Bids are due Oct. 27 on roughly 1,217 deeply delinquent mortgages that Fannie Mae wants to sell, a pool with about $259.9 million in unpaid principal balance. The government-sponsored mortgage company announced the sale on Oct. 8 and said any buyer must honor loan modifications that were approved or in progress when the sale closes. The pool is the larger of two in the same announcement; a separate Dallas-Fort Worth pool of about 27 loans has its own bid date.
The sale matters most to a homeowner who is far behind on a Fannie Mae-owned mortgage and has been working out a repayment plan. A sale changes who holds the note and who collects the payment, and the question for that borrower is what survives the handoff. Fannie Mae’s answer, in its own announcement, is that approved and in-process loss mitigation does, and that the buyer then has to offer more help before it can foreclose.
Bids on the main pool close Oct. 27, and the smaller Dallas-Fort Worth pool follows on Nov. 3.
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What is on the block
Fannie Mae’s Oct. 8 announcement describes the larger pool as about 1,217 loans with about $259.9 million in unpaid principal balance, or roughly $213,500 a loan on average. All pools are open to qualified bidders, and BofA Securities is marketing the sale. Fannie Mae directs would-be buyers to register on its whole-loan sales page for announcements, training and pool information.
Deeply delinquent is Fannie Mae’s own description, and it is the reason these loans are for sale rather than in the company’s regular servicing book. The announcement does not give an average delinquency, interest rate or geography for the main pool, only the count and the balance.
The conditions every buyer accepts
The buyer’s obligations are the part of the sale that touches borrowers. Fannie Mae requires buyers to offer loss mitigation options designed to be sustainable for the borrower and to honor any approved or in-process loss mitigation efforts at the time of closing, including loan modifications. A borrower whose modification was approved in September keeps it after the sale.
There is a second layer before foreclosure. For any loan not secured by a vacant or condemned property at closing, the buyer must first offer the borrower “a waterfall of loss mitigation options, including loan modifications, which may include principal forgiveness.” Fannie Mae’s wording says the options may include principal forgiveness; it does not say they will.
If foreclosure cannot be prevented after those steps, the owner of the loan has to market the property to owner-occupants and nonprofits first, in a process the company likens to its FirstLook program. That puts families and housing groups ahead of investors for the foreclosed house.
Freddie Mac sold more, the same day
Fannie Mae was not alone on Oct. 8. Freddie Mac announced the sale of 1,968 deeply delinquent first-lien loans with about $428 million in balance, split across four pools by auction. VRMTG ACQ, LLC won the first three pools and Igloo Series VII Trust won the fourth. Settlement is expected in December 2026.
Freddie’s release shows what a finished sale looks like. The cover bid, the second-highest price, ran in the mid-90s percent of unpaid balance for the two largest pools and in the mid-80s for the smallest. About 51 percent of the aggregate balance in Freddie’s pools was loans that had been modified earlier and then went delinquent again, which is why the modification-honoring rule carries weight. Freddie’s buyers must also honor existing loss mitigation agreements except in limited cases, and must contact distressed borrowers about more help and finish pending loss mitigation actions. The loans in Freddie’s four pools had been delinquent for an average of 15 to 21 months, and the average loan balance ran from $207,400 in the first pool to $256,900 in the fourth. Select Portfolio Servicing, NewRez doing business as Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing, Selene Finance and Rocket Mortgage doing business as Rushmore Servicing are the current servicers on those loans.
Between the bid date and the closing
Bids on the main Fannie Mae pool close Oct. 27. The Dallas-Fort Worth pool follows on Nov. 3. The announcement gives no closing date for the main pool; for comparison, the previous Dallas-Fort Worth pool announced its winner on Sept. 29 and listed a Nov. 19 expected closing.
Keeping a modification intact through a loan sale
A borrower who has an approved or pending modification on a Fannie Mae-backed loan can find the loan owner through the servicer, the company that takes the payment. The servicer, not the buyer, is the first call, and the servicer’s letter is the borrower’s record of what was approved. Keep every notice, because Fannie Mae’s rule protects efforts that were “approved or in-process” at closing, so the paper trail is what proves which stage a request reached.
The company’s announcement is the place to confirm the buyer rules, and its whole announcement lists a media contact, Kelly Antonacci, at 202-752-0524.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Financial Wire’s editorial team.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
