I have some alarming news to report. I cannot reveal my source, however they are VERY reputable.
Wachovia (formerly Golden West and World Savings) has been the sweetheart of the short sale space in the past 15-18 months. Diana Stauffer of Wachovia created the "Fast Track" short sale program in early 2009 in order to quickly work through their less than attractive "pick-a-pay" loan portfolio. Homeowners were given $3,000 to $5,000 as an incentive to cooperate, real estate agents received 7-8% commission, deficiency rights were waived, they put local, approachable human representatives (short sale managers) in hard hit areas, they approved short sales in a week or so, and they were almost always willing to postpone foreclosure sale dates (sometimes several times).
Well, not any more. A directive has come from Wells Fargo corporate this week (which owns Wachovia) to abandon the postponement practices of the past. Wells is applying pressure to Wachovia and has implemented a new policy...no more foreclosure sale postponements! How can this be? How could sweet old Wachovia turn on us? Why would they adopt such a policy?
As luck would have it, Wells wants to get the portfolio loans they acquired (an est. $15B in mortgages) at $.09 on the dollar through the system quicker and move forward. Wachovia / Wells was making a mint by short selling these loans and apparently the clock has expired. I will personally be tracking this trend and will report my findings as they occur.
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