One of the easiest ways to obtain these public property records is through the different government agencies. Probably, you can just go to the registrar’s office or the office of deeds. You just need to visit these offices, state your purpose, fill out some forms, and you should be able to get all the documents that you need.

However, there are still a lot of people who do not have any idea about these public property records. And because of this, they just opt to delegate the work to a private investigator. Indeed, this can be a very convenient approach because you will no longer have to do anything. However, this can also be very impractical because you will still have to pay for their services.

If you do not want to go through all of these hassles, it is much better if you are going to do it on your own. If you are going to search online, you will notice that there are actually numerous sites that offer these kinds of services. As a matter of fact, some of them are even being offered for free.

Nevertheless, it is still much better if you are going to use a premium portal because they are more effective. And even if they are fee-based, you can at least expect a very reliable and effective service.

However, you should not just focus on the cost because you also need to consider the database. As much as possible, you should pick something that is very reliable, accurate, and always updated.

It will also do you good if you are going to use a tool that is very simple. If you want to access public property records, you should be able to do it in a matter of seconds.

And most importantly, you should be certain that you are using a legal tool so that you can be assured that the public property records that you are accessing are reliable.

Search for your public court records to find out all the records you need. Also find out the 3 common ways to search public records.

Lately, there have been quite a few headlines in the news regarding mortgage fraud – both right here in California as well as in the national news. Many experts point to mortgage fraud as one of the reasons that the country is experiencing a housing crisis. And although to some people it may seem to be a case of “too little, too late”, agencies such as the FBI are cracking down on mortgage fraud.

According to a warning on the FBI Website:

Mortgage Fraud is investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is punishable by up to 30 years in federal prison or $1,000,000 fine, or both. It is illegal for a person to make any false statement regarding income, assets, debt, or matters of identification, or to willfully overvalue any land or property, in a loan and credit application for the purpose of influencing in any way the action of a financial institution. Some of the applicable Federal criminal statutes which may be charged in connection with Mortgage Fraud include:

• 18 U.S.C. § 1001 – Statements or entries generally
• 18 U.S.C. § 1010 – HUD and Federal Housing Administration Transactions
• 18 U.S.C. § 1014 – Loan and credit applications generally
• 18 U.S.C. § 1028 – Fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents
• 18 U.S.C. § 1341 – Frauds and swindles by Mail
• 18 U.S.C. § 1342 – Fictitious name or address
• 18 U.S.C. § 1343 – Fraud by wire
• 18 U.S.C. § 1344 – Bank Fraud
• 42 U.S.C. § 408(a) – False Social Security Number

California Mortgage Fraud: It Isn’t Over

Although that some people think that mortgage fraud doesn’t happen anymore, it is alive and well. Mortgage fraud is happening right here in California right now. If you or someone you know has witnessed any type of mortgage fraud, be sure to contact the FBI.

In the last few months, only a select few lenders have not required a minimum of a 620 credit score on all California FHA streamline refinances. Yesterday, the last major lender who used to not require a minimum credit score has announced that they now require a 620 credit score for all California FHA streamline refinance loans. Taylor, Bean and Whittaker announced that they would now be requiring at least a 620 minimum credit score on all California FHA streamline mortgage refinance loans.

New Minimum Credit Score Announcement Details

FHA Streamlines (credit and non-credit qualifying) and VA IRRRL’s with Credit Scores below 620 must be LOCKED prior to July 13, 2009 AND must CLOSE (Note Date) no later than September 15, 2009, and must be delivered to TBW within 10 days after closing Loans in this category locked on and after July 13, 2009 will require a minimum FICO of 620. Clients will be required to obtain a 3 Repository credit report and utilize the standard method of determining qualifying FICO.

Any Conventional, FHA (including Streamline Refinance), or VA (including IRRRL) loan that exceeds $417,000 with a Credit Scores below 660 must be LOCKED prior to July 13, 2009 AND must CLOSE (Note Date) no later than September 15, 2009, and must be delivered to TBW within 10 days after closing Loans in this category locked on and after July 13, 2009 will require a minimum FICO of 660. Clients will be required to obtain a 3 Repository credit report and utilize the standard method of determining qualifying FICO.

In addition, any previously announced minimum Credit Score requirements that TB&W has put into place, that did not have a specified Closing date, will be required to be LOCKED prior to July 13, 2009 AND must CLOSE (Note Date) no later than September 15, 2009, and must be delivered within 10 days after closing. Therefore, any loan, regardless of whether it may be locked, registered or approved, that has a qualifying credit score below 620 (with the exception of those loans that have specified higher FICO requirements) must CLOSE (Note Date) no later than September 15, 2009.

TB&W will continue to allow non-traditional credit for those borrowers with no useable credit for the loan programs that allow the use of such credit in accordance with published guidelines. TB&W is fully aware that these limitations may result in the inability for a particular loan to meet these specified deadlines. TB&W will work as diligently as possible to accommodate all loans in the pipeline. We will be unable to grant any extensions or exceptions to these requirements.

California FHA Streamline Refinance: What Does This Mean?

Although the FHA guidelines do not officially require a minimum credit score, virtually all lenders (and all of the major lenders) in the US are now requiring a minimum of a 620 credit score. TB&W was the last major US lender who was not requiring that you had at least a 620 minimum credit score. It is possible that there are still smaller lenders who can offer the California FHA refinance streamline loan with no minimum credit score requirement, but it might be difficult to find them.

Freddie Mac has produced a brief video titled “Stop Foreclosure: Documents Your Lender Needs To Help You” via YouTube. For anyone who lives in California and is considering a loan modification, this video is very useful because it shows you what documents your lender will be needing from you during the process. Almost all lenders are extremely busy with loan modification requests and this video is just one more resource to try to help people be prepared.

California Loan Modification: Documents You Will Need

• Copies of your most recent tax returns
• A recent copy of your mortgage statement
• For any other debt such as credit cards, car loans, etc. – have account balances and minimum payment amounts
• A copy of your most recent paystubs that show your net take home pay
• A second mortgage and/or HELOC statement

California Loan Modification: Hardship Letter Is Important

If you are wondering if you really need to write a hardship letter — don’t wonder. A well written hardship letter is a vital part of the loan modification process. Hardship letters bring out the “human story” that often can make the difference between your loan modification getting approved or denied – so don’t neglect it!

According to the plan laid out by President Obama, there would be at least two new agencies created to help protect consumers.  First, the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency would oversee products from mortgages to credit cards. It would have authority to ban “unfair terms and practices,” punish companies for violations with fines and penalties and write rules to set higher standards for banks and non-bank companies.

In addition tot he new CFPA, there would be a “new” regulator to oversee banks that would be called the National Bank Supervisor, would watch over federally chartered lenders. It would assume the duties of what the OTS and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency do now as well as expand on those duties.

The Federal Reserve will also see a more active role in regulating financial business, although while it will gain a bigger role as the systemic regulator, would have some of its emergency lending power curbed. The plan calls for the Treasury secretary to approve in writing any emergency funding.

Reaction to the plan was mixed.

Edward Yingling, president of the American Bankers Association, said his group has some “real concerns” about the consumer protection measures.  “For community banks that had nothing to do with this crisis, this will be massive regulation that will burden them with new costs,” Yingling said as he arrived at the White House for the announcement.

David Hirschmann, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s capital markets center, said the largest American business lobby group is disappointed with the plan.

“While the administration has made several positive recommendations, we’re concerned that overall, the proposal simply adds to the layering of the system without addressing the underlying and fundamental problems,” he said. “We can’t simply insert new regulatory agencies and hope that we’ve covered our bases.”

Democratic Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said, “I like what I see” of the proposal. He said lawmakers likely will make some changes, though he refused to go into specifics.

For those people who were interested in refinancing, one of the key things they first needed to know was whether Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac owned their loan. If Fannie Mae owned their loan, they could use any Fannie Mae approved lender. If Freddie Mac owned their loan, they were required to use their current lender (also known as a servicer).

Today it was announced that people who have a mortgage that is owned by Freddie Mac can now use whatever Freddie Mac approved lender they want when refinancing — and released some guidelines.

Key highlight of the announcement include:

1. Borrowers can continue to work with their existing servicer to refinance their mortgage. In the vast majority of these cases, the current servicer will not have to re-underwrite the borrower.
2. If the borrower chooses to work with another Freddie Mac-affiliated lender, the mortgage will need to be re-underwritten.
3. Freddie Mac will allow the lesser of 4 percent of the new refinance mortgage amount or $5,000 of closing costs, financing costs and prepaids/escrows to be rolled into the new refinance mortgage.
4. Freddie Mac’s standard post settlement delivery fees, up to a maximum of 2 percent, will apply to the Relief Refinance Program.

According to Freddie Mac Executive Vice President Don Bisenius:

“We are responding to consumers’ desires to have more refinancing options. As an added benefit, we are expanding the program and providing greater flexibility in financing closing costs. Freddie Mac is committed to doing everything we can to bring the benefits of the Administration’s Making Home Affordable program to as many borrowers as possible.”

What this means is that if you decide to work with a lender who is not your current servicer, it will be more difficult to get your refinance done — although not impossible as it was before. Freddie Mac has expanded their guidelines so that  people who have been given poor service from their current lender have choices of lenders who can help them get their loan done.

Hurry before mortgage rates go up!

According to the Official Mortgagee Letter (2009-15):

“Any costs attendant to the purchase of the tax credit are to be nominal and discounting the anticipated credit to cover the costs and expenses of the transaction must be reasonable and disclosed to the homebuyer.  In FHA’s view, fees and costs that total more than 2.5% of the anticipated credit are considered excessive.  (Example:  $6000 to be refunded, with all fees and costs discounted, borrower should receive not less than $5850.00 for sale of tax credit.)”

HUD then addresses how they are going to track the costs that people are paying and indicates what will happen if they find organizations violating the rules that have been established:

In order to track the tax credit monetization activities, FHA will require FHA-approved mortgagees to input into FHA Connection the following data:

• Name and EIN of the party who purchased the tax credit,
• The amount of the anticipated credit, and
• The amount the homebuyer paid for the monetization services.

The lender must also collect and maintain in the FHA case file the documentation that validates all of the tax credit monetization data submitted via FHA Connection.

FHA will monitor the purchase of tax credit transactions closely.  Charging of excessive fees or costs in the purchase of the tax credit or increasing other fees or charges in the transaction without FHA approval may result in referral to the Mortgagee Review Board, and particularly with respect to entities that are not FHA-approved mortgagees, referral to the Federal Trade Commission, or referral to the appropriate State Attorney General office, as may be applicable.

HUD has done an excellent job of laying out the rules of exactly how you can take advantage of the new home buyer tax credit and how much it should cost to do so.

The problem is that many of the typical first time home buyers (age 20-30) are having a tough time finding a job in California. Unemployment in California is currently hovering around 11 percent and that number is expected to creep up through the end of 2009.

From the LA Times:

Although the often volatile unemployment rate dropped to 11% from March’s 11.2%, the Golden State still lost 63,700 jobs during the month. The number of people seeking work has swelled by 842,800 from a year ago, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.

Economists predict that jobs will continue to disappear for at least the rest of the year. “The unemployment rate will creep up,” said Esmael Adibi, an economist at Chapman University in Orange. “During the summer months, there is a jump in the labor force mainly because of new college graduates or students seeking temporary positions. Clearly, there would not be that many jobs.”
The grim job market — the worst in almost half a century — has put a damper on the graduation season celebrations of students such as UCLA English major Rachel Beezy.

“I’m doing my very best to stay optimistic, but I’m in the same boat as everyone else,” Beezy said. “It’s a horrible time to graduate.”

Before the recession sank its claws in her dreams, the 28-year-old Van Nuys resident hoped to make a career in film production.

So far, she’s sent out 20 resumes without getting a concrete response.
Now, Beezy said, she’d be willing to go back to the retail management job she held before college. Even a $10-an-hour internship would sound attractive.
Campus career center directors and recruiters agree that they’ve never seen competition as tough as it is this spring.

“It’s unprecedented. We see fewer and fewer firms coming to hire graduating students,” said Gary Greener, associate dean for career services at Southwestern School of Law in Los Angeles.

In a normal year about 600 employers come to interview juniors and seniors at USC, said Eileen Kohan, who runs the Career Planning and Placement Center, but recruiting efforts are down about 30%.

“Every firm that has laid off people in the past year didn’t come,” she said. “It’s been an incredibly difficult year.”

State data bear out Kohan’s observations. In March, nearly one in seven job seekers between the ages of 20 and 24 — many of whom are high school and college graduates — were unemployed.

That’s up 40% from a year earlier, and unemployment among people of all ages with bachelor’s or advanced degrees increased by 50%.

The outlook is even worse for teenagers graduating with high school or general educational development diplomas. Unemployment among 16- to 19-year-olds hit 26.2% in March, up from 18.7% a year earlier.

While it is a great time to be a first time home buyer because of the California 8000 tax credit, the 10000 California tax credit and the soon to be announced FHA bridge loan program, it is only a good time to buy a home if you have a job.

And jobs aren’t as plentiful in California as they have been in recent years.