Fannie Short Sale Partner

The Five Star Institute, a mortgage industry group based in Dallas, Texas, announced a partnership with Fannie Mae to educate real estate agents on Fannie Mae’s Short Sale Assistance Desk (SSAD). Fannie Mae’s SSAD helps expedite the process by allowing real estate agents to reach out to Fannie Mae directly for short sale approval of first-lien, Fannie Mae-backed loans. Agents can access the appropriate forms through multiple listing services (MLS).


The Five Star Institute is the parent company of DS News magazine and DSNews.com

Roughly One-Third Of Homeowners Have Underwater Mortgages

Nearly one-third of U.S. homeowners owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth, according to a new national survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports. The new survey, which polled 720 Americans.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/housing/march_2011/31_say_they_owe_more_on_their_mortgage_than_their_home_is_worth

If someone can’t afford to make their increased mortgage payments, 22% of all Americans say it’s better for the government to assist them with their payments than it is for them to be forced to sell their house. But as they have for months, a sizable majority (64%) believes it’s better for the person to sell their house and find a less expensive one. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.


In a survey last September, 39% of Americans said the government should encourage home ownership through incentives, but 51% said the government should stay out of the housing market all together.

Midwest Firm Offers Service to Speed Up Fannie Mae Short Sales

Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) has teamed up with Fannie Mae to provide its brokers and agents with a service designed to shorten the time they have to wait for approval from the GSE on short sale transactions. MRED provides property listing services in northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and northwest Indiana. This week, the company announced the availability of the Fannie Mae Short Sale Assistance Desk for its coverage area. The tool has already been employed by MLSs in Florida and Nevada, and agents there are seeing the benefits.

Currently, gaining an approval to proceed with a short sale transaction can take months. By collecting and submitting information via the GSE’s streamlined Assistance Desk service, MRED says Fannie Mae will have the data it needs to make quicker decisions regarding short sale requests.


The Assistance Desk expedites the process so that a real estate professional will receive an initial response within one week confirming that the case has been reviewed, MRED explained.


 
Short sale version of MERS??

Short Sales a Failure According to CA Survey

Ninety-four percent of Realtors surveyed by the California Association of Realtors participated in a short sale transaction during 2010, demonstrating the growing presence of short sale listings in today's distressed real estate environment. Despite increased market interest in the short sale as an alternative to foreclosure, the survey found that fewer than three out of five actually close in California. The trade group says this fact illustrates "the complexity and difficulty of navigating lenders' and servicers' short sale procedures."

“The lack of standardization, long approval process, and lack of lender approvals are hampering what should be a 45-day short sale process,” Peerce said. “Instead we’re hearing the typical response time for lenders is at least 60 days, and in many instances, their response time exceeds six months.”


More than half (63 percent) of Realtors said that lenders took more than 60 days to return a written response of the approval or disapproval of the short sale agreement submitted. Only 4 percent said they received a written response in less than 14 days.


http://www.dsnews.com/articles/short-sale-success-faces-hurdles-in-california-survey-2011-03-08
 
 

Analysis: Short Sales Resisted as Foreclosures Are Revived

As Bank of America and GMAC prepare to resume foreclosures again after a brief moratorium due to faulty paperwork, many hard-pressed homeowners are asking why lenders often balk at a less disruptive solution: short sales, the New York Times reported today. The halt in most foreclosures the last few weeks gave a hint of hope to homeowners, who found breathing room to pursue alternatives. Consumer advocates took the view that this might pressure banks to offer mortgage modifications on better terms and perhaps drive interest in short sales, which are rising sharply in many corners of the nation. However, some major lenders took a quick inventory of their foreclosure practices and insisted their processes were sound. Concerns about fraud are one of the reasons lenders are so careful about short sales. Sometimes well-off homeowners want to portray their finances as dire and cut their losses on a property. In other instances, distressed homeowners try to make a short sale to a relative, who would then sell it back to them (a practice that is illegal). A recent industry report estimates that short sale fraud occurs in at least 2 percent of sales and costs banks about $300 million annually.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/business/25short.html?_r=1&ref=business
 

Short Sales

The hard-hit housing markets of California, Florida, and Arizona, along with Texas, are seeing the most activity, CoreLogic said in its 2010 Short Sale Research Study released Tuesday. These four states account for more than half – 55.8 percent – of short sale volume.

Lenders’ financial losses resulting from preventable and unnecessary short sale fraud are estimated to be as high as $310 million by the end of this year, CoreLogic says. According to the company’s study, the risk of ‘unnecessary losses’ occurs in one in every 53 short sales and averages about $41,500.

“By definition, short sales constitute a financial loss to lenders but will continue to be a necessary part of the mortgage industry as it seeks stabilization. The primary objective for lenders is to eliminate unnecessary loss,” said Tim Grace, SVP of fraud analytics at CoreLogic.