• Basic STAR: At least one owner must use the property as a primary residence and the total combined household income of the owners and owners’ spouses who use the property as a primary residence must be $500,000 or less.
• Enhanced STAR: At least one owner must use the property as a primary residence, all owners must be 65 years or older, and there must be a total combined household income of all owners (not just those who reside at the property) and any owner’s spouse who uses the property as a primary residence of $84,550. All owners do not need to be over the age of 65 if they are spouses, registered domestic partners or siblings so long as at least one owner is at least 65.

You may think that you can save money in real estate by not using a Buyer’s Agent. On the contrary, it is often argued that there is no savings because the secondary benefits of using a Buyer’s Agent surpass any costs of such a Buyer’s Agent. Nonetheless, the only factor that can actually save you money in brokerage commission in a real estate transaction is if it’s a Direct Deal.

Read the full article by Andrew Lieb, Esq. here.

Finally, an article that simplifies this extremely complicated agency disclosure topic.

The U.S. Department of Treasury (Treasury) recently released Supplemental Directive (SD) 16-03 (MHA Program Termination and Borrower Application Sunset II) to the Making Home Affordable (MHA) handbook, containing “sunset” provisions for its MHA program. The release of this Supplemental Directive signals that there will be no further extensions of the program.

The Making Home Affordable program was announced in 2009, by the Obama Administration, as a relief to distressed homeowners. The MHA program’s objective is to provide guidelines to lenders to modify the terms of eligible mortgages so that “at-risk” homeowners would be able to reduce their monthly mortgage payments and to avoid foreclosure. According to the most recent MHA Program Performance Report, during the last 7 years, the MHA program has only helped 2.5 million of the 7 to 9 million homeowners that were identified as “at-risk” by the Obama Administration in 2009. This means that the remaining 4.5 to 6.5 million “at-risk” homeowners who do not submit their request for borrower assistance by December 31, 2016, will be faced with foreclosure.

SD 16-03 provides the following modifications to the MHA handbook for winding down the program:

• All borrower requests for assistance under MHA must be submitted by December 31, 2016;
• On December 1, 2017, MHA Help and the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) Solution Center will no longer accept new cases, nor escalate cases to servicers;
• All cases that have been escalated prior to December 1, 2017 must be resolved by May 1, 2018;
• After December 30, 2016, servicers will no longer be required to assign relationship managers to borrowers;
• Effective May 1, 2018, servicers will no longer be required to follow Section 3 of Chapter 1 of the MHA Handbook; however, the Treasury suggests that servicers continue to follow the best practices that have been established by MHA;
• After September 1, 2016, servicers are no longer required to satisfy the Reasonable Effort standard set forth in Section 2.2.1 of Chapter II of the MHA handbook; and
• Servicers will not be required to suspend a scheduled foreclosure sale if a borrower submits an Initial Package after December 30, 2016.

After continuously developing and expanding the MHA program over the last 7 years, it is surprising that Congress has refused to extend its life. Since 2009, the Treasury has issued 5 versions of its MHA handbook and has issued over 80 Supplemental Directives, including SD 16-03, refining the guidance it has provided to participating servicers. Congress’ decision to abandon the MHA program seems misguided because of the time and resources it has invested in the program. Most importantly, the termination of the program on December 31, 2016, leaves up to 6.5 million “at-risk” homeowners scrambling to submit requests for assistance or face the possibility of foreclosure.