Policy Change
Short Sale Listing Status Must be changed to “C” Or “U” upon Sellers Acceptance of Offer or When Escrow is Opened
In 2009, the Treasury Department introduced the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program that provides options to homeowners who are unable to keep their homes through the Homes Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The HAFA program became effective as of April 5, 2010 and ends on December 31, 2012. Basically through this new program borrowers may avoid foreclosure through short sales or deed-in-lieu (DIL) of foreclosure that allows them to receive pre-approved short sale terms before listing their properties (including minimum acceptable net proceeds). The lenders and lien holders who participate in the HAFA program are required to review and approve or disapprove of sales within ten (10) business days of receipt of the borrowers’ Request for Approval of Short Sale (RASS). This limits the amount of time that participating servicers may “sit” on offers accepted by the borrowers and limits the number of offers to only one (1) at a time that the servicers may consider at any given time for any particular property.
Upon reviewing the HAFA program and considering that the largest lenders are Participating Servicers, the HIS Board of Directors approved the repeal of the policy that permitted listings of properties that may be subject to short sale to remain in active status until the lender or lien holder approved of offers that have been accepted by the sellers. The change in policy will be effective July 1, 2010. As of that date, listings of short sale properties for which the sellers have accepted offers are no longer exempt from the rule that requires listings be placed in Contingent/C or Under Contract/U status or they shall be in violation of the rules of the service.
It should be noted that this rule is in place to prevent causing inconvenience to fellow members and their prospective buyer clients who may expend time, effort and expense pursuing properties listed in the service that they saw were “active” only to find out that an offer has been accepted. HIS has received calls from members and prospective buyers in the past who felt that properties were misrepresented as being available when they actually were not. Members should remember that under the “C” status (formerly “A/C or Active Contingent”), the listed properties may still be shown for the purpose of obtaining back up offers.
Please remember that the rules require that the verbiage “Potential short sale” must be written in the Private Remarks in all listings of properties that may be subject to short sale (Section 4.10) and that any disclosure about the listed properties being subject to short sale may be provided in the Public Remarks only with consent of the sellers/owners (Section 3.05a.).
The above only provides some of the information about the HAFA program. For more information about it and the HAMP program, members may visit the NAR website or click on this link http://www.realtor.org/government_affairs/short_sales_hafa.
Auction Listings Now Permitted
Auction listings are now formally permitted in the service. The HIS Board of Directors at their meeting held on May 19, 2010 approved Section 3.09 of the rules to be rewritten as follows.
3.09. Auction Listings. A listing broker may submit a listing of an eligible listing type that is subject to auction only if it displays a definite listing price and the circumstances under which cooperating brokers will be compensated in the event of a successful closing. The listing record for a property subject to auction must specify in the Private Remarks section of the listings record the type of auction (for example, absolute, minimum bid, or reserve).
Previously auction listings were not permitted in the service but several members expressed that there were opportunities for cooperation and compensation among brokers participating in auction sales. Since the MLS is an environment provided for the cooperation among its participating members in the sales of real estate and that there are auction sales that provide this, it was felt that auction listings should be permitted in the service.
The list prices of auction listings shall be determined by the listing brokers. HIS is not involved in the process of determining listing prices nor is it involved in the setting of commissions.
Upcoming Change
License Type Field to be added to REsearch
Our programmers are working on adding a field called “License Type” in REsearch. Right now there is a “Subscriber Type” field with numerous selections that include license type, member type, designations and certifications. In our verification with the RE Branch of DCCA as to what members are required to show in all advertising or promotional materials, we determined that another field was needed to facilitate the display of the state recognized license types after the names of the licensees. There are only a few license type descriptions that the state recognizes under the license laws and rules. These are as follows.
- “B” – Licensees with broker licenses who are not also members of a local Board of REALTORS®.
- “S” – Licensees with salesperson licenses who are not also members of a local Board of REALTORS®.
- “R” – Licensees with brokers licenses who are also members of a local Board of REALTORS®, or a salesperson licensee who is also a member of an ALL-REALTOR® Board.
- “RA”– Licensees with salesperson licenses who are also members of a local Board of REALTORS®.
The requirement to include these license types in all advertising and promotional materials may be found in the Hawaii Administrative Rules §16-99-11 (e)(3).
We understand that the Kona Board of REALTORS® and the REALTORS® of Maui are “ALL- REALTOR®” Boards. In addition to the above, on August 30, 2002, the Real Estate Commission approved that the salesperson licensees of ALL-REALTOR® Boards may also use the following license type descriptions “R(S)“, “R(salesperson)“, “Realtor(Salesperson)” or “Realtor(S)“.
We recognize that several of our members would also want to have designations such as “PB”, “BIC”, “DR” or “Designated Realtor” and certifications such as CRB, ABR, e-PRO, etc., to also appear after their names on the roster and listing displays. They can be displayed after the state recognized license type on all displays if the members select or write them in the “Subscriber Designation” field that is already available in REsearch.
We will send out notification to all members when the new License Type field will be released and available.
Administrative Note
Billing Changes Reminder
Any requests for changes or cancellations for the July 2010 billing are due by Wednesday, June 30, 2010, 2:00 p.m.
- For those who would like to submit changes to their payment account information, they may click on this link to obtain the Exhibit C – Pre-Authorized Payment Agreement form. Print out a hard copy, complete it and fax it to (808) 524-6874. If the changes involve only account information, the PB, BIC or DR is not required to sign it.
- For those who wish change their payment/billing frequency, they may call HIS Accounting at 1-800-628-3121, ext. 454 or 163, or send an email to Accounting@HawaiiInformation.com or Deb@UseResearch.com.
If changes are not received by June 30, 2010 and your credit or debit card is charged, there will be no refund, so please submit your changes to us as soon as possible and no later than this deadline.
We will send out additional reminders as the deadline approaches.
As always, we appreciate your cooperation. Mahalo!
Hawaii Information Service Bulletins 