Friday, March 20, 2015

What is a GSE? How about a Loan Reset?

Some definitions, words, terms or organizations that you need to know about-

1.     GSE- Government Sponsored Enterprise. These are organizations that may or may not be supported, funded or attached to the federal government. The two most common include:

·         Freddie Mac- Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation
·         Fannie Mae- Federal National Mortgage Association

These organizations invest in MBS (Mortgage Backed Securities) pools. In other words, they buy or invest in mortgages in groups based on amounts, interest rates, locations and other criteria.

You may recall a few years ago when the housing industry was horrible, most of the issues were directly related to how bad these MBS pools were performing. When these loans defaulted, the GSEs had no way to pay their investors and were losing money…a lot of money. So much money that the federal government stepped in to bail them out.


2.    Loan Reset- If you were approved for a loan modification under the Home Affordable Modification (HAMP) program back in 2010 or so, most of those loans provided for an interest rate reset at the end of 5 years.

If you have one of these loans, look for your loan modification paperwork and look for language related to loan resets or rate adjustments.

You could be OK with the adjustment (either up down) assuming that the load mod did what it was supposed to…get you back on your feet. But if your situation is unchanged or no better that it was 5 years ago, it sounds like the GSE’s want your mortgage company to reach out to you now and see what they can do to have you go into default again.

Better you beat them to it! Call them and find out what is going on with your loon if it is subject to a loan reset.


3.   If your loan is not held by a GSE or other investor, these rules or guidelines may not apply to you. Let’s say your loan is with a local bank or a credit union, it is possible that these financial institutions will not abide by these guidelines since your loan is not held by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.

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