The Agent Insider Blog

Supplemental Directive 11-08 Contains Important New Policy Changes for HAFA Effective Immediately! On August 9, 2011, the Treasury Department issued Supplemental Directive 11-08 for its HAFA program. The new policy changes and clarifications of previous HAFA policies are as follows: Borrowers are currently provided with a 14-day period to respond to a servicer’s invitation to [...]

Effective Immediately All Short Sale Lienholders No Longer Have Any Deficiency Rights California Senate Bill 458 was signed into law on July 15 and is effective immediately for all short sale transactions the close after July 15, 2011. The law provides that junior lienholders no longer have any deficiency rights against the borrower after a [...]

FTC Rules That Real Estate Agents No Longer Have To Comply with the Mars Advertising Rules Just a few short months ago, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued the new M.A.R.S. rules and specifically determined that these new rules would be applicable to real estate agents who list short sale properties. This would require that [...]

FHFA Mandates that Fannie and Freddie Align Short Sale Servicing Standards One thing I have wondered about in the past is why the two government-sponsored entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, found it necessary to have different rules for short sales, but then I remembered that the “G” in GSE stood for government and, of [...]

The Government recently released Supplemental Directive 11-02. This “policy clarification” will go into effect June 1st, 2011. Currently the changes only apply to the treasury department program and do not apply to Fannie and Freddie 1st Lien loans as well as FHA /VA /RHS loans. However, this may change in the future. Click Here to [...]

I have poured through the 53 page M.A.R.S documents and just posted a very important video below that covers the new M.A.R.S. rules implemented by the FTC that will effect every real estate agent that works with short sales. We have also posted a full length video and 4 example disclosures that you can use [...]

VIDEO: at end of post At the end of 2010, the United States Treasury Department in Supplemental Directive 10-18, amended the HAFA short sale rules and policies for non-GSE servicers and lenders. The effective date for the new HAFA amendments was February 1, 2011. All real estate agents who work with HAFA short sales need [...]

The Wall Street Journal just released an article where I discuss ‘The Short Sale Alternative’ in light of the foreclosure turmoil the real estate market finds itself in. The short sale market is poised to explode as investors and buyers begin to shy away from already foreclosed properties and banks look to limit their exposure [...]

The Realty Times website just released a new article where I discuss some important points regarding the recent news of “robo-signing” by some of the larger banks and how this will affect foreclosure sales. I also discuss some important information that agents need to know about foreclosed homes that are currently occupied by long-term tenants. [...]

In an interesting development Wells Fargo has stopped granting extensions for distressed homeowners to complete short sales, a move that will expedite foreclosures. From the article: “Mary Berg, a spokeswoman for Wells, said its new policy on short sales was put in place “over the past couple of months . in response to various investor [...]