I love the ActiveRain community. It blows me away how powerful ActiveRain has become. For example, I posted a blog last week about how sellers might qualify for the HAFA short sale program and therefore receive up to $3,000 for doing a short sale. This was something I thought everybody knew about. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I keep my fingers on the pulse of short sales and sometimes must remind myself that just because something seems very common place to me, it's not to others.
The blog began as a slight irritation, like many do when you get to be my age: old, cranky and grumpy. It bugged me that some clueless agent was running around the California State Capitol and slapping up advertisements that suggested sellers will make $3,000 from a short sale. It seemed sleazy and most likely violated real estate laws: MARS, RESPA, DRE, what have you.
But, boy, did that blog and ActiveRain subsequent promotions drive visitors to the Elizabeth Weintraub website. My hits tripled last Wednesday. Because I'm such a focused individual -- I prefer that phrase over anal, anal sounds so rude -- I track where visitors originate, among other stats. Sure enough, all of that activity resulted from my ActiveRain blog.
I prequalify all of my clients for the HAFA program. If they have a slight chance of acceptance, I submit their paperwork for prequalification or they submit it themselves. See, there is something else many people don't know. There are two types of HAFA programs. You can get preapproved in advance or you can get approved for HAFA when you get an offer. Your short sale agent should be able to guide you. (There is only one kind of Freddie Mac HAFA, though.)
In my mind, it's better to get preapproved for HAFA. Sure, the downside is the bank gets to pick the price. But you know what? The bank gets to pick the price ultimately anyway. With a Preapproved HAFA, the seller is preapproved, the property and price is preapproved, and when an offer comes in, the seller has 3 days to submit the paperwork to the bank and the bank has 10 business day to approve the buyer.
I help my sellers prepare the TOS (terms of sale) and we submit the RASS. It takes much of the headache and turmoil out of a short sale for a seller. Yeah, it takes longer upfront, but it is worth it to save frustration and agony, don't you agree? Isn't it better to know that the bank will approve the short sale than hope that the bank will approve the short sale? However, few agents seem to pursue the Preapproved HAFA short sale route. I wonder why?
Want to know more about a HAFA short sale? Check this out:
Fannie Mae HAFA Short Sale Program
Freddie Mac HAFA Short Sale Program
If you are seller contemplating a short sale and want to pursue a HAFA short sale, I caution against hiring an agent who hasn't closed a bunch of these. Hire yourself a Certified HAFA Specialist and ask that short sale agent to show you how many HAFA short sales that agent has closed. There are not very many HAFA short sales closing in the country. Last stats I read said about 300 HAFAs have closed. That shows you how very few agents are closing them. If you are planning to do a HAFA short sale, you would be insane not to hire a HAFA short sale specialist.
If you are an agent and want to get HAFA certified, here is a link to become a Certified HAFA Specialist. My suggestion is take copious notes throughout the course, and download all of the forms and read those forms.
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