VA loans are available to veterans, active duty personnel, certain reservists and national guard members, surviving spouses of persons who died on active duty or died as a result of service-connected disabilities, and certain spouses of active duty personnel who are missing in action, captured in line of duty by a hostile force or forcibly detained by a foreign government or power.

While VA loans are available through private lenders, the VA guaranties loan payments and thereby provides an incentive to lenders to make loans. The key advantages to a VA loan are as follows:

You can buy a home without a down payment - as long as the sales price doesn’t exceed the appraised value. (Of course, you have to qualify in terms of income and credit.)

You won’t need to buy private mortgage insurance.

VA rules limit the amount you can be charged for closing costs.

Closing costs may be paid by the seller. (You should keep this in mind when negotiating the sales price.)

The lender can’t charge you a penalty fee if you pay the loan off early.

VA may be able to provide you some assistance if you run into difficulty making payments.

To learn about eligibility FAQs, click here.

Lets pay our respect to our veterans on this Veterans Day!!!

What a brilliant company Airbnb is. A major barrier to their success are local laws that prohibit short term rentals in many municipalities across the Country. They want the biggest markets, like NYC, but NYC prohibits rentals for less than 30 consecutive days based upon the State's Multiple Dwelling Law at section 4.

What a brilliant company Airbnb is. They see NYC's plight in the face of the destruction from Hurricane Sandy and they pounce. Not in a bad way, but instead as a savior of sorts. Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced a partnership with Airbnb to help victims of the hurricane get necessary housing. Click here to read the article. You see, when two (2) political issues are face-to-face at odds, the public will choose the lesser of the two (2) evils. On the one hand, short-term rental housing has been associated with damaging the neighborhood environment, impairing the physical characteristics of a neighborhood and most importantly, creating safety hazards through unregulated units with transient guests. On the other hand, we have people without power, in flooded apartments that need a warm place to stay with the electricity turned on (yes Revolution, the power should be turned on). You guessed it, heat and power wins.

Yes, the partnership is not a home run for Airbnb; they have not repealed the short term rental statute that stands as their barrier to domination. This statute makes their customers' rentals of weekend apartments often illegal. Instead, they have capitalized on an opportunity to gain good will and brand awareness in their continual cause to have the law repealed. Great job Airbnb, you are brilliant.

A very interesting article in Business Insider for all those who have Fannie and Freddie (GSE) underwater loans. While its true that the current head of the FHFA has blocked any attempts to have Fannie and Freddie write off losses of underwater loans, the article speculates that "He's going to lose his job in the next six weeks" and this will quickly change.

An interesting aside is how this will create huge tax liabilities for homeowners in cancellation of debt income for those who have their underwater loans wrote off because the Mortgage Debt Tax Relief Act of 2007 is set to expire at the end of the year.

Maybe, it would be wise to extend the Act prior to concerning ourselves with whether its prudent to write off underwater loans.

Donald Trump made some waves by starting his own real estate brokerage house this past month. The company appears to have offices in  New York, Las Vegas and Chicago. While Trump is a marque name in the development and property management sectors, its curious how he will fair in the licensed world of managing real estate agents, inclusive of the many ethical hurdles that the Department of State places along his way. Unfortunately for Mr. Trump, the Division of Licensing Services will not care who he is and instead will expect the same level of professionalism that they expect from everyone else. In a smart move, it appears that Trump International Realty is launching with a small group of established agents who can help set the pace for the company as it grows.

To visit Trump International Realty's website, click here.

Good luck Mr. Trump and welcome to the industry.

Some of the highlights of the Directive are as follows:

• Use of certain HAFA documents will now be optional rather than mandatory, so long as the servicer communicates essential HAFA terms to the borrower in some written form.
• Borrowers who request HAFA consideration and are ninety (90) days or more delinquent and have a FICO score that is less than 620, will be deemed to have a “pre-determined” hardship. Borrowers with a pre-determined hardship must execute a Hardship Affidavit prior to closing of the HAFA transaction; however, servicers will not be required to further validate the hardship.
• Treasury will now require both the seller (borrower) and purchaser in a HAFA short sale transaction to execute a new HAFA affidavit prior to closing that certifies, among other attestations, that the sale represents an arms-length transaction and that no money is being given or received that is not reflected on the HUD 1 Settlement Statement. 
• The time frame for servicers to make a decision on a borrower’s request for HAFA has generally been shortened to 30 calendar days. 
• Treasury is increasing the incentive it will provide for permitting gross proceeds to be used to pay subordinate mortgage liens.
• The current prohibition against resale of a property for 90 calendar days following a HAFA closing is being changed to prohibit any resale within 30 calendar days and prohibiting a resale for more 120% of the HAFA short sale price between 31 and 90 calendar days of the HAFA closing.

Also, notate that these new rules are effective on 2/1/13, not immediately.

To read the Supplemental Directive in its entirety, click here.

Surviving the rule change is the following:

A statement that if the borrower has a real estate license, he or she cannot earn a commission selling his or her own property and may not have any agreement to receive all or a portion of the commission after closing;


Real Estate Agents - this does not mean to try to creatively earn a commission on your own short sale. You will likely face charges of perjury &/or fraud. Its just not worth it. Instead, simply hire a friend whom you respect at your company to represent you in your short sale.

I just want to make a point of the fact that HAFA offers a proactive short sale. Being proactive with obtaining lender approval is the ONLY sensible way to seek out a short sale these days. Push your clients, attorneys and friends to work under the HAFA program. If you do, you will agree that HAFA is the way to go.