Fannie, Short Sales, And your Commission.

Short Sale Commission-Ectomy Help!

Surely if you have been involved in a short sale transaction the home owner's lender has attempted - and usually succeeded - in slashing your commission.  Now, help is available to resolve the vexing issue of commission extortion. 

Thanks to the efforts of the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) in response to the growing dissatisfaction of the membership over the outrageous practice of contractual interference perpetrated by some loan servicers.  I say contractual because the lender is apparently interfering with a valid listing agreement between consenting parties. 

It seems that some servicers of Fannie Mae loans are unaware of FNMA's short sale commissions' policy or believe it is not binding on them or simply choose to ignore the published policy. 

Fannie Mae has established the following process for REALTORS to seek assistance when short sale commission issues arise. 

Step 1: Determine whether the loan is owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae. Only the holder of the loan is allowed to do this, so do so in the presence of your client or after obtaining their written permission.  Log on to FNMA's website: www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup  or call: 1-800-7FANNIE. 

Step 2: If the servicer is unaware of or disagrees with the policy, provide a copy of Announcement 09-03 (available on www.realtor.org ) to the loan servicer and negotiate an appropriate commission based on the listing agreement (up to 6 percent). 

Step 3: Contact Fannie Mae if the dispute is not resolved directly with the servicer. Be prepared to provide the property address, name of owner, and Fannie Mae loan number (if available).

And, thanks to Fannie Mae for doing the right thing.

 From my blog posting of 6/24/09.  Good Luck.

This is so important....we work so hard for short sales and then they want to cut our pay....really annoying. The problem is that in holding to our guns, we can put our clients in jeopardy by holding things up or risking the lack of approval. We need an after-the-fact procedure to get the money we deserve.

Thanks Robert for bringing this out, and also to Raymond for refining it. Worth a bookmark as the short sale market will be here for a while.

Thanks for the great info!

I think the key is that the agent has to price it right--- enough to get the bank their 'net'...and to cover your commission, etc.....  

Thanks Rob - hope you had a great weekend :)      Watch out for all the bennies this weekend, lol.

Taylor Ham

Thanks for this one, Robert.  We don't see a lot of short sales around here, but it's good to be prepared!

Robert,

You have been remiss in your blogging efforts... I hope you have a good excuse! I always look forward to the updates and goofing jokes.

L-

I've listed short sales for 7%, just so I'd be sure to get my 6%.  They're a lot of work on both sides and if the listing agent isn't demanding at least 6%, he or she is doing a disservice to the seller. 

I like to forward this type of post to the other agent when I give an offer on a short sale!

I hope so! Best wishes on your personal journey. You deserve the best.

Good for you, Rob. Carousels don't go anywhere, just in circles! Sounds like you are going to live large! Have room for more? I love roller coasters!