In a real estate market where prices have declined military families with PCS orders face a difficult decision. Do you hold on to your home and rent hoping for prices to rebound in another 3-5 years or attempt a short sale and hope that your lender will consider PCS orders a "hardship?"
There are two other options that may be available for you to consider as weill. Military families stationed at Fort Belvoir, the Pentagon, Quantico and other Military District of Washington installations who purchased a home prior to July 1, 2006 may find that Homeowner Assistance Program (HAP) may offer some relief if you have upcoming PCS orders to move.
The HAP program is aimed towards helping:
Active Duty Military Personnel with PCS orders who are upside down on their mortgage
Wounded soldiers who must relocate due to medical conditions (wounded after 9/1/2001)
Surviving Spouses (death of military member after 9/1/2001)
If you live in Northern Virginia and you are anticipating PCS orders in 2010 and you qualify for HAP, now is the time to start gathering your documents and call the HAP Field Office for our area (located in Savannah) at 800-861-8144 for additional information.
Download information on how to apply for the HAP program.
If you have a VA Loan you may be eligible for a VA Compromise Sale. In our region of Northern Virginia the VA Regional Office which will provide you with the latest updates is the Roanoke office. The VA Compromise sale does have several factors that are important to remember:
• The property must be sold for fair market value.
• The closing costs must be reasonable and customary
• The compromise sale must be less costly for the Government than foreclosure
• There must be a financial hardship on the part of the seller
• On loans that originated on or before December 31, 1989, the seller must be willing to sign a promissory note
• There must be no second liens or other liens (unless the amount is insignificant).
• The seller must first obtain a sales contract in order to be considered for the program.
To protect the seller's interest, the seller should make the sales contract contingent and/or subject to the approval of a VA compromise sale.
VA Compromise Sale Information Packet
There is an extensive list of VA approved list of Loss Mitigation Servicers available on the VA site. A VA Compromise sale does require that the VA approve the HUD-1 be reviewed and approved by the VA prior to settlement so making sure the buyers documents are in order at least 48 hours in advance is a must.
If you are stationed at Fort Belvoir, the Pentagon, Quantico or any of the Military District of Washington installations give Cindy Jones a call at 703-346-2213. Let's see if a VA Compromise Sale or the Department of Defense HAP program might help you with your future home sale.
Hi Cindy...Time after time your posts reflect your knowledge and ability to assist military families. Without a doubt knowing programs that will be helpful is going the extra mile that is needed to help so many that must pick up and move, selling their homes during less than desirable times.
This is certainly a specialty that many of us do not know to the extent you do.
Kate
Cindy, what an informative and concise summary of programs to assist enlisted families! Thank you for the education.
Kate-I'm fortunate right now to have 5 familes under contract who are utillizing the HAP program. If the check arrived then one will close this week before the end of the year.
Andrew-thank you for stopping by. I try to keep up with the programs that will assist military families in our current downturned market.
Cindy,
Our military families make so many sacrifices...I have to say I hadn't thought of the situation until reading your most well informed blog. I am glad you keep on top of these programs to help!
Cindy: Does this mean that pending sales under HAP are about to go through? There's one on my street that's been under contract since July 10th. Buyers moved in pre-settlement because getting the HAP guidelines were taking so long.
Cindy, I was completely unaware of these programs, this is really great information. I have book marked for further reading. Thanks
Lori-they do and at least in our current market conditions there are options that they can consider to help them sell without undertaking a short sale.
Chris Ann-I have 5 and one is scheduled for closing this week. Just waiting to see if the check will make it but it has been cut! Three more are scheduled in January and final letters with benefits and amounts have been processed. Fingers crossed.
Gerry-If you have any military families who may qualify point them to the official websites and they may be among the fortunate ones who qualify for the programs.
Cindy this is really interesting information. We really owe it to our military personal to help them get through these times.
I am working with a potential HAP seller right now! This is great 411 & worthy of a reblog!
Nick-absolutely and fortunately these options exists to help out military families underwater today.
Renee-thanks I'm in a military heavy area and we are seeing a lot of HAP sales.
Hey, Cindy. I just went to setlement on a HAP sale for a couple that had been at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and got transferred to Ft. Riley, KS. They were horribly upside down with their mortgage. Luckily, HAP came through for them.
However, it is not for the faint of heart and the active duty military home owner really needs to stay on top of things. This is a situation where the Realtor and the home seller really need to be able to work in sync. If everything goes well, the seller is able to sell their home without the stigma of a short sale or foreclosure, the buyer gets a house at a good value and the Realtor gets paid.
It doesn't get much better than that!
Ken-congratulations. You are right that it does require that everyone stay in sync. So far I think I have all of mine lined up and getting close to settlement.
Thank you for making us aware of the help that is out there for military families. Post has been bookmarked.
Cindy - Just wanted to thank you for being on the panel at Rain Camp yesterday. I really enjoyed meeting you in person.
Cindy, What a great post. I'm glad you provided our Military families with this great information!
Irene-it is one of the smartest moves the government made in all of the assistance plans last fall.
Gail-gosh I missed these last few comments for awhile. Sorry Rain Camp was a blast and I'm still sorting through information.
Elizabeth-since I first posted this military families are getting their homes sold under the program without doing a short sale.