The next day we get a call, "Sorry guys, Fannie Mae said they will not postpone. The lender told us, "The numbers on this offer are right where we need them to be, let me get investor approval to postpone this foreclosure sale, and then I will send you out the approval letter." If that is the case-and I hope to God that if it is, they are going to make some changes-that is going to make life really difficult for anyone involved in short sales with a Fannie Mae loan-especially if the property is close to auction.Įxample #1: Two weeks ago we had a property that was set for auction. Let me give you a couple of examples our company has dealt with recently that have us leaning toward believing that Fannie Mae really might not be allowing postponements. The negotiators in management at the three banks we talked to, Sun Trust, Bank of America, and GMAC, all confirmed the trend. So it seems as though there is some validity to the rumors that Fannie Mae is not doing postponements- even in cases where there is a short sale approval letter! Fannie Mae seems to be insisting that the short sale has to be closed before the foreclosure sale or they will take the property to auction-approval letter or no approval letter. They are just saying it is what they are seeing. The bank officers don't know why they don't know if it is, now, an official directive. Three different lenders (and two negotiators at one lender) confirmed that they are, indeed, seeing that Fannie Mae is not postponing foreclosure sales. Fannie Mae is a Big Deal! So we asked the banks if the rumblings were true. Servicers around the country have notes held by Fannie Mae. Recently, however, we have seen it happen in several transactions-two in the same week.įor those of you who don't know, Fannie Mae is one of the largest mortgage loan investors in the country.
However, those situations have been the exception. Oh sure, every once in a while we get a bank that digs in its heels and refuses to budge even when their position makes no sense at all. I wanted to find out what the heck was going on because, lately, we've had some issues getting Fannie Mae to postpone their foreclosure auctions on multiple short sale files-files that were actually in the process of being negotiated, one had even been approved. Comments from readers with similar experiences may help us all determine how hard the line is that Fannie Mae has drawn. So take this as a preliminary finding for which I have not yet completely found solid ground. I did, however, start to dig for information.
I haven't yet been able to ascertain all of them in connection with the current rumblings. So, what is the reality with Fannie Mae? I'm not big into conspiracy theories, so the blog posts on the Internet ranting about Fannie Mae's secret directives made behind closed doors don't interest me.
Let me remind you that if Chicken Little proved anything, it was that running around like a fool announcing doom and gloom makes you the perfect dinner entrée for the hungry foxes of the world. So, is it true? And if it is true, is the sky really falling on short sales? The word on the street is that Fannie Mae is no longer postponing foreclosure auctions-that even if there is a short sale in process, Fannie Mae is taking the properties to auction.