HAFA Changes Real Estate Agent Prospecting Protocols

While the times are surely changing, the streamlining of the Short Sale process per HAFA and as similar to the Wachovia Program now adopted by Well Fargo Bank will be changing the way Agents will be finding these Sellers as well as changing the way these Sellers approach the marketplace and find us.

While distressed Sellers have been difficult for many Agents and other vendors to reach in the past, The HAFA component will likely change the way distressed Sellers affiliate with brokerages and other service providers.

There are two issues which will cause a shift in the initial steps of the process. One is that the Distressed Sellers are more likely to be accessible to their Bank because of all the recent press about “cash for keys” types of credits or even cash paid upfront to facilitate a timely sale.

Secondly, Once Agents find that these Sellers are no longer hiding under the house, in the official setting of governmental reprieve, these Sellers will be handed Pre-approved Short Sale commitments that the Seller in turn will be asked to provide to the Agent of their choice. The Pre-approval will have a net figure, theoretically based on the Short Sales Lenders appraisal, cost guidelines and quotas they configure based on these formulas and areas of individual considerations which a property and Borrower may command.

This all equals a severe change from the considered norm. This is a change which is predicted to also change the mindset of most Borrowers turning Seller. So, to further illustrate this in a more captive manner, let us propose the following questions to the experienced Short Sales Agent...

1. When was the last time you remember a distressed Seller ask you where and how often you advertise their home in the newspaper?
2. Have these distressed Seller’s expressed concern about how completive you might be with commission rates or professional fees?
3. When was the last time a distressed Seller asked you how many homes have you sold in my neighborhood?

If you are an experienced Agent and have listed many a Distressed Property, chances are that you have never heard Sellers have these types of concerns. These concerns are usually associated with a Seller who may have considerable equity in their property. At the very least, they are the concerns one may have while being focused on and invested in the process.

For the most part, this focus and clarity of purpose has been missing for the majority of Agents dealing with distressed Sellers. We have gotten use to dealing with these situations in a manner which we place double attention of enrolling their cooperation and fighting them to ultimately affect a complete hardship package to accompany a purchase agreement.

This recent addition of HAFA on the initial steps a distressed Seller will be prompted is likely to change the entire mindset they will take toward choosing an Agent to represent the Short Sale of their property. With this key, Real Estate Agents will have to step up their prospecting game and be prepared to face the uncommon prospect of having to show their wares like we have with the more traditional equity Seller.

Copyright © Bryan Ridgley

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Be Careful Advertising Yourself as a HAFA or Short Sale Specialist

I thought I would help shed light on some myths that are being shared publically by real estate Agents about HAFA, as they may be miss-leading.
It may be known that Agents have a window period to capture as many distressed homeowners as they can, place them under their wing before lenders start referring Affiliates or Servicer referred Agents. The style by which some Agents are lead generating may place them under scrutiny.

Of the many variants I have seen circulating is a mailer or flyer that states “I am a Short Sale Specialist” or “I am a HAFA Specialist and I will get you $3,000 from your Bank to move” Another is “I am a Short Sale Specialist and have all cash Investor Clients that also negotiate with the Bank” (This one being the most litigious in my opinion).

The Department of Real Estate (In the State of California) has placed Deputy Investigators on Duty to harbor the phones for tips and reports on these types of public representations as well as outright Mortgage Fraud.
The pressures are surmounting on many Agents as they try to navigate the Short Sales process, one that none of us can accurately define. We have a working definition on what a Short Sale is, and while HAFA promises help for non-exempt homeowners, many loans are still currently exempt due to factors such as where and how the loans were originated.

While Obama’s program brings promise to many defaulted homeowners, it’s procedural mechanics and guidelines still leave many open doors for miss-haps in closing these deals as lenders may not provide for certain liens and title matters prior to their Short Sale Pre-Approvals.

It is suggested that in the many case files of Investor defaults, the non HAFA zone will continue to exist, making it every Agents responsibility to continue educating themselves on the Short Sale process which is projected to continue throughout the next two to three years.

When advertising yourself as a “Short Sale Specialist” or “Pre-Foreclosure Specialist” or “Consultant”, you are wise to study up on the “Standards of Practice” Articles and in the NAR or Local Associations “Code of Ethics”. The use of the term “Specialist” comes with it an added responsibility of covering all your bases including whatever it is that you may not know that you don’t know.

Lastly, MLS rules prohibit the use of commission reductions due to the pass on cost of a third party Negotiator. While the MLS “Private or Agent remarks” section provides to warn or disclose to Selling Agents that they may share a Bank imposed commission reduction, it is an MLS Violation to directly reduce an commission offering to impose a Negotiator’s fee to the Selling Agent or Buyer.

I have the answer to this too… though you’ll have to look out for my next article.

Copyright © Bryan Ridgley


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What Every Short Sale Agent should Know Today

Ah ha, and its true... Some will, some won't; SO WHAT! The fact is, even when rigorously qualifying these properties and their occupants, not all Short Sales are easy passages. What holds the account for the national stats of Short Sale failures is that we hadn’t as professionals 1. Known the complexities and hoops we would have to account for as any other profession must metamorphose itself from an avalanche of change. 2. We dove in and placed little value or emphasis on Buyer performance until after the Short Sale lender has in fact, approved the sale. 3. The Underwriters are mentality thinking, "That's Backwards"!

There are other learning curves we have taken in the mix of these distressed sales. Junior lien holders, tax liens, HOA judgments and arrearage’s make not be items that will be fully absorbed by the Short Sale lender and must be accounted for.

Another mindset infraction commonly plaguing these transaction is that Agents representing Buyers in these purchases seem to feel it part of their Fiduciary responsibility to keep their Buyer financially and attentively innocent until the Short Sale lender approves the sale. I am always dealing with this question in talks and Seminars I facilitate. I tell Agents with this consideration about the number of Buyers, Sellers and Agents out there that tell the stories we hear when the Short Sales sounded easy, and that were approved in a short amount of time. Stories that truly express the belief that Short Sale property can represent an extra value proposition over its REO competition. There is usually a live Seller that is disclosing what they know about the property, their usually maintaining the property and have not excavated the cabinetry and poured cement down the plumbing drains. There may be value there, enough to justify a Buyers investing four or five hundred dollars to perform an inspection, investigate the property and remove that contingency from the transaction early, even though there exists that risk that the sale may not go through.

Some of us may be rigorously staunch lead generators. If we are, we know to systemize and prioritize our leads to leverage our production percentages. Why would it be any different with regard to the waiting game of short sale process purgatory?

With millions or offers being submitted, depending on the size of the Bank or Servicers, incoming files are opened, processed through some system which favors priority and leverage. These must at many times be sifted out from hundreds of files by someone perhaps not as experienced in making the final dispositions on these sale files.

Regardless of the various styles of this sifting and sorting you can make a serious difference in the timing by which your package sorted into ACTION.

First of all, you would think that the first thing a lender would do is look at all the cool stuff in the Sellers hardship package and place their sole excitement on that above all. The quality of this part of the package though important is secondary in purgatory. Sorry, there are other elements to a swift ready closing that might mean the leveraging of their time.

If the lender does what they are supposed to do in the bigger picture of loss mitigation, a mitigating factor would logically include time. With the old school of Short Sales representation, we place our Sellers (and Buyers) in a nonperforming sale, and then chase an uncommitted Buyer after a Lender Approval many months after contract; we create time in working against us. We do this time after time, though with the many successes we do have with 2nd and 3rd Buyers, we know we eventually get many of these deals closed.

Part of the perpetuating mindset that hoaxes our deals is our insistence that because we are use to working the way of the Old School, that we run the risk of losing our Buyers by asking them to place the very "Skin" in the deal, that may singly be the cause most Short Sales that have been approved within the first 60 days. If this writing creates any kind of movement, my hope is that is causes every Agent in our profession to get some additional mindset training. Then the most knowable of us will prosper quickly. (End)

© 2010 Bryan Ridgley


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Social Network Marketing Lesson 1

We live in exponential times. Whether your online habits are casual or focused, “when you get to it or habitual”, everyone is out there at their own pace, just like on Route 66 or the 101 freeway.

For those that have not reached the new world or online generation, we might be surprised to find out that over 50% of Search Engine entries and results are on the Names of People. People are interested in other People.
It would be easy to pass this off ignorantly thinking, yes… Who isn’t looking for the latest 411 on Celebrities and other Famous People? It may be a significant portion of the majority that utilizes their online experience to be casually entertained. While many Corporations, Business Professions and Online Marketing industries are capitalizing on their Internet presence with a strategy. Others are phishing, spamming and contributing to the online pollution in the same way the masses have polluted the earth; though that’s not the song I intended to sing here.

Like on the portals of Reality TV, we have to ‘get a grip’ that our experiences of online socialization are not a proven science, are as individual as the next person and that while there are multitudes of people entertaining each other and themselves, there are others soliciting, collecting, sorting, search mongering and data basing all of this in the spirit of progress and capitalism.

We are now being taught to be careful of what we say, how we act and responsible we behave online as being online is not the anonymous platform that existed years ago. Corporations and Companies now have Internet Commerce, Social Networking and Advertising budgets, Departments that dedicate their focus on both online presence and Online Mitigation of their Branding Integrity. This at times may include the online behaviors of their associates and employees.

We can learn from the Masters of Branding and market dominance by both putting ourselves out there in an impactful way, as well as placing our ears out there to understand which markets we may be penetrating. In a nut shell the premise may be as easy as asking the question “What are they saying about me?

So your initial task in your quest for Mastery is to simply Google yourself, then Wait for my next article.

Copyright © 2010 Bryan Ridgley

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Do Not Be Attached To Outcomes

While pursuing our dreams, we know there are others in our paths who are having a rotten day, are not happy with their circumstances in life and who represent an obstacle to our least path of resistance. The Peaceful Warrior at all of life’s battles in the choice we have to make. It is the attention we may place or not place on our ability to rightfully respond to a negative comment with a positively inspirational lead into forwarding the spirit of growth and prosperity, or react to it through our inadequacies that cause us to re-strike, or our needs to be respected, accepted, loved or right.

What we may be missing in our relationships professionally is the map, the standard form or owner’s manual to guiding ourselves productively. We know from the many whom came forward through history and wonder things like, how could Colonel Sanders hear NO 100 times let alone over 1000 times before he heard YES. We have to have a grip here that life is about the choices we make because the choices we make now are the new chains of cause and effect that we forward into our future. It is akin to the Universal Law of Attraction as with other Universal or Natural Law we navigate as we pass through this time zone of physical life. We Share this life with others who by elementary physics have a different point of view and an ever revealing life experience and perception of life, set of values and belief systems as equally unique and individual.

When we are working in a profession that is clearly defined, intimate to specific human needs and producing career vehicle (Maybe even express their passions), we can know up ahead are other humans we must face and even grow with. When we view others with the position of judgment, pre-disposition or expectation, the teachers of life tell us in advance we will be encumbered by disappointment and failing grace. When having a solution that is so obvious that supply and demand markets are so in need, remembering the Big Idea, the Bigger Picture, The Wider View of marketing you is that we work to be compassionate, steadfast to forwarding the positive, the Win/Win, the rightful thinking globally and acting locally and the Torch of leadership to the following generations.

Copyright © Bryan Ridgley

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Bryan is both a Real Estate and Health and Wellness Coach and Educator. He is currently available for both personal and group coaching and training in Stress Management, Molecular Hydration and Real Estate Loss Mitigation. He currently lives in Los Angeles and Consults in the real estate, health and legal industries.

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Short Sale Mitigation, Consumers Should Be Warned! (Mitigation Firms)

Distressed property owners suffer the confusion of solution along with the stresses of their financial hardships. Once a default filing reaches the public 411, every joker and legitimate provider of pre-foreclosure services gets the memo. Mortgage Brokers, Realtors, Mitigation Attorneys, Investors and Short Sale Scam Artists prey on the chance for their piece of the buck.

One solution offered to distressed homeowners is the use of Mitigation Services provided by firms qualified in their State to provide these services. For example in California, they are most likely Legal Firms. The Legal approach to negotiating with lenders adds the sledgehammer in cases for example, when it is discovered that when the mortgage was originated, the consumer disclosures were not properly executed. Law Firms are poised with the perceived authority they personify to the public, though it has been debated by many lenders as to their effectiveness over other solutions offered by Brokerages staffed with Short Sale Specialists. Re-finance is commonly impossible.

Mitigation Firms have proved to be an exceptional way for many distressed homeowners to save themselves by saving their homes. If that is your situation, I would not call a real estate firm until after the modification process proved a disqualification. The banks are not going to throw you under the bus if your mortgage is tied to HEMP or HAFA guidelines. HEMP and HAFA are government mandates President Obama rushed through to squash the red tape in the pre-foreclosure process and to help restore pride of homeownership to millions of Americans. HEMP relates to Modification and HAFA tags on HEMP with Short Sale guidelines and protocol. While the programs have honorable intent, there are many mortgages in default which are exempt from these governmental compliances. This is one example where Mitigation Firms provide an equitable and valued Consumer Service.

Here is the Warning! Many Mitigation Firms make their money on Advance Fees, often disclosed as Fees for Service. When you examine the services and fees due in phases, the bulk of the fee is more like a nonrefundable retainer in exchange for the same roundup of the homeowner’s documents and Short Sale packaging as would be included in the Brokerage Commissions paid in the sale of the property. There is a New School of Real Estate Short Sale Specialists out their trained in these pre-foreclosure lender regiments and can supplement the Short Sale Banks bottom-line more equitably. The advice here would be that before signing any Agreement for Mitigation Services, it would be wise to forward the agreement to a second Mitigation Expert, Attorney or Specialist for a Consultation.

Copyright © Bryan Ridgley



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Looking For Where the Short Sale Cheese Moved?

Agents are scrambling to find out how the latest (HEMP, HAFA, Equator, etc.) changes will pan out in real practice. With all of the proliferating awareness of these moves to streamline our American disaster, the Short Sale, it isn’t surprising so much confusion exists.

While the pre-foreclosure real estate market tanked homeowners into immediate REO status, governmental halts came quickly to help distressed borrowers save their American dream. The saving graces, while difficult to completely implement overnight, are promising to many homeowners whom are otherwise thrown under the bus. While this is appeasing to the homeowners, the real estate industry is faced with the challenges of immense changes in both approval guidelines and the new apparently REO minded procedures of facilitation demanded by Equator program Servicers. It was announced last month that Bank of America contracted a major portion of its defaults to the use of the Equator system.

Given the complexities of these changes, the entire prospecting map Realtors drove toward fishing out these distressed property opportunities is also on the fast track for change. One of the captivating value propositions of Equator to Agents today is that they believe that by creating an account with the site will automatically grant them assignments from Equators participating Asset Managers. This may prove to be a fantasy driven premise as other 3rd Party ‘Mining the Minors’ entrepreneurs like Mitigation Firms slip in to the process before a Brokerage file can open with the Active listing.

Agents need to “Know what they don’t KNOW” if they intend on getting their slice of this phantom pie referred to as a Short Sale or Pre-foreclosure Sale. The word on the street is that Short Sale transactions will be taking over the marketplace and representing over 60% of the closed transaction comps in every county across the nation. With the combination of Specialty trainings, Designations and higher level education, Agents who resist placing the investment of this education in themselves will have to find a secondary career, while the innovators of common sense will prevail as is often the case.

I teach Real Estate Agents where the Cheese is today! Find out more at:

https://sites.google.com/site/oraclegroupmain/courses

Copyright © 2010 Bryan Ridgley



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Home Buyer Events or Seminars

There are so many little changes that occur almost daily in our industry. Interest rates, lending programs, guidelines, HEMP, HAFA, Short Sale and REO content are being published so often by every media giant known. The Newspapers sell HEADLINES; we can sell ourselves by being the best STORY of content to our data bases and our Events, based on those headlines. Events that appear “Out of the Box” in contrast to these headlines may provoke the greatest amount to activity. Be sure to back up anything and everything you advertise and be prepared to communicate this content with the guise of mission.

You can team up with affiliated vendors in areas of Lending, Taxation, Estate Planning, Insurance issues and many other topics that can by promoted in a way that is literally life saving! Offer something free, do a drawing for something of relevant value or support a charitable cause within the theme.

Events that offer a practical or experiential view of today’s news will captivate readership audiences and a very inquiring Buying public interested in finding the expertise and ultimately, the Professional.
One of my opening career wins was when I found an area I loved in the suburbs on Los Angeles. There was one Agent who dominated the area with a 20% market share that generally scares off most Agents from investing revenue toward. I found 2 For Sale by Owners and exploited them in the newspaper, offered to clean up distressed looking properties and listed both FSBO’s within 2 weeks along with 4 other properties within the coming 2 months. Within a year, I had 50% of the other Agents market share.
First time Buyers and Estate Planning Seminars may attract the greatest number of potential Clients, however they must be made both public and extraordinary.

Events come in all sizes and shapes; you are in charge of how to create events out of the usual activities we know can place us out in front of the crowd.

Copyright © Bryan Ridgley 2010

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