Experience pays off, especially with short sales. If you are trying to short sell your home, but were denied money back under the HAFA program, be advised of this warning to avoid problems down the road when you are ready to close: your agent needs to make sure that the bank negotiator changes the status of your short sale from a HAFA short sale to a traditional short sale.

Here is what should happen: the bank will need to issue you a denial letter, decline the short sale, and then your agent will need to re-initiate your short sale with the bank as a traditional short sale. You will want to make sure this is taken care of as soon as HAFA funds are denied, otherwise you could possibly end up going to foreclosure.

I had a short sale listing that was scheduled to close this Friday. I submitted the final HUD yesterday. I then received a call from the bank closing agent telling me that we need to deny the short sale and re-initiate it as a traditional short sale, as the bank negotiator did not do that when she should have. This essentially means that the short sale process starts ALL over again! After months of awaiting approval, no one wants that to happen.

I was on the phone yesterday calling all my contacts at the bank, trying to get help from whomever I could…it worked. I was contacted today by a short sale manager, who humbly apologized for the bank’s mistake. She has the new negotiator fervently working our file now to get everything approved as quickly as possible. I was so grateful to her and to the new negotiator, and also to the short sale closer who has been very helpful.

It is so important with these short sales to make sure that all the stars are aligned. Sometimes, as a short sale agent, you need to do the work of other people as well as your own (including that of the bank, in some cases). I learned an important lesson today, from a situation I have never seen nor heard of. Luckily I was able to work it out, but if I had been inexperienced that would likely not be the case.

If you are short selling your home, please make sure you have a very experienced short sale agent on your side, one who knows how to communicate with the lender and how to handle crazy situations, should they arise.

For more information on HAFA click here.

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