Reading Mike Watson's blog this morning gave me the inspiration for mine. That's one of the great things about belonging to an online group like this -- apart from the fact that if AR would have me as a member, maybe I shouldn't belong -- but I get great ideas from other writers. In one of my Sacramento short sales last week, the seller asked her lawyer if she could apply for the HAFA short sale program. That's because there are many benefits to the HAFA short sale program such as:
- No deficiency judgments
- $3,000 relocation allowance
- Foreclosure process stopped
- No required seller contribution
Now, not every Sacramento short sale seller needs a lawyer. In fact, many absolutely do not need to hire a lawyer to do a short sale, but they absolutely, positively should obtain legal and tax advice upfront. But this seller had hard-money loans and was concerned about protection. Her lawyer had insisted on putting the home on the market right away.
Well, in the past I've had a few lenders such as Bank of America convert regular short sales into HAFA short sales, but that practice is going away. This was a PNC short sale, and PNC said no can do. It won't convert the short sale to HAFA because we've already submitted an offer. The only way to do it is to cancel the offer and submit to HAFA, or forget about HAFA all together.
When I'm not being a Sacramento short sale agent and dealing with HAFA, I'm running around Old Sacramento (above) with my sister, Margie, from Minneapolis. It's been a lot of fun hauling my sister around my neighborhood in Land Park and showing her how delightful Sacramento is, including why, maybe, she should consider moving here. Ah, today we are going for facial treatments in Land Park. Let me tell ya, life doesn't get any better than that.
Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub, Old Sacramento, shot with BlackBerry Bold
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
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The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.
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Good info...and most of all I enjoyed seeing your sister in Old Sacramento...imagining how much fun the two of you are having =)
One of the issues on which a seller should seek up-front advice is whether moving out of a personal residence (to, say, move out-of-state to replace a lost job for one spouse and obtain a better job for the other spouse) is really worth it.....in terms of a lot opportunity to escape liability for deficiencies under these programs.
Once you have already made your move......you apparently no longer qualify -- because the home is not a personal residence.
My sister is having a riot. She swept up all of the leaves in my back yard today as I worked. She said it gave her a chance to experience fall once again. That's because it's snowing in Minneapolis and fall has been long gone.
Hi Jim: There is a time exemption in the HAFA process for sellers who have had to relocate, so yes, they are still covered under HAFA. Just had sellers go through a similar situation, and HAFA considered the home to still be their personal residence because they had not bought another and were forced to move.
Elizabeth -
I guess knowing little details like that one is why you are THE Sacramento Short Sale Agent.
Thank you.
I read the other day that only about 350-ish homes have actually closed under HAFA. It's a big joke in my opinion. I'm working one HAFA short sale right now which took 6 months to be approved into the program and it's not going to get approved under HAFA because their approved price was $50k over the price we'd been listed for for more than 4 months. Sigh....oh well, it was nice to dream there for about 5 seconds that HAFA would be the answer.
Happy to help out, Jim.
Hi Colleen: Well, I haven't counted how many HAFA short sales I have closed so far -- I'm guessing maybe a half dozen or so. Most of my sellers opt out of HAFA or they don't qualify for HAFA. But the HAFA short sales I have done have been pretty straight forward and easy -- especially those through Chase Bank . . . knock on wood.
We're learning the same thing about HAFA. It's all in the timing. Of course, to us it makes no sense that a bank wouldn't take a regular short sale and convert it to a HAFA short sale. But, it IS a government program which instantly means there will be red tape that seems meaningless and pointless.
Elizabeth - I notice in the picture above, the locomotive has turned around and is using its nose to push the weight of the train down the track. It kind of reminds me of you working your nose off to successfully close short-sales for your clients. Every town needs one:-)