I am the listing agent working on a file with the military HAP program that has taken us a year to close. 14 months & three buyers later we are finally getting ready to close in 5 days. The transaction involves 3 title companies, a buyer, buyer's power of attorney, buyer's agent, seller, seller's agent, HAP, and the 1st & second existing loan on the property. There are so many moving parts it's unbelievable. I've never worked a HAP file before but I dove in head first (cause that's what I do) and asked a lot of daily questions such as "what do you need from me ?" and "what's next?"
Early on I recognized that the lack of communication amongst all the parties could be detrimental to the successful closing of the transaction. Now that we have approval, the time lines are extremely sensitive and must be adhered to.
Therefore, I sent an email by cc'ing all parties involved in facilitating the listing part of the sale that included HAP (all three contacts there) & all three title companies (including their assistants). I said things such as "nice job TEAM" "what can I do to support you in getting this done" to build a camaraderie within the group that was missing at first. Problem solved! Instead of pointing the finger at the other, there was open communication, of which at times I had to step in and say "can you two please CALL each other as there is a breakdown in communication around what needs to happen next". Ten minutes later we were moving forward to the next step. NICE!
VERY LONG STORY, short.....communication is the key. If email doesn't work, call, send smoke signals, whatever it takes to get dialog started. I've never done a HAP transaction before but I put it together by asking a lot of questions and making sure the people that did know how this looked communicated. Communication is the key!
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