Southwest Florida Title Insurance & Real Estate Blog

If you’ve ever worked on short sale transactions in the real estate industry, then you probably know how frustrating it can be when lenders put a value on either an appraisal or even a “drive by BPO” (broker price opinion) without sharing the report with the sellers and or potential buyer.

For me, it’s absolutely infuriating when a lender counters a property’s appraised value but then never tells us what value they arrived at.

Fortunately, things are changing at Bank of America.

Recent changes to Bank of America’s short sale process include providing a valuation report to the customer each time a value is obtained and used as part of the process.

This change improves the customer experience by providing more transparency and clarity to the information used in reaching a decision on a short sale offer. Valuation reports will be supplied each time a value is obtained.

Whether you have initiated the short sale with an offer or are just beginning the short sale process and do not yet have an offer, your customer should understand that:

• A current value for the property must be determined, which then helps determine the market value
• This process typically takes less than two weeks to complete

Note:

• For Equator® short sale files: The valuation report will be available in the Equator record
• Non-Equator short sale files: The valuation report will be mailed to the customer

What can you do to assist with the valuation process?

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Thank you all so much for the taking our recent survey. You have no idea how valuable your feedback is to us!

You may recall that the second question in our survey asks:

Think of the last time you went through a short sale. What was the most frustrating aspect of the process that you faced?

So far, we have received over 75 responses (woo hoo! :)) to our survey, the vast majority coming from real estate agents and our referral partners.

The common frustration expressed from you is the lack of communication between all parties involved, most notably the lender.

This is such a common frustration and most times it cripples the process and leaves a sour taste in the mouths of those involved.

As a Realtor®, you know how incredibly annoying it is when you have an eager buyer who’s ready, willing, and able to purchase a short sale, and yet she can’t because of loads of red tape that must be cleared up between the seller and his lender. UGH!

What’s even more frustrating is when you have bills to pay (just like everyone else) and you could really use the commission from this sale, and yet no matter how much effort you put in, IT JUST WON’T CLOSE! Talk about stress!

Well, at Winged Foot Title, we’ve heard your frustrations loud and clear and hopefully the advice in this article will help you with the next short sale transaction…that is, if you ever decide to be a part of one again.

Yes, short sales can be incredibly frustrating and challenging, but I enjoy orchestrating short sales for all of those same reasons.

It’s the thrill of the Chase”. 😉 (No pun intended- A little short sale humor).

So to make your next short sale as relatively painless as possible, here is what I suggest:

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Short sales have been known for taking a long time to close!

It was not uncommon in the past to see a short sale take sometimes a year to close, causing overwhelming stress to all parties, especially to the seller.

So why do short sales take so long? Most often we can blame the banks for the delay. However, that complaint does not always apply to Short Sales in 2013.

Many of the lenders and investors have updated their systems, buyers are still interested in buying, and incentives to short sell for both banks and sellers are still viable.

So the question many will ask is…

How long does a short sale take?

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At Winged Foot Title, we are always looking to stay educated on Short Sales. We recently watched a Short Sale Superstars webinar that was presented by MAPS Coaches Jacob Swodeck and Knolly Williams.

It was very informative as they discussed the short sale market and the BIG changes that have occurred. Specifically we learned about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s alignment, the Pre-approved hardship/no-doc short sale program launch and the HAFA program changes

I was blown away to learn that there will be an explosion of short sales in 2013. CoreLogic says there are still over 3 million delinquent homeowners that are already 30-60 days late in payments.

There was an estimated 440,000 short sales in 2012 and Daren Blomquist from Realty Trac estimates there will be a record number of 1,000,000 short sales expected in 2013.

We are constantly asked the question if short sales are going away anytime soon and this information gave us some great statistics to relay to those that are curious.

It was great to hear more about the servicing alignment initiative for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is a FHFA-led effort to establish consistent policies and processes for the servicing of delinquent loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The alignment will help the servicer do a better job of resolving delinquencies in a more consistent and fast manner. Their goal is to have a more streamlined process as far as hardship, timelines and documentation needed.

If a seller is 90+ days late and they have less than a 620 FICO score they automatically have a pre-approved hardship. The approved hardship loans will then qualify for the new low doc process.

We were also informed that they will now be delegating the decision on non-delinquent loans when there is death, disability, divorce or distant employment (50+ miles). The servicer can now make the decision.

We also learned about some positive changes for the Making Homes Affordable Program (HAFA). These were put into effect February 2013:

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This is the 2nd tip of “10 Questions You Should Ask About Florida Short Sales” eBook, which is available as a FREE download.

In a nutshell, the lender’s right to pursue you for the deficiency after a short sale stems from your obligation to the lender under the Note. If you remember, when you took out your home loan (whether to refinance or to purchase), among the hundreds of pages were two very important documents:

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Congratulations! Your short sale offer was approved!

We want you to know that as a short sale realtor, you’re in good hands with Winged Foot Title. We believe in exceptional service without exception.

As you know, there are three main ingredients to a successful short sale.  They are

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If you are a buyer’s agent and you’re searching for a Short Sale Specialist in Fort Myers and the outlying areas of Southwest Florida, we invite you to view the video above which explains our operation.

Winged Foot Title is comprised of 3 full time employees who are dedicated to the orchestration and the timely closing of your short sale. We do not get paid unless the transaction closes so we obviously have a vested interest in the completion of the short sale.

Here are a few additional talking points that I cover in the video:

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How do they make it look so easy?

The pros at Winged Foot Title have devised a streamlined Short Sale Process.

This process is essential to the success at Winged Foot Title. The streamlined short sale process enables closings to occur faster and with fewer problems in a variety of different scenarios and with many lenders.

Our Short Sale Process has led us to ultimate results such as:

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Does this sound to good to be true?

Not when you’re dealing with the Lehigh Acres Short Sale experts at Winged Foot Title.

Check out the scenario of our latest Lehigh Acres Short Sale success story….

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So you are probably here because…

…you are going through a short sale or are interested in learning more about them.

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