Welcome to this week’s edition of the Pre-foreclosure Daily Grind! This edition will discuss a change at Real Time Resolution, a debt collection company that works 2nd mortgages for EMC and American Home Mortgage. We’ll also go over the importance of pre-screening buyers, ESPECIALLY when it comes to short sales.

But first, we will address the change coming to Real Time Resolution. They have recently changed their approval process. The negotiators working the files will now need to provide additional internal information regarding the loan. This enables the investor and Real Time management to clearly see what they’re losing, what they’re gaining, and whether or not it would make sense to accept the current offer. In previous instances, Real Time would primarily look at what they were getting and make a decision based on what percentage of the loan principal they were receiving. Now, management requires the negotiators closely evaluate the seller’s financial situation and base their decision from those findings. This is not anything we haven’t seen before when it comes to the majority of lenders out there. However, this IS something that is new with Real Time Resolution. Therefore, be prepared for the process with them to take a bit longer than previous deals, and be prepared to come up with at LEAST 10% of the loan principal in order to receive approval.

Our second tip for this week is something we’ve covered in the past. However, it is something that will always remain a crucial part of every short sale. That is, pre-screening your buyers. The reason we are discussing this topic in this issue is because we have had yet another property this week in which the lender has provided us with written approval that has covered over 2 months…and the buyer needs more time. Now, you might have listings in which some other extenuating circumstances come up, that precipitate taking a certain offer. For example, it may be the only offer that has come in over the last several months. Perhaps comps may require you to list a property higher than you’d like which limits the offers coming in, the condition of the property, etc, etc. With that said, know that you WILL face difficulties in the settlement process. Know that you may not even get enough time from the lender to close if you take on a buyer that will need to stretch quite a bit to be able to qualify and actually CLOSE on the property. A perfect example that we frequently experience in Connecticut is when an FHA or 203k buyer comes in wanting to purchase a home that needs a lot of work. If any of you have encountered this type of situation, you already know what you will face. A scenario in which worst case: the buyer won’t qualify at all, and best case: it will take a long time for them to close; perhaps more time than the lender is willing to spend.

Enjoy this week’s Pre-Foreclosure Daily Grind tip of the week, and have a great and profitable week!

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Pre-foreclosure Daily Grind! In this edition we discuss a couple of great tips with you! First, we’ll cover a deal we’ve been working on recently, and how we’ve hit a roadblock regarding getting a foreclosure postponed. We will cover what you NEED to tell your clients with regards to how postponing foreclosures works. Second, we’ll talk about the basis on which 2nd mortgages often make the absurd requests they do which helps us all understand such situations.

Many of us have likely experienced a scenario in which we get about 80% of the way through the short sale process, only to have the lender foreclose and take the property right out from under us. This can be very frustrating! We ourselves have had THREE like this in the last 2 weeks alone. So, for those of you who have faced this also, here are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, if you’re working on a property in which the loan is over 12 months delinquent, it becomes less and less likely that the lender and investor (remember, this is the entity that owns the mortgage note) will agree to postpone the short sale. Therefore, as more time goes on, expect that you’ll need a higher offer or larger cash contribution from the sellers in order to get these postponements through. Also make sure to prep the sellers accordingly. Next, keep in mind that when you ARE working on a loan that is over a year delinquent, that the investor will want more money out of the deal to make it worth their while. Additionally, the situation will demand that ALL parties approve in writing BEFORE the foreclosure date in order to postpone the foreclosure.

For example: if it will take 10 business days for all parties to approve the offer, and you’ve only got 7 business days until the foreclosure, then it’s likely you’ll be hearing from the negotiator that they have to close the file out. We all know that it will be headed for REO land. In a situation like this, the only way they may CONSIDER to speed up this approval process is if they get more money out of the deal. Perhaps such money can come from the seller or maybe from the buyer. Thus, make sure to prep all parties accordingly for this, so that they know what to expect. As we all know, expectations are a HUGE part of our business, and are the difference between closing deals and not closing them! In our case it was a Freddie Mac backed loan, in which we had a full price offer in hand. Since there wasn’t enough time to approve it BEFORE the foreclosure, Freddie decided to foreclose anyway. Way to help the economy recover huh?!

This week we also had the privilege of dealing with yet another stubborn and completely unrealistic 2nd mortgage, USAA. This was setting up to be a nice, easy, 2- mortgage short sale, in which the 1st was set to be paid off in full. Despite paying off the 1st in its entirety, there was still a little over $24k left over for the 2nd mortgage! We went into it feeling very optimistic that the 2nd would take the $24k. Even if they wanted a prom note from the sellers, AT LEAST they would be perfectly ok with that sum at close. That way they could go ahead and approve the short sale, and get a nice chunk of their debt right away. However, that was not the case. USAA, for some reason, countered back and wanted…$58,000…dollars…at…closing! For me, there are never enough things I can say about a situation like this, and we’ve all been there, and laughed, maybe cried…and so I won’t waste any words on venting about it. But…what I will do is try to help all of you understand WHY some 2nd mortgages respond in this fashion.

There are 2 things to understand here. First, they are recourse loans, and so they know that even if the 1st mortgage forecloses and they get nothing in that sale, that they can still pursue the sellers legally to recover money. Second, the money they’ll get at close is really the only money they are fully guaranteed to get. The reason for this is because many homeowners simply file bankruptcy after the short sale is done or just simply DON’T pay whatever sum they’ve agreed to with the lender. Therefore, in many instances the 2nd mortgage gets what they get at closing. They lose a lot of their control in the situation because they have released their lien and secure position on title. Make sure to keep this in mind when dealing with them. As for the best way to counter this, just try to get as much money as you can, from each place you can, and present it as your counter offer to them. In most cases, their high counters are really a way for them to say, “We just want to make sure we’re pursuing all avenues to recover as much money as possible.”

Enjoy this week’s Pre-Foreclosure Daily Grind tip of the week, and have a great and profitable week!

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Pre-foreclosure Daily Grind! In this edition we discuss a couple of changes in the industry and how best to prepare for them. We’ll cover a nice new change within Bank of America that many of you will love to hear, and will make our short sales proceed much more smoothly. We’ll also discuss an initial hurdle with M&T Bank and how to overcome it.

This morning we, and all other real estate professionals out there, were greeted with a nice email discussing a very welcome change to how Bank of America processes short sales in Equator. It was titled “Now You Can Substitute a New Buyer for One Who Walked Without Restart.” As can be extrapolated from that title, we now no longer have to start from scratch whenever we lose a buyer! This surely comes as great news for all of us who have, and frequently do, find ourselves in this exact predicament. With this new change, we will no longer have to wait and go through all the same tasks again, and upload all the same documents again.

The way that this works is pretty simple. Most importantly, do not notify the negotiator you have lost your buyer until you have a new one in place! The reason for this is because the addition of the new buyer to the process works more like a substitution. In other words, when one buyer walks, it will then be necessary to immediately swap the new one in. Therefore, once you have your new buyer’s contract in your hands, the next thing to do is notify your negotiator via email through Equator. They’ll respond in 2 days asking if a backup offer is in place. Then they will ask you to complete 4 tasks which involve providing listing date, a marketing description, and then a marketing plan. They will also ask you to change over the status of the file to “Marketing.” Finally, the last task will be to upload the new offer. And then you’ll be back in business!

In other news, we had a bit of an encounter with M&T Bank this week. Upon calling their customer service department, we were told that this particular department will not speak to a 3rd party unless the homeowner is there present with you, or on the same call via a conference call. So when I asked about where to send written authorization, they said they wouldn’t accept it…period. Way to ensure the short sale DOESN’T get done! I called back a few more times and asked to speak to the short sale department instead. At which time they transferred me to their Homeowner’s Assistance Department, which handles their short sales. Thus, when you have a mortgage with M&T, just seek to bypass their customer service department, and ask to speak to the Homeowner’s Assistance Department instead!

Enjoy this week’s Pre-Foreclosure Daily Grind tip of the week, and have a great and profitable week!

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Pre-foreclosure Daily Grind!  In this edition we discuss a couple of changes in the industry and how best to prepare for them.  We’ll cover a new affidavit that Wells Fargo is now requiring for each of their short sales, and what this means for us.  And we’ll also talk about the circus that is now the HAFA eligibility part of the short sale process with Bank of America, and how best to handle it.

As many of you may know, Wells Fargo has recently joined Bank of America and decided to employ a short sale affidavit as part of their process.  This affidavit is intended to prevent many of the occurrences that are being frowned upon in today’s market.  Such occurrences include buying the property and then renting it back to the previous homeowner, and preventing buyers from reselling the property within 90 days of when they purchase it.  This is likely to prevent investors from flipping properties which is often times characterized by buying and reselling within a week, or less.  The affidavit also assures that the transaction is an arm’s length transaction, meaning the buyer and seller have never had, or have, any kind of personal or business relationship prior to the sale.  Outside of that, the affidavit also seeks to ensure that no parties receive any funds outside of what has been approved by Wells Fargo. This is also in place to ensure that there are no agreements or transactions of any kind that are occurring outside of their knowledge.  So be aware of this, and make sure to inform all parties’ right up front, so they know what to expect.

Elsewhere, some of you may be experiencing some delays, among other things, in trying to get your files moving with Bank of America.  This is due to current procedure they’ve employed for setting up files for HAFA.  The way the process typically works right now, is that the file is initiated with Bank of America.  They then determine whether or not the file is eligible for HAFA, which takes some time.  If it is deemed ineligible, it remains with Bank of America (which often becomes a blessing in disguise!).  If it IS deemed eligible, it moves to one of three departments that handle HAFA short sales for Bank of America: Loan Resolution Corp, UTLS, or REDC.  Once there, the file changes hands and documents are transferred to different people and a different department.  At this point the file undergoes more review to make sure it’s eligible.  This means that if something surfaces the file could still be deemed INELIGIBLE, and sent BACK to Bank of America for a standard short sale. Essentially, that means the file starts over again with Bank of America.

Can you see how this can become complicated?  All of this back and forth motion, eligible vs. ineligible, submitting additional documents, and the file changing hands, takes A LOT of time.  The other aspect to keep in mind is that Bank of America WANTS to get the homeowner into HAFA as it benefits them financially.  Therefore, they will likely try to find a loophole to get the seller into HAFA, even if everyone else knows they won’t qualify.  This is a big time-waster that we’ve seen happen many times.  The best thing to do in this type of situation, and any other situation for that matter, is to closely monitor what the homeowner says when they speak to Bank of America regarding HAFA. Also, try to communicate with Bank of America yourself and try to make sure you reach the right outcome right away.  Outside of that, make sure to prepare everyone you’re working with for this step of the process.

Enjoy this week’s Pre-Foreclosure Daily Grind tip of the week, and have a great and profitable week!

On this week’s PFDG “Tip of the Week” we dig into the best ways to get a hold of your loss mitigation negotiator when he or she is not calling you back on your short sale transaction (which happens all too often)! Listen in as we not only cover how to get a hold of an unresponsive negotiator, but when to go over their heads and demand to speak to their supervisor, and when you should NEVER try and go behind their backs.  We’ll also cover Wells Fargo’s new short sale platform and how it differs from Bank of America’s, how Wells Fargo and B of A are handling their HAFA short sales, and also an update on our new and improved CRM (or Small Business Workspace) FinerSolution.com, and much more.

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On this week’s PFDG “Tip of the Week” we dig into which Foreclosing Lenders are pissing off sellers due to their multiple requests for updated documents. Listen in as we not only cover which lenders are causing undue stress on your short sale transactions, but how to make sure your sellers stay with you for the entire deal, how to work with “lazy” and uncooperative sellers, how to prevent any misunderstanding of the process. We take a look at the interesting update on Chase’s short sale approval letter and how it seems like they DON’T want to be paid. An update to our new “one stop” Small Business Workspace FinerSolution.com… Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Contact Management, Website & E-mail Hosting and the growing app market.

Take a 14 day test drive of the easiest, most comprehensive real estate management platform available! Visitwww.PropTrackr.com for more info.

http://PreforeclosureDailyGrind.com On this week’s PFDG “Tip of the Week” we expose the fact that Astoria Federal Savings is a huge reason why our economy is stuck in the dumps and will be for a long time! Listen in as we uncover how they are hurting homeowners chances of getting short sales accepted, how they are taking money out of real estate agents and loss mitigation specialists pockets, how Bank of America is now processing their FHA and VA short sales, what department/company is now handling HAFA short sales for Bank of America, why it is a “MUST” to follow up and make sure that every document of your short sale package was received by today’s overwhelmed and incompetent lenders, also an update on our new and improved CRM (or Small Business Workspace) FinerSolution.com, and much more. Take a 14 day test drive of the easiest, most comprehensive real estate management platform available! Visit www.PropTrackr.com for more info.

On this week’s PFDG “Tip of the Week” we break down the latest changes on how fast short sale transactions are taking, from the inception of your short sale package all the way to the short sale acceptance letter, from some of the biggest lenders and investors that are still around today! Listen in as we tell you not only how long the short sale process is now taking, but also how bank audits are effecting what is needed in our short sale packages. We’ll also cover why informing buyers, sellers, real estate agents, and attorneys that these changes will affect our closing times is crucial, and is a “DEAL SAVER,” and also an update on our new and improved CRM (or Small Business Workspace) FinerSolution.com, and much more.

http://PreforeclosureDailyGrind.com On this week’s PFDG “Tip of the Week” we break down what type of liens short sale lenders are no longer willing to pay and how this change will make closing your transactions more and more difficult! Listen in because this will affect whether or not your transactions get closed and whether or not it will cost you more of your hard earned cash to get deals closed. We also go over, why you should wait until you are 100% sure a deal is dead BEFORE telling a banks loss mitigation specialist or  negotiator, how to push through a “common objection” that could crush your deal AFTER your short sale is accepted , the launch of our new and improved CRM (or Small Business Workspace) FinerSolution.com, and much more.

On this week’s PFDG “Tip of the Week” we break down why some small lenders (and big ones too) are taking properties back as Bank Owned properties (REO’s), instead of accepting a short sale! Listen in to find out if a property you are working on fits this criteria and also why you MUST add “gimmes” into your negotiating HUD1 Settlement Statements to ensure your properties get closed, what “gimmes” you need to add, the latest updates to the Equator short sale review process, the launch of our new and improved CRM (or Small Business Workspace) FinerSolution.com, and much more. Take a 14 day test drive of the easiest, most comprehensive real estate management platform available! Visit www.PropTrackr.com for more info.