Join special guest Tim McCallum, director of short sales Fannie Mae in studio with Alex Charfen as they discuss important new changes to the Fannie Mae short sale guidelines and escalation process.

On this exclusive LIVE web broadcast on Thursday, April 11, at 4pm ET you will learn about new…

• Streamlined documentation for faster closings
• Resources for contacting and escalating a short sale issue
• Mandatory servicer timelines and restrictions on resale
• Borrower eligibility, listing, offer, and closing requirements
• Transparency in the short sale process so you stay in the loop
• $3,000 relocation incentives you can offer your clients
• And much, much more!

Don’t miss out on this critically important, FREE broadcast! Register Here.

Exclusive Industry Broadcast | Fannie Mae’s New Short Sale Escalation Process | Thursday, April 11th at 4pm ET/3pm CT/2pm MT/1pm PT

Bank of America was already working on issuing a clarification, which was distributed today. Here’s an excerpt that addresses the “Active” status question:

It’s important to adhere to these requirements to insure success with your Bank of America short sale file!

We are dedicated to keeping you on the cutting edge of servicer requirements!

Tune in to our March 14, 2013 Member Broadcast where we provide you all the latest updates on the Big 4 Lenders! To register, just click the link: Big 4 Lender Updates Broadcast

As many of you know, MLS rules in most markets prohibit the use of “Active” status for properties that are under contract. Bank of America has assured us that they are aware of this matter and will be clarifying this requirement soon.

We know many of you work with Bank of America short sales on a daily basis, and want you to be aware of how to correctly maintain your listings. We value your membership and strive to keep you informed of the latest lender developments!

Please stay tuned as we will make you aware when Bank of America distributes more information on the matter.

So no matter how you measure success, like Superbowl Super Stars, you took risks, practiced towards perfection, and certainly never gave up!

That’s why from today through the end of the month, we are offering you the opportunity to attend this year’s Breakthrough Conference, for a first “early bird” payment of only $139.

This is our “early bird” reward for agents who think fast, move fast, and act fast. And like last year, we expect our 2013 Conference to sell out quickly. In-fact, due to overwhelming demand at last year’s event, all of our “2013 pre-sale” tickets are already sold out.

Every agent who attends Breakthrough 2013 will learn:

• Lead Maximization Must-Haves
• The New Agent Startup Strategies
• Team Leverage Creation Concepts
• Distressed Properties Mastery Principles
• The Investor Attraction Systems
• Broker Profit Model Methods
• Technology and Social Media Trends

The reality is, the beginning the next “new normal” is fast approaching. And while no one ever said, real estate was easy, with the right education, it doesn’t have to be hard.

Visit the Charfen Breakthrough 2013 Conference page below to see what you get, where we are hosting it, and of course, to secure a spot or two for yourself and an associate (before time runs our or all 250 spots are taken).

Visit CharfenBreakthrough.com

This time, we’re bringing in the industry’s largest short sale lender to talk about their new programs that will affect short sales in 2013. Bank of America has completed nearly as many short sale transactions as the next two biggest lenders combined, which means these updates are going to affect agents nationwide.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 was created to relieve homeowners of the phantom income tax associated with forgiven debt from a short sale, foreclosure, or loan modification. Although this legislation was set to expire at the end of 2012, the recently passed American Taxpayer Relief Act extended this exemption, which means short sales aren’t going anywhere in 2013.

As the industry’s largest short sale lender, Bank of America is in a unique position to share how short sales are going to change in 2013, and how updates to their own programs will affect your business…

Don’t let these updates surprise you later this year and possibly delay your deals.

Register for our FREE live broadcast on Wednesday, January 16th at 4pm ET, and hear about these updates directly from the source. Alex Charfen will be interviewing Stephanie Lowe, Senior VP of Short Sale Production at BofA, about the state of short sales and what agents should expect this year.

You will also be able to call in and ask questions live on the air, so don’t miss this rare opportunity to get the answers you’ve been looking for.

Join us on Wednesday, January 16th at 4pm EST to make sure you’re ready for this year, and you will also learn…

• Where to find new opportunities in the 2013 market
• How to get free listing exposure via a new BofA program
• FHA short sales vs. other BofA short sale programs
• How clients can get relocation assistance of up to $30,000
• Why BofA’s deal with Auction.com will benefit you
• And much, much more…

Don’t miss out on this critically important, FREE broadcast! Register Here.

EXCLUSIVE INDUSTRY BROADCAST | 
Bank of America to Discuss the State of Short Sales in 2013
Wednesday, January 16th | 4pm EST

The extension is now only awaiting President Obama’s signature.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act was originally passed in 2007 to aid the millions of homeowners who suddenly found themselves in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure following the housing market crash.

Under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, debt forgiven in a short sale, foreclosure, or loan modification, is exempt from federal taxes on primary residences. For homeowners facing foreclosure, this exemption saves them from paying thousands, or even tens of thousands, in taxes on top of losing their homes.

Now for another year, homeowners can take advantage of this exemption and avoid foreclosure without the fear of an impossible tax liability.

And with banks recognizing the significance of short sales as an effective loss mitigation tool, they’re ramping up for business. Short sales will be the key loss mitigation tool used by mortgage servicers in 2013.

For more on the state of the short sale market in 2013, join CDPE designation author Alex Charfen on Wednesday, January 16 as he interviews Bank of America’s Stephanie Lowe, Senior Vice President of Short Sale Production, about what the bank believes agents should expect in 2013!

Register for this FREE industry broadcast today!

We’ve reported extensively on all the HAFA program updates, changes and extensions in the past years, reaching tens of thousands of agents around the country.

And that’s part of the reason why the Treasury Department approached us first to report on the new HAFA updates for 2013.

The U.S. Treasury’s Laurie Maggiano, one of the architects of the Administration’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAMP) program, will join CDPE author Alex Charfen on a monumental live broadcast on Monday, December 17.

Be the first to hear the critical details of the 2013 HAFA short sale updates and join thousands of agents. Register today!

On this FREE live web broadcast you will learn:

• How to speed up your deals and streamline your short sale packages for faster approval using the new “Pre-Determined” hardship categories
• Discover which current HAFA documents will no longer be mandatory, and how will this will affect your current short sale transactions
• Learn what new anti-fraud affidavit you must provide both the buyer and seller to verify that the HUD 1 Settlement Statement is at arms-length
• Find out about the condensed approval timeline that servicers are now required to use and how this change will benefit your business
• Why you might experience a surge in investor business when the “Prohibition Against Resale” is reduced from 90 to 30 calendar days

This Must-See Event WILL Change Your Business
EXCLUSIVE INDUSTRY BROADCAST 
| U.S. Treasury to Report Critical HAFA Updates 


Monday, December 17 at 4:00 pm ET

Register today for this FREE live broadcast!

There is some excellent news from the National Association of Home Builders! According to their Improving Markets Index for August 2012, 1 out of every 4 major metro areas are seeing improvement in the housing market.

The association’s chief economist, David Crowe, believes that this trend can return the housing market to the “traditional role of driving economic growth.”

The housing market is improving, and we’re seeing it all across the country. But there is still a housing shortage in some areas, and home builders need to get building to catch up with the demand in these improving metros.

If you would like to learn more about ways to help improve the housing market in your area, download our FREE quiz on short sales here!

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve have decided to extend the deadline for homeowners to get an independent review of their foreclosure.

If you, or someone you know was foreclosed on from 2009 to 2010, and you feel your file may have been mishandled due to a procedural or legal error, you now have until December 31st, 2012 to submit your case for independent review.

If you are someone who needs to file, go to http://www.independentforeclosurereview.com and submit your information. We’ve vetted this site. It is government sponsored and legitimate. Remember, you only have until the end of the year to file!

If you are a real estate agent and would like to learn how you can help your community avoid more foreclosures, download our FREE report, The 5 Steps to Listing a Successful Short Sale now!

In recent months, we’ve talked about the coming housing shortage in American markets. Well two recent reports are reinforcing those claims and it looks like the shortage is heating up.

According to Redfin (who tracks home prices in 19 different U.S. markets), home prices are up 3.2% from July 2011 to July 2012, and the overall number of homes that are for sale dropped a huge 28%.

Freddie Mac is also sharing news from their U.S. Economic Housing Outlook for August, and the home price index has risen 4.8%. Not only that, Freddie Mac says there is no huge shadow inventory waiting to come onto the market, as other may believe.

These statistics show that the housing markets in major cities are going to continue to see a falling inventory of housing, which will drive up the prices. So if you’re an agent with a client that’s still on the fence, tell them the time to buy really is now!

To learn more about short sales, and how you can help navigate your clients through the selling or buying process, download our FREE report, Why 2012 is the Year of the Short Sale now!

When it comes to figuring out what the real estate market looks like, among the best resources to use are statistics from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

The OCC recently released their mortgage metrics report for the first quarter of 2012, and the numbers tell a compelling story.

According to the report, loan modifications dropped 36.7% from last year and completed foreclosures rose from last year by 2.67%. Out of the gate, this might seem like bad news, but there’s more to the story. The truth is the rate at which completed foreclosures is rising has slowed down from last year, and newly initiated foreclosures have dropped 8.1%. And the best statistics we saw was that short sales rose 19.7%!

It’s no secret that 2012 hes been the year of the short sale so far. Every short sale represents someone getting out of a distressed property and getting new owners into a home. We love to see that this number has risen so much, and we look forward to seeing it continue.

If you would like more information on short sales, you can download our FREE report, Why 2012 is the Year of Short Sale.

A new report released by CoreLogic recently stated that foreclosure in the United States has dropped 24% since last year. This is amazing news, but there is more to it than meets the eye.

Today, there are 1.4 million homes currently in the foreclosure process. Last year, there were 1.5 million homes in the process. So in a year’s time, there’s only been a 100,000—only 7%—difference in the amount of homes going through some sort of foreclosure activity. How do we reconcile the 24% drop in foreclosures to a 7% drop in homes currently in foreclosure? In a word: Agents.

More and more agents are helping their distressed clients take advantage of short sales and mortgage modification programs that are available to them from the government or their lender. So even though the total number of homes in the foreclosure process hasn’t dropped significantly, the number of homes actually being foreclosed upon has! The tide is definitely turning in the real estate market, and it’s agents like you who are leading the way.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can help homeowners in your own community, download our FREE report, The Seven Most Dangerous Short Sale Myths.

The updated Case-Shiller index was recently released, and it has many in the real estate industry excited.

The index shows a 2.2% percent increase in the value of homes in a single month! This represents the largest jump in home values since the the 20 city index began in 2002.

The driving force behind this increase in home prices is simple supply and demand. Inventory is declining in these cities, but that is driving up the price of the homes. This is great news for agents, investors, and sellers! It looks like the real estate industry is on its way back.

If you’re a real estate agent, and would like more information on how you can tap into a major part of the real estate market, download our FREE report, The 5 Steps to Listing a Successful Short Sale.

After gathering data from 38 children’s hospitals across America from 2000 to 2009, CHOP’s PolicyLab found a strong correlation between the rate of child physical abuse and local foreclosures. In the years the study looked at, overall physical abuse rose 0.79% per year.

In another report, published by First Focus and the Brookings Institution, researchers found that foreclosures affect more than 8 million children in the United States. They estimated 2.3 million children are living in homes that have already been foreclosed on, and an additional 6 million children live in rented or owner-occupied homes that are at risk of foreclosure in the near future.

This study also mentions that numbers dating all the way back to the Great Depression show that financially distressed parents are more likely to engage in harsher, less supportive parenting. This behavior adds the risk of psychological trauma in addition to the greater risk of physical trauma.

The housing crisis has affected us all on some level, but for those going through foreclosure, the process can be especially trying. Many don’t even know that they may have other options. That’s why it is imperative that homeowners are as educated as possible when it comes to their distressed properties.

If you are an owner of a distressed property, and would like to learn more about your options, you can contact a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) in your area by clicking here.

If you’re a real estate agent, and would like more information on how you can help homeowners in your own community, download our FREE report, The Seven Most Dangerous Short Sale Myths.

There’s great news for the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP)! The program, which appeared to stumble out of the gate, is gaining momentum in the distressed property market.

In just the first 5 months of this year 78,000 homes were refinanced using this program. That’s more than all twelve months of 2011 combined! And throughout the life of this program, 1.3 million homeowners have been helped. That’s 1.3 million properties that didn’t go into foreclosure and didn’t bring down property values in neighborhoods.

If you would like to learn more about how you can help homeowners in your community, download our FREE report, The 5 Steps to Listing a Successful Short Sale.

According to the latest findings from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the median price of housing in America is at its highest level since 2008.

The median price of a house rose 7.9% in June 2012—versus June 2011 numbers—to $189,400. The rise in June is the fourth straight month in which these numbers have risen versus the previous year. The last time this occurred was back in 2006.

The NAR report however did show an overall drop in the amount of home sales year-over-year to 4.37 million, and the rise in median price is believed to be due to price adjustments from a tighter inventory level in major markets.

We just returned from our annual conference in Las Vegas, and one of the major issues real estate agents and bank executives were talking about is the coming housing shortage. It’s already happening in most major markets, and if you haven’t seen it yet, we predict you will very soon. The housing market is turning around, but we simply haven’t built enough houses for the people who will be wanting to buy in the next few years.

If you would like to learn more about the short sale market, you can take our FREE quiz by clicking here.

When you choose to make a career out of serving other people, you’re bound to run into an angry customer ever now and then. It Alex Charfen’s latest video blog he demonstrates how you can handle infuriated customers if they call you after sending them a marketing campaign referencing foreclosure.

Many homeowners may get upset at even the mention of foreclosure. This is mainly due to the fact that they feel it is an accusation. Here’s three simple steps to turn this angry caller around into a possible sales lead:

1. Accept Responsibility
   Let the person know you stand behind your marketing piece, and convey the reality of needing to market to distressed properties. A good response would be: “You’re right. We shouldn’t have sent it out. I wish we were in a market where we didn’t have to send it out, but today we have to get peoples’ attention.”
2. Empathize
   Let the caller know you completely understand where they are coming from. A good thing to say would be: “I understand you’re frustrated. I’d be frustrated too. There’s an issue today where we really need to be able to let people know that there are solutions for them if they are in trouble.”
3. Move for a Close
   If somebody is calling you and upset, chances are, they’re having some kind of a challenge with their own home. You can find this out by saying: “By the way, do you, or someone you know owe more on your home than what it’s worth and don’t know what to do? I’d be happy to provide some different options.”

Sometimes you need to provocative in your marketing. Just be sure to be ready to handle the frustrated customers, and leave them feeling differently about how you can serve them.

If you would like more information on how you can help distressed property owners in your community, download our FREE report, Avoid the 10 Most Common Short Sale Pitfalls now.

In the most recent CDPEAdvanced broadcast, Alex Charfen discussed the latest LPS Mortgage Monitor numbers for May 2012, and while delinquencies have dropped sharply in the last few months, there are some key statistics in the report that all real estate agents need to know.

The national foreclosure inventory is currently sitting near an all-time high. Nearly a third—that’s 33%—of all foreclosures right now are properties that are in “repeat” foreclosure. This means that the homeowner was in the foreclosure process, was able to get out of it by paying the lender, or modifying their loan, but have fallen delinquent yet again. If you have clients that you have helped get out of foreclosure in the past few years, check in with them and see if they’re still doing okay with their mortgage.

Another statistic shared on the broadcast was that foreclosure starts in America currently outnumber foreclosure sales 3 to 1! This represents an extremely large inventory of distressed properties, and families that need help from agents like you.

If you are a homeowner with a distressed property, a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) can help you find a graceful exit to your challenging situation. Click here to find a CDPE in your area.

If you are a real estate agent, and would like to learn more about how you can help guide members of your community through the short sale process, download our FREE report, Avoid the 10 Most Common Short Sale Pitfalls.

Since the beginning of the housing market crisis, the most common image in Americans’ heads of a foreclosed property exhibited a house that was owned by a middle-class family struggling to make ends meet. However, there is a rapidly growing segment of homes that are struggling as well… luxury homes.

In the latest CDPE Member Broadcast, Alex Charfen discussed the growing number of homes worth over $1 million that are going into the foreclosure process. According to RealtyTrac, In 2007 there were 5,632 homes in foreclosure—just 0.5% of all foreclosure activity. That number jumped 17% higher to just over 33,000 in 2011, or 2.5% of all foreclosure activity in the country.

Homeowners with these luxury properties need just as much help as the rest of America’s distressed homeowners. If you would like to learn more about how you can help the millions of distressed homeowners across America, download our FREE report, The Five Steps to Listing a Successful Short Sale now!

Today, Alex appeared on “Money with Melissa Francis” on the Fox Business Network to discuss the options that are available to homeowners who are in danger of losing their home to foreclosure. It was a great exchange full of excellent information that agents can use to help explain to distressed homeowners that there ARE OPTIONS AVAILABLE. The topics covered included:

• The overall success of HAMP and HAFA, both in helping homeowners get loan modifications AND serving as a modeling program for the major lenders to more efficiently work through their distressed property inventory.
• Why short sales continue to be the best foreclosure alternative option for both homeowners and banks alike.
• The importance for homeowners to actively seek educated, qualified real estate agents (like CDPEs!) who are knowledgeable about distressed property options.

Take a look at the video and feel free to use it on your websites to spread the word to homeowners who can use your help!

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System have extended the deadline for Independent Foreclosure Review to September 30th.

If you were affected by a mishandled foreclosure between January 2009 and December 2010, there is hope. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve Board have now extended the Independent Foreclosure Review deadline from its previous date of July 31, 2012.

If you are eligible, remediation may included lump sump payments, suspension or rescission of a foreclosure, a loan modification or other loss mitigation assistance of up to $125,000. If you haven’t taken advantage of the Independent Foreclosure Review, do so now before time runs out on September 30th.

To apply for review, please visit: http://www.independentforeclosurereview.com

If you are a real estate agent, and are interested in learning more on how you can help distressed homeowners in your community, download our FREE report, The Five Steps to Listing a Successful Short Sale now.

One of the most frequent questions we’re asked is if a short sale has the same effect on a consumer’s future credit as a foreclosure. The answer is…ABSOLUTELY NOT!

When it comes to credit reporting, a short sale will most likely have a much less catastrophic effect than a foreclosure. As of right now, short sales are not listed as “short sale” on your credit report, but as paid as agreed, paid as negotiated, or paid for less than the original amount.

Also, If you are considered current with a short sale, you still have the ability to apply for an FHA loan, while having a foreclosure on your credit report stays there for a mandated 7 years. Not to mention, with a foreclosure, you must go through months of delinquency notices and in many cases a court appearance, which is also reported on your credit report.

If you’d like to learn more about the misconceptions of short sales, check out our FREE report, The Seven Most Dangerous Short Sale Myths by clicking here!

Last month, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released their State of the Nation’s Housing report for 2012, which revealed a growing trend in the housing market.

From 1973 to 2008, it was cheaper on a monthly basis to rent instead own a home. However, since 2008 the affordability of owning a home has continued to decline and is actually cheaper now than renting.

Watch Alex Charfen’s latest video blog to learn more about this trend in the housing market.

If you’re interested in learning more about short sales, you can download this FREE report from CDPE by clicking the link below.

Avoid the 10 Most Common Short Sale Pitfalls

In April, Bank of America introduced some major changes to the way short sales are initiated. One of the most talked about changes is the new Third Party Authorization form.

On the form, Bank of America stated that only a licensed real estate professional would be allowed to do any work on their client’s behalf. This caused quite a bit of concern for high-volume agents who have assistants who help with processing a file, and Bank of America got a lot of feedback about the new policy.

Last week, Bank of America amended the form.

The updated version includes an area for “Designated Representatives” from your team to be listed, which will enable them to communicate with the bank under your supervision.

The new form is available for download here: http://www.cdpe.com/resources/view/906/BofA3rdParty

Download the form today, and use it to open new lines of communication between your team and Bank of America.

Beginning April 13, 2012, Bank of America will require the following five forms to be submitted to initiate a short sale:

1. Bank of America Third-Party Authorization Form
2. IRS Form 4506-T – Request for Transcript of Tax Return
3. 60-day Estimated HUD-1 (or HUD-1 with closing date if shorter than 60 days)
4. Signed Purchase Contract including Buyers Acknowledgement and Disclosure
5. Bank of America Short Sale Purchase Contract Addendum

If you currently have a short sale file with Bank of America, you will need to complete any outstanding tasks in Equator before April 13. Look for the tasks titled “Submit Short Sale Offer,” “Upload Offer Documents,” and/or “Upload Supporting Documents.”

If these tasks are not complete by April 13, you may be required to re-upload all documents to match the new system (that means five new documents, even if you were only missing one). Your file may also be declined, depending on your open tasks time compared to average timelines.

In addition to these new requirements, Equator will change to allow tasks (after short sale is initiated) to happen simultaneously, rather than sequentially.

We don’t want anyone to be taken by surprise. For full coverage and to make sure you’re as prepared as possible for the changes, join us for an exclusive webinar “Bank of America Short Sale Alert: Changes May Result in Lost Files!”

Register now at http://www.cdpelive.com/120410-bofa

Last month, Bank of America announced a pilot program that will provide some distressed property homeowners with a new foreclosure alternative. This new “Mortgage to Lease” program will allow homeowners facing foreclosure to remain in their homes by converting from home ownership to rental.

In this program, participating homeowners will transfer their home titles to Bank of America for forgiveness of all outstanding mortgage debt. Then Bank of America will lease the home to the former homeowner for up to three years at a rental price less than their mortgage payments, making payments affordable. After the three-year rental period, Bank of America will sell the acquired houses to investors.

For now, the “Mortgage to Lease” program will only affect 1,000 specifically selected Bank of America customers in Arizona, Nevada, and New York. During this initial phase, Bank of America will explore customer, community, and investor reactions and assess the feasibility and practicality of expanding the program.

In order to qualify, the homeowner must meet the following criteria:

• Have a Bank of America loan without junior liens
• Be delinquent 60 days on their mortgage payments
• Be “underwater” on their mortgage
• Must have exhausted other foreclosure alternatives
• Foreclosure must be eminent
• And the homeowner must be occupying the home

Because this program has received national media attention, you may receive questions from homeowners about it. If you do, you can simply explain that this program is tiny and for now will affect less than one-tenth of one percent of all the homeowners with a problem. Remember, Bank of America will be hand-selecting and notifying homeowners for the initial launch.

UPDATE: Bank of America is adding new requirements to their short sale process starting April 13. Alex will give you all the details April 10 on a special, critical update broadcast. Register for the broadcast at http://www.cdpelive.com/120410-bofa.

ATTENTION Agents!

In October’s CDPE Industry Broadcast with Bob Hora, SVP Mortgage Servicing Executive at Bank of America Home Loans, Hora affirmed Bank of America’s commitment to streamlining their short sale process.

In keeping with this commitment, Bank of America is simplifying their third-party authorization process for short sales.

On March 20, Bank of America released a standardized Third-Party Authorization form to be used on all Bank of America short sales beginning April 14, 2012.

For CDPEs, we’ve uploaded the two-page document to the Resources section of the website. Just login, and go to: http://www.cdpe.com/resources/view/906/BofA3rdParty

Or you can download the form from Bank of America’s Agent Resource Center at http://www.bankofamerica.com/realestateagent.

Bank of America will accept other forms until April 14; however, we recommend implementing the form on your next Bank of America short sale!

For those of you who are CDPEs, you should continue to use the “CDPE Short Sale Authorization to Release Information Form” with home owners’ associations, second lien holders, or anyone else you need information from as our contains information specific to those types of organizations.

To watch a recording of CDPE’s exclusive industry broadcast with Bank of America, visit http://www.cdpelive.com/111026-bank-of-america/.

The HAFA updates will go into effect on June 1, 2012, and will allow more distressed homeowners to seek assistance. Most importantly, the deadline for submitting for HAFA eligibility will be extended a full year, from December 31, 2012, to December 31, 2013.

Other major changes from March’s updates to the HAFA program include:

• The removal of occupancy requirements. Previously, HAFA required homeowners to have lived in the property within the last 12 months.

• $3,000 relocation incentives will be limited to properties occupied by an owner or tenant at the time of the short sale.

• Mortgage payments will be allowed to exceed 31% of the homeowner’s gross monthly income. This update will allow a homeowner to stay current on her mortgage and still qualify, minimizing the overall impact to her credit.

• Secondary lienholders may receive up to a maximum of $8,500, up from $6,000 previously.

• And one of the most dramatic changes: The Credit Bureau Reporting will be Account Status Code 13 (paid or closed account/zero balance) or 65 (account paid in full/a foreclosure was started), as applicable.

With these updates, a homeowner can be current on their mortgage, qualify for HAFA, continue to make their payments, and execute a short sale with minimum impact on their credit!

Sign up for our webinar “Has Your Short Sale Stalled? Secret Strategies to Escalate Your File and Get a Resolution Fast!” where we will add a BONUS section on HAFA to cover the updates in depth. Register at http://www.cdpelive.com.

In recent news, major publications including USA TODAY and CNNMoney have spotlighted the incentives provided by banks. These incentive programs, which offer anywhere from around $2,000 to upwards of $35,000, are intended to provide homeowners with the resources and motivation to pursue a short sale.

As banks look to ramp up short sales, such incentives are becoming more frequent. JPMorgan Chase began their incentive program last year, for example, and Bank of America (which plans a 60-70% increase in short sales this year) piloted a program in Florida this past December. Wells Fargo offers incentives as well, though primarily in states where the foreclosure process is particularly lengthy.

For banks, short sales can be a cheaper alternative to foreclosure. The foreclosure process is lengthy and costly, so much so that providing up to a $20,000 alternative for a short sale is still a cheaper option.

In USA TODAY’s article “Lenders paying borrowers to do short sales,” Jim Gillespie, chief executive of Coldwell Banker, is quoted as saying “It’s a lot cheaper to shell out $10,000 or $20,000 to someone than it is to go through a long foreclosure.”

In addition to the cost of the foreclosure process itself, foreclosed properties sell for less than short sales on average. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, foreclosed properties sold for 22% less than conventional sales, while short sales sold for around 14% less.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: This year looks to be the year of the short sale. Make sure you’re prepared!

For more information on the distressed property market and tips for listing a successful short sale, watch a free preview of the CDPE course. Click here to watch!

The Obama administration announced its latest plan to help troubled homeowners, enabling an estimated 3.5 million underwater mortgage holders to refinance at today’s historically-low interest rates.

However, experts speculate the proposal—which is expected to cost up to $10 billion and would be paid for by imposing a fee on major banks—could have a difficult time getting Congressional approval.

This proposal follows a string of government-initiated programs that have had mixed success, including the Making Homes Affordable Program. The difference is, Obama’s latest plan would assist borrowers with private (non-government backed) loans.

Under the current proposal, to be eligible borrowers must:

• Have not missed a mortgage payment in the past six months, and have no more than one late payment in the six months prior;
• Have a credit score of 580 or higher;
• Have a current mortgage balance within loan limits for FHA-insured loans in their communities; and
• The property must be their primary residence

As an agent, it’s important to understand the details and restrictions of the program so you can effectively advise your clients on their options. This proposal is already getting a lot of attention by the media, and distressed homeowners may view this as a viable solution to their problems.

However, it’s important to remember that this program would require Congressional approval, which may never happen. If you have clients who are on the edge, if they are facing foreclosure and desperate for help, don’t let the media talk of this proposal distract them from finding a real solution.

Are you well versed on foreclosure alternatives, such as short sales? Test your knowledge with our brief quiz!