Is GMAC trying to take the "short" out of Short Sales?

Here are some of GMAC guidelines for approving a Short Sale.

There are so many owners that have GMAC loans that live in the San Joaquin County CA area (especially Stockton, Modesto and other surrounding areas).  GMAC is a household name from homes to automobiles, but yet they are getting known as one of the harder to deal with when it comes to short sale approvals. 

Whereas they probably was one of easier lenders to get a home loan with at the beginning of the loan.  How does that work? This information should be useful if you have or will run into a owner/seller that have either a first or second lien position and they are looking to do a short sale.  Not all lender are equal in their WHAT IT TAKES TO GET A SHORT SALE APPROVAL process. 

• Are you working short sales?
• Does one of your owners have a second lien with GMAC?
• Is your offer less than what is owed on the first or just covering the first and are you worried about how GMAC's guidelines for approving a short sale work?

If yes, please read this tip on How GMAC works their approval of a short sale.  For those that are not familiar with GMAC's approval for release of lien. I spoke to a rep there today and here are a few of their guidelines:

1. Full financial package from borrower
2. Maximum commission to agents 4% 
3. In some cases asking 10% of loan, refusing to take $1-3000 payoff, denying short sale or
4. GMAC will only accept short sales that come in @ 90~100% of fair market value (FMV). 
5. No closing cost credit to buyer
6. She stated that it makes better sense to them to decline low settlement offers, because they cannot pursue the borrower for the difference and they can recover more money in the future from the borrower.  
7. Authorization to Release Information I have a standard Authorization form that I use and in most cases this works fine.  There are a few banks that require their own form for this.  GMAC will require that you use their form and it must be signed and notarized and the original must be sent back in.

And if you have something to add to this tip that you know or have heard about GMAC's short sale approval process, please let us know. A good place to add this information and to find out about other lenders (contact information for the loss mitigation department, etc) please check out Mike Mueller's site: http://www.patagoniafinance.com/2007/06/loss-mitigation-departments.html This is a real good resource for Residential and Commercial information.  There is a whole world of information on the Foreclosure process.  Check it out!

*** ON A POSITIVE NOTE:With California impacted more than any other state by the national home foreclosure crisis, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger worked with loan servicers from Countrywide, GMAC,Litton and HomEq to agree to streamline "fast-track" procedures to help keep more sub-prime borrowers in their homes. So maybe there are working harder helping people KEEP THEIR HOMES, than helping them sell them short.  Which I hope is the case, if there is help to keep an owner in their home, that is the way to go.  However, there are more that are in the situations where they cannot be helped to keep the home because the workout plans are calculating out to be a higher mortgage payment than what they are struggling to pay now.  So short sale is their only option.  And for those that don't fit into the other help plans, why make the short sale process and requirements so hard that the owners end up losing their home instead of getting help gracefully.

Side note: Homecomings is one of GMAC's companies.

For free market evaluation of your home visit http://www.motheranddaughterrealty.com/

Check out my Mother and Daughter Blog for other tips for Sellers and Buyers. I work with my daughter as the Mother and Daughter Real Estate Team and we also focus in Short Sales and the Pre-Foreclosure process.  Our consultations are free.  Our aggressive marketing plan includes progressive on-listing advertising.  If you are thinking of selling or buying a home in Northern California: Central Valley (San Joaquin/Stanislaus Counties), East Bay (Alameda Counties) and would like a free Home Seller or Home Buyer Handbook, please call us at Perfect Financial Solutions 866-750-8282 or direct 510-284-7721 or email at brooksrm2042@aol.com