Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ann Trieb on September 5, 2010 at 8:02am

Yes it is possible to close it down. Tell them to close it out right away.

Permalink Reply by Mike Horton on September 5, 2010 at 7:54pm

Fannie Mae just gave a webinar that stated that once a offer has been received and if they are not already in the HAFA short sale process that the offer defaults to the lien holders short sale process. Also just a note, BOA always asks for seller contribution usually with something like "would your seller being willing to contribute to the closing". That does not mean that they will ask for a contribution, however they would not turn away a gift from the seller. If your seller does not want to contribute the answer is no. BTW they will automatically ask for a contribution again on Equator to give your seller a chance to contribute. That is a decision that your seller will need to make, but it may not be necessary for the lien holder to approve the offer net.

Permalink Reply by Shawn Baek on September 6, 2010 at 1:14am

Thanks for your comments.
After further research on B of A short sale comments through this website, I found out that B of A very much reluctant on removing the deficiency clause on the approval letter; even it's removed, it doesn't guarantee that they will not pursue deficiency later on.
So I believe that I need to cancel the traditional short sale in process and start the HAFA short sale to guarantee waive of deficiency collection and eliminate seller's contribution. Do I just inform negotiator through Equator that we want to cancel the current short sale and start a HAFA short sale? I'm planning to attach signed alternative HAFA approval request form on the equator request.

Permalink Reply by Silvana Elejalde on September 6, 2010 at 1:14pm

There was a BOA webinar on hafa short sales presented by kimberly dawson and donald clark. I emailed them direct with some questions and donald clark replied right away. You can try contacting him by email [email protected]. He's the VP for the HAFA program. Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Tracey Martin on September 6, 2010 at 2:52pm

It seems to me that if your clients meet the HAFA guidelines, you would not be acting in their best interest if you did not cancel the short sale with Equator and go through HAFA. Just tell Equator that you have discussed the situation with your clients and they have asked you to do so. You have a fiduciary responsibility to do what is in their best interest. I have a short sale with Chase which was initiated before HAFA began. I was sure that HAFA would begin before our original request was approved and my strategy, from the beginning, was to request HAFA if the approval letter did not have forgiveness language in it.It turned out that Chase took it upon themselves to move us to HAFA using our original packet and without a request from me. They sent me the HAFA packet and asked me to have my clients complete it. We are about to close and although it took more than the 10 to 14 days, my clients got the forgiveness language and $3000.00 for moving expenses. I never asked why they moved us.Why tempt fate. My assumption was that because it was a divorce situation and the hardship was easily validated. Good luck

Permalink Reply by Ann Trieb on September 6, 2010 at 3:28pm

Many servicers are getting bonus incentives just for simply putting their borrowers through the HAFA whether they initially look like they could qualify or not.
I've seen Wells and Bank of America do is systemically on every file, which is why I was surprised that it would be so hard to shut down this particular file.

Tracey Martin said:

It seems to me that if your clients meet the HAFA guidelines, you would not be acting in their best interest if you did not cancel the short sale with Equator and go through HAFA. Just tell Equator that you have discussed the situation with your clients and they have asked you to do so. You have a fiduciary responsibility to do what is in their best interest. I have a short sale with Chase which was initiated before HAFA began. I was sure that HAFA would begin before our original request was approved and my strategy, from the beginning, was to request HAFA if the approval letter did not have forgiveness language in it.It turned out that Chase took it upon themselves to move us to HAFA using our original packet and without a request from me. They sent me the HAFA packet and asked me to have my clients complete it. We are about to close and although it took more than the 10 to 14 days, my clients got the forgiveness language and $3000.00 for moving expenses. I never asked why they moved us.Why tempt fate. My assumption was that because it was a divorce situation and the hardship was easily validated. Good luck

Permalink Reply by Terri Adams-Scott on September 8, 2010 at 11:23am

If you go HAFA, be prepared for a long wait. I represent some buyers that started out a Short Sale and moved over to HAFA...8 weeks there before approval. That was only HAFA approval...not bank approval! It went back into the short sale dept. and after 10 weeks there, still no bank approval yet! In other words, don't count on getting a response in the 10 day time frame...unless you're one lucky person!

Permalink Reply by Laura Marshall on September 8, 2010 at 11:52am

I had one in a smiliar situation. They said they didn't want to change it because the offer was written prior to August 1st - it was written July 26th. I had them cancel it, and had the buyer submit a new offer (same offer - different date). We'll see what happens. Good Luck

Permalink Reply by Shawn Baek on September 8, 2010 at 3:06pm

I've talked to the BofA short sale dept several times regarding switching to HAFA. If the short sale is initiated before 8/1/10 on FNME loan, the short sale was defaulted to traditional short sale. I can request to change to HAFA short sale, but it means the pending traditional short sale needs to be closed and start over as a HAFA short sale; so it could take another 2-4 wks to get to current status of final phase of negotiation pending seller's contribution negotiation.
I've discussed the advantage of HAFA short sale (no seller's contribution, waive deficiency, $3k moving exp credit) with my client and she decided to complete the current traditional short sale negotiation before pursuing HAFA assuming that deficiency is waived with pending traditional short sale. We're worried that starting over with HAFA may take too much time. I've send equator msg to negotiator that if deficiency in not waived, we'll purse HAFA in which bank (investor) will loss more money due to delay in closing & $3k moving exp credit. I hope she gets the msg.

The lesson here is that you need to make sure that short sale you're doing is HAFA short sale (HAFA short sale designation on Equator, not BAC short sale(reg short sale)), if it is regular short sale, you need to request HAFA short sale asap and switch at early in the short sale process to save time and get the maximum benefits for your seller.