There are many criteria that need to be looked at to determine if a homeowner is eligible for a HARP refinance; many of them will need to be reviewed with your mortgage consultant, but one of the first steps can be easily done by the homeowner for themself.

HARP refinances allow homeowners who are “underwater” on their current mortgage to potentially refinance and take advantage of current low interest rates, and also allow borrowers who are not underwater to potentially streamline their refinance process and/or reduce the costs or documentation needed for their new loan.

HARP loans, however, are only available to homeowners whose mortgages are currently owned by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, so the first step in determining if you are eligible is to check to see if either of those Government-Sponsored Agencies (GSAs) does own the first mortgage on your property. (Note that the ownership of your mortgage is completely independent of the servicing company that you send your mortgage payments to, or the lender who initially issued you your loan; most loans in the current mortgage market are bundled up and re-sold behind the scenes without the borrower knowing or in any way being affected by that change, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the largest purchasers of those mortgage bundles in the US.)

Fannie and Freddie have set up websites where you can check to see if they own your mortgage:

• Fannie Mae Lookup

• Freddie Mac Lookup

Be sure to check both sites, and when using those sites, first use the name and address that appear on the billing statement for your mortgage, even if those might not be exactly correct. If you don’t find a match that way, also try other common variations of your name/address that might have ended up in Fannie/Freddie’s databases; in particular, if you still have the settlement docs from when you got your mortgage, try any variations that appear on those documents.

If your mortgage does appear to be owned by one of those GSAs, then you may be eligible for a HARP refinance. Feel free to contact us and we’d be glad to help you figure out the rest of your potential eligibility for a HARP refi.

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2. HomePath Mortgages Allow Easy Purchase of FNMA Foreclosures
3. Freddie Mac announces 2007 conforming loan limits
4. Fannie Mae Will Pay Closing Costs On Certain Post-Foreclosure Sales
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6. Bank-Owned Foreclosure Inventory in Alexandria (Week of 7/26/09)
7. Bank-Owned Foreclosure Inventory in Alexandria (Week of 8/2/09)
8. Bank-Owned Foreclosure Inventory in Washington, DC (Week of 7/26/09)
9. Bank-Owned Foreclosure Inventory in Washington, DC (Week of 8/2/09)
10. Bank-Owned Foreclosure Inventory in Montgomery County (Week of 8/2/09)

Tags: harp, refinance