Mr Williamsburg, Revolutionary ideas on real estate!Hampton Roads Virginia

As announced in the Presidential  press conference there will soon be some extra mortgage relief to our Veterans and Service Members

The $25 billion settlement was announced on February 9 between five leading bank mortgage servicers and a coalition of state attorneys general and federal agencies.

The housing crisis has had a devastating impact on military homeowners, and their unique challenges have made it difficult for them to get help. With the housing economy today, military members are finding it difficult at best to sell their homes for the amount they bought them for and move on free and clear to their next duty station.

A family may buy a home, but then gets orders to move to another installation. They may owe more on the home than it’s now worth. And some of the help that is available to civilian homeowners under water just hasn’t been available to the military.

The settlement has provisions for military homeowners who get Permanent Change of Station (PCS) orders. The banks are to provide short-sale agreements and deficiency waivers to those service members who were forced to sell their home at a loss due to a PCS and were not eligible for the military’s Homeowners Assistance Program (HAP).

This means that the benefits of that program will finally be extended to service-members who bought their homes between July 1, 2006 and December 31, 2008, or who received a PCS after October 1, 2010.

You can read more about the settlement here.

If you are a service member that is PCSing and you need to sell your home and you feel you may need a short sale, the first thing you should do is call your lender and see what assistance is available to you, if your lender cannot help, call the Justice Department’s Military Help Line at 800-896-7743.  Calling a Realtor® that is familiar with working with military members and familiar with short sales is also going to be your best bet.

What you shouldn’t do is give up and just leave as that could have further implications later.  There are several programs that are available to assist you if you need to PCS and sell your home.  Call your lender, and get with a local Realtor® who can help you determine whether you even need a short sale and if you do, guide you through the process.

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