In 2010, over 1.5 million people filed bankruptcy, and 2011 is expected to bring much of the same. Filing bankruptcy is one of the most damaging things to a credit score, potentially dropping your score by 150 points or more, reducing your credit creditworthiness and costing you more in increased finance charges and interest rates. Though bankruptcy remains on your credit report for 7 to 10 years, there are steps you can take to start turning your credit around in 12-18 months.
Check your credit report: This is probably the last thing you want to do, but it's important to know exactly your current credit status, while also confirming all information is correct. The longer incorrect information stays on your credit report the longer it could possibly negatively affect your credit score.
Go to www.annualcreditreport.com and pull your credit report. This free report will not contain a credit score, but you just want to make sure everything that should have been discharged in your bankruptcy shows a zero balance. If it doesn't, contact those creditors and the credit bureau to make sure the information gets updated.
Make on-time payments to remaining debts: Many people mistakenly believe that a bankruptcy will wipe out all debts, but some, such as student loans, child support and, in many cases, mortgages will not be discharged. By keeping on top of payments on those remaining loans, you'll receive a credit boost for paying your bills over time.
Get a Secured Credit Card: Secured credit cards let you take baby steps back into the credit game. To offset the card issuer's risk, secured cards require a deposit that serves as your credit line, so if you put down $1,000, you'll have $1,000 in credit available. Apply for a secured credit card through a local bank or credit union, but make sure you do your research first. Many secured credit cards have extremely high fees, and not all report to the bureaus. Make sure the card you are using has the lowest APR, low fees and most importantly reports to the credit bureaus.
Obtain a small loan with your bank or credit union: Many banks and credit unions will allow you to take out a personal installment loan based on the money in your savings account. FICO likes to see a "healthy mix" of credit lines, such as both revolving and installment. Getting an installment loan that is secured by your savings will allow you to start building credit through another resource other than the secured credit card. Remember to ask your bank or credit union if this loan will be reported to all 3 bureaus. The key is to build credit and increase your credit score. If the hard work you are doing is not being reported, you will not see any of the benefit.
And lastly, after several months of responsibly using your secured credit card, (paying on time, keeping balances low, etc) and making your monthly installments on your secured loan on time, you should be able to get approved for an unsecured credit card. Apply for a small gas card, or a department store card, as these are typically easier to obtain.
Once you've shown your ability to pay on time and your credit score has raised accordingly, ask the card issuer to lower your rate, or apply for a card with better terms. There's no one-size-fits-all approach to rebuilding credit after bankruptcy, but with consistent financial discipline and a little patience, you will get easier access to credit again.
From Data Facts
American Eagle Realty, we are a realty company not a legal firm, we can help with all of your real estate needs including foreclosure. American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too. Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...
Whether you want buy, rent, or sell a home we can assist you. Commercial Property Too!
We can help you sale your home through your Owner Financing and help you find a buyer!
American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The Justice Department is Not doing it's Job
Mortgage fraud up
Reports of possible mortgage fraud grew in the second quarter,
with financial institutions filing 29,558 mortgage loan fraud
suspicious activity reports, the Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network said Wednesday. That is up from 15,727 in the same
quarter of 2010. In the first quarter of 2011, suspicious
mortgage activity reports grew to 25,485 complaints. The surge
in SARs are coming as mortgage lenders sift through the paperwork
in past mortgages. Mortgage servicers remain under heavy scrutiny
following robo-signing allegations and continue to sift through
documents in order to make sure all ducks are in a row. Many of
the reported instances come from defaults, including borrowers
who wrongly presented information about their finances. The
FinCEN network, which works in tandem with the Treasury, said the
surge in activity is also tied to increasing mortgage repurchase
demands and other special filings. SARs are especially surging on
transactions that involve several financial institutions. FinCen
found that 81% of the suspicious activity was related to
circumstances that occurred before 2008. Sixty-three% involved
activities that occurred four or more years ago. "We’re
continuing to see a large number of SARs filed on activity that
occurred more than two years ago, an indication that financial
institutions are uncovering fraud as they sift through defaulted
mortgages," said FinCEN Director James Freis, Jr. "But we also
continue to see indications of ongoing mortgage fraud
activities," he added. "FinCEN’s report released today raises
awareness of the common scams that homeowners and lenders may
encounter when arranging or modifying home financing."
Reports of possible mortgage fraud grew in the second quarter,
with financial institutions filing 29,558 mortgage loan fraud
suspicious activity reports, the Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network said Wednesday. That is up from 15,727 in the same
quarter of 2010. In the first quarter of 2011, suspicious
mortgage activity reports grew to 25,485 complaints. The surge
in SARs are coming as mortgage lenders sift through the paperwork
in past mortgages. Mortgage servicers remain under heavy scrutiny
following robo-signing allegations and continue to sift through
documents in order to make sure all ducks are in a row. Many of
the reported instances come from defaults, including borrowers
who wrongly presented information about their finances. The
FinCEN network, which works in tandem with the Treasury, said the
surge in activity is also tied to increasing mortgage repurchase
demands and other special filings. SARs are especially surging on
transactions that involve several financial institutions. FinCen
found that 81% of the suspicious activity was related to
circumstances that occurred before 2008. Sixty-three% involved
activities that occurred four or more years ago. "We’re
continuing to see a large number of SARs filed on activity that
occurred more than two years ago, an indication that financial
institutions are uncovering fraud as they sift through defaulted
mortgages," said FinCEN Director James Freis, Jr. "But we also
continue to see indications of ongoing mortgage fraud
activities," he added. "FinCEN’s report released today raises
awareness of the common scams that homeowners and lenders may
encounter when arranging or modifying home financing."
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
UnEmployment - Unless you Fix This! The Housing Crisis will Never End...
Unless you fix the unemployment The Housing Market will never get fixed. You can make the mortgages cheap as you want but unless you are working you cannot buy a house.
Unemployment across the nation
For decades, the nation’s economic landscape consisted of a
prospering Sun Belt and a struggling Rust Belt. Since the
recession hit, though, that is no longer the case.
Unemployment remains high across much of the country — the national rate is 9.1% — but the regions have recovered at different speeds. The once-booming South, which entered the recession with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation, is now struggling with some of the highest rates, recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show.
Several Southern states — including South
Carolina, whose 11.1% unemployment rate is the fourth highest in the nation — have higher unemployment rates than they did a year ago. Let me see? South Carolina is where the NLRB is in court trying to prohibit Boeing from Opening a new plant?
Unemployment in the South is now higher than it is in the Northeast and the Midwest, which include Rust Belt states
that were struggling even before the recession. The West has the highest unemployment in the nation. The collapse of the housing bubble left Nevada with the highest jobless rate, 13.4%, followed by California with 12.1%. Michigan has the third-highest rate, 11.2%, as a result of the longstanding woes of the American auto industry. Now, though, of the states with the 10 highest unemployment rates, six are in the South. The region, which relied heavily on manufacturing and construction, was hit hard by
the downturn.
Economists offer a variety of explanations for the
South’s performance. “For a long time we tended to outpace
the national average with regard to economic performance, and a lot of that was driven by, for lack of a better word, development and in-migration,” said Michael Chriszt, an assistant vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s research department. “That came to an abrupt halt, and it has not picked up.”
The reordering of the nation’s economic fortunes can be seen in the Brookings analysis, which found that many auto-producing metropolitan areas in the Great Lakes states are seeing modest gains in manufacturing that are helping them recover from their deep slump, while Sun Belt and Western states with sharp drops in home values are still suffering. The areas that have been hurt the least since the recession, the study said, rely on government, education or energy production. Places that were less buoyed by the housing bubble were less harmed when it burst.
In Pennsylvania, the analysis found, the Pittsburgh area — which is heavily reliant on education and health care — is weathering the downturn better than the Philadelphia area. In New York, areas around long-struggling upstate cities like Buffalo and Rochester are recovering faster by some measures than the New York City metropolitan area. And the rate of recovery in Rust Belt areas around Youngstown and Akron, two Ohio cities that were hit hard, has outpaced that of former boomtowns like Colorado Springs and Tucson. In a sign of how severe the downturn has been, the Brookings analysis found that only 16 of the nation’s
100 largest metropolitan areas have regained more than half of the jobs they lost during the recession.
So what happened in South Carolina? Richard Kaglic, a regional economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va., said the state’s lingering troubles reflect what happened when its construction and manufacturing industries were hit hard by the recession. Mr. Kaglic, who is also a pilot, used an aviation metaphor to explain what he meant. “If your nose is high, if you’re climbing faster and your engine cuts out, you fall farther and it takes you a longer time to recover,” he said. “The conditions we experienced in late 2008, 2009, are as close as you come to an engine-out situation in the economy.” But Mr. Kaglic said that the recent return of manufacturing jobs was giving him hope, and that one reason for the high unemployment
rate was that more people were now seeking work. “I would look at it as our dreams are delayed,” he said, “rather than our dreams being denied.” But for How Long?
Until we get a President that is business friendly and tries to help business grow rather than punish success we will never turn the economy around.
Michael Mack
An American
Unemployment across the nation
For decades, the nation’s economic landscape consisted of a
prospering Sun Belt and a struggling Rust Belt. Since the
recession hit, though, that is no longer the case.
Unemployment remains high across much of the country — the national rate is 9.1% — but the regions have recovered at different speeds. The once-booming South, which entered the recession with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation, is now struggling with some of the highest rates, recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show.
Several Southern states — including South
Carolina, whose 11.1% unemployment rate is the fourth highest in the nation — have higher unemployment rates than they did a year ago. Let me see? South Carolina is where the NLRB is in court trying to prohibit Boeing from Opening a new plant?
Unemployment in the South is now higher than it is in the Northeast and the Midwest, which include Rust Belt states
that were struggling even before the recession. The West has the highest unemployment in the nation. The collapse of the housing bubble left Nevada with the highest jobless rate, 13.4%, followed by California with 12.1%. Michigan has the third-highest rate, 11.2%, as a result of the longstanding woes of the American auto industry. Now, though, of the states with the 10 highest unemployment rates, six are in the South. The region, which relied heavily on manufacturing and construction, was hit hard by
the downturn.
Economists offer a variety of explanations for the
South’s performance. “For a long time we tended to outpace
the national average with regard to economic performance, and a lot of that was driven by, for lack of a better word, development and in-migration,” said Michael Chriszt, an assistant vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s research department. “That came to an abrupt halt, and it has not picked up.”
The reordering of the nation’s economic fortunes can be seen in the Brookings analysis, which found that many auto-producing metropolitan areas in the Great Lakes states are seeing modest gains in manufacturing that are helping them recover from their deep slump, while Sun Belt and Western states with sharp drops in home values are still suffering. The areas that have been hurt the least since the recession, the study said, rely on government, education or energy production. Places that were less buoyed by the housing bubble were less harmed when it burst.
In Pennsylvania, the analysis found, the Pittsburgh area — which is heavily reliant on education and health care — is weathering the downturn better than the Philadelphia area. In New York, areas around long-struggling upstate cities like Buffalo and Rochester are recovering faster by some measures than the New York City metropolitan area. And the rate of recovery in Rust Belt areas around Youngstown and Akron, two Ohio cities that were hit hard, has outpaced that of former boomtowns like Colorado Springs and Tucson. In a sign of how severe the downturn has been, the Brookings analysis found that only 16 of the nation’s
100 largest metropolitan areas have regained more than half of the jobs they lost during the recession.
So what happened in South Carolina? Richard Kaglic, a regional economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va., said the state’s lingering troubles reflect what happened when its construction and manufacturing industries were hit hard by the recession. Mr. Kaglic, who is also a pilot, used an aviation metaphor to explain what he meant. “If your nose is high, if you’re climbing faster and your engine cuts out, you fall farther and it takes you a longer time to recover,” he said. “The conditions we experienced in late 2008, 2009, are as close as you come to an engine-out situation in the economy.” But Mr. Kaglic said that the recent return of manufacturing jobs was giving him hope, and that one reason for the high unemployment
rate was that more people were now seeking work. “I would look at it as our dreams are delayed,” he said, “rather than our dreams being denied.” But for How Long?
Until we get a President that is business friendly and tries to help business grow rather than punish success we will never turn the economy around.
Michael Mack
An American
Thursday, September 15, 2011
How Your Credit Score May Be Stealing Your Money
Burglars and purse snatchers have nothing on your credit score! A low score can be stealing money right out of your pocket every month. This can add up over time to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Here's how:
Mortgage loans: Let's say you have a 650 credit score and bought a $200,000 house with a 30 year fixed rate loan. You are going to have to finance it at a rate 1-2% higher than the person rocking a 750 credit score. Over the course of 30 years (360 payments) this difference can add up to around $49,000!
Auto Loans: the average American trades cars every 5 years. Based on this estimate, a person buying a $25,000 car with a 650 credit score will pay approximately $5400 more for EACH CAR than the person with a 750 score.
Credit cards: a person with a 650 score has probably had some late payments and may have maxed out their credit cards. They will not get the great terms and plentiful options that a person with a higher score will enjoy. The average household carries $7300 in credit card debt (Yikes!). If we assume this amount, a person with the 650 credit score will pay $552 more in interest per year than a person with the 750 credit score.
Gulp.
So, if you have a 650 credit score, here's how much your credit score will steal from you over a 40 year period:
Mortgage: $49,000
Auto: $43,000
Credit Cards: $22,000
Total amount the 650 credit score has stolen:
$114,000
The figure would be much larger if this money had been invested in a mutual fund. At a 6% rate, this amount of money would have grown to about
half a million dollars.
Remember: protect yourself! Lock your doors, lock your windows, don't talk to strangers, and keep that credit score high!
From Data Facts
American Eagle Realty, we are a realty company not a legal firm, we can help with all of your real estate needs including foreclosure. American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too. Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...
Whether you want buy, rent, or sell a home we can assist you. Commercial Property Too!
We can help you sale your home through your Owner Financing and help you find a buyer!
American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801
Here's how:
Mortgage loans: Let's say you have a 650 credit score and bought a $200,000 house with a 30 year fixed rate loan. You are going to have to finance it at a rate 1-2% higher than the person rocking a 750 credit score. Over the course of 30 years (360 payments) this difference can add up to around $49,000!
Auto Loans: the average American trades cars every 5 years. Based on this estimate, a person buying a $25,000 car with a 650 credit score will pay approximately $5400 more for EACH CAR than the person with a 750 score.
Credit cards: a person with a 650 score has probably had some late payments and may have maxed out their credit cards. They will not get the great terms and plentiful options that a person with a higher score will enjoy. The average household carries $7300 in credit card debt (Yikes!). If we assume this amount, a person with the 650 credit score will pay $552 more in interest per year than a person with the 750 credit score.
Gulp.
So, if you have a 650 credit score, here's how much your credit score will steal from you over a 40 year period:
Mortgage: $49,000
Auto: $43,000
Credit Cards: $22,000
Total amount the 650 credit score has stolen:
$114,000
The figure would be much larger if this money had been invested in a mutual fund. At a 6% rate, this amount of money would have grown to about
half a million dollars.
Remember: protect yourself! Lock your doors, lock your windows, don't talk to strangers, and keep that credit score high!
From Data Facts
American Eagle Realty, we are a realty company not a legal firm, we can help with all of your real estate needs including foreclosure. American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too. Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...
Whether you want buy, rent, or sell a home we can assist you. Commercial Property Too!
We can help you sale your home through your Owner Financing and help you find a buyer!
American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801
Monday, September 5, 2011
US to sue Banks
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the mortgage
giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is set to file suits against
more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting
the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at
the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of
dollars in compensation.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency suits, which are expected to
be filed in the coming days in federal court, are aimed at Bank
of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank,
among others. The suits will argue the banks, which assembled
the mortgages and marketed them as securities to investors,
failed to perform the due diligence required under securities
law and missed evidence that borrowers’ incomes were inflated or
falsified. When many borrowers were unable to pay their
mortgages, the securities backed by the mortgages quickly lost
value. Fannie and Freddie lost more than $30 billion, in part as
a result of the deals, losses that were borne mostly by
taxpayers. In July, the agency filed suit against UBS, another
major mortgage securitizer, seeking to recover at least $900
million, and the individuals with knowledge of the case said the
new litigation would be similar in scope.
American Eagle Realty, we are a realty company not a legal firm, we can help with all of your real estate needs including foreclosure. American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too. Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...
Whether you want buy, rent, or sell a home we can assist you. Commercial Property Too!
We can help you sale your home through your Owner Financing and help you find a buyer!
American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801
giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is set to file suits against
more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting
the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at
the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of
dollars in compensation.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency suits, which are expected to
be filed in the coming days in federal court, are aimed at Bank
of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank,
among others. The suits will argue the banks, which assembled
the mortgages and marketed them as securities to investors,
failed to perform the due diligence required under securities
law and missed evidence that borrowers’ incomes were inflated or
falsified. When many borrowers were unable to pay their
mortgages, the securities backed by the mortgages quickly lost
value. Fannie and Freddie lost more than $30 billion, in part as
a result of the deals, losses that were borne mostly by
taxpayers. In July, the agency filed suit against UBS, another
major mortgage securitizer, seeking to recover at least $900
million, and the individuals with knowledge of the case said the
new litigation would be similar in scope.
American Eagle Realty, we are a realty company not a legal firm, we can help with all of your real estate needs including foreclosure. American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too. Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...
Whether you want buy, rent, or sell a home we can assist you. Commercial Property Too!
We can help you sale your home through your Owner Financing and help you find a buyer!
American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801
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