Up until now, homeowners that found themselves “upside-down” in their mortgages were limited in options. The standard procedure would be to list their home with a realtor and try a possible short sale. But lets be honest, short sales are far from short and probably will take a very long time to process and close. Well you are in luck! As of April 5, 2010 there is new hope for those who find themselves a victim of foreclosures.

HAMP and HAFA are acronyms for Home Affordable Modification Program and Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative. These two programs are a new alternative to speed up the short sale process. In this process, the borrower actually pre-approves terms from the lender before listing their home with a realtor. This program is intended to move quickly, possibly within a 45-day timeframe.

Overseen by Fannie Mae, HAMP and HAFA’s program fully releases the borrower from deficient debt and may receive a certain amount of funds to rent a home, as to simply move on with their lives. In these programs you are dealing with less negotiation, no mitigation and realtors commission is a full 6 percent.

Please contact Blick Law Firm or our title company, Infinity Abstract & Title if you are interested in learning more about the HAMP-HAFA programs.

The Florida Attorney General’s Office is investigating several foreclosure law firms which represent banks and lenders in a very large number of all foreclosure actions filed against homeowners in the State of Florida.

There are allegations that these firms may have backdated or fabricated documents in some cases in order to secure a foreclosure judgment for lenders. This emphasizes the importance of having an experienced attorney handle the defense of your foreclosure litigation in order to level the playing field with the bank and allow you options, such as a loan modification, short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure with the bank.

While the beaches may appear to be clean, closer investigation revealed tiny black tar balls, USF scientist said. The cleanup efforts seemed to miss layers of oil buried inches beneath the sand (accoutning for more than half of the beach contamination).

University of South Florida’s research team states BP claims of cleaning up the oil spill is not as clean as it may appear. Evidence of tar balls buried oil along a stretch of sand in northwest Florida and Alabama remains.

“That leads to the conclusion that the cleanup at this point is superficial,” said Ping Wang, USF beach geologist who lead the research.

The report was released this week on USF’s official website. Photos include contamination and other details as a result of research conducted since April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion.

Tampa Bay’s home values rose month-to-month for the first time in four years as an upswing in the Clearwater market overcame continued declines elsewhere, according to an analysis being released today by housing tracker Zillow.com.

Although housing showed some recovery strength earlier this year, the latest national and local reports were more sobering. Blame, at least in part, the end of federal home buyer tax credits. Realtors say some prospective buyers who may have bought this summer moved up their timetable to take advantage of the credits.