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Rochelle Allison
651-259-4683

Bank of America is making changes to its short sale procedures and introducing an improved task flow within the short sale technology module from Equator, BofA’s short sale management platform of choice. The goal: to reduce the timeframe for a short sale decision to less than three weeks.

Starting Saturday, April 14, real estate professionals working with BofA will be required to submit five documents for short sales initiated with an offer:

• Purchase Contract including Buyer’s Acknowledgment and Disclosure
• HUD-1
• IRS Form 4506-T
• Bank of America Short Sale Addendum, which includes the Agent Certification form
• Bank of America Third-Party Authorization Form

The acknowledgement and disclosure form, short sale addendum, and the form for t
This is great news for anyone who is thinking of purchasing a home and was skeptical of offering on a short sale due to the amount of time taken to move through the process! hird-party authorization are available through the company’s online Agent Resource Center. The third-party authorization form is a new standardized document developed specifically for BofA. Previously, the lender accepted third-party authorization forms in differing formats and from a variety of sources when transacting a short sale.

Bank of America says it recognized a need for greater compliance and consistency with this important document and has now created its own form to standardize the third-party authorization process. The two-page document requires signed acknowledgments from all borrowers and designated representatives in a short sale. Beginning April 14, BofA will accept only the official Bank of America Third-Party Authorization Form for short sales.

The bank’s new short sale process will enable real estate agents, brokers, attorneys, and other short sale specialists involved in pre-foreclosure transactions to complete tasks such as document collection, valuations, and underwriting simultaneously.

With these steps running concurrently, the timeline from initiation to closing is reduced. In fact, Bank of America says it will now be able to provide a decision on a short sale offer in 20 days. Typically, BofA’s short sale process has taken anywhere from 45 days upwards.

The real estate market is HOT right now! Amazing interest rates – give the Rochelle Allison Real Estate Team a call today if you are thinking of buying or selling your home!

Housing surveys in recent weeks have shown that more Americans are seeing now a great time to purchase a home. In the most recent survey, 73 percent of Americans say now is a good time to buy, according to the latest Fannie Mae Housing Survey conducted in March. That’s up from 70 percent in February who said it was a great time to buy.

“Conditions are coming together to encourage people to want to buy homes,” says Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist. “With an increasing share of consumers expecting higher mortgage rates and home prices over the next 12 months, some may feel that renting is becoming more costly and that home ownership is a more compelling housing choice.”

Indeed, more buyer urgency is evident in the market. Thirty-three percent of those surveyed by Fannie say they expect home prices soon to increase, which is the highest percentage in a year. What’s more, nearly 40 percent say they expect mortgage rates to rise in the next year too, which is also up from previous surveys.

Coupled with that, 48 percent of Americans say they expect rents to continue to climb, and 44 percent say they expect their financial situation to improve in the next year.

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2012/04/11/buyer-urgency-improves-more-see-now-good-time-buy#.T4dMpasRHH8.email

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS/REALTORMAG.REALTOR.ORG

We are seeing a tremendous increase in showings on our listings! Now is a great time to sell your home! Many buyers and low inventory. Call today! Rochelle

Holli and her husband, Mike, went to have their taxes done at the end of February. He is a Lt. Colonel in the Army and she is my marketing person on the Rochelle Allison Real Estate Team. They own two investment properties in addition to their residence. They used the same tax accountant they have in the past. They were not aware of any identity theft issues since they had just refinanced their personal residence a few months earlier and nothing came up on the credit reports. 

Holli and Mike received the documents that just needed a signature on it so they could then have their return e-filed. When their accountant went to e-file they found out at that Mike had been a victim of identity theft! Apparently there was already a tax return filed in his name! Neither Mike or Holli have had any reason to think that their information had been breached. No purse or wallet stolen, they shred their bills/statements and no on-line issues that they could pin point. 

Mike is now dealing with filing a police report, contacting each credit card company, credit bureau and what seems like an endless amount of tasks to make sure it is all recorded.

 Please read this information from the Federal Trade Commision regarding identity theft! Copy and paste this link if you like and forward on! 

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/idtheft/idt04.pdf

Identity theft can cause numerous headaches for many years. Rochelle Allison Real Estate Team feels it is important that you have this knowledge of what to do and how to prevent something like this from happening to you or someone you know. 

And of course, if you know of anyone who is looking to buy, invest or sell their home… give the Rochelle Allison Real Estate Team a call!

Here are some of the new requirements for servicers under the settlement:

• Servicers must provide borrowers with a decision within 30 days after receiving a short sale package request.
• Servicers will be required to notify a borrower, also within 30 days, if any necessary documents are missing to process the short sale request.
• Servicers must notify a borrower immediately if a deficiency payment is needed to approve the short sale. They also must provide an estimated amount for the deficiency payment needed for the short sale.
• Servicers are also required to form an internal group to review all short sale requests.
• Banks will be considered in violation of the settlement requirements if they take longer than 30 days on more than 10 percent of the short sale requests. Violations can carry fines of up to $1 million and $5 million for repeat offenses.

“If a real estate broker can get a checklist from the bank detailing what documentation is needed, everything can be provided up front, and the bank will be required to give a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down within 30 days,” short sale specialist Chris Hanson with the Hanson Law Firm told HousingWire. “That’s not a bad deal.”

Rochelle Allison Real Estate Team specializes in short sales! Each situation is unique and we will help you every step of the way! 651-259-4683

The index rose to 206.1 in January, and an index of 100 is defined as the point where a median-income household has exactly enough income to qualify for the purchase of a median-priced single-family home, assuming a 20 percent down payment and 25 percent of gross income for mortgage principal and interest payments.

Consumers who want their foreclosure cases checked by a third party as part of     federal regulators’ Independent Foreclosure Review initiative now have until July 31, 2012, to submit their requests. 

The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced Wednesday that the deadline has been pushed out by three months to give consumers more time to file for a case assessment if they believe they suffered financial injury as a result of errors in foreclosure actions in 2009 or 2010. The original deadline was April 30.

The independent foreclosure reviews, as mandated and enforced by the federal regulatory agencies, only apply to the mortgage servicers and their subsidiaries that were subject to the enforcement actions handed down by the OCC and Fed on April 13th of last year.

Participating servicers include:

• America’s Servicing Company
• Aurora Loan Services
• BAC Home Loans Servicing
• Bank of America
• Beneficial
• Chase
• Citibank
• CitiFinancial
• CitiMortgage
• Countrywide
• EMC
• Everbank/Everhome Mortgage Company
• Financial Freedom
• GMAC Mortgage
• HFC
• HSBC
• IndyMac Mortgage Services
• MetLife Bank
• National City Mortgage
• PNC Mortgage
• Sovereign Bank
• U.S. Bank
• Wachovia Mortgage
• Washington Mutual
• Wells Fargo
• Wilshire Credit Corporation

The real estate market continues to shift! Give me a call today and we can navigate together! 

Rochelle Allison
651-259-4683
rochelle@rochelleallison.com 

data source: dsnews.com

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Interest rates continue to be at an all-time low!