Hope for Homeowners (H4H), is it real?

The simple answer for most people out there is not what they want to hear: No.

Currently there is not a market for this product. None of the big investors are willing to buy this loan in the secondary market. None of them are underwriting this loan.

A few of the big SERVICERS are using this program with their CURRENT customers only. And that is only if they don't think a regular loan modification is better.

So you are asking: "why did the government get everyone's "hopes" up then?" That is a good question. I think the government puts out programs to make people "think" they are trying to help, I mean how many saw the press release that don't need this help?

Also the other major piece of this bill was the ability for the government to buy Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Instead of the bill being all about that, they threw in the "Hope for Homeowner" piece that they KNEW would not get used, but it made it look like they were trying to help.

As a lender/broker, we want to help as many people as we can. But we need the tools to do so. HUD needs to relax it's default guidelines. I have a HUD identification number, they track my defaults. If they are higher than the median number, I risk losing my HUD ID and ability to do FHA loans. If that happened I would be out of business. The same thing is happening with the secondary market lenders. Their default rates are high right now, so they have to be MORE RESTRICTIVE to whom they lend to, thus getting their default rate lower.

What are your options then? Click here to read the blog on your options