IF you get approved for HAFA and close under HAFA short sale

HAFA is a deficiency free short sale that actually provides $3,000 to sellers for relocation expenses. You have to qualify for the program and it does add significant time to the process. Some lenders will not participate and some investor do not participate.

To find out if HAFA is possible for you can call your lender. The person you speak to may not have all the information required to correctly advise you. They also cannot tell you over the phone if you WILL get HAFA approved. That process takes a while.

A HAFA short is done a different way than a traditional short. With HAFA you must fill out a packet for both HAMP (modification) and HAFA (sale) at once. The RDC or third party that facilitates HAFA and HAMP with your lender and investor work your information for a determination of approval. It’s very hard to and slow to get HAFA with Fannie Mae as the investor. Easier if it’s Freddie Mac. You must be late to be considered with Freddie Mac, not with Fannie Mae.



If you get approved the banks orders an appraisal for their records to establish value. They then provide us with a marketing amount that we can list the home for. NOTE that the amounts on HAFA are always at, or above market value. This usually causes issues with getting an offer. We can contest it in the first 60 days and MAY get it down a bit. The marketing period is 120 days. At that time the move you to DIL deed in lieu. We can request more time to market or ask to be transferred to a standard short sale at that time. If we do get an offer where they want it during that time we submit it and they have 10 days to look over the offer. IT NEVER IS THAT SIMPLE, ever. Bases on the fact that the RDC is not involved (governmental agency) this adds time and frustration to the process. If you try for HAFA be patient and expect the unexpected. It’s not the funnest ride at the County Fair.

If your lender is Bank of America you MUST be prepared for borderline torture in the processing. If you are Fannie Mae you will probably give up. If you are BAC (Bank of America) & Fannie I apologize to you….you’re not going to have any fun in the process.

You must live in the home the entire time and you must verify after closing that your servicer recorded the sale as sold within 45 days. IF they didn’t you have top contact RDC, your servicer and the HAFA program until you see that as closed. I have seen a lot of post close issues with this. It’s a government short sale; I like to call it a Post Office short sale. When was the last time you had an easy experience dealing with the Post Office?