We all celebrated the new HAFA short sale months ago when it was introduced, as with many programs, it sounded good at the time. Of course I'd say we all had reservations knowing how anything the government had their hands in was going to be doomed...
The reality is that I remained optimistic as long as I could, but now, I give this program a big fat "F," for FAIL.
Bank of America has especially fallen fall short of anything even resembilng acceptable with their HAFA program implementation and for the most part has outsourced all their HAFA deals. I have two different servicers I'm now working with. AMS and Promise Solutions are just the two I know of intimately.
AMS has had this one short sale since November. Now mind you, Bank of America funneled this seller into HAFA *AFTER* we already had an offer on the property (rule #1 with B of A HAFA, do not have an offer in place). We were assigned to AMS, and surprisingly had the deal "approved" in underwriting in late December. Approved in underwriting means that the mountain of paperwork was in, reviewed and the seller hardship and paperwork were matched up to the guidelines and we passed. We're in. Yay. Right? Wrong.
It is now March. The appraisal itself wasn't even done until the first week of February and as of March 4th, the appraisal was still not in the system at AMS. So they say they will escalate. Now again, in terms of hiccups to this point, we've had plenty, not to mention I thought AMS had gone out of business for a while there as their phone didn't work, wasn't answered or I was promised calls back within 24 hours on more than 4 separate ocassions.
Rep said he'll escalate. Great. But he warned... "remember, even once we get the appraisal in, we're still 6-8 weeks before the approval letter will even be generated."
Fabulous.
Bank of America outsources so much of it's work now. It's either a) because their inept, b) they're overloaded, or c) they want a scapegoat and to absolve themselves of the complaints of delays.
Maybe all of the above.
For me, I've closed my Bank of America accounts, and have gone to a local credit union. I can no longer support a company like this. For me, this is just one of DOZENS of horror stories and the sad part is that for most of you, this is not new news, this is what you've heard before, and for many you've experienced the same or worse.
Bank of America and HAFA, there is nothing resembling reasonable or responsible and they are failing their customers.
In California, we have SB931 protecting sellers against deficiency on their firsts. Find a second that will accept the HAFA pay out and waive any further deficiency rights, good luck. What remains as the incentive is the $3,000 incentive. But really? Does a seller really need to endure all of this for $3,000 - well I guess in a way, it's the best of both worlds - stay for FREE for 6, 7, 10 months to a year, and get a good bye gift of 3,000. Sounds like a good deal to me, but was this the intent?
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