Home > Blogs > Marlene Bridges > Marlene's South Orange County, CA Real Estate Connection

No More Short Sale Approvals Held Hostage For Commission Reduction Says Fannie Mae!

By Marlene Bridges

Real Estate Agent with Village Real Estate Services, Inc.

February 27, 2009 11:35 AM

This ever-changing market has caused many of us who remain in the trenches to work harder for less money. Working Short Sales and REO's adds many hours of additional work to our workload. Surprisingly, there has been a practice among some lenders to attempt to balance their books with the real estate brokers paychecks. Well, Fannie Mae said enough!

On February 24, 2009 Fannie Mae changed their guidelines with regard to pre-foreclosure properties. The new guideline (effective March 1, 2009) states that Fannie Mae loan servicers can no longer hold short sale approvals hostage in order to get real estate brokers to reduce their commissions. The full statement can be seen in Announcement 09-03 February 24, 2009 of the Fannie Mae Servicing Guide.

The California Association of Realtors® suggested in their Newsletter today that since it is difficult for Realtors® to ascertain if an underlying loan is a Fannie Mae Loan, that we may want to ask the lender or loan servicer if the loan is FNMA. They also suggest that we may want to include a copy of the Fannie Mae Announcement with our short sale packages.

Comments(10)

Comment

Show All Comments

Sort:

Lou Ludwig

Ludwig & Associates - Boca Raton, FL

Designations Earned CRB, CRS, CIPS, GRI, SRES, TRC

Hi Laguna

That is really good news and long over due. Thank for the update.

Good luck and success

Feb 27, 2009 12:19 PM

Marlene Bridges

Village Real Estate Services, Inc. - Laguna Hills, CA

Laguna Homes|Laguna Condos|Laguna Real Estate

Hi Ludwig - Thanks for commenting. It's always so nice to share good news!

Marlene

Feb 27, 2009 12:34 PM

Kimberly Thurm

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago - Naperville, IL

Broker / Relocation Consultant ABR, CRS, GRI, SFR

Wow, this could be huge!! Now our industry will not be the one looked at, to take a cut and help the bank make sure they netting what the bank says they have to net on a deal. I always would love when they come back with their numbers; figuring it all out for us, at a reduced commission number.

Feb 27, 2009 12:57 PM

Jeff Dowler, CRS

eXp Realty of California, Inc. - Carlsbad, CA

The Southern California Relocation Dude

Marlene - well I was certainly pleased to read about this on Inman News. And the suggestion to ask if it is an FNMA loan is a good one. Doesn't make sense that our business should have to take the fall because the bank isn;t willing to give up more money. It makes it too easy for them.

Jeff

Feb 27, 2009 01:08 PM

William Johnson

Retired - La Jolla, CA

Retired

Hi Marlene, While they were about it, they should have expounded on a few more the less than defined guidelines. Whenever I think of these banks and the personnel that they hire to deal to with issues, your wonderful friend Kaye pops into my mind with here classic phrase, " Who'd a thunk it ". Cracks me up every time. BTW, I will lay even odds that not much changes when it comes to commission reductions, don't you suppose that that is the way this will actually shake out? Maybe I should have said, shake down?

Feb 27, 2009 02:18 PM

Hi Kimberly - I agree. It's interesting that a ready solution is to balance the budget using someone else's paycheck.

Hi Jeff - Yup, this is a big change. It's good to know that FNMA is as my son would say, "cleaning up their side of the street."

Hi William - Ah, I am forever the Pollyanna, ever hopeful, ever looking for that glass half full...we shall see, my friend. Most positively, at least they have recognized there is a problem here...or hopefully was.

Feb 28, 2009 02:00 AM

Todd Clark - Retired

eXp Realty LLC - Tigard, OR

Principle Broker Oregon

About time! I think they knew there was talk of agents taking them to court for anti-trust.

Mar 03, 2009 01:21 PM

Hi Todd - It is about time. Not all loan servicers were guilty of this practice, but enough that this will make things better for many of us in the trenches.

Mar 03, 2009 01:53 PM

Khash Saghafi NMLS

Liberty Home Mortgage Corporation - Cleveland, OH

Mortgage Loan Officer, Cleveland OH NMLS 1114762

This is an excellent post Marlene and I do not believe that most agents are even aware of this at all. I think that many servicers will still overlook this change due to the backlog of transactions and the inexperience of some their "processors" or whatever some of those companies call the individuals working with you on the short sale. Hopefully your post finds its way to more and more agents and allows them to take more control and be more assertive while negotiating a short sale. Way to stay on top of the changes out there!

Mar 09, 2009 03:50 PM

Khash - Thank you so much for your very positive comments. I agreee that it's so important that we spread the word to all agents who are working on listing short sales.

Have a great week!

Mar 09, 2009 04:01 PM

No More Short Sale Approvals Held Hostage For Commission Reduction Says Fannie Mae!

Comments(10)

Marlene Bridges

Real Estate Resources

Recent Posts

Additional Information