If you have a loan being serviced by Wachovia Bank or had your loan originally serviced by World Savings, you may be eligible for a short sale approval in as fast as 7-10 days after a valid offer to purchase is presented to Wachovia as a part of a short sale package.
Wachovia will also evaluate you for the possibility of a loan modification. The major difference is that unlike other lending institutions you may have heard taking months and months to make a decision, Wachovia wants to evaluate you as quickly as possible. They recognize that the key to making a short sale work is partnering with experienced real estate agents and offering fast approval decisions to increase the likelihood of a successful closing.
Here are some of the plan’s highlights:
- Get your property listed with a licensed REALTOR® (make sure they have short sale experience)
- Agent will put you in touch with the local Short Sale Manager assigned to your local area. This is a key difference. You actually get to meet face to face with the bank’s representative who will be overseeing the processing of your file.
- You don’t yet have to be delinquent; a chance to actually protect your credit!
- Borrower can receive $2,500 for relocation assistance.
- Loan must be a “proprietary loan”. This means that Wachovia is now the actual investor/note holder and not simply the servicer of your loan. If Wachovia is only the servicer on behalf of another investor holding the note to your home, this plan will not be available; however, from my experience with Wachovia, they are still one of the faster servicers around on traditional short sale approvals, so don’t let that stop you. If you would like to know if you have a proprietary loan or not, just give me a call and I will contact the local rep for you.
- Wachovia will also evaluate you for participation in the HAFA program. HAFA is the new set of short sale guidelines put out by Treasury Department which speeds up the short sale processing for certain types of loans- only applies to primary residences and homes which are not owned or guaranteed by FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or VA.
To get started or get additional information, call us at 702-376-0088 or you may submit a contact form.
Paul Rowe manages the short sale division for the Sena Team at North American Realty of Nevada.
We are not the Government. 
2470 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 120 Henderson, NV 89052 - Phone: (702) 376-7379 
Good post. Hopefully all of the lenders start finding ways to speed up the short sale process. It is getting bad when agents are steering clear of showing homes because they are short sales.
The can’t avoid them here anymore. 50% of all available properties on MLS are short sales
Maybe Bank of America will learn from Wachovia! That is awesome that they have a process to where the process can be speedy. That will make a lot less of the contracts fall out waiting on the bank to respond!
You’re right, it is hard to avoid short sales, but I do! Most of my buyers don’t have the time and don’t want the stress. It’s unfortunate that it takes the banks so long for this process to go through…they make it difficult for everyone involved. And, the question is, WHY does it have to be this hard?!
Hello Brenda,
We used to avoid them here, but with 50% of our inventory being short sales, agents have to deal with them now. The ones that don’t end up spending just as long trying to make offers on foreclosures as they would have spent waiting for a short sale to get approved. We have seen a dramatic improvement on approvals. Of couse, each individual deal is different, but overall 45 – 90 days has become more commonplace.