HARP 2.0 and MI Buyouts

Joyce in Winter Gardenâ??s son and daughter in law bought a house about 5 years ago and are upside down. They have been told in the past that they would not be eligible for refinance programs because, though they have a Fannie May loan and put 5% down, they do not pay PMI. She asks Robert Palmer, will this still be true with the HARP 2.0 program or will they be eligible?

They are going to be eligible but it will be difficult to find a lender who is participating. There are extra steps a lender must go through when someone did an MI Buyout Program. This means they had the mortgage insurance, it was just paid for on the backside of the loan so they do not know about it. That mortgage insurance policy has to be transferred over to the new loan which takes coordination between the old mortgage company and the new one. Technically they qualify, you need to find out who the mortgage insurance company is that insures their loan because they may be able to point you in the direction of lenders participating in HARP with their mortgage insurance.