Freddie Mac (FRE: 1.28 -3.03%) made adjustments to its Workout Prospector software package, used by its approved servicers to modify its distressed mortgages.

Servicers can enter a Freddie Mac loan number and other data for help evaluating eligible borrowers for a loan modification under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). If a borrower is ineligible for the program, the software helps determine other foreclosure alternatives such as a short or a deed-in-lieu.

In December, the US Treasury Department released a waiver stating that a borrower did not have to restart the three-month trial period on a modification if their stated income exceeded the verified income by more than 25%. Freddie responded by releasing steps to override the software to comply with the terms of the waiver.

But recently, Freddie enhanced its software to give servicers an alternative to manually overriding each modification application.

The new enhancements also include a bulk upload function for hardship reasons. Using the bulk upload feature, servicers no longer have to go into each of the loans in Workout Prospector after they are uploaded and manually select the corresponding imminent default hardship reason before running the workout waterfall.

Under HAMP, servicers attempt to reduce the monthly mortgage payment ratio to less than 31% of the verified income. To do that, they run the loan through a waterfall of modification steps. According to the latest HAMP report, each of 170,000 permanent modifications received an interest rate reduction. More than 40% received a term extension, and 27% received principal forbearance.

The delinquency rate in the Freddie single-family portfolio reached 4% in January, up from 3.87% from the month before and 1.98% in January 2009.

Taken from http://www.housingwire.com/2010/03/.

In Hawaii foreclosure law Judicial Foreclosure and non-Judicial foreclosure both approaches are used. In Hawaii state foreclosure timeline ranges up to 60 days. Hawaii foreclosure law gives endorsement to deed of trust and mortgage as primary security instruments. Hawaii foreclosure law does not authorize the statutory right of redemption. However deficiency judgments are allowed by Hawaii Foreclosure law.

By way of non-judicial or judicial foreclosure process lenders in the state of Hawaii may foreclose on deeds of trusts or mortgages in default occurs.

Judicial Foreclosure
Judicial foreclosure process is by and large used when a “no power of sale” is there in the mortgage or deed of trust. A power of sale clause authorizes the sale or transfer of property as outlined by the terms of that clause in a deed of trust or mortgage
While using  judicial foreclosure, the foreclosure process is performed in accordance to the term and conditions of that clause.

Non-judicial foreclosure
In case homeowner defaults non-judicial foreclosure process allows the lender to sell the property and pay off the balance of the loan. Non-judicial foreclosure method is favored when “power of sale clause” exists in the deed of trust or mortgage document. A “power of sale clause” in a deed of trust or mortgage means that in case of default borrower has pre-authorized the sale of property to pay off the balance on a loan. The power to sell may be concluded by the lender or their representative in conditions where a power of sale exists. The modus operandi for this Non-Judicial Foreclosure is elucidated in the “Power of Sale Foreclosure Procedure” listed below:

Power of Sale Foreclosure Procedure
If the power of sale clause states the time, place, and terms of sale then the procedure must be followed according to the specifications. And in case Power of sale clause has no specification regarding time, place and terms of sale than it will be carried out in following way:

The notice issued to foreclose must be published in newspaper having general circulation in the county in which the property is located every week for three (3) consecutive weeks. Copies of the notice must be mailed through certified mail to the mortgagor, the borrower, any previous or junior creditors, to the director of taxation of state and to any other person entitled to receive notice. It is also required to post the notice on the property not under twenty-one (21) days past to the day of sale
Said notice must contain the following conditions:

• The date, time, and place where proposed sale will be conducted.

• The unpaid balance the borrower has to pay to the mortgagee under the mortgage agreement.

• Complete description regarding the property to be mortgaged, with the complete address or sketch of the location of the mortgaged property, and the tax chart of the mortgaged property.

• Name of the mortgagor, the borrower, the lender, name of any previous or junior creditors, the name, telephone contacts and address of  the State where public sale have to be conducted.

• Complete outline of terms and conditions of the public sale.

The borrower by paying the lien debt along with the costs and reasonable attorney’s fees, may save the default and stop the sale up until three (3) days past to the sale, or else agreed to between the lender and the borrower.

The sale must be made at auction to the highest bidder, which may be held not before than fourteen (14) days after the last advertisement is published.
Proposed foreclose sale for which notice have been given may be postponed from time to time by public announcement made by the lender or their representative.

Right of redemption is not available in Hawaii.

Referenced From : http://www.bankforeclosurelaws.com/hawaii-foreclosure-law.html

SEO solutions are the perfect means to make a site search engine friendly. Search engines play a big role in determining the success or the failure of an online site. Studies undertaken by leading research agencies have indicated that more than 90% of the people search information in the internet with the help of search engines. Search engines assign page rank to websites based on their importance and some other factors as well. So, whenever a person searches for information online, they will automatically search the first few pages displayed by the search engine. Consequently it is very important for a website to undertake proper SEO solutions for their site to do business.

The internet is flooded with website providing SEO solutions. If you are serious about your online site, do not be taken in by simply any solutions offered by just another website. Check out the effectiveness of the solution and see for yourself whether you can actually adopt the SEO solutions for optimizing your website. You must check out to see whether the solutions actually deliver results for your online business or not. There is absolutely no point in simply having a site, if you are not able to generate new business leads through your online site.

There are different types of SEO solutions available to you for optimizing your website. Base your search engine optimization methods on the principles and guidelines laid down by Google and other search engines. If people cannot find your site displayed in search engine results, you will actually have very few visitors to your site. Online website is meant to do business and earn revenue for your business. So, it is imperative to adopt the best SEO solutions for your online site.

Keyword research is one important aspect of SEO solutions. Using the proper keywords in your site is vital to the success of your online site. Online visitors always search for products or services with the help of a particular keyword or keywords. Your site may have the best information and the best services offered for a particular product, but if the relevant keyword is not used your efforts will simply go down the drain. In fact your site will not even feature in a search engine. Proper keyword research is one of the basic essentials of SEO solutions.

Content optimization of your website is another SEO solutions which you can adopt. The Content should be relevant and updated on a regular basis to generate traffic to your site. Link building with other websites is another SEO method that is effective for optimizing a website. It will be beneficial for your site to build link with websites which deal with relevant products and services. Pay per click is another optimization tool which can be adopted to make your website search engine friendly. Here you can put up your site for advertisement in other sites.

SEO solutions undertaken properly for a website can bring lots of revenue to the website. The trick for search engine optimization lies in properly utilizing the different optimization methods to garner high page rankings from search engines. You must adopt the best SEO solutions, after all the purpose of a website is to attain high rankings from a search engine.

An old school blog I wrote that gives insight and thinks outside the box for us in the industry.

It doesn’t take a lot of research to find out that in this day and age, virtually every business of any real size has developed some form of internet presence.  Now, for many businesses, that may mean little more than an online business card that can be used to get the phone number and store location of the business into the mind of the prospective customer.  But in this new century, the idea of having a business without a corresponding web page to support it is pretty much out of the question.

But if you look at the two business worlds, the internet business environment and that outside of cyberspace, there are some pretty big differences.  While many companies like bookstores or concert ticket promoters have learned to build what might be viewed as parallel universes in which their business operations are just as sophisticated online as outside of cyberspace, other businesses have just not found that balance.

But as the legitimacy of the internet as a valid marketplace and business tool becomes more understood, more and more businesses are learning that cyberspace can become another valuable part of an overall marketing plan that drives business to the store shelves directly from their internet web presence. 

So just as that billboard or newspaper coupon program are just as much part of the businesses corporate plan, that online effort out there in on the corporate web site can become a vital part of the stores operation so much so that the store manager will come to depend on the sales driven by the internet.  To that store manager they will look for cyberspace on aisle five as a vital part of their plan for business success.

There is a systematic process that businesses go through to use the internet as a way of capturing web traffic and turning it into store traffic.  Make no mistake, there is one principle that should seem evident but is the key to turning cyber visitors to in store shoppers and that is that – Internet Shoppers are People Too!

When a businessperson looks at those strange internet traffic reports that show that they web site has X number of “hits” and that Z number of web browsers went to Y number of web pages, all of that cyberspace mumbo jumbo just means that X number of PEOPLE were on your web site and looked at Y number of products or web page advertisements or services.  And those PEOPLE are the same living and breathing humans who will walk in the front door of your store and buy products and services from you.

All we need to do is devise methods to drive those internet shoppers off of their computers and into the businesses retail operations.  And more and more you are seeing a businesses trend of internet promotions that are geared to put the customers feet down in the retail space.  Some great methods for doing that are…

*    Online coupons that can be redeemed only in the retail store.
*    Online sales that can be picked up in the store.  Many online shoppers might prefer to have the product shipped to them.  So you will have to “sweeten the pot” by making shipping charges out of the question or by adding a promotion if the customer picks up his or her purchase in person.
*    Contests.  Need we say more?
*    By promoting special events that will occur in the store.  You can stage a major cyberspace promotional campaign for a book signing of an author or celebrity that will occur live at the store itself.  The costs of the promotion and having the in store event will be offset by the increased sales.

If your web site routinely uses promotions that result in positive incentives to the customer to come to the store, before long a customer base of loyal consumers will get used to first going online to see what this week’s big deal is and then going to the store to cash in.  That kind of ongoing momentum is what makes such a synergy such a success and what makes even customers come to your retail outlet and look for “cyberspace on aisle five.”

Fellow Active Rainers -

I'd like to announce that I have relocated to Maui and have joined the company Hawaii Property Preservation LLC. Hawaii Property Preservation is an extension of LG Holding Company. They service Oregon, Washington and Hawaii. Take a read below to see what HPP is all about.

Hawaii Property Preservation LLC -is a full service property preservation company for the Hawaiian Islands. We specialize in but are not limited to REO and foreclosure services for large banks, asset management companies and local Hawaii REO agents and attorneys.

Hawaii Property Preservation LLC’s sole mission is to provide quality service at an affordable price. Fast! We guarantee to meet and exceed our clients needs with our industry experience, advanced technology and network of qualified, trained, licensed contractors. We offer full service remodel packages for Condominium projects, Single Family Residences and small commercial projects on all island of Hawaii. We are located on Maui, but have service organization in Oregon and Washington.  When you employ us to protect your asset(s) in Hawaii, you get a relationship with a sales professional who is knowledgeable of the real estate industry, construction industry,  lives and works in Hawaii.

Hawaii REO Agents! -  looking to relieve yourself from doing unnecessary contractor coordination. Like we said above, when you employ us, you will build a relationship with one person, not ten contractors. This will free up time for you to go and do what you do best. Sell real estate!  We are the one stop shop. Call us, and we will have the property inspected and bid returned within 48 hours.  We will work directly with you to make the work order flow smoothly and effectively. We understand that you have many more important matters than dealing with individual contractors. Plus, we have relationships with the asset management companies and banks as well. So we know what works and what doesn’t . We will do some addendum work. Call us for details. What are you waiting for? Give us the opportunity toe earn your business

Looking for Cheese

Every now and then a business book comes along that revolutionaries how the business world views an area of focus.  One such book had the amusing title “Who Moved my Cheese” by Spencer Johnson.  This short book that is illustrated like a children’s story has some profound ideas in it that will radically change how any business approaches the marketplace.  It is a book that has had his biggest impact in helping employees who have been displaced view their job change.  But the ideas that are made simple in “Who Moved my Cheese” can impact virtually every area of business dealings.

The book communicates its message through a story of a mouse who finds that the place where he can find his cheese is no longer reliable.  The mouse’s friend continues to go to that same place to find more cheese only to continue to get hungrier and hungrier.  But the hero of the story finds the new location of his cheese.  When he finds his new source of cheese, he not only is astounded by the bounty but that even after telling his friend of the new source of cheese, that friend continues to insist that his cheese will be there where it always had been before and that in fact, the hero of our story is mistaken about the new location of cheese.

This, obviously, is not a tale about cheese location.  It is a parable of how to handle change.  The core value being taught by “Who Moved my Cheese” is that we cannot always look to the same resource for our supply.  Markets dry up, businesses go through slumps and have to lay good people off and revenue streams change.

But one thing is for sure.  There is always a new reservoir of funding somewhere in some market.  And the wise business can foresee a change in the marketplace well in advance and make the changes they need to make so that they go where the money is, or move with the cheese to find the new source of rich funding and tap into it. 

It is more than just a parable about looking for a new job.  But it sheds light on the plight of the unemployed.  So often someone who loses their job gets stuck in a mental cycle of waiting for their old job to hire them back or looking for an identical job in a very similar industry.  However, if that industry is under economic pressure or if the business paradigm for that industry has changed dramatically, there may no longer be rich sources of funding and employment availability there that was once so reliable.  In short, the cheese has moved.

This lesson has rich wisdom in business beyond the employment scenario.  The businesses who have learned to be adaptable in a changing marketplace and have made the changes to follow the changes to the new source of “cheese” are the businesses that survive decade after decade.  The grocery industry has seen that kind of change.  Many grocery chains went belly up waiting for the cheese to come back to the old paradigm.  But others saw the invasion of the big discount stores such as Wal-Mart and found ways to combat that change, to find new niches in the industry where an untapped market need existed or to compete in the new business paradigm.  Other industries where such dramatic changes have forced businesses to find out who moved their cheese are the record industry and the book sales business environment that have been so heavily impacted by internet sales. 

But those businesses have survived.  And if they can be aggressive and adapt and change with the markets, it’s a good example for all of us as we continue to look for the new source of “cheese”.

Courting Public Favor

At first glance, it is a bit surprising when you see how much some powerful and prominent businesses in every community bend every effort to court public favor.  Almost any community of significant size in the country has a business section in the paper.  And subscribers to the local news see their ability to stay in touch with what the strongest and up and coming businesses in town are doing as an important part of their business awareness.

Sometimes it’s good to read the business news in your local paper both for information and with an eye on the question – “Did the business being discussed work to get this article printed about them in the paper?”  In some cases, it is blatantly clear that the business went to great lengths to get noticed.  Many businesses actually employ public relations and advertising professionals to tailor how they will be viewed in the press and to court public favor by romancing the right kind of press coverage for the business.

There are some solid business reasons behind such aggressive work being done by the business community to have good press coverage.  On the surface, it might seem like the intent of managing public approval for a business is just a desire to be a good citizen and so that public opinion is favorable and everybody thinks of that business as a bunch of “good guys”.  But the motivations for courting public favor for a business are far more complex and entrepreneurial than that. 

A good reputation means better sales.  Public opinion is a funny thing.  If a retail company gets a bad reputation in a community, it will have a tremendous impact on their bottom line.  But the business that is well regarded at the neighborhood level will be one that sees strong customer loyalty.

A strong reputation makes for better business dealings.  Running a business means entering into dozens of business relationships, making deals and drafting contracts with other businesses in town.  If your business is well regarded in the public eye, that will reflect favorably when you need a deal to fall your way at the negotiating table.

Investors like to see a good public image in a business.  Investors like to know that the business they are interested in partnering with will be able to complete its business goals and endure year in and year out.  Part of that stability means that the business can live up to its mission statement and its statement of values.  When the business the investor is interested in has a strong public image, that reflects that this is a business that conducts itself with integrity, is interested in the public good as well as private profit and is looking for the long-term gain as well as the short-term profitability.  These values translate directly into dollars in an investor situation.

A strong relationship with city and state government is important to long-term business health.  Many businesses seek concessions or to enter into a relationship with local government so they can have a clear path to get building permits or conduct other business that impacts the public good.  A local or state government can be a businesses best friend or stop your projects in their tracks and keep them stopped.  But the thing that pleases the political world is public opinion and the public good.  So if your business has a good public profile, that translates to votes for the politically minded people at city hall.  And that means influence which can help a business go a long way toward completing its long-range plans.

A good public image impacts recruitment.  When you put an advertisement in the local paper to recruit talent, how you are viewed by those looking for jobs will directly influence if they will respond to your recruitment efforts.  Many a business got a bad reputation locally and saw dismal responses to recruitment efforts which can mean a less talented staff and poor performance of the business in general.

These are solid reasons for a business to put some energy and capital into courting a good reputation in town.  Whether that means a strong representation on United Way weekend or holding blood drives once a month, the business that has a reputation for reaching out to the community will be a business that prospers.

Business goes to Cyberspace

It is a well known axiom of doing business in any industry that those who do not stay in step with the times will be those companies that eventually die out.  There is no place where that truism is more evident than in the way that companies in virtually every business sector are finding to integrate an internet marketing strategy with their traditional communications and to provide the public with an internet “presence” to supplement their public profiles in other venues.

Of course, the value of the internet for sales and promotions has been well known in the industries that service the youth markets and for the companies dealing with entertainment and the arts.  Because the internet is in virtually every home and even now on hand held devices of every description, the access it gives to reach a target market are phenomenal.

This explosion of an entirely new marketing model has introduced the world of business to entirely new paradigms of marketing and new ways to achieve greater market penetration and sales.  And so any business who has had to get out on cyberspace to keep up with the competition has already had to learn a whole new vocabulary that has grown up around the internet marketing phenomenon.  Now terms like “Search Engine Optimization”, “Auto responders” and “Viral Marketing” become important and powerful tools to any business that wants to tap the power of the internet to increase sales.

The second wave of businesses that, perhaps reluctantly, ventured out into cyberspace were traditional retail business that you would not associate with cyberspace at all.  This includes sport teams, restaurants and even retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Border’s Book Stores.  In fact, the wave of change in how products and services are sold has been so rapid that entire market niches have been virtually revolutionalized by internet sales techniques.  Book and music outlets have been virtually hard hit as a large percentage of their customers have abandoned the “brick and mortar” sales outlets entirely to use the more convenient tools of internet shopping. 

This has made it tough on some retailers to keep up.  For the “mom and pop” business, the change has been particularly devastating.  Already small, home grown businesses were struggling to compete with the giant mega-stores like Wal-Mart to keep their loyal clientele coming back.  Add to that the migration of customers to the internet and the need for change just to stay in business became even more urgent.

But even businesses who do not depend on marketing at all have seen the need to build and maintain a well functioning business web site so they will have a “face” in cyberspace.  In the modern marketplace, the consumer will go to the internet first to find out about a company and it’s goods and services.  This has turned traditional ways of connecting with existing and new customers upside down entirely. 

The good news is that these rapid changes in how modern markets work have made the business world more diverse, more able to adjust to changing business dynamics and more open to the creative and innovative minds that have always been the real life blood of the business world.  And, ironically, it is often the small business that is most capable of making rapid changes to its online presence and ways to doing things. 

In that the internet is a phenomenally dynamic place, new ways of reaching our customers change almost annually.  Where one year a simple web page may have been sufficient, soon we had to have chat rooms, MySpace pages and YouTube compatibility.  Any business that sees these changes as chances to do something new and exciting with their business will be the companies that thrive in this modern world.  And, as always, those who do not thrive with change will be destined to be made obsolete by it.

One of the most important talents any management team of a business can have is to be able to detect changes in the marketplace and adjust how the business operates to function in that new market.  Some call it “thinking outside the box” and others refer to this talent as “working with a new paradigm”.  Whatever the term of the day is, without the flexibility to change as the market changes, a business is destined to fade away.

Of the many business and market trends that have changed the paradigm by which business is done in the new century, internet marketing ranks near the top of the most drastic and sweeping change that virtually every business has had to adapt to in order to survive and thrive in the new business world.

At first, most in the business world considered the internet to be a toy and perhaps a good communication tool.  But in the last decade, the power of internet marketing and the need to compete in that marketplace has never been more evident.  And just as business learns new marketing and communication methods when they enter a new market such as learning to do business overseas, the internet has brought with it entirely new tools and weapons that the modern business must learn to use skillfully to succeed in a cyberspace business environment.

Of the many new acronyms that have been added to the business vocabulary, “SEO” is one that is central to success in the internet marketing world.  SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” and it is an entire discipline unto itself.  By learning to utilize well developed SEO methods, a business can learn to dominate their particular market niche even in a cyberspace business world.

Just as in the conventional business world, to be successful with a particular market, you have to go where they are and learn to get noticed and get your message to the consumer even as your competition is doing the same thing.  In the world outside of cyberspace that may mean various methods of advertising, promotional campaigns, good customer service and a long term promotional strategy that will grow the businesses market presence over time.

All of these business objectives remain the same in the world of internet marketing, but the “places” customers can be found are profoundly different.  As such, it becomes critical that a business builds a modern and up to date web site that appeals to the customers perceptions of what they will expect when they come to shop with you and that stays up to date continuously s the internet continues to change and evolve. 

But it isn’t enough to just have a state of the art business web site up for modern internet business web site to succeed.  Just as to be successful in the physical world, customers must come to you or you must go to them.  And the primary method of letting customers know who you are and drawing them to your well designed web site is to connect to them through a search engine such as Yahoo, Google or MSN. 

Search Engine Optimization methods are powerful techniques that can be used to assure that when your customer looks for a business such as yours, they will notice you first and your competition second, or not at all.  That means when the customer “searches” for your product or service on Google or another search engine, your business comes up on the first page of selections that the search engine finds. 

SEO takes time, investment of funds and talent and skill to work with the search engines so your business gets that kind of attention.  But it is worth the investment because the outcome can be an internet business presence that bring the kind of success every business wants.