Got an issue with a Fannie Mae Short Sale? Escalate the issue here...

Fannie Mae announced a new "HomePath for Short Sales" tool to help agents resolve short sale issues in a faster, more efficient manner.  This website provides a platform for a short sale "escalation" process and is available to any real estate professional working on a short sale involving a Fannie Mae-owned loan.

Fannie Mae "owns" or "is the investor" on many of the loans serviced by the big banks (and some smaller ones) like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, GMAC, CitiMortgage, Nationstar, etc. Often times, a while a loan servicer drives much of the short sale process, it is Fannie Mae that gets the final decision regarding the approval of a short sale. Click here to find out if your loan is owned by Fannie Mae.

So basically if you are having a challenge with a Fannie Mae short sale -- for example, the loan servicer isn't being responsive with a approval or rejection decision, a valuation was ordered but not completed in a timely manner, or the value of the property for sale was appraised higher than the market value, or a subordinate lien holder (2nd mortgage, home equity line of credit, etc) isn't cooperating -- open an inquiry with them and Fannie Mae will directly engage with the agent or loan servicer to address the issues. Keep in mind that you will need to be armed with SPECIFIC and detailed information regarding the transaction and the issue you are experiencing.

Agents can also use the new escalation process to receive a recommended list price from Fannie Mae prior to listing the property for sale, which is also awesome!

If you have your home listed for a short sale, the loan is owned by Fannie Mae (you can look that up here), and are experiencing issues -- encourage your agent to escalate the issue immediately. OR if you have a Sacramento home with a Fannie Mae-owned mortgage, be sure to list the home with an agent who is familiar with these escalation processes. If you are thinking about doing a short sale, of course I welcome your call to see if we are a fit to work together.

I was Quoted in a Sacramento Bee Article about Short Sales

I spoke to Jim Wasserman of the Sacramento Bee briefly on Wednesday regarding the new Federal HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) Program that takes affect on Monday, April 5th. He used a few of my quotes for an article that appeared in today's SacBee about Short Sales.

The premise of the HAFA Program is good idea and all (to streamline the short sale process and provide financial incentives to lenders and sellers/borrowers for doing short sales)...and like the HAMP Program for loan modifications, I think that the implementation by the loan servicer participants, and overall effectiveness of HAFA will be slow and probably a bit clumbsy to gain any real momentum. I do not think the financial incentives offered to these servicers will be any major carrot for compliance with the program...

Apparently, all the of the loan servicers that are (voluntarily) participating in HAMP will be required to (voluntarily) participate in HAFA as well. There are many loan servicers that are working with the HAMP Program already - many of the major ones include Aurora Loan Services, American Home Mortgage Servicing, Bank of America (formerly Countrywide), JP Morgan Chase, CitiMortgage, GMAC, HomEq, Litton Loan Servicing, National City Bank (aka, PNC), OneWest Bank (formerly Indymac), US Bank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo...there are several other small banks and credit unions on board.

I have spoken to many of the loss mitigation reps at all of the loan servicers I am doing short sales with (literally, reps from that entire list above), and most have never even heard of HAFA. Wells Fargo's loss mitigation department seems to aware of HAFA though, and seems to be restructuring itself a bit to get ready...but again, I think the roll-out will take a long while....and as I am quoted in the SacBee article, Wachovia has the smoothest short sale process out there already. Time will tell!