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In November 2011, the President announced a major overhaul to the current Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). This new program is called HARP 2.0, and will start rolling sometime in March 2012. Although we now know what the HARP 2.0 guidelines are, we are not sure what the lenders will actually do with these programs. You see... the HARP 2.0 is Freddie/Fannie's guidelines to get a loan insured. But Freddie/Fannie do not Fund loans. So the lenders who lend will usually have their own overlays and guidelines on top of the program guidelines. It's safe to say that there should be several lenders out there, if not most, who will add this HARP 2.0 to their matrix of loan products, but for right now we're just not sure. Here are the major guidelines for HARP 2.0
1) No Appraisal required if an Automated Valuation Model is available. ( if you live in any major metropolitan area, this will be no problem)
2) No Loan to Value restrictions. Even if an appraisal is required, you can still get financing no matter how much negative equity you have, because the loan to value restriction is waived.
3) No more than 1 late payment (30 days or more) is allowed in the last 12 months prior to applying, and zero late payments in the last 6 payments
4) At least one borrower must be working and have steady income.
5) Bankruptcy or foreclosure guidelines are waived.
6) Lenders are limited to pricing hit's... Lenders will usually raise the rate for higher loan to value loans or borrowers with lower credit scores, but under this new program, they are limited and cannot over charge.

As I stated in my previous post, once this program is open to applicants, it will be crazy and turn times will be lengthy so be prepared. WilliamAcres.com

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