April Seller's Tip-You might HAFA do it, so do it right

Ah, it's like those old Campbell's soup commercials, where the letters kept rearranging themselves to spell out new words...the government just keeps coming up with more and cleverer (clever-ier? cleverererer??) agencies and acronyms.

But this time, I think it's a pretty good thing. You've heard me rant about the problems that plague anybody working with the banks to work out their loan modification or to get a short-sale approval through the system. Now, with the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA) from the Obama administration, those of you are trying to avoid foreclosure via short sale have some real support.

In brief, HAFA is designed to help those homeowners who will just not be able to stay in their homes avoid foreclosure through increased incentives to banks to allow a short-sale, in addition to other assistance. One of the BEST of these additional benefits, and kudos to whoever thought it up, is that the program actually has a relocation benefit to help the homeowner make the transition to different housing arrangements.

This is a remarkable win-win, in my rebellious view (at least on paper-more on that later). Banks are increasingly encouraged to support the short sale process, the homeowner trying to make a graceful exit gets some assistance themselves, and all of this means that there are some real solutions out there.

BUT.

And in this case, it could be a BIG but...or a small one...depending on the lender...

As in many of the cases for these government sponsored programs, participation by the lender is optional, and, according to the official information page about the program ( http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/hafa.html ) the lenders write their own guidelines for eligibility.

So the success or failure of the program depends on the actual willingness, flexibility, and preparedness of the lender.

No, wait, don't laugh.

Yet.

The program has just been rolled out, and some early signs are very optimistic. According to DSNews, the on-line news site of the Default Servicing industry, real estate companies and banks are putting a lot of effort into getting on board with the program. http://www.dsnews.com/articles/government-agents-lenders-vendors-one-solitary-force-when-it-comes-to-hafa-2010-04-06

So, those of you that are looking at a short sale as a better solution than foreclosure for yourselves, and for investors like my team, this could be great news. It's well worth your time to check out the website to learn more about your options. http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/hafa.html

And if it joins the jumble of other progras and agencies and fades uselessly back into soupy mix, you can bet that I'll be Ranting about it!

Rebelliously,
-Larry