With the new year, comes new short sales. I thought I would share with you what we are seeing in the market place and hope that you might share with us so we can all grow.
- HAFA is getting rolled out and if you don't know, be sure to read up on it. It'll likely streamline the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans with some wrinkles, such as possibly having to wait for you clients to be denied a loan mod first.
- FHA Short Sale loans are still awesome to work with, but for Bank of America FHA Short Sales, you must have the customer call and demand to be a part of the Pre-Foreclosure Sale. Most of the phone people don't know what this is, so they will have to go to someone who does.
- Property Preservation companies are still a pain in the rear when it comes to vacant short sales. I have noticed that they use the same keys, so be mindful of that. If you have one or two of the keys for this contractor then you might not have to wait for them to mail you a new one.
- Faster approvals are coming, but their coming from your favorite banks, Wells Fargo Short Sales, Citi, and Chase.
- Some banks only want financial statements (worksheets) not proof of anything to start the process.
- HSBC is proactive, they will call you!
- Suntrust still doesn't put names on the approval letters, which is the only thing I like about their process.
- People are a bit more savvy about short sales this year. I'm going to have to add wording that protects my time if they file bankruptcy - for a bankruptcy attorney, filing is always a good option. Hard to argue with an attorney.
- Deed-in-lieu's still baffle me. Why anyone would do this in Georgia, I have no idea.
- BPO (Broker Price Opinion) agents are requiring someone to be there lately. Sounds like a good thing for us (so we can show them the problems with the home), but can anyone verify if this is correct or is it just because most BPO agents don't really do real estate... anymore.
- A Bank of America Short Sale is still taking the longest and is still the hardest to deal with. They've added call centers, electronic filing systems and even a third party. All their running around isn't helping when it's their process that is flawed.
That's all for me!
Remember, It's not about specializing in a Niche or short sales, it's about being knowledgeable enough to actually help people. Even if you refer it to an agent that specializes (which we recommend) at least you are up to date on the changes.
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