Earlier this week I received a phone call from a fellow Arizonian in the greater Phoenix area. Tim had been reading my Blog post “After a Short Sale, How Soon Can I Buy?”, and had a few questions for me. Tim is selling his home as a short sale to avoid foreclosure. He listed the property with a REALTOR®, accepted an offer, complied his financials and the entire package has been submitted to Fannie Mae for approval. As Tim is looking forward to purchasing another home, he has remained current on his mortgage per the guidelines from Fannie Mae. After his package was reviewed he was told by Fannie Mae that he needed to be behind one month on his mortgage or they would not approve his short sale.
WHAT?? I can’t imaging anyone little lone the government turning down money to approve a loss. Also, the late payment will extend his wait to purchase another home. “Can this be the new norm?” Tim asked.
Wow. I told him that we had not encountered any banks, Fannie Mae etc turning down house payments to approve a short sale but I would have to look into this and get back with him. I GOOGLED and was unable to come up with anything from Fannie Mae stating a homeowner requesting a short sale must be one payment behind. I did however find a few Blog posts from a fellow realtor’s with the same story that Tim had told.
Unfortunately the verdict is still out. As we continue to live through this financial cycle, Michael and I will continue to work diligently to help people achieve their real estate goals. The rules seem to change and as each bank has its’ own set of criteria we will continue to keep you updated
Tags: avoid foreclosure, Buying a Short Sale in Bullhead City AZ, Fort Mohave home sales, Short Sale and Late Payment, short sale az, short sales in arizona, Short Sales in Bullhead City AZ
Avg. Sales Price: 12500
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I recently completed a successful short sale with Bank of America in Nevada. We were told the same thing, that we must be delinquent. Due to some medical issues we actually ended up falling 90 days behind and our short sale was approved. It went into Escrow the end of April 2011 and closed in September 2011. It saddens me to think that in order to show a hardship you really have to fall behind. The bank was so unorganized though. They actually had the modification department still calling us in September wondering why we wouldn’t complete our modification packet, they fed exed us 3 times and each time I called them on the phone and said if you would talk to your short sale department you would know we are CLOSING this month. Another interesting thing, they denied us into the HAFA program (where they give the seller $3000 and agree to not pursue a deficiency judgement, but I told our agent to still pursue a traditional short sale so we did. Interestingly enough, when we went to sign the paperwork Bank of America agreed to the language that said they would NOT pursue a deficiency. We sold for $161K and the loan was for $330K so that was great news for us. We did agree to pay $1K at close, a small price to pay to ensure there would not be a deficiency. My advice to anyone is to fill out all the paperwork, keep pushing the banks and work with a great agent. A successful short sale is possible. We even found a beautiful house just down the street from where we lived and our renting it for a couple years and improving our credit then we can buy a house. A house does not make a home, keep your spirits up, your family together, and believe, you can successfully short sell your home. I created a file on my computer that sale SHORT SALE SUCCESS, scanned every document and put it in that file. I’m living proof, short sales work. They can work for you too! Good luck.