report, visit these 3 main Credit Reporting Agencies:

Note: If you have been denied credit for some reason, you may be entitled to a FREE credit report. This information should be enclosed in the denial letter from the creditor.

Colorado Residents: In addition to any FREE credit report that you may receive due to a credit denial, Colorado residents are entitled to ONE FREE credit report, per credit reporting agency, per year.

Posted By: Mariana Wagner Colorado Springs Real Estate Monument Real Estate
“Advocate for consumer empowerment in real estate.”