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Countryview Estates - Crestview, Florida HAFA Home Sold

1243 Ego Drive

This short sale home at 1243 Ego Dr. in Countryview Estates, Crestview Florida just sold using the HAFA program. What is HAFA? It is the "Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives" Program that is sponsored by the Treasury Department to help homeowners who cannot make their mortgage payments, need to sell and don’t have enough equity to cover the mortgage balance.

ARE YOU ELIGIBLE? You might be eligible for HAFA if your lender participates in the Home Affordable Modification Program (or your mortgage is underwritten by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac which have slightly different qualifications). HAMP offers you the opportunity for assistance by lowering your payments or delaying payments to keep you in your home. You must meet the HAMP requirements as follows, to be part of HAFA, whether or not you choose a modification. These qualifications are:

1) You have missed payments or are about to default

2) The home is or was your primary residence

3) You got your primary mortgage before Jan. 1, 2009 and your balance is less than $729,750 (higher balance on 2-4 unit properties)

4) Your property can be vacant or rented up to 12 months prior to the Short Sale Agreement (SSA), as long as you can prove the property was the primary residence and have not purchased another home in the last 12 months.

5) You must not have been convicted within the last 10 years of felony larceny, theft, fraud or forgery, money laundering or tax evasion, in connection with a mortgage or real estate transaction.

The senior mortgage holder for this Crestview home was Bank of America. They outsourced their HAFA processing to a company called UTLS, but also use other vendors. The junior lien holder was HSBC. The short sale was approved in 90 days, and the sellers received a $3000 relocation credit. One of the other advantages of HAFA is that there is full waiver of deficiency.

1243 Ego Dr., Crestview Florida sold for $149,900

This home in the Cherokee Bend subdivision was just approved for VA Compromise Sale and short sale. 2838 Tamiami Trail, Crestview Florida had two liens, Bank of America and Eglin Federal Credit Union. The Bank of America mortgage was a VA guaranteed loan, and Eglin Federal was a home equity line of credit.

The one tricky part of this short sale, was that Bank of America did not want to issue approval until they had an approval from Eglin Federal. Eglin Federal did not want to issue approval until they had approval from Bank of America. How did I handle this? Since Eglin Federal is a smaller bank, they were more willing to bend. They issued a "preliminary" approval that was enough to make Bank of America happy!

Agents should note that Bank of America does not currently process VA Compromise Sales online in Equator. You have to do it the old fashioned way - fax!

If you are considering short sale or VA Compromise Sale, be sure to hire an experienced Crestview FL short sale agent.

This home in Antioch Estates, Crestview Florida, was just approved for short sale. There were two liens, Bank of America and USAA. Don't moan and groan, Bank of America was the easy part of the approval!

The market value of the Antioch Estates home was under $120,000, and the senior lien, Bank of America had a mortgage balance of about $150,000. Through negotiations, we were able to get a waiver of deficiency for the remaining note, and Bank of America agreed to pay USAA $6000 out of the net proceeds.

The junior lien, USAA Federal Savings Bank was more difficult. That mortgage balance was around $80,000, and the $6000 offer from Bank of America was not acceptable to USAA to settle the account.

Negotiations with USAA were lengthy, taking four days to respond to each request from the seller. The USAA choices were: pay 75% of the loan balance to settle the account in full, or pay 25% of the balance at closing (almost $20,000), and continue to pay on a promissory note for the remaining note. When I relayed USAA's request to Bank of America, they almost closed the file due to the extraordinary junior lien demand.

With each increased offer to “settle” for cash from the Crestview short sale seller, USAA increased its minimum requirement to simply release its lien. (Originally, USAA stated they would release the lien for 25% of the outstanding balance.) During negotiations, the "25%" grew to whatever the seller offered to settle (less than 75%). I questioned this, and was told USAA was trying to "minimize promissory note payments post-closing for the seller's benefit", if that was the seller’s end decision. Of course, that doesn’t make sense. USAA was, in my opinion, just requiring as much as it thought was obtainable. USAA is not the easiest short sale lender to work with, but with persistence, you can succeed.

If you are a Crestview Florida homeowner considering short sale to avoid foreclosure, consult an attorney and an experienced Crestview FL short sale agent.

This lovely home in the Steeplechase subdivision, Crestview, Florida, has just been approved for short sale. Bank of America took 90 days to approve the sale. The delay was caused by Bank of America automatically putting the short sale into the HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) program, since it was owner-occupied. It was subsequently removed from HAFA, since all program criteria were not met.

Bank of America approved this Steeplechase, Crestview Florida short sale and waived the right to seek a deficiency judgment for the unpaid balance.

There was much negotiation to achieve this short sale approval, which had one investor and Mortgage Insurance. Each party had a separate interest, which required individual negotiations through Bank of America (the servicer). Waiver of deficiency is normally a desirable result for a short sale, so the outcome was positive for the seller.

If you need to sell your Crestview Florida home to avoid foreclosure, consider doing a short sale. Even if you've had a Lis Pendens filed, it may not be too late. To improve your chance of success, consult an attorney and an experienced Crestview FL short sale agent.

110 Sandstone

The military's Homeowner Assistance Program (HAP) is getting speedier all the time! I just had another HAP contract approved, this time for a Crestview Florida home sale in the Redstone subdivision. The sellers were PCSing from Eglin Air Force Base more than 50 miles away. They purchased their home prior to July 2006, their property value had declined at least 10% and they met other HAP requirements. Primarily, they owed more on their mortgage than the property was worth.

That's where HAP comes in to help our military service members. HAP will pay the mortgage shortfall at closing to assist the service member relocate to a new base.

For this Crestview Florida HAP sale, the airman sent in a complete application along with the real estate contract and market analysis which I provided. HAP approved the sale in about four weeks.

Here are some quick hints for Eglin Air Force Base or Hurlburt Field HAP sellers:

HAP will normally contribute 3% of the purchase price for closing costs on conventional sales.

HAP will pay the Realtor fee.

You must keep your mortgage current, pay any liens, judgments and prorated property taxes.

To speed your approval process, always send in a complete application, and hire an experienced HAP real estate agent.

GMAC Homecomings Financial has just approved the short sale for this Southway Estates home in Crestview Florida. The approvel time was an amazing 9 days! How so fast?

1. GMAC had a Broker Price Opinon, or property valuation, done prior to listing. They suggested a list price, although I was free to reduce the price based on market conditions.

2. There was a negotiator assigned at the start of the process.

3. We got a strong offer for fair market value, minimal closing costs and a buyer who put down earnest money.

4. We uploaded the seller's financial and hardship information into GMAC's online short sale platform, Equator.

Although we got a very speedy approval from GMAC, their system needs improvement. They provide a seller financial questionnaire at time of short sale. The responses on the form do not correspond to data entry fields in the Equator online system. For example, "What is the date the seller hardship started?", etc. There were several questions where we had to call the seller for clarification.

Further, GMAC's system has internal deadlines that could not be extended, requiring short turn-around for entry. When we told the GMAC negotiator some of the financial information did not correspond to their forms, we were told to "do the best" we could with the system.

And we did. Approved in nine days!

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

This beautiful home at 610 Adams Drive, Crestview Florida was just approved for short sale by GMAC.

Mortgage Type: FHA /HUD

Approved Price: $115,000

Approval Time: 108 Days

Sales notes: Since this was an FHA/HUD short sale, special procedures had to be followed. The seller was required to write a letter explaining why the home was vacant. FHA short sales typically require the owners to occupy the property. In addition, because of the HUD short sale guidelines, the approval stated the sellers would receive $1000 upon closing.

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