Several months ago when the Making Home Affordable Plan became all the rage, I had the privilege of reading a summary of the lengthy plan that was published by the California Association of Realtors®. Because I am a short sale aficionado (if there is such a thing), one item within the plan caught my attention:
Money incentives are available for borrowers who participate in short sales or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure
Here's what C.A.R. says:
Participating loan servicers will receive incentives to take alternatives to foreclosure, like short sales or deeds in lieu of foreclosure. Loan servicers will be eligible for a $500 incentive and can make reimbursable payments up to $1,000 to extinguish other liens. Borrowers are eligible for a payment of $1,500 in relocation expenses if they effectuate short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure. These incentives for short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure are available to encourage families and loan servicers to avoid the costly foreclosure process and minimize the damage that foreclosure inflicts on lenders, borrowers, and communities.
Here is a link to the U.S. Treasury document that confirms C.A.R.'s findings.
Obviously this got my attention. So, I called some of my friends in the Presidents' offices at Countrywide, Washington Mutual, and Citibank to ask them about how they would be addressing this matter and how we should submit our short sale packages in order to obtain these incentives for borrowers. Guess what? No big surprise, but nobody at the banks had a clue.
So, that's why I'm thinking about calling Barack Obama if anyone has his cell phone number. If any of you short sale aficionados out there has experiences with these incentives (Broker Bryant, Wendy Rulnick, Elizabeth Weintraub, Chris Ann Cleland, Satar Naghshineh,), please inform me on what's going on. Otherwise, I'll give the big guy a call and share the information.
Thanks,
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