Today’s Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide (Guide) Bulletin 2009-9, expands eligibility for the Freddie Mac Relief Refinance MortgageSM, making it easier for qualified borrowers to take advantage of this offering. Relief Refinance Mortgages are a key component of the administration’s Making Home Affordable Program and we are committed to supporting this national mandate by making Relief Refinance Mortgages available to as many qualified borrowers as possible. Today’s expanded eligibility will allow you to help more borrowers refinance into mortgages that position them for a successful and long-term homeownership experience.

With today’s Guide Bulletin, we are incorporating into the Guide the recently announced increase to our maximum loan limits as permitted under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). We are also announcing revisions to our requirements for super conforming mortgages that include the changes we previewed in our April 10 Single-Family Advisory e-mail.

It is important that you review today’s Guide Bulletin for detailed information on these changes.

Expanded Eligibility for Relief Refinance Mortgages

Today’s Guide Bulletin provides detailed information on updates to our requirements for Relief Refinance Mortgages. The following changes are effective immediately and include:

• Clarifying that accrued interest through the payoff date may be included when paying off the mortgage being refinanced.
• Permitting up to $250 cash back to the borrower.
• Enabling the amortization term of the Relief Refinance Mortgage to be longer than the amortization term of the existing mortgage. For example, a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage may be refinanced as a 30-year fixed-rate Relief Refinance Mortgage.
• Allowing second home and investment property mortgages that are now owner-occupied primary residences to be refinanced under the Relief Refinance Mortgage offering.
• Permitting the transfer of property insurance from the mortgage being refinanced to the Relief Refinance Mortgage, if permitted by the insurance carrier, to alleviate the need for the borrower to prepay property insurance at settlement.

Additionally, when using Home Value Explorer® to determine property value, we are not requiring you to complete the “Year Built” and “Number of Bedrooms” fields on Form 11, Mortgage Submission Schedule and Form 13SF, Mortgage Submission Voucher.

Finally, we are reminding you that Relief Refinance Mortgages may not be sold to Freddie Mac through the selling system’s servicing-released process.  

To view the online Bulletin in its entirety, please click here.

About Safeguard
Safeguard Properties is the largest privately held field services company in the country. Located in Cleveland, Ohio and founded in 1990 by Robert Klein, Safeguard has grown from a regional preservation company with a few employees and a handful of contractors performing services in the Midwest, to a national company with over 700 employees. Safeguard is supported by a nationwide network of subcontractors able to perform any requested superintendence, preservation, and maintenance functions, as well as numerous ancillary services in the U.S., the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico