Anyone successful in getting Ocwen to waive the Altisource / Hubzu Online Auction/Marketing System

Hi All.  I contacted Ocwen on 3 occasions before submitting a short sale contract on a property.  After the contract was submitted I received a counter from the Ocwen rep who gave a bottom line price that will be approved.  The next day I received a short sale decline letter stating that the short sale was rejected due to non-participation in the Altisource / Hubzu Online Auction/Marketing System.  The problem is that this apparent requirement was never disclosed or mentioned in any way by Ocwen prior to the contract being executed.  Now, they want to amend the Listing Agreement to allow for commission to the Altisource / Hubzu Online Auction/Marketing System and place the property in an online auction despite the contract on the property.  Anyone have any luck getting this requirement removed?

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I was told the same thing by Ocwen regarding Altisource having the file.  Ocwen finally relented and said they could pull the file and go HAFA, but the problem is that I don't think my clients qualify for HAFA.

Jim, I was just thinking if what they are telling you might be a miscommunication due to a language barrier or misunderstanding on their part.  Maybe they are of the understanding that, per their guidelines, EVERY short sale request must first be considered and reviewed for HAFA prior to being converted to a traditional?  I've had that happen before with them and most other banks.  That being said, if you haven't already, I would let your homeowners know that OCWEN is required to review their situation for HAFA first (even when it clearly appears they won't qualify), and then go ahead and submit all of your short sale documents to [email protected] (unless it's being processed in Equator), and let them review for HAFA.  If your homeowners qualify, then great, and if not, it will just be flipped straight over to traditional, and you really won't lose any time (maybe 6 weeks total instead of 4).  The only hangup they are experiencing right now is that they are behind on their document imaging.  Normally, when you email docs to them, it takes 5 business days for them to be imaged, reviewed, and the account updated.  However, over the last 3 weeks, it's been taking 10-12 business days for the same process.  I STRONGLY suggest that when anyone emails anything to OCWEN right now, that you send 100% of the documents required all at the same time, and make sure they are 100% complete.  Otherwise, the review will rapidly go from a month to a few months.  Let me know if submitting via HAFA works for you!

I'm glad to hear that!  Every time I do this with OCWEN/Altisource, there is nothing but finger pointing back and forth.  OCWEN says there's nothing they can do, the file is with Altisource.  Altisource says there's nothing they can do, it is an OCWEN requirement.  I just refused to believe that, especially considering that NOTHING I have ever received regarding this program indicates that it is required or mandatory.  So, I continued to call each of them every few days and request that Altisource send the file back to OCWEN citing that the homeowner declined to participate in their program...and then request that OCWEN pull the file back from Altisource citing the same reason.

What I've figured out (deductive reasoning here, nothing concrete) is that if the homeowners continue to request that they be removed from the Altisource program and request that their file be sent back to OCWEN for short sale processing, Altisource will do so at the 4 week/30 day mark.  After the file gets sent back to OCWEN, the notes that will be included on the account are either that Altisource was unable to make contact with the homeowner regarding the program and/or that the homeowner declined to participate in the program.  I'm not sure if the 4 weeks/30 days is their guideline (if it is, I haven't had it confirmed or seen it published anywhere), or if this is just a pattern that I alone have experienced during my last 6 or 7 deals with them.

Again, deductive reasoning here...it seems that OCWEN requires certain files (haven't figured out exactly which investors yet) to be reviewed for their "special program" that is processed through Altisource/Hubzu, but once the homeowner declines the program over and over for 4 weeks/30 days, they close it out and send it back to OCWEN for processing.

Thank you Julie. We'll just keep plugging away.  I like the idea of having the homeowner write a letter. We have verbally told OCWEN and Altisource that the homeowner doesn't want to participate but we haven't sent a letter yet. We'll try that. I hope we don't have to go back and forth for 30 days. We will probably lose our buyer. Thanks again!

Ocwen is the servicer. Altisource doesnt have the authority to keep a file or make any decisions on it. Servicing duties has not changed.

OCWEN is saying that the only options for the short sale based on this loan investor (they are sending me the investor information) are their Assisted Short Sale (the Hubzu/Altisource thing), HAFA and Deed In Lieu. I asked them to qualify my clients for HAFA and they put me on hold to check it and came back and said they are eligible for HAFA. However, before we got to that point this rep was telling me the Borrowers had to go Assisted Short Sale and that a HAFA short sale was on hold until the Assisted Short Sale was tried. This contradicts the previous rep who said the Borrowers could opt out of the Assisted Short Sale and try HAFA. After I pushed the issue the rep said that the Borrowers could write a letter asking to opt out of the Assisted Short Sale and move forward with HAFA or In House Short Sale and send to [email protected]. He would not say whether the opt out request would be approved. Basically, I am just going to provide this info to the Borrowers and let them decide unless someone has a better plan.

After speaking with the homeowners, I would have them write a letter that requests to be immediately removed from the Assisted Short Sale Program through Altisource and/or Hubzu.  In the same letter, I would also have them include a request to be immediately reviewed for the HAFA Program offered through OCWEN's Loan Servicing Department, and only if they are found to be denied from the HAFA Program, to be immediately transitioned to a Traditional In House Short Sale offered through OCWEN's Loan Servicing Department.

I've done my own short sales as an agent for years, but I've simultaneously negotiated short sales as a Paralegal for a Real Estate Attorney in Vegas.  Most of the language I've learned to include in my letters has been as a result of my attorney's influence and has been quite effective.

Julie would you advise what you done to make this happen we had a short sale approved in Dec 2013 with Ocwen and one of the other credit card liens negotiator quit so the negotiator had to continue with another new person and the agents reached out to Ocwen to let them know about this and they stated just to send updated information when they would be ready to close, however one thing went to another and now they want to place it on Hubzu even thouge there is a buyer under contract and Ocwen knows this however after many attempts from the negotiator they still insist it goes through Hubzu and the seller says he is not breaking contract also the agent refuses to change the status from pending to active so they can place on Hubzu..

[email protected]

Thanks,

Jim

Two questions about the "new" HAFA Short Sale Program:

1. Where can I get the latest HAFA guidelines online?

2. According to the guidelines I found on http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/programs/exit-gracefully/Pages/..., The mortgage loan must have been originated on or before January 1, 2009.  My clients got their mortgage loan in 2011.  Is this going to be a problem.

Additional information: There are the same sellers with the Ocwen loan that were hit with the Hubzu/Altisource online auction requirement.  As of today, a rep at Ocwen said we could opt out of that auction requirement, but then a traditional short sale was not possible so we would have to go HAFA.  We already have a BPO value of $105,000 and a contract price of $94,500 (90% of the BPO) and were verbally told that price would be approved.  Even if HAFA is possible is it the wrong way to go?  In other words, should we just accept the online auction requirement?

Hi Jim,

1. Attached is the HAFA Matrix and Guidelines that are published specifically for OCWEN.  This is the most current one that I have and is dated September 9th, 2013.  In case the attachment doesn't work for some reason, here is the link: https://www.ocwencustomers.com/oc/documents/pdf/HAFAMatrix.pdf

2. As you suspected, your clients shouldn't qualify for HAFA under these guidelines.  However, that does not prevent OCWEN from still reviewing them for HAFA, deciding on a HAFA decline, and then flipping your homeowners over to a traditional short sale.  Personally, and all my sellers have agreed with me on this, I would decline/opt out of the auction requirement and once you have confirmation that the file has been officially pulled back to OCWEN, I would submit all of the same paperwork to both [email protected] and [email protected].

That way, they can review and determine whether the file will go HAFA or traditional.  According to their guidelines, it will go traditional, but that way, you should be able to get the file back to OCWEN, keep all of your commission, keep the offer/buyers that you originally procured, not alter the terms of the listing agreement (which is illegal in Nevada), and ultimately get the best result for your homeowners.  The price the home sells for through their auction process or by your own marketing won't impact your homeowners negatively, assuming that OCWEN's approval letter includes the deficiency waiver language on page 3 of the approval package (the last paragraph).

Sidenote...if you ever have to extend an OCWEN approval letter, make the request (fully executed addendum and HUD with future closing date) BEFORE your current approval letter expires.  And when you receive the extension approval letter, carefully check page 3 to make sure they included the deficiency waiver paragraph again.  They've been sneaky with me lately...including it in the original approval, but omitting it from the extension.  A couple phone calls will resolve that and get you the correct letter with the correct language.

Attachments:

Julie what number did you use to call Altisource to let them know the sellers wanted to opt out?

To be honest, I just continued to call 855-495-9059 which I believe is Altisource's Short Sale Customer Service Department. 

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