Lenders

Nancy Shulley received a letter about a year ago that she thought might be junk mail, but, just in case, she put it in a desk drawer and eventually sent a reply. Good thing she did. Now, the Hagerstown woman's letter might be the ticket to her receiving as much as $125,000 - a windfall after years of nightmarish wrangling with her bank, followed by foreclosure and personal bankruptcy. Federal regulators announced an $8.5 billion settlement with 10 major U.S. lenders this past week in an attempt to resolve alleged sloppiness and wrongdoing in their handling of the mortgages of millions of Americans in recent years.

Two Allegheny Energy subsidiaries on Friday received a seventh credit waiver from bank lenders. The subsidiaries, Allegheny Energy Supply Co. and Allegheny Generating Co., were facing a Friday deadline. However, the deadline was pushed back to Tuesday. Quoting an unnamed "person familiar with the situation," Dow Jones Newswires reported Friday that Allegheny Energy's lenders "have agreed, in principle, to give the company a new package of credit facilities. " Allegheny spokeswoman Cynthia Shoop said the company had no comment on that report.

julieg@herald-mail.com Just bought a house and already inundated with offers for home equity loans? That's not surprising, considering how quickly houses have been soaring in value, but people still need to exercise caution when getting a home equity loan, said Joseph Rooney, deputy commissioner of financial regulation for the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Just because people get offers for home equity loans in the mail doesn't mean it is a good idea for everyone, Rooney said.

The Federal Trade Commission has several informative publications concerning home equity loans available for consumers at its Web site, www.ftc.gov. Here are some tips: - Shop around to find the best home equity loan for you. Contact different lenders and compare options. - Check with your tax adviser about tax benefits. - Ask how many fees there are and how much they cost. - Don't sign off on a home equity loan if you don't have enough income to make the payments.

Buyers want bargains. Some even limit their search to REOs and short-sale listings. REO, or real estate-owned, refers to a property that a mortgage lender acquired through a foreclosure. It's owned by the bank. A short sale refers to a situation where the sellers still own the property but they can't sell for enough to pay off the mortgage(s) and costs of sale. There are pros and cons to buying distressed sale properties. They often sell below market price. However with REOs, there is usually very little information about the property and no seller disclosures.

Short sales, where the lender agrees to take less than amount due to them, have tended to sell for less than similar homes in the area. One reason for this is that short-sale listings usually don't look as good as the competition. Another reason is that short sales require lender approval. Last year, lenders often took three to six months to respond to a short-sale offer. If the response was no, the buyer was out looking for another home after having wasted a lot of time. Many buyers who expected short sales to be good deals shied away from them altogether after having a few bad experiences.

Mortgage interest rates dropped to an average rate of 5.04 percent, not including fees, during the week ending Dec. 19, 2008, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). This caused a pickup in mortgage refinance activity resulting in a 62.6 percent increase in the MBA Refinance Index from the previous week. How many of these applications result in successful refinances remains to be seen. Lenders' qualifying criteria have tightened. The lowest interest rates are reserved for homeowners who have sufficient equity in their homes and who have high credit scores - usually above 720. Lenders are also stricter on the borrower's overall debt-to-income ratio, but this varies from lender to lender.

Have you lost your job and are facing foreclosure on your home mortgage? Confused about how you will pay all of your bills? A panel of experts Wednesday night at the Washington County Free Library encouraged people not to delay in getting help. And there is free assistance, said panel members, who agreed to appear at the library to offer the public help in dealing with foreclosure. People facing foreclosure should find out who holds their loan, which could be different from the company that services the loan, panel speakers said.

Q:  We understand there are certain fee-free loans available that are guaranteed up to 90 percent by the Small Business Administration (SBA). Is there a time limit to make application? A:  Better hurry. Earlier this year, the SBA set aside $375 million to temporarily eliminate loan fees and increase the agency's loan guarantee to 90 percent. So far, the SBA reports using about 55 percent of those funds; they have translated to $6 billion in loans under the 7(a) and 504 programs, according to John J. Miller, an SBA spokesman.

Nancy Shulley received a letter about a year ago that she thought might be junk mail, but, just in case, she put it in a desk drawer and eventually sent a reply. Good thing she did. Now, the Hagerstown woman's letter might be the ticket to her receiving as much as $125,000 - a windfall after years of nightmarish wrangling with her bank, followed by foreclosure and personal bankruptcy. Federal regulators announced an $8.5 billion settlement with 10 major U.S. lenders this past week in an attempt to resolve alleged sloppiness and wrongdoing in their handling of the mortgages of millions of Americans in recent years.

John Reisenweber, a commercial lender at Centra Bank in Martinsburg, W.Va., started his new job this week as executive director of the Jefferson County Economic Development Authority. Reisenweber, 41, of Martinsburg, a member of the Berkeley County Development Authority since 2001, was chosen for the post from a field of more than 60 applicants. “John impressed the Development Authority Board with his knowledge and passion for our community,” Mark Dyck, president of the Jefferson County Development Authority, said in a news release.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- Thirty-five percent of all home foreclosures in West Virginia occur in the Eastern Panhandle, U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D. W.Va., told a group of area homeowners, housing counselors and real estate agents at a roundtable discussion Monday. Representatives of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Trade Commission were among the 16 participants at the session on foreclosure prevention at the Holiday Inn. "I want to get into this," Rockefeller said, "to talk to the experts.

Short sales, where the lender agrees to take less than amount due to them, have tended to sell for less than similar homes in the area. One reason for this is that short-sale listings usually don't look as good as the competition. Another reason is that short sales require lender approval. Last year, lenders often took three to six months to respond to a short-sale offer. If the response was no, the buyer was out looking for another home after having wasted a lot of time. Many buyers who expected short sales to be good deals shied away from them altogether after having a few bad experiences.

Tight lending market complicates business WASHINGTON COUNTY -- The news from the latest national survey of business lenders looks great. "Is the recession truly over?" begins the press release from the National Association of Credit Management. "Most of the evidence says 'yes' ... " Not yet in Washington County, however. "I'm reading the national reports as well," said Tim Henry, president and chief executive officer of Centra Bank in Washington County. "But I also know that foreclosures are continuing at a high rate on a month-to-month basis.

Q:  We understand there are certain fee-free loans available that are guaranteed up to 90 percent by the Small Business Administration (SBA). Is there a time limit to make application? A:  Better hurry. Earlier this year, the SBA set aside $375 million to temporarily eliminate loan fees and increase the agency's loan guarantee to 90 percent. So far, the SBA reports using about 55 percent of those funds; they have translated to $6 billion in loans under the 7(a) and 504 programs, according to John J. Miller, an SBA spokesman.

That old saying, "What goes up must come down," has been proven to be true yet again. After two years of record high milk prices, the inevitable drop came. Unfortunately, it has stayed around longer than expected and although higher prices are coming, that horizon seems to keep moving farther away. The fall is the largest drop in comparison to a rolling five-year average in modern history. What makes the situation more dramatic is that this drop in milk price is accompanied by significantly higher production costs than during the last downturn in milk prices (2006)

If you're a first-time buyer or haven't bought in a while, take heed of mistakes you'll want to avoid. Buying a home takes time. Invariably, your life will get busy as soon as you get serious about buying. Working with a good real estate agent who knows your area well, stays on top of details, and communicates promptly and clearly definitely helps. However, never forget that you are the decision maker. Letting your agent make decisions for you may seem like a time-saver. But, letting your agent make decisions can lead to trouble if you and your agent don't see eye-to-eye.

Have you lost your job and are facing foreclosure on your home mortgage? Confused about how you will pay all of your bills? A panel of experts Wednesday night at the Washington County Free Library encouraged people not to delay in getting help. And there is free assistance, said panel members, who agreed to appear at the library to offer the public help in dealing with foreclosure. People facing foreclosure should find out who holds their loan, which could be different from the company that services the loan, panel speakers said.

Mortgage interest rates dropped to an average rate of 5.04 percent, not including fees, during the week ending Dec. 19, 2008, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). This caused a pickup in mortgage refinance activity resulting in a 62.6 percent increase in the MBA Refinance Index from the previous week. How many of these applications result in successful refinances remains to be seen. Lenders' qualifying criteria have tightened. The lowest interest rates are reserved for homeowners who have sufficient equity in their homes and who have high credit scores - usually above 720. Lenders are also stricter on the borrower's overall debt-to-income ratio, but this varies from lender to lender.