About Silver Spring's Oak Springs

Thanks to a heads up from my clients (an Army pediatrician and DOD contractor) I realized that the Army Corps of Engineers has a program designed to help military families feeling the pinch of having to sell their homes in order to move from one station to another through no fault of their own. They need to go where the military sends them and, in this housing market, that's not always a good thing for selling a home they may have purchased not too long ago.

Enter: the Military Maven of all Realtors (at least in this area) - Cindy Jones of Woodbridge, VA. Cindy's input and insight have been invaluable. Her experience working with military clients over the years and he selfless assistance led me to the HAP website and then to a phone call to a HAP counselor in Savannah, GA.

Here's the bottom line: There is some assistance coming for military families on the move. It is a finite amount of money (about $55,000,000). It'll help a lot of folks avoid both the headache and stigma of short sales (not to mention the hurt it would put on someone's security clearance).

The not-so-good news is that final regulations for administering the program have not be written and handed down yet and they aren't expected anytime soon unless you consider August soon. Once final regulations are in place, the Army Corps of Engineers will start the processing. Add another 90-120 days.

All said though, it could be a shorter process than a lot of short sales and have a happier outcome for the military seller, the buyer and the Realtor.

Bottom line: don't hold your breath and don't hold out false hope. This ain't gonna be quick and when the final regulations come down, it'll be important to read all the fine print and follow the regs to the letter.

I recently started working with a couple who have been long time clients and great referrers of other clients. In fact, of my entire list of clients I have helped over the past 10 years these folks get the #1 spot for number of times they have used me personally combined with the number of people they have referred to me that actually bought a home and gotten to settlement.

These are the types of clients I live for!

They're in the military. At least, the wife is. Now they need to move, again, because she's being deployed to another duty station on her way to a post in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the home they bought about 3 years ago has lost some value and they can't really sell it without bringing more money that they have to the closing table.

Fortunately, Uncle Sam is actually trying to do something right by our vets. They have a program called the Homeowner Assistance Program (HAP) that will subsidize the difference in what the house was bought for and what it can be sold for. A good deal. The not so HAPpy part is that the program has not been fully approved yet and the applications are piling up. So that when the program does get the final green light it'll take some time (6-8 months) for applications to work through the process.

So it is very much like a "short sale". Hurry up and wait...and wait...and wait.

However, for vets, this may be a good way to sell your home if you're being moved somewhere and it isn't exactly your choice! Check out.