My buyer wants to offer on a short sale. Now what?

Our attorneys and settlement officers have been busy providing training to agents on the nuances of short sales, and we recently launched our Short Trac Short Sale Coordination Program. We've closed hundreds of short sales over the past two years, so we have more than a cursory understanding of them and the lenders who approve them.

One question that we've heard a lot recently is, "OK, I have no interest in listing a short sale, but my buyers are interested in buying one. How do I avoid the black hole of 'offer and non-response'?"

Greg Doherty, an agent in Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage's Alexandria office, has created a very simple yet thorough questionnaire which he presents to listing agents BEFORE he'll submit an offer. With his permission, I'm reproducing the body of the letter here.

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Dear [Listing Agent]:

Can you share any information about this Short Sale?

1. Is the property fully available?
2. Do you have any offers at the moment?
3. If so, how many?
4. If you do have current offers, were any of them written by you or someone on your team?
5. How many lenders are involved?
6. Who are the lenders?
7. Have you submitted the “Package” to the Lender(s) ?
8. Has the BPO been done?
9. Do you have a time frame from the lenders?
10. Are the sellers cooperating?
11. Do you have a clear line of communication with the lenders?
12. Are the lenders participating in the new government sponsored programs?
13. Have you been notified by the bank regarding foreclosure status?
14. Is there any additional info that you can share that would be helpful?

I appreciate your help. I look forward to working with you to reach a successful conclusion.

Thank you.

Regards,

Greg Doherty, Realtor®

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The answers to these questions - or sometimes the lack of answers - may provide some good insight as to how this deal may go for your buyer. Wouldn't you rather know before you submit the offer, and not six months later?

BONUS TIP: Ask your title company if they'll provide a "current owner search" of the property to determine how many deeds of trust are of record and what the approximate amount of indebtedness is. This will tell you just how much of a short sale it really is!

As always, our team is here and willing to help you should you need help with a short sale!

Introducing "Short Trac" Short Sale Coordination Program

In conjunction with Title Resource Group, our parent company, we are proud to offer Short Trac Short Sale Coordination Program! What is Short Trac? The Short Trac Short Sale Coordination Program is designed to help the seller coordinate and facilitate communications between the listing agent, the lender and the title company through the short sale process. This Program is offered in an effort to assist your clients through what can be a difficult process. What are the folks at Short Trac responsible for?

1. The process of coordinating the short sale transaction;


2. Reviewing the completed short sale packet;


3. Delivering the seller’s authorization to the short sale lender;


4. Reviewing all preliminary HUD-1s before being sent to short sale lender;


5. Submitting the short sale packet to short sale lender (if there are multiple lenders, we will pursue the additional lenders);


6. Delivering a minimum of weekly file status updates to the listing agent and seller;


7. Forwarding all approval letters to the listing agent; and


8. Forwarding the approval letters to local title agency branch to complete the closing.

Please note: Short Trac will not negotiate or attempt to negotiate a reduction in the loan amount in connection with the short sale.

What's the cost?

In addition to the normal title and closing fees charged by the title company, the seller will pay Short Trac a fee of $800.00 at closing. If closing does not occur, no fee will be due.

Want to learn more?

Contact your Title Service Rep or contact Short Trac directly at:

start@shorttrac.com | (888) 485-3432 | (303) 876-1311 (fax)

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Short Trac is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan. If you stop paying your mortgage, you could lose your home and damage your credit.

Listing Agents: 2 Steps to Avoid Surprises

I recently heard a story of an agent who lost a short sale listing to foreclosure of a lien. He knew it was a short sale, but didn't realize there was another lien which was eventually foreclosed upon. While you can't *make* the seller tell you everything, there are a couple of steps you can take which could prevent surprises - and loss of a listing - before settlement:

1. A net sheet
2. A title search

Net Sheet

Before taking a listing, I would do a “net sheet” for the seller. The simple formula is this:

Approximate sales prices - (commission) - (mortgage payoff) - (other lien payoffs) - (back taxes) - (seller settlement costs) = seller net proceeds.


Obviously you are relying on good faith, cooperation and estimates, but in many cases you can get a sense before you take the listing as to what a sale will net (if anything) and if your "foreclosure radar" needs to be up.


Title Search

Let’s say that you are in a short sale situation – or anywhere close to it (remember, the seller may not realize they are upside down), I would order a title search from your friendly neighborhood title guy.

Why?

While it is the buyer’s job to evidence title (at least in buyer-controlled markets like ours), as listing agent you don’t want to put work into marketing a property the seller will lose rights to own/sell. A title search may cost you/the seller something ($150 maybe?), although it is possible that the buyer will select that title company or buy the search in which case it would cost you nothing.

In the case I heard about, a Home Owner Association (HOA) lien was foreclosed upon, thereby wiping out the mortgage. Had a title search been done in advance, it may have revealed the existence of the lien. If you were aware of it, you could have done some legwork on your own to determine that the HOA was about to foreclose on their interests. You or the seller could have asked them to hold off until settlement, at which case they'd get paid.

Again, these are not fail-proof methods to avoid all pitfalls that come with listing in this environment, but they just could save yours.

More Short Sale Taxation News: PG County "Undecided" in how they will handle

While Anne Arundel County announced earlier that they will assess recordation taxes on sales price, Prince George's County has not yet decided on the matter.

An email from the Prince George's County Association of REALTORS® states that:

The Finance Director, Michael Dougherty, communicated with PGCAR by phone late yesterday (Thursday 1/28/10). He is suggesting that REALTORS® and title professionals who have settlements pending over the next several days contact him directly to negotiate the tax. Mr. Dougherty offered his direct line, 301-952-4013. PGCAR recommends that REALTORS® and others print the attached Attorney General opinion and make contact with Mr. Dougherty as he suggests.

We will continue to keep you posted on this issue....

Baltimore Sun: Anne Arundel reverses decision on taxing short sales

As we reported here on January 8th, several counties, including Anne Arundel County, had decided to use unpaid principal mortgage balance rather than sales price as a basis on which to assess recordation taxes. Naturally, this decision was largely condemned by the Maryland real estate and taxpayer community.

Today the Baltimore Sun reports that Anne Arundel has backed down from this practice, citing an opinion from the Maryland Attorney General that the "practice isn't supported by state law." The full article can be found here. The county will instead assess recordation tax on the sales price as it previously had.

Montgomery County had also attempted to implement a similar taxing scheme, but backed down shortly after announcing it.

This is great news not only for Maryland tax payers and real estate practitioners, but also for folks everywhere. The American Land Title Association was closely monitoring the situation here in Maryland, as a successful implementation of this by one or more counties could have encouraged others to do the same.

ALERT: Montgomery County decides to "review" its short sale taxation practice

As we noted here, several Maryland counties, including Montgomery County, planned to charge transfer tax on the unpaid principal balance of the mortgage rather than the sales prices. After hearing from many of us who protested this change, the Transfer Office sent out the following message today:

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Dear Clients of the Montgomery County Transfer Office:

We have decided to initiate further review of the Short Sale issue.

Until our review is complete, you may continue to submit Short Sales for processing (at the contract purchase price) as in the past.

Note: If, after further review, the final conclusion is that “consideration” may exceed the Short Sale purchase price, we will give you ample advance notice of this result and the appropriate procedure for calculating “consideration”.

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(my emphasis added)

In short, Montgomery County has temporarily suspended its plan to tax on indebtedness, and will tax on the contract price. They may - after review - decide differently, but for now we are operating under the old rules.

Stay tuned....

ALERT: Several Maryland Counties Indicate They Will Use Unpaid Balance of Mortgage as Consideration for Short Sales

(Note: This story was updated here on January 12th. Montgomery County is currently "reviewing" its taxation plan and during this review process will tax on the sales price.)


We have recently learned that both Anne Arundel and Montgomery counties in Maryland plan to charge transfer tax on the unpaid principal balance of the mortgage as if the excess debt over and above the sale price is being waived/cancelled for short sale files.

Transfer and recordation taxes are generally a function of sales price. In these short sale scenarios, however, the counties believe the taxes should be based not on the sales price but on the amount of indebtedness the seller has been relieved of (which is, of course, typically more than the sales price).

We are hearing that Anne Arundel county will require a copy of the short sale approval letter (if it contains the actual principal balance due; if not, they will take the last monthly mortgage statement from the seller) and payoff statement for recording, but that Montgomery county will not. We are also anticipating that other counties may follow suit.

I'm an agent, what should I be doing?

Understand that in short sale situations the title company may be collecting taxes that are calculated on the unpaid mortgage balance, and not the sales price -- starting immediately. We hope the Maryland Association of REALTORS (MAR) and the Maryland Land Title Association (MLTA) will step up and seek more clarification (and hopefully get these decisions reversed), but for now we all want to ensure the documents get recorded.

If you would like a more detailed explanation for Montgomery County short sales, please check this blog post courtesy of Coldwell Banker's Darrin Friedman and Paragon Title's Dick Fritts.

Stay tuned to see how this plays out.

Short Sale "Arm's Length Transaction" Requirements

It should be obvious to many that a buyer of a short sale property cannot be related to the seller. A prerequisite of a short sale transaction is that the market dictates the price, and the lender is escaping further loss by reducing the principal balance rather than foreclose (and bear foreclosure and carrying costs). If, however the buyer is a relative of the seller, we cannot assume the sales price is "market." The fear is that the seller is really just escaping indebtedness while continuing to enjoy possession (if not defacto ownership) of the property.

But what about a real estate agent's relationship with the seller? We are finding that many (if not all) lenders also prohibit the payment of a commission to the listing agent who is related to the seller. Why? The principles are the same as described above. In short, the fear is that a related listing agent will just take his commission and give it to the seller. Remember that in a short sale a seller should walk away with nothing (or perhaps even bring in money). If the potential exists for a seller to earn some money from the sale, the short sale would not likely be approved.

As a real estate agent or broker, what do you do with this information?

If you (or one of your agents) are going to represent a relative seller in a short sale transaction, do not expect a commission. Be up front with the lender, and provide all agreements, disclosures and addendums with the short sale package, including the disclosure of any relationships between the parties. Ask - up front - what the lender's requirements are for a short sale. Spending a little time in the beginning of the process can save headache and miscommunication further down the line.

Issues with Short Sale Approval Letters

(This post is an update to our earlier entry located here regarding problematic short sale approval letters. Obviously, it's a dynamic and oft changing topic!)

So you get your short sale approval letter and you get that euphoric feeling as if it’s your last day of school or the boy or girl you have a crush on just asked you out!! Then, you may see it or you may not, but there in black and white, provisions inserted in that approval letter that essentially just killed! the same deal the lender just approved. What happened?

Well let’s start by looking at a couple of these strange problematic provisions, they can look like this:

“There are to be no transfers of property within 30 days of the closing of this transaction. Escrow instructions must contain a clause that if such a transaction takes place then the title/escrow company must notify __________(lender)

So let’s understand this, the lender just approved the short sale but says that the property cannot be re-sold within 30 days from the date of the short sale transaction. Ok, so far so good, but now the lender wants to hold the settlement agent responsible for notifying them if that takes place!! As you could imagine, not many title insurance companies would be interested in insuring this transaction. So unless your buyer is paying cash and does not want an owner’s policy (yikes) your deal is dead.

Another provision:

“If the property was acquired by any means of fraud, _____________(lender) reserves the right to pursue any and all actions available to it to pursue any and all actions available to it to offset its losses. If it is determined that Sellers and/or Buyers participated in any way to the fraud, this short sale will be void, and the Note and Security Instrument will remain in full force and effect.”

Just so we are clear, what the lender is saying here is that if the seller committed fraud either at the origination, acquisition or selling stage, the lender may come back and undo the sale that just took place. Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Buyers, you’re out of luck!! Once again, not too many underwriters will be interested in that deal.


These are just two examples, there are many more. So what are we to do? Simply read the letter very carefully, if you see any language in there where the lender says they can come back and “undo” the transaction for any reason, that is a problem.

Fortunately this issue is isolated to just two or three lenders and it is my understanding that discussions are taking place between title insurance companies and lenders to address the issue. So just when you thought short sales could not get any more complicated, here we are. The saga continues….more to come soon!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me on Facebook, Twitter or harry.yazbek@masettlement.com

Harry Yazbek

Current Short Sale Trends (VIDEO)

In this video, Harry Yazbek discusses current trends in short sales. What's the biggest change from 6 months ago? Are short sales getting approved more quickly now or are they taking longer? What's the #1 delay in getting short sales approved?

Should you have any additional questions regarding short sales, Harry can be reached via phone (703-946-4470), email (Harry[dot]Yazbek[at]MASettlement[dot]com) or Twitter (@HarryYazbek).

Legal: We are not a law firm nor a CPA firm. This particular post was created to aid real estate agents on the mechanics of short sales, not to provide buyers or sellers with any advice as to whether to buy or sell a property involving a short sale. Please seek the advice of an attorney or an accountant for those questions.

Underwriting Bulletin: Not All Short Sale Approval Letters are Acceptable

We have been alerted by several of our underwriters that some lenders have a new form of short sale approval/estoppel letter, in which the lender attempts to retain the right to invalidate a transaction for events which may have occurred at the loan’s inception or in the current transaction. An example of such a provision is as follows:

“If the property was acquired by any means of fraud, [lender’s name] reserves the right to pursue any and all actions available to it to pursue any and all actions available to it to offset its losses. If it is determined that Sellers and/or Buyers participated in any way to the fraud, this short sale will be void, and the Note and Security Instrument will remain in full force and effect.”

Should we receive a letter with such a provision, we are not authorized by our underwriters to close the transaction unless the letter is amended in writing to remove the offending provision.

This post was updated to answer additional questions from several agents.

What does this mean for you, the agent?

Unfortunately, we will not know if a short sale transaction will be impacted by such a restriction until we get the short sale approval letter from the lender. Nor have the lenders made it entirely clear what type of fraud they are talking about. What this update means for agents is that we will be reviewing short sale approval letters more closely, and if the letter contains restricting language like this, we will ask the lender to remove the language. If they refuse, we cannot close the transaction and issue title insurance.

Please do not hestitate to contact us with any additional questions or concerns.

Short Sale for Sellers

I have written several blogs about short sales, the last of which was specifically geared towards buyers, this blog will be addressing sellers.

So you have to sell your home for one reason or another but you owe more on it than it is actually worth. You have heard from friends and the “internet” that you can do a short sale and once it’s over, life is good!!

Well that could be true depending on many variables. Getting a short sale transaction approved and closed is a very complicated matter and in most cases will require the assistance of a few professionals.

First of all, let’s define a short sale: It is a transaction where a buyer purchases a property from a seller and gets “clear” title to the property. The buyer is always encouraged to buy title insurance. Not much is really different for a buyer other than some potential delays and frustration, more on that in future articles.

Things are a little different for the seller, since you can’t sell the property for enough money to pay off your loan(s). You appeal to your lender(s) to accept less money than what they are owed, and if they agree and a sale takes place, that transaction is called a short sale. The word “short” in short sale references the “short pay-off” you will be making to your lender.

How you make your appeal to your lender for accepting less money will vary from lender to lender but I will go over some basic rules. But first things first, let’s talk about those professional services I referenced. You will need a competent Realtor, period!! Trying to do this on your own is very frustrating, painful and in most cases a waste of time and energy on your part. It’s hard enough to sell a property on your own in a good market, trying to sell a property in challenging times, negotiate with the bank, and getting to closing on time is just almost impossible and in my view, unwise.

So a Realtor will be your best friend for a while. Next, you will need to consult with an attorney. Depending on where you live and other variables, there is a possibility your lender can sue you for a “deficiency judgment”, the difference between the short pay-off and the amount you actually owe the lender. For example, if you end up selling your house for $200,000 and make a short pay-off to your lender of $190,000 but you actually owe the lender $250,000, the lender may have the option to sue you for the $60,000. So talk to an attorney!

The lender may decide not to sue you, so they decide to “forgive your debt”. The word forgive is actually deceiving, your lender may decide to forgive that $60,000 deficiency we discussed, but the IRS will not hear of it. You may be getting a 1099-C from your lender, a copy of which goes to the IRS. This $60,000 may now become taxable, depending on your circumstances. The forgiven debt is actually called “cancelled debt” by the IRS and becomes “phantom income”, on which you may have to pay “phantom taxes”. And NO, if you owe taxes, you may not pay your taxes with a “phantom check”!! This brings me to the final professional, a competent accountant, who will quickly become your best friend.

Here are some suggested steps to get this process started:

1. List the property with a Realtor.

2. Start assembling financial information such as W2’s, pay stubs, bank statements, a list of assets and liabilities, and a list of monthly debts. The more you can provide the bank, the better chance you have of getting your file looked at in a reasonable amount of time. The number one cause for delay in a short sale transaction is lenders not having enough information or incomplete packages submitted by sellers.

3. A hardship letter telling the bank the reason why they should accept less money than what they’re owed. It is suggested that you keep this letter brief, factual and as precise as possible. I recommend you break the letter in three categories:

a. Tell the lender the nature of the hardship (job loss, death in family, illness, divorce, acts of nature, job transfer, etc...).

b. Explain to the lender why a short sale is beneficial in this case.

c. Explain your circumstances if a short sale is not approved (foreclosure, bankruptcy, etc...).

Once you have an offer (ratified contract), assemble the entire package and send it to the lender for processing. Check with your bank to see what department to send it to but typically it will go to the Loss Mitigation department.

If you have more than one loan, send a complete package to each lender who is being asked to accept less money than is actually owed.

The lender will typically come back with an answer of Yes, No or Maybe:

“Yes” means they have accepted the offer. An approval letter is generally sent to you outlining the terms and conditions of the approval. Typical approval letters state the minimum pay-off they are willing to accept, the sales price, the amount of closing cost credits to the buyer, if any, the total commission to the Realtor and in some cases the letter will disclose what the lender intends to do with the deficiency amount.

Some lenders will actually commit to forgiving the debt and issuing a 1099-C on the approval letter, others will state they reserve the right to collect the debt while others will not say anything at all regarding deficiency, in which case you should know the lender is reserving the right to collect at a future date.

“No” generally means no deal but sometimes it means they want more money.

“Maybe” is where it gets interesting, the lender may want you to sign an unsecured note for part or all of the deficiency. The lender may want you to bring some cash to the table in lieu of paying the note in full. The lender may not ask for anything but after closing takes place they may send the account to collections for the deficiency. There are many ways this can go down so please make sure you have competent professionals helping you throughout this process.

Remember, when dealing with any Loss Mitigation department, their number one priority is to minimize the lender’s losses, not yours, hence the name “Loss Mitigation”. They are required to do what’s in the best interest of the lender not the homeowner. If the lender’s best interest happens to be also in your best interest, then it’s a win-win situation.

This Week in Training

We have one scheduled agent CE class this week.

What: Short Sale Strategies (3 credit hours)
When: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM
Where: Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage located at 6225 Brandon Avenue, Springfield, VA

Interested? Please contact Harry Yazbek via email, phone (703-946-4470) or Twitter.

Have a great week!

Short Sale anyone?

So you are in the market for a house and you’re thinking of buying “short sale” but heard horror stories from your friends or your brother-in-law who took a real estate course three years ago and knows it all. But what do you really know about short sales and how it affects you as a buyer?

The reality is if you go in knowing what to expect and armed with a competent Realtor who understands short sales, you will be fine. If not, expect frustrations and if the deal does eventually close, you will feel like you earned a medal of valor at the end of the settlement process!

Let’s start by defining the term “Short Sale”. It is a sale of a property where seller owes the lender(s) more money than what it’s worth, and lender agrees to accept less money than what they are owed (short pay-off). Anytime a sale takes place under those conditions, it is considered a “Short Sale” transaction. As you may have guessed, the term “short’ in short sale comes from the seller’s pay-off to their lender being short on money.

So why would a lender ever accept less money than what they’re owed? Well it all comes down to the “bottom line”; if the lender thinks they can lose less money by foreclosing on a property and selling it at an auction, that’s what they will do. But if they think they will lose less money by granting a short sale, they will go that route. It all comes down to what’s in the lender’s best interest. Often times what’s in the lender’s best interest happens to be in the best interest of the seller, that’s when you as a buyer can make this process worthwhile for you.

So how does this work? First you find a property you’re interested in with your Realtor and then you make an offer, also known as “writing a contract”. If seller accepts your offer or counter-offer, the contract is then known to be “ratified”. The seller will have to accept your offer but make this acceptance “subject to third-party/lender approval”, meaning the lender to whom seller owes money has to now agree to the terms of the contract ratified by you and the seller.

By this time, the Realtor representing the seller should have assisted the seller in submitting an application for a short sale approval to the lender, known as a “package”. I will address the package in a future article but in short, this package is going to include all of the seller’s financial information, a letter explaining why a short sale is necessary, known as a “hardship letter”, and of course a copy of the ratified contract, as well as other documents justifying the seller’s request.

If the seller has more than one loan on the property, a package has to go to each lender for consideration. This is where you have to be patient because the lender has a lot of homework to do here. Remember, the seller is asking the lender to accept less money than what they are owed, in some cases it is a substantial amount of money. If that was your money, wouldn’t you want to take your time and give this careful consideration? This process can take anywhere from 3 to 10 weeks, often times longer. But eventually, the lender will come back with an answer: 1. Yes, 2. No, or 3. We want more money.

Whatever the lender’s answer is, as a buyer you are affected by it. If the answer is yes, then you go to settlement and all is well (of course that’s relative!). If the answer is No, you have no deal and you need to start all over again with another property. If the answer is lender wants more money, this is where it gets a little interesting. At this point, your experienced Realtor will really shine. Perhaps you can offer a little more money for the property, provided of course you were getting a good deal from the start. Or instead of offering more money you offer to make a lump-sum payment directly to the lender on behalf of the seller. There are many ways to get around the “we want more money” answer and again, your Realtor can assist here.

So is all this really worth it? It can be with the right property and the right seller and the right lender. Often times the lender may agree to accept an amount below the appraised value if the seller is willing to pay back some of the money he owes outside of your transaction (personal unsecured note).

Don’t forget that you as a buyer will get “clean” title to the property and of course don’t even think about buying a short sale without a title insurance owner’s policy. In fact, don’t think about ever buying any property without a title insurance owner’s policy but that’s a future article.

So what’s the bottom line on all this? Short Sales can be frustrating if you are not educated or if you don’t have a Realtor who can help you. But with the right information and representation, a short sale transaction can be very rewarding on many levels to all parties involved.

UPDATE: Tomorrow's Short Sale Class is now FOR CREDIT!

The Short Sale Class in Alexandria, Virginia tomorrow is now a for-credit class, offering 3 credit hours for Virginia and Maryland REALTORs.

Time and Place

Date: Thursday, January 29, 2009
Time: 10:00am - 1:00pm
Location: CBRB Alexandria
Street: 310 King Street
City/Town: Alexandria, VA

Please contact Harry Yazbek if you can make it!

2 Classes Next Week

We are a little behind in scheduling our CE (for credit) classes for 2009, but promise it is coming soon. In the meantime, please feel free to join us for some non-credit informational classes that Harry Yazbek is teaching next week. Please also remember that all of our classes are listed as events on our Facebook page.

Thursday, January 29th

What? Short Sales
What time? 10:00AM
Where? Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage office in Alexandria, VA
What's the address? 310 King Street

Friday, January 30th

What? Short Sales and REOs
What time? 11:00 AM
Where? Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage office in Manassas, VA
What's the address? 7696 Streamwalk Lane

Please contact Harry Yazbek via phone (703-946-4470), email or on Twitter if you'd like to join us!

Foreclosure and Short Sale Class in Fairfax, Virginia

Are you a NoVa agent who can't get enough of foreclosures and short sales?

Harry Yazbek will be teaching an informational (non-credit) class at the Fairfax Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage office this Thursday, January 15th at 10:00 AM. More specifically, the class will aim to educate agents on the REO and short sale markets, and tips on entering them.

Please email Harry at Harry[dot]Yazbek[at]MASettlement[dot]com if you are interested, or feel free to leave a comment below telling us you are coming.

Changes to Short Sale Processing Unit

We are happy to announce a change in our Short Sale Processing Unit's handling of short sale transactions. Effective Monday November 24, 2008, the current fee of $195 plus $100 upon closing will no longer be charged to process your Short Sale transaction, provided we are the designated settlement agent for buyers and sellers.

We will cease processing transactions where we only represent sellers and buyers settle with another settlement company. This will permit us to better serve you by allowing us to dedicate our resources where they are truly needed.

We will be provide future updates outlining the tasks associated with processing a short sale but very little has changed in terms of the mechanical side of processing. This change will not affect any files that are in progress nor any files we open between now and the end of this week.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Harry Yazbek or Penny Ross.

Mid-Atlantic Settlement Services
11350 McCormick Road Executive Plaza III, Suite 200
Hunt Valley, MD 21031
(800) 530-9372
Fax (800) 710-9918
http://www.masettlement.com/

http://www.masettlement.blogspot.com/
www.Twitter.com/MASettlement

Week of October 27th: CE Training Schedule

As many of you know, Mid-Atlantic Settlement Services provides CE training for real estate agents. Below is a list of classes offered this week, including date, time, class name and location. Beginning with this entry, we will provide you with this information every Monday (or Friday if we're feeling ambitious!):

When: Monday, October 27 at 10:00 AM
What: Md Ethics
Where: Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, 1850 Dual Highway, Hagerstown, MD
How many credit hours: 3

When: Tuesday, October 28 at 10:30 AM
What: Short Sale Strategies
Where: Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, 5028 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC
How many credit hours: 3

When: Wednesday, October 29 at 10:00 AM
What: Short Sale Strategies
Where: ERA Pro Realty, 438 North Frederick Avenue, Suite 300, Gaithersburg, MD
How many credit hours: 3

Seating may be limited, so please contact Harry Yazbek to assure your spot!