text: Hamp Qualifications Learn About The Hamp Government Program
  One of the official programs through the United States Departments of the Treasury Housing and Urban Development is the HAMP government program. The acronym HAMP stands for "Home Affordable Modification Program" and is designed to help homeowners who are having trouble making their mortgage payments due to reasons other than unemployment. If you qualify for the HAMP program, you may be eligible to lower your mortgage payment to 31% of your pre-tax income. This can make your payments more affordable so you will not need to face foreclosure.
  Typically when a home owner qualifies for the HAMP program, on average they will see at least 40% drop in their payment. For up to 18% of homeowners, that is a savings of around $1000 per month. The average homeowner saves approximately $500 a month with this program. In order to qualify for the HAMP government program, you will need to meet certain qualifications.
  The first of the HAMP qualifications is that you must occupy the house in question as your primary residence. This is for single family residences that include condos, co-ops and manufactured homes. The second qualification of HAMP is that you must have taken ownership of your home before or on January 1, 2009. You will also need to have a mortgage payment that is more than 31% of your monthly pre-tax income and owe less than $729,750. Additional HAMP qualifications state that you must be experiencing a financial hardship and that you are already late or in danger of being late on your mortgage payment. The final general HAMP qualifications are that you must have proof that you have sufficient income to support the new, modified payment and that you have not been convicted in the past ten years of felony larceny, fraud, theft, forgery, tax evasion or money laundering. It is important to note that these qualifications for the HAMP program are only guidelines. You should speak with your mortgage lender for additional information on qualifications and details on if you may qualify for this program.
  The HAMP government program has several key features. The program is designed to help homeowners who are in certain financial situations not to get further into debt or run the risk of losing their home due to foreclosure. One feature of the HAMP program is that anyone that applies and has a debt to income ratio of greater than 55% is required to undergo free credit counseling. This is not a bad thing at all. It can teach you many valuable tricks about credit and how to get out of debt. Another feature of the program is that you will enter a trial period where you must pay the recommended monthly payments. If you do this for a period of time, you will fully qualify for the program and the agreement will become official.
  There are five main steps that you will need to complete in order to apply for the HAMP program. You can get all of the needed forms and information listed here from the official HAMP program page location online here: Makinghomeaffordable.gov. You will first need to complete the Request Form (Request for Modification and Affidavit). This gives your mortgage lender some basic information about yourself and the financial situation you are currently in. Secondly you will need to fill out a tax authorization form that is available on the Makinghomeaffordable.gov website. You will then have to gather proof of income. There is a great checklist on the official website to advise what you can and cannot use to prove income. The fourth thing you will need to do is to fill out the Dodd-Frank Certification Form, again, found on the website. This is a form you will need to fill out and sign stating that you have not been convicted of any crime or crimes that are associated with a mortgage or real estate deal in the past ten years. Finally, you can gather these forms up and get them to your mortgage holder for processing.
  Applying for and getting into the HAMP program can be time consuming and sometimes difficult, but it can be an excellent way to get your mortgage payments reduced and enable you to remain in your home when you are facing foreclosure.