Bank of America Cooperative Short Sales vs HAFA Short Sale

Don’t ask a third-party vendor for Bank of America whether a Cooperative Short Sale is better than a HAFA short sale. Because I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts the vendor will pick the HAFA. Doesn’t matter whether it’s DTS, REDC, AMS, and so forth, all the acronym companies, they’re all the same. Call me silly, but that’s what I see happening, even though the HAFA is not necessarily the better option. It’s possible that Bank of America would push / promote HAFAs as well because there might be more money to the bank through a HAFA.

When I open a Cooperative Short Sale in Equator, the first thing that happens is my requests for a Cooperative are ignored. The third-party vendors pursue the HAFA. I send emails that say do NOT review this for HAFA because the seller wants to pursue a Cooperative Short Sale. Then, I ask the seller to call the customer service number and repeat over and over Cooperative, like a mantra. If the customer service rep says HAFA, the seller is counseled to say “No, Cooperative.” Yet, the bank opens a HAFA anyway. You’ve gotta ask yourself, why is that? I’ll tell you why I think they’re doing it, and it’s not because they’re stupid, although you may disagree. It’s because there is probably more money in it for the bank.

Is the HAFA better for the seller? Speaking strictly for a California short sale seller the answer might be no. Let’s make it clear I am talking about a streamlined Cooperative, a short sale in which Bank of America has delegated authority to approve without financials. I have a certain Cooperative approved, and Bank of America is telling the seller that in order to do the Cooperative without financials, the seller must be 90 days delinquent to satisfy this particular investor. But in a regular Cooperative short sale, the seller is better off with the Cooperative over the HAFA.

Especially if the seller qualifies for the HIN Cooperative Short Sale, because that minimum payment starts at $5,000 and can go up to $30,000. A HAFA short sale maximum payment is $3,000. However, you can combine the two types of short sales, when you get right down to it, if you’re willing to submit financials and tax returns, and I’m getting approval on one of those in a few weeks.

But if you’re not willing to hand over your sensitive personal information and you just want to do the Cooperative Short Sale without financials, the Cooperative beats HAFA in the PITA classification every time. Some types of Cooperative short sales pay $2,500. Even when you take into consideration the $500 difference vs the PITA, let me tell you, a Cooperative short sale wins hands down. In fact, the only thing worse than a Bank of America HAFA short sale is a Bank of America HAFA Fannie Mae or Bank of America HAFA Freddie Mac short sale — with Freddie Mac HAFA having the slight edge for winning the crawling-through-broken-glass-naked award because it doesn’t use the ARASS.

If you’re got a choice, pick the Bank of America Cooperative short sale. Your Sacramento short sale agent will thank you. Your mother will thank you. Your doctor will thank you. And you’ll sleep better at night.