Cash Incentives for Short Sales
It appears that new short sale guidelines that have been put into place continue to make it easier for distressed homeowners to get relocation assistance after completing the short sale on their distressed property. Mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have launched a new short sale program allowing the homeowner to complete a short sale and receive cash incentives without missing any mortgage payments….It’s about time!
I don’t know why this hasn’t always been the case. I believe that as long as the homeowner can prove a valid hardship, then why force them to miss payments if they’re willing to work with the bank sooner than later. For one thing, the lender loses less money. Why would you want the homeowner to miss at least one or two payments before allowing them to start the process if they’re willing to start the process while continuing to make the payments? I think that if this were the case then there would be a lot less distressed homeowners doing a strategic default.
[HAFA] The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program provides distressed homeowners with cash relocation incentive of $3,000.00. The problem is that the guidelines have several restrictions that many times kept distressed sellers from getting the assistance they so desperately needed.
B of A, The nation’s largest loan servicer offers the HAFA program in addition to several other in-house programs. Its most popular program is the “Cooperative Short Sale Program” which has an “Enhanced Relocation Assistance” that ranges anywhere from $2,500 to $30,000. Just this past year we were able to qualify 3 of our Orlando short sale clients for the $30,000.00 cashback at closing. Bank of America has recently launched the enhanced program on a national level. This program applies to pre-approved short sales, these are short sales that are started without there being an offer to purchase. The amount of the incentive is based on the value of the home.
WILL YOUR LENDER COOPERATE?
There are some who will tell you that banks would rather take a house to foreclosure or modify the loan than approve a short sale. This just isn’t true, it costs a lender a lot of time and money to take a house through the foreclosure process and at the end of the day, it’s just a numbers game.
The truth is that short sales net lenders twelve to twenty-five percent more than they would make from foreclosure because of the time and money that it takes to not only regain control over the property, but to make any repairs, market and finally resell the house. And as far as loan modifications are concerned, over half of them default within the first year then ultimately turn into short sale or foreclosure.
Lenders have finally figured this all out and that’s why they are constantly streamlining there process and continue to create enticing offers to help out distressed homeowners. By completing a short sale, a distressed homeowner can avoid going through a foreclosure and limit the damage done to their credit.
