Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Pat Chadwell on September 22, 2011 at 4:20am

I am in the middle of a HAFA sale with Chase. One loan. It took 60 days to get the HAFA approved price.  I was told I needed to have the home up for sale while waiting.  I did not put it on the MLS.  I wanted to list it at the HAFA approved price.  We got into contract within 10 days.  We were TOLD that the final approval process after that would take 10 business days.  HAhaha...We waited 22 days and after escalating the file we recently got to the negotiator.  I got to speak to the negotiator last week.  She told me the final approval would be 1-2 weeks MORE as it had to go to the investor.  I told her that CHASE was the investor - she said Oh that is a different department.  It would take 1-2 weeks more.  I am about to lose my buyer.  Our offers was at the price suggested by the HAFA SSA, our net was above what they said was their minimum.  Someone really needs to get a process for short sales that works.  Chase does not have that process.  :)  

Permalink Reply by Chris Black on September 22, 2011 at 6:04am

Thanks, Pat.  Sorry for the troubles but I appreciate the experience.  Stories like these will hopefully effect some substantive changes. Thanks again!

Chris

Permalink Reply by Cami Pinsak on September 22, 2011 at 4:27am

Hi Chris,

I think the biggest stumbling block is the lack of training on the HAFA vendor's part.  I have had to, numerous times, download the HAFA training video, and send it to LRC or UTLS or AMS.  I have also had to scan pages from the MHA handbook to negotiators.  Essentially, if the people who were actually processing the loans new as much about HAFA as we did, the world would be a lot easier!

Permalink Reply by Chris Black on September 22, 2011 at 6:06am

Thanks, Cami.  We have taken similar measures.  The intent to implement these guidelines seems to be there; but execution not so much.

Permalink Reply by Cheri Smith on September 22, 2011 at 4:39am

That's very exciting Chris! It took my client about one year to get approved for a HAFA short sale. First he made too much money, then not enough, then finally just the right amount. The approved price of $168,000 was much higher than market value. I think they did an exterior BPO because had they gone in the house, they would have seen all the work that needed to be done. We listed the house at $168,000 and had lots of showings but the feedback was that the house was overpriced. Per the guidelines, I sent in a CMA trying to get a price reduction approved but was ignored. We finally decided to reduce the price without approval because we knew it was the only way to get an offer. We reduced the price to $149,000 and got an offer at $129,000. (A few days later we also got a backup offer).

We submitted it via the Equator system (Bank of America was the lender) and the offer docs kept getting rejected without an explanation. I sent countless emails in Equator and called B of A only to be ignored in Equator and told over the phone that they didn't know why the docs were rejected. I finally contacted the Twitter help team (amazing by the way!) and they escalated the file.

I learned that for the first 120 of a HAFA short sale, they will only accept offers at the approved price. There was no way any buyer in their right mind was going to pay $168,000 for the house. We were told that if we let the HAFA agreement expire, we could then submit the offer as a traditional short sale. Our concern was that the auction date was 4 business days after the expiration of the HAFA agreement and we weren't confident we could get the foreclosure postponed in only 4 days. A HAFA short sale automatically rolls into a HAFA Deed in Lieu, so that's what the seller is currently attempting.

It's so frustrating to have 2 offers on a house that you can't get approved because the approved price was determined by someone out of the area that doesn't know the local market. I will share this experience with every client of mine thinking of doing a HAFA short sale. It sounds great in theory but it is not working. We need the ability to set our own list price based on the local market. We are professionals and know what a house will sell for.

Permalink Reply by Chris Black on September 22, 2011 at 6:13am

Frustrating but excellent insight, Cheri.  Thank you very much.  I will definitely include in my pre-panel discussions with the others something about valuations and the possibility of disputation of out of whack values.

On a side note, you are spot on about @BofA_Help.  Karen Gillies and the others on the social media squad have never let us down in breaking through seemingly impassable barriers.  I am at @chrisblack01 and the company is at @wingedfoottitle if you'd like to follow.  Will follow back for sure.  Thanks for the input.

Chris

Permalink Reply by Becky Martin on September 29, 2011 at 3:24pm

We just got a HAFA price for double what the FMV is, we have a repair estimate for 67K, crazy price - does BOA inflate the price from the BPO?  AMS "lost" documents all the time, told me they only work HAFA without offers for BOA and with Freddie Mac no offers were ever allowed before HAFA letter was signed.  Said that if we started a HAFA file with them on a Fannie loan we could not take any offers until letter signed or they would have to transfer the file and it would add another month to the process.  Not much better with the other vendors, just a mess....like Cami said - they don't know what they are doing - everytime you call the rules change!

Permalink Reply by Kevin - Greenville, SC on September 22, 2011 at 6:00am

Ditto what Cami said.