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So you have been working for several months negotiating a Short Sale. The junior liens have been sorted out and the Seller is receiving $12,000 from the lender as an incentive.

You spoke to the negotiator at the Servicer/lender yesterday and they stated the Short Sale was approved and you should have the approval letter in the next 48 hours.

Being the experienced Short Sale Agent that you are you contact your Sellers to give them the good news. They start crying on the phone they are so relieved to hear their ordeal may be close to being over. The $12,000 incentive will be used to move and pay some HOA fees that the lender won’t cover.

Then you send a quick email to the Buyer’s Agent giving them the same info and asking that the Buyer start moving forward with their financing so they are ready to move towards closing as soon as the written approval is received in a couple of days.

Another Short Sale success story. Almost. The following day you log into your email and this is in your inbox:

IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT YOUR LOAN

We have received your request to complete a short sale on your property. We are sorry to inform you that we are unable to approve your request for the reason provided below:

• DECLINE-SERVICE RELEASED.

Oh. No. Say It Ain’t So!!! What now?

Serviced Release loans are causing quite the problem in the Short Sale world.  The loan can be Serviced Released at any point prior to the transaction closing. And in most cases you will have the start the Short Sale over with the new Servicer.

Plus the new Servicer may or may not offer an incentive to the Seller.  This can be devastating to a Seller who really needs money to be able to move.

We as agents have ZERO control over if and when a loan will be serviced release.

So what can we do? Discuss this possibility with the Seller at time of listing. Be sure they completely understand that everything related to their Short Sale can change up until the transaction is not only closed but the Short Sale lender has accepted the closing documents and funds.

Based on conversations I have had with the lenders about this they usually know 30-60 days out if the loan is being Serviced Released. Be sure to ask your negotiator every time you call if they can check this for you.

The Lender may have the ability to keep a loan from being Service Released where the approval has already been received. But you have to stay on top of it. Escalate if needed BEFORE the loan is Service Released.

A Service Release can be initiated by the Investor or the Servicer/lender. Both may benefit financially.

This is just another in a long line of issues that can derail a Short Sale. Please be sure your customer/client is made aware of this possible issue very early on the process. That’s really all we can do.

What say you?

Are you looking for Mira Loma CA real estate agents and Mira Loma CA REALTORS to sell your Mira Loma home in this tough real estate market?

• Do you need a Mira Loma Real Estate agent that can maximize your realty sale to ensure the highest possible price for you Mira Loma CA home or property?
• Do you believe that extensive marketing and advertising of your Mira Loma listing is how to attract the most possible buyers to bid?
• Do you need a tough negotiator with attention to detail to avoid the many transaction and other real estate sale pitfalls that can arise from a Mira Loma CA real estate transaction?

We are Garrigus Real Estate, of Coldwell Banker Kivett Teeters and we have experience with standard sales, short sales, foreclosures, land sales and commercial real estate sales. We also have extensive marketing and advertising experience that can highlight your Mira Loma real estate listing and sell your Mira Loma CA property for a great price.

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As always please call your CPA/Accountant or the IRS for detailed info. about your specific situation.  Here is the IRS publication that deals with cancelled debt.  One of the key things distressed sellers may want to look into is insolvency.

IRS for 4681 re: Cancelled Debt

Please contact me if you are a Broward county Florida resident who has questions about short sales.

Good morning Superstars.

We have a great discussion going on about Home Inspections and when to do them. Check it out.

Here are my thoughts:

First, there are advantages to the Buyer doing the inspection promptly. The main one being that If there are issues with the property the price can be adjusted PRIOR to the short sale being submitted to the lender. Secondly, why would a Buyer want to wait several months to do an inspection only to find out the property won't work for them?

As a short sale listing agent, having the inspection done asap is not the real issue. The real issue is the inspection contingency. If it's a good Buyer and they truly just do not want to spend money on the inspection before the approval then just write the contract and remove the inspection contingency. This way the Buyer can do the inspection later but if they cancel over it they lose their deposit. Make sure you get a good deposit at time of contract.

If the Buyer is still not agreeable you could negotiate the contract allowing the Seller to continue to market the property and accept a better offer if one comes in. Give the Buyer a First Right of Refusal.

Basically you need to make sure the Buyer understands that the Seller needs them to commit to the deal. If the Buyer won't commit then certainly the Seller shouldn't.

There is nothing worse than a Buyer using the inspection contingent to get out of a deal after we have worked for months to receive the Short Sale approval.

Seller contacted me and wants me to take over from his listing Real Estate Co. It was placed on Freddie Mac's

EXCLUSIONARY list. That co. also has the buyers side. EQUATOR will not take ANY info. from his previous Real Estate office.

I told seller to get a release from his listing co. they are NOT cooperating. ANY suggestions?

Good morning Superstars.

Here are this week's Superstar discussions.

When to do Inspections? It's been my practice in the past to have Buyers Agents not do inspections until after the Written Approval has arrived. I know that some… Started by Janis Schade	3	yesterday Reply by Jill Ford
Another Green Tree situation... value your input! This is my first with Green Tree and while I have done a lot of short sales, this one has me wondering which direction to take. I appreciat… Started by Joanie Cubias	2	on Thursday Reply by Ron Scribner
BofA assistance needed. I am representing Buyers in short sale w 2 loans. Chase holds 1st, BofA the 2nd. Have sale approval letters. Prelim shows seller has abstra… Started by Michael Boles	6	on Thursday Reply by Ron Scribner
Greentree file declined, need help. My client was initially told he did not have to default on his loan to be approved for a short sale. They also said the same thing to me,… Started by Stacy Gonzalez	3	on Thursday Reply by Ron Scribner
Letter of Indemnity - Fidelity??? Hi Guys, We've had the approval and have been ready to go to closing…..BUT the title company has not received the Letter of Indemnity yet.… Started by Tyra General	0	on Thursday
MI on 2nd loan.....question So we have only ever seen MI on first loans. Suddenly I have a BofA 2nd with MI. The negotiator (first good one in a loooong time) says h… Started by Wendy Martin	1	on Thursday Reply by Brian Avery
Condo Assessment -- Paid by the bank !! Has anyone be able to get any bank to pay an assessment (not back HOA's). I have a condo coming on the market that has an assessment that… Started by RoJane Maybee	6	on Thursday Reply by Wayne Brooks
Compass 2nd - wants $30K to participate in short sale Please help. 1st is FHA w/ MI and we have the ATP. Allowing $2500 to the 2nd. 2nd is Compass (recently released to LTD). Approx. bal is $5… Started by Kristy Hamilton Do You Need More Short Sale Listings and Approvals? Learn marketing, listing, negotiating, escalation tricks, HUDs, junior liens, FHA and VA tips from Bryant and Wendy. Make your Holidays and New Year a success. ***Each session is 60-90 minutes of audio (MP3) with PDF materials. Are your short sales declined? Are you losing closings? Are you losing buyers? Losing sellers to foreclosure? Do you have to re-start your short sales dozens of times? Are your short sales taking forever? Are you stressed out over your short sale success or...worse, your short sale failure? And no one seems to be able to show you how to do it quickly, with no stress? UNTIL NOW. WE can HELP YOU Succeed with Short Sales! Broker Bryant and Wendy Rulnick... Real Answers from REAL PRACTICING SUCCESSFUL SHORT SALE BROKERS. Get More Info Order Now ***Use coupon code sss10000 for an instant $50 discount	9	on Thursday Reply by Justin Berry

Hello,

On one of my short sales...

Received Chase (2nd) approval first on 10-14 with target closing date od 11-16

Didn't get US Bank's approval (1st) by 11-16

US Bank now requests an updated 2nd lien approval before they issue it, all other docs are in.

Chase requests US Bank's approval before they will update theirs with new date, actually tell me that their approval while expired is still valid and they wouldn't have an issue with updating once 1st approves.

File closed by US bank 11-30 with 10 day grace period to revive gives me 'til 12-07 (12-09 is Sunday)

Escalation at USBank tells me they will take 30 days to review a complaint.

Buyer, seller and Title have been ready to close.

Emailed USB from processor to VP requesting approval, they replied noting expiration of second's letter, denying approval

Chase tells me to call the Dpt of Justice as 2nd approval isnt (or shouldn't be) required to get 1st..

Neither will budge

What to do?

Any thoughts?

I've often found with standard sale agents, they do all they can to sell the property for the highest price.  Unfortunately, the goal of the short sale is to bring the most offers at the most realistic market value and do it quickly.

Here is some food for thought.  Sell it like it is.  If the property is in poor condition, target the investors.  Put the bad photos in, make sure the comments indicate how much work is needed and whether there are any location issues or other sale issues with the property in the private/agent remarks that do not forward out to the public.  You can either do this at the time of listing the property or you can do this after you've accepted an offer, before you move the status from active to back up or pending.  If it's average, make it known.  If it's highly remodeled but difficult to support value based on lack of comps for condition, state this! 

Why do this?  When the bank orders a valuation, BPO agents and appraisers may judge you on your MLS.  They will ask themselves, does this agent know what they're doing?  Make sure you target those who may judge you.  Tell them why the property is selling at the price it is selling for.  Explain it through the photos, property description and agent remarks.  Add any photo addendums or repair bids to the MLS if your MLS allows you to add documents.  This will give further supporting documentation to your onlookers.  You want them to pull comparables similar to your property.  If you don't tell them the whole story through your MLS, they may pull the wrong comps and assume you don't know how to price your own property.  This will help with those ugly Fannie/Freddie properties as well.

Also, target a good buyers agent.  In your agent remarks share the status of your short sale.  Indicate number of liens, names of banks (if easy to work with), whether loss is big or small, if ss pkg has been submitted or is ready to be with receipt of an offer.  A good buyer's agent will jump all over the chance to work with you, keeping the buyer properly informed and holding the transaction together. 

Quality control your offering agents as well.  Look at the agents inventory over the last 12 months.  Make sure you are working with an agent who works full time, has a minimum of 5 closed short sales in the last 12 months or closes on average 1-2 deals a month.  Agents with 1 or 2 closings over the last 12 months likely don't have much going on, will call you incessantly and project their frustrations onto their buyers, putting your transaction at risk.  Then relay to your sellers how you did your homework and why you feel the top offers are worth accepting, even if the offers are not at the top. 

I have a short sale brochure helpful in answer questions during the short sale listing appointment if anyone is interested, email me jessica@keysignaturegroup.com.  I searched all over for a good brochure and couldn't find one, so I finally created one of my own.

Well that's a great question. Making a cash contribution and/or signing a promissory note is called "Participating in the loss". Whether or not you are asked to participate in the loss is based on several factors. Your.....

1. Cash reserves
2. Credit score
3. How delinquent you are
4. Income level

As of November 1, 2012 the Federal Housing Finance Authority intiated new Streamlined Short Sale Guidelines that apply to all Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages.

In a nutshell:

          Cash Contributions - Borrowers that are less than 31 days delinquent MUST make a cash contribution to the loss.  And borrowers more than 90 days delinquent and a credit score of less than  620 at the time of the evaluation are not required to make a contribution. Specific guidance on “borrower contributions” where required, including how to calculate the contribution amount and making contributions MANDATORY where the borrower is 31 days or less delinquent. The guideline here is cash reserves of greater than $10,000 or 6 times the total monthly mortgage payment will trigger a contribution by the borrower.

Here are the Fannie Mae Standard Short Sales/HAFA II Short Sale Guidelines.

Here are the Freddie MacStandard Short Sales/HAFA II Short Sale Guidelines

Other Investors and Lenders may have their own guidelines. Hopefully most will follow suit and implement the FHFA Guidelines.If you asked to make a contribution it can be negotiated. However my experience is that of they ask for a cash contribution and/or promissory note you will have to give them something.

One thing to remember is that you signed a promissory note when you took out the loan. This document is your promise to pay. If the lender is willing to forgive the Deficiency and relieve you of any future liabilty then signing a new promissory note of say $20,000 (with zero interest) to replace an existing note of a much higher value is a good deal.

Don't let a lender's request for you to "participate in their loss" throw you for a loop. Just negotiate the best deal you can get and then move forward. Aslo, remember that if you truly do not have the financial ability to pay..... they probably will not ask you to.

I hope this helps.

According to the Obama Administration’s October (2012) housing scorecard and “[…]the FHFA housing price index posting its largest annual gain in five years and new home sales at its fastest pace since April 2010” (Erika Poethig, assistant secretary for policy development and research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development) as well as numerous other sources, we can confidently say we have a recovering housing market. Even Warren Buffett, deemed as one of the greatest investors of all time, is bullish on the US housing market recently purchasing multiple real-estate brokerages including Prudential and his partnership with Brookfield Asset Management, a Canadian real-estate investor, to more than double his size of his brokerage business.

Our housing market is rebounding slowly due to various factors such as tight lending practices, fluctuations of supply & demand, and just the general current economic health but it is on its way to recovery. Will your client be ready to secure their next home investment and cease this opportunity?

Clear Capital exposed a sobering point: “Prices are 37.6 percent below the peak. This means a home bought for $200,000 in 2006 would be worth somewhere in the range of $124,800 today.” (source: dsnews.com) Prices were up 4.6% annually in October and as I have stated multiple times in previous articles, prices will not rebound in a U-shape but rather similar to a NIKE symbol. Concurrently, mortgage interest rates have remained at all-time lows with the latest report from Freddie Mac announcing a 15-year fixed-rate at 2.66% and 30-year fixed averaging 3.37%.

The opportunity is there and will be there for some time but are your clients preparing themselves to be able to jump on the bandwagon of nationally appreciating housing values?

A recent report shows that 23 percent of consumer mortgage requests were turned down by banks and I know from several sources around the Washington state that it is increasingly difficult to obtain a loan due to the fact that mortgage rates are so low that they aren’t incentivized to generously hand them out to just anyone.

I'm an agent. How do I prepare my client(future)? If your client had a short sale and got a significant ding on their credit score but want to prepare their credit situation to qualify for loans for their next home purchase, by the end of this article, have them talk to a Lexington Law credit specialist. I have personally researched and found them to be the absolute best company to work with in rebuilding credit scores. Here is a direct number provided through the seattleshortsaleblog for a free consultation: 888-586-6113 or you can apply through their website.

Hope this helps

Peter

Only TWO closes left to accomplish in 2012. 

One with GMAC who used to be so easy.  Single family home in a 55+ area of Desert Hot Springs, CA.  Then they hired a Negotiation company, who fouled up the deal and then the Investor, FNMAE pulled their usual, "If you can't get me this much money..forget it!"  OK..the buyers did forget it!  I presented them the Valuation argument with supporting comps.  Had an offer for $235,000...which was over comps, but the buyer had a friend there and liked the location.  Nope says FNMAE..so months later, I kept reducing and now I have ONE offer at $200,000.  Just left $35,000 on the table, and months in the bottleneck of Short Sales.

My second Short Sale is a riot of fun!  Wells Fargo is the servicer, but they pulled the "bait and switch" to a new servicer in the middle of my last offer and the buyer fatigued and walked..and it was for $137,500..way over market!  Now, this same Condo in Indio has one offer I had to beg to get at $115,000.  No back ups.  Value has dropped, HOA's are high, older unit and the neighboring unit closed as an REO at $90,000!  Again, FNMAE as the Investor came back at $154,500 and we won't take a penney less!  OK..don't, leave another $20,000+ on the floor..

They are both assigned negotiators and we'll see if they decide to proceed.  Our Mortgage Debt Relief Act here in California expires on Jan. 1, so Sellers don't really care if it shorts or forecloses unless it's closed before 12/31. 

The good news is that ALL my short sale listings (dozens this year) have closed, approval letters with correct verbage, relocation fees paid out, Sellers paid zero..all good.  Now if I can just get these two closed.....

Santa Maria – Orcutt CA Wells Fargo Short Sale Approved in 31 Days!  HAFA Approval Received in 18 Days!

Yes, Santa Maria – Orcutt CA short sales can be short!  And yes, HAFA short sales can be short!  In fact, this one was approved very quickly.  HAFA short sales allow the seller to receive a $3000 relocation incentive at the completion of the short sale.  HAFA can add another approval level to the process and sometimes slow it down a bit.  In this case, we were able to obtain HAFA short sale approval from Wells Fargo in 18 days and approval of the short sale offer in 13 additional days.

What is the key to obtaining quick short sale approval?  Presenting an organized and complete short sale package to the lender one day one, proficiency with the specific lender’s processing, and consistent follow up.  This requires a experience and a system. We were also able to obtain 2 postponements of the Trustee’s auction sale so that this Santa Maria – Orcutt CA short sale could be negotiated and approved.

Before deciding whether to short sell your home, it is essential that you obtain legal and tax advice, and consult with an experienced local short sale agent. If you are considering a short sale of yourSanta Maria, Orcutt, or Central Coast home and would like a short sale consultation, please call my office to schedule a meeting or a telephone consultation at (805) 938-9950.

Tni LeBlanc is an independent Real Estate Broker, Attorney, and Short Sale Agent. She is a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE), Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource (SFR) and Certified HAFA Specialist (CHS) serving the Santa Maria, Orcutt and Five Cities area of the Central Coast of California.

* Nothing in this article is intended to solicit listings currently under contract with another broker. This article offers no legal or tax advice. Those considering a short sale are advised to consult with their own attorney for legal advice, and their tax professional for tax advice prior to entering into a short sale listing agreement.

Copyright© 2012 Tni LeBlanc *Santa Maria – Orcutt CA Wells Fargo Short Sale Approved in 31 Days!  HAFA Approval Received in 18 Days!*

Will My Bank Pay Me Cash to Do A Short Sale?  Short Sale Seller Relocation Incentive Information

The short answer is maybe.  Most of the major lenders do offer seller relocation incentives on at least some of their short sale files.  What does this mean?  Upon successfully closing the short sale the seller will be given a cash incentive to relocate.  Whether or not you are eligible for an incentive will depend both on who your lender is and who the investor on your loan is.

Most of the major banks (Bank of America, CHASE, Wells Fargo) are participating in the HAFA program (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) which is the short sale and deed in lieu companion to the HAMP program (government loan modification program) .  The HAFA program allows a $3000 seller relocation incentive that cannot be touched by the lender, they must pay this to the homeowner.  There are other reasons to participate in the HAFA program but the seller incentive comes in handy to those sellers who are so cash strapped that gathering a first and last month’s rent for a rental is a challenge.

In addition, the Department of Veterans Affairs now allows a $1500 seller relocation incentive onVA short sales, also known as VA compromise sales.  Bank of America’s cooperative short sale program allows a minimum of $2500 – $30,000 seller incentive and recently many of these files have also been eligible for funds from the foreclosure settlement.  Chase Bank has mailed out letters to many borrowers who are underwater and/or behind in their mortgage offering incentives between $2500 – $20,000.  Wells Fargo will typically pay an incentive of $2500 on files that originated asWachovia files.

Before deciding whether to short sell your home, it is essential that you obtain legal and tax advice, and consult with an experienced local short sale agent. If you are considering a short sale of yourSanta Maria, Orcutt, or Central Coast home and would like a short sale consultation, please call my office to schedule a meeting or a telephone consultation at (805) 938-9950.

Tni LeBlanc is an independent Real Estate Broker, Attorney, and Short Sale Agent. She is a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE), Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource (SFR) and Certified HAFA Specialist (CHS) serving the Santa Maria, Orcutt and Five Cities area of the Central Coast of California.

* Nothing in this article is intended to solicit listings currently under contract with another broker. This article offers no legal or tax advice. Those considering a short sale are advised to consult with their own attorney for legal advice, and their tax professional for tax advice prior to entering into a short sale listing agreement.

Copyright© 2012 Tni LeBlanc *Will My Bank Pay Me Cash to Do A Short Sale?  Short Sale Seller Relocation Incentive Information*

A Short Sale is not for Everyone

There are a lot of people jumping on theshort sale bandwagon.  Their friends and friends of a friend did a short sale, so they think “why not me?”  Like so many others, they are underwater and their payments are not comfortable, especially with the cost of gas, food and health care spiraling upward.  2005 mortgage payments just aren’t that compatible with 2012 economic realities.  However, it is important to approach the issues of a short sale with thought and the proper advice.

Getting the proper legal and tax advice is an essential part of the process and it should be done at the outset.  For some, a bankruptcy will make more sense than a short sale due to other debts and liabilities.  For others, a short sale doesn’t make much sense due to the tax benefits that they currently get from their mortgage interest deduction and what they would have to pay in rent.  How do you know if a short sale makes sense?  Meet with an attorney and meet with a CPA to discuss your situation in detail before jumping on the short sale bandwagon.

Before deciding whether to short sell your home, it is essential that you obtain legal and tax advice, and consult with an experienced local short sale agent. If you are considering a short sale of your Santa Maria, Orcutt, or Nipomo home and would like a short sale consultation, please call my office to schedule a meeting or a telephone consultation at (805) 938-9950.

Tni LeBlanc is an independent Real Estate Broker, Attorney, and Short Sale Agent. She is a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE), Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource (SFR) and Certified HAFA Specialist (CHS) serving the Santa Maria, Orcutt and Five Cities area of the Central Coast of California.

* Nothing in this article is intended to solicit listings currently under contract with another broker.  This article offers no legal or tax advice. Those considering a short sale are advised to consult with their own attorney for legal advice, and their tax professional for tax advice prior to entering into a short sale listing agreement.

Copyright© 2012 Tni LeBlanc *A Short Sale is not for Everyone*

Can I Rent My Home After A Short Sale?

Generally speaking the answer is no.  Once you miss enough payments for your lender to file aNotice of Default, you will be contacted by a bunch of different people and entities that promise “foreclosure help.”  One of the offers you might receive goes something like this:  An investor will buy your home as a short sale from the bank, you continue to live in the property and pay rent to the investor, after a number of years the investor will sell you your home back.  Sound too good to be true?  Well it is.  I’m sure there are other details here and there, but this is the basic framework for the scheme and it has been going on for years.

Why is it a scheme instead of a smart tactic?  Well because banks and investors are on the look out for this type of thing, and without full disclosure it is considered short sale fraud.  Let’s be clear, if it is fully disclosed and accepted by the bank and investor — then it may be permissible.  Trouble is, often it is not disclosed.  And, most of the major banks, namely, Bank of America, Chase, andWells Fargo have addendums and affidavits that they require the parties to sign which specifically prohibit this scenario.  Now if you can get the bank to waive those conditions, great!  But, if they won’t you’ve wasted a good part of your timeline to attain a short sale with this scheme.

Why should the bank care who buys the home?   Well by applying for the short sale, you are asking the bank to take a loss.  Part of their duty to the investor that they are servicing the loan for is to make sure that if the short sale is accepted that they are receiving market value for the home.  Often, in this type of situation, the home is never actively marketed or offered for competitive bidding because the short sale seller only wants the investor to buy their home so they don’t have to move.  The investor, of course, wants to obtain the home as cheaply as they possibly can, and since they have the owner in their back pocket they can often get an accepted contract at a pretty low value.  If fully disclosed, this arrangement will raise a red flag to the short sale lender about the correct value of the property.

You may be tempted to turn a blind eye.  Often these operations are unlicensed, but not always.  So, many sellers think it acceptable to just “let them handle it.” However, it isn’t acceptable as surely the short sale seller will be assumed to be a party of the scheme, when it is easily shown that their address did not change and/or their name went back on public record for the property in a couple years.  As such, in order to protect yourself from these accusation, you have to personally make sure that written disclosure is made to the lender and that they agree to those terms.

Before deciding whether to short sell your home, it is essential that you obtain legal and tax advice, and consult with an experienced local short sale agent. If you are considering a short sale of yourSanta Maria, Orcutt, or Nipomo home and would like a short sale consultation, please call my office to schedule a meeting or a telephone consultation at (805) 938-9950.

Tni LeBlanc is an independent Real Estate Broker, Attorney, and Short Sale Agent. She is a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE), Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource (SFR) and Certified HAFA Specialist (CHS) serving the Santa Maria, Orcutt and Five Cities area of the Central Coast of California.

* Nothing in this article is intended to solicit listings currently under contract with another broker. This article offers no legal or tax advice. Those considering a short sale are advised to consult with their own attorney for legal advice, and their tax professional for tax advice prior to entering into a short sale listing agreement.

Copyright© 2012 Tni LeBlanc *Can I Rent My Home After A Short Sale*

Step 1: Call Carl SanFilippo toll free (888) 445-8880 we will discuss your current situation and all your options. If it appears you have all the qualifications needed for a short sale in New Jersey  there will be forms you need to fill out and documents you must provide before we begin marketing your home.

Step 2: Marketing, I will come to your home take pictures and begin aggressively marketing your home in order to get offers.

Step 3: Get an offer to be submitted to the lender.  This part can be the most lengthy part of the transaction waiting for an answer from the lender.  However, recently this process has sped up.

Step 4: Approval and closing!  We obtain approval from the lender and have all the legal fees and commissions paid by the lender.  We also fight hard with the lender to to ensure you are forgiven of all past debt, and you have avoided foreclosure in NJ and can move on with the rest of your life.

How can you tell if the file you are working on with Nationstar is an ABS file?

Good morning Superstars.

Here are this week's Superstar discussions.

Discussions	Replies	Latest Activity
BOFA Did it again!!!!! What are they thinking??? BOFA Did it again!!!! Short sale approved. Approval letter being worked on and I could not get it last Friday or this past Monday as I was... Started by Carmine R Biello Jr	4	12 hours ago Reply by Carmine R Biello Jr
NEED ADVICE ON FHA INVESTOR SHORT SALE W/JR LIEN This was a leftover investment mortgage from Countrywide bought by Bank of America, hence why "FHA Investment Mortgage." Previously, I wasc... Started by Frank Biganski	5	19 hours ago Reply by Patricia Bravo
Taxes were not paid by bank or in this case collection agency Hi, I completed a short sale about 30 days already and the taxes still show as not paid what can I do? Bank usually pays for the taxes owe... Started by Odalis Hernandez	3	yesterday Reply by Jeff Payne
Can the seller use their HAFA incentive to pay towards their 2nd lien? I have a HAFA approval with B of A.  The seller is receiving 3k for HAFA incentive and also a HIN incentive of 5,600.  The seller has a 2nd... Started by Lacey Hamilton	4	on Friday Reply by Lacey Hamilton
BofA FHA short sales...just shoot me! My FHA short sale Phase 2 negotiator didn't return calls or emails for 3 weeks. I called the escalation team, his supervisor, the short sal... Started by Wendy Martin	12	19 hours ago Reply by Patricia Bravo
Implications - Closing in 2013   A quick background. Lender is Wells Fargo. FHA loan.   I have been in the short sale program for over a year with an ATP. Had a previous... Started by Jim Celer	3	on Wednesday Reply by Kevin - Greenville, SC
How to get the sideline Owner to say Yes to SS - Share Your Success Stories or Secrets? Hi, I am pretty sure everyone here would love to have a higher conversion rate of SS through their leads, I just wanted to create this lit... Started by Trong Dang	2	on Wednesday Reply by Wendy Rulnick

There has been a lot of talk lately in the short sale world about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac countering short Sale contract prices at outrageously high prices.

As a Short Sale Specialist in Orlando, Florida I too am seeing really high counters from the 2 largest investors. An example is a property I had valued at $85,000. I listed it at $105,000 to try and get as much as we could for the property because I know that the higher the price the easier the short sale.

• We negotiated an offer of $100,000 cash.
• The BPO came in at $110,000.
• The counter from Fannie Mae was $135,000!!

Why is this happening?

My opinion, based on conversations with several bank negotiators, is that Fannie and Freddie are now delegating more Short Sale Approvals to the servicers as part of the new FHFA Standard Short Sale Guidelines For Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that were  rolled out 1 November. BUT the deal has to come in within a certain parameter of loss to the investor. For example: "You can approve the short sales as long as our loss is not more than 50%"

So the ridiculous values are being based on a percentage of loss NOT the value of the property.

You may have seen a counter from the servicer like this:

Body: Please review counter. I HAVE COUNTERED TO THE LOWEST CONTRACT PRICE I CAN ACCEPT FROM THE BUYER IN ORDER TO APPROVE THIS SHORT SALE. Any contract price that is lower is subject to be reviewed by the investor, and/or immediate denial. Any decision by the investor will be considered final. A contribution from the seller has been requested, for -$12100. This amount is 10% (or promissory note for double the amount), of the investor’s expected loss based on this short sale offer. This amount can be accepted, or countered by the seller, based on their participation capability. However, a contribution may be required for short sale approval. With an appropriate contribution, the investor will waive the deficiency balance following closing of the short sale.

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It's pretty evident to me that this counter is based on an internal investor guideline and not the value of the property. So...the way to handle it is to:

1. Get some kind of a cash contribution from the seller even if it's $500.

2. Get the buyer up some on price even if it's $1,000. Just make sure the contract truly is market value.

3. Reduce some expenses to increase the NET to the Investor.

4. Attach a value dispute to the counter offer.

If the file is escalated and the value dispute is denied then you should place the property back on the market at the higher price and look for another buyer. Reduce as necessary to find a buyer within 60-90 days. Then resubmit. You may get a completely different answer the next time around.

Don't let these counters throw you for a loop. Just keep pushing.

What say you?