The VA has developed new guidelines for VA-guaranteed home loans that allow servicers to “restructure distressed loans” to meet HAMP requirements if all other loss mitigation efforts have failed[1]. Previously, veterans with VA loans could not be considered for HAMP, and the VA still wants servicers to exhaust other options first. However, ultimately, the retention of the home by the veteran takes priority, and a loan restructure should be attempted before short sales and other mitigation efforts can be pursued.
In order to qualify for a HAMP restructuring, the borrower in question must not qualify for other forms of home-retention loss-mitigation. Additionally, the property must be the primary residence of the borrower, and the HAMP modification must go into effect before HAMP expires at the end of December 2012.
The VA will also allow HAMP-style loan modifications on loans more recent than January 1, 2009 (HAMP cannot be used on civilian loans more recent than that date) as long as less than 12 payments have been made since the loan closed and the VA gives specific approval prior to the modification. Furthermore, HAMP’s servicer incentives will not apply to these loans, though VA-servicer incentives may.
Given that everyone else under the sun is practically mandated to try for a HAMP loan modification, it seems only reasonable that our veterans should also get a shot at them. I think this is a positive move by the VA to try and keep some sort of control over its lending while still giving our servicemen every opportunity possible to remain in the very homes that they have dedicated their lives to protecting. And by the way: Thank you to all the members of the U.S. armed forces for all you do!
Do you deal with VA loans or VA properties? Have you had good experiences?
Thank you for reading. Your comments are welcome below.
[1] http://www.dsnews.com/articles/veterans-affairs-department-revises-loan-modification-guidelines-2010-06-04
Only one reason comes to mind, Bryan. Its Obama!
And, PS. My gratitude goes out to all our service men and women past and present. You’ve made our country the best on the face of this earth!
Too little to late, those that should be first are put last and those that should be last are put first. Just one more reason the Crony Capitalism of the Western World is doomed to collapse and great will be the fall .Oh yeah I’m a veteran too for what it is worth I served from 1984-88! Grenada Invasion and so forth B.F.D! Every Memorial and Veterans day I hear the lip service from the public and president about how grateful they supposedly are for our service then I read about the atrocities and Walter Reid and the like and I am reminded of the TRUTH, Americans don’t care about us veterans if you do stop making excuses and put your Money and Time where you collective mouth is! Talk is cheap when was the last time anyone visited the injured soldier or do the little things that help like grocery shopping and many other things that those with legs and arms take for grant it ! Spare me how present day America is the best at everything! This is a FARCE in the Extreme and anyone who says this has not lived outside this country and has blinders on! American has been in serious decline, a decline that continues, for the last 30 years at least! I mean we went from being the world’s largest creditor nation to the worlds largest debtor nation! Wehave steadily declined in many areas across the board: manufacturing,health care,education, infrastructure etc etc etc. Stop regurgitating propaganda and see what is going on! The Patriot Act and all the subsequent legislation that has passed since!
Do you honestly thing debt and freedom go together if you do
either you don’t understand the meaning of the words are you
are a pathetic hypnotized fool! I am tired of hearing Rush Limbaugh
Fox News and neoconservative soundbite propaganda to justify
and turn a blind eye to this Great Decline that is there for all to see!
Blindness will not SOLVE Americas Crushing Problems only hard
choices and swift corrective action will! What is great about all
of this government, private and public debt which is unfathomable,
unimaginable by any standard! The Day of Reckoning swiftly and
relentlessly marches forward! The coming catastrophe will be will
be an epic proportion the likes of which the world has never seen!