Act 48, Hawaii's new Foreclosure law - will it help homeowners or hurt them in the long run? I just wanted to bring a few things to light about it.Glass Half Empty: The banks are going to close up office and stop doing loans in Hawaii, it's going to drive down property values, 80% of foreclosures are non-judicial, switching them to judicial will just backlog the already "backlogged" courts, Who needs government getting their hands into another project, we already have furlough Fridays as it is,........

Glass Half Full: The banks have taken advantage of homeowners long enough, something has to be done, it will help stabilize neighborhoods, it will be good for the local community, it doesn't do anybody - any good, to have a bunch of empty foreclosed homes sitting around,Me: Well as recipient of the HAMP program myself, I feel for both sides.1: The fastest way to screw something up - is to get the government involved!2: But - The Banks have bullied homeowners around long enough - knowing first hand all the games they played, during the YEAR it took to get my loan modification, something had to be done.3: Having personally closed over 35 short sales, and our team closing over 150 - I would estimate that approximately 10% of our clients, would have even met the requirements, to move their foreclosure from non-judicial, to Judicial. Of those 10% - probably 70% should have qualified for the actual final modification. Knowing this - how could one argue against this new "act 48"? I can tell you from the heart, if I could have saved those family, their home - i would have walked away from my commission in a heartbeat - I know, because I did! And Really?

Thats, just a handful of properties, you have to remember, the majority of homes in trouble here were purchased as investments, or for future retirement homes.It's pretty straight forward, you have to have an income, and you have to be owner occupied? This is not for the investor that made a bad choice - this is for the family that lives, works, and plays in our community - I think we need to take the glass half full attitude with this new Act, and give it a chance.Here are a few bullet points from the new Act:

• Imposes a moratorium on Chapter 667, Pan I Non-judicial Foreclosures until July 1, 2012.
• Fixes Chapter 667, Part II Non-Judicial Foreclosures to eliminate the requirement that the mortgagor sign the deed after foreclosure.
• Creates a mortgage foreclosure dispute resolution program which must be offered to Owner-Occupants of the property being foreclosed.
• Owner-occupant is a person for whom the property is their primary residence for a continuous period of not less than 200 days preceding the service of the foreclosure notice.

Dispute resolution program will be up and running by October 1, 2011 and is administered by the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs; the program will end on September 30, 2014,Provides an option for an Owner-Occupant to convert a non-judicial foreclosure to a judicial foreclosure.As it applies to a condominium:o The dispute resolution program and the option to a judicial conversion does not apply to non-judicial foreclosures of an Association of Apartment Owners lien.o If an AOAO is foreclosing its lien and the owner serves notice that he/she intends to cure the default, the AOAO must allow 60 days to cure and 'shall not reject a reasonable payment plan.'o Former Act 391Act 10 amounts have been increased, so an AOAO may be entitled to recover upto 12 months of delinquent regular common assessments or $7.200, whichever is less (FIRS sections 514A-90 and 51413-146).