Comment

Comment by Sheyenne Schultz on July 24, 2011 at 1:31am

I was able to get that file I spoke about in here closed. I got a great negotiator in the escalations dept and this file got approved in 2 wks 2nd time around. We closed 15 days ahead of schedule and Wells was the investor. Put that in their pipes and smoke it. Sometimes its who you get at these banks. Most negotiators at the lower level don't know how to put their underwear on right...it's a wonder how they even got their job? Pretty scary.

Comment by Marsha M. McKinney on June 17, 2011 at 9:53am

We have been told over and over how much the lenders want to help make these short sales work.  Ha , Ha, Ha,.  I have had several that I have had to fight on the way to the closing to keep the seller from being foreclosed on. These sellers are just like yours that have had "life happen" and things like these they could not control.  My heart has been broken because I have not been able to save some of these deals.  I have even begged for extensions because I knew offers were coming in and the extensions have been denied.  I wish we could solve these problems. We work so hard to make these short sales work but they just keep on becoming "long sales" instead of "short".

Comment by Sheyenne Schultz on June 17, 2011 at 1:54am

Angela and Joseph Alfe  Help me  I have a question for you. I have a short sale with B of A both 1st and 2nd. Our first negotiator was a nice but inexperienced negotiator in Delaware. B of A agreed on the price I countered, especially after an appraisal was done by the seller's law firm that does loan audits. She sent it to the investor who was Wells Fargo for approval. It came back from her saying the investors declined the sale. I asked why, and she said it was because the seller had 782 credit score and had never been delinquent on anything. You gotta be kidding me. So she is being penalized for having been a good citizen? like BAD things don't happen to GOOD people everyday????? I then called office of the president, got a case # and got the case reopened with as escalation specialist. Now we have even MORE of a hardship. Seller's loan was in her name only. Her husband refuses to contribute anymore and is leaving her because his first wife is demanding higher child support from him. So he is abandoning his current wife(the seller) forcing her to make the mrtge payment alone, and both cars are in HER name and he is refusing to pay on his car also.  They are divorcing, he has abandoned her and moved out. She is a radiologist and farms herself out to doctors so is on a 1099 and has lost clients so income is curtailed, and also she can only get work 3 hours away now in southern orange county forcing her to have to relocate because she cannot afford the drive every day anymore. On top of this, right when we opened again with the escalations dept., seller found out last wk that she is NOW 16 wks pregnant. This means she was 4 wks pregnant when short sale started first time around and she did not know this. She is in her 40's and has never been pregnant and did not want any children at this time of her life. Well, she is past the time frame to get an abortion here in Ca and soon to be ex husband REFUSES to help, stay or pay. He has even taken HER OFF HIS medical insurance so Now BEING 16 WKS PREGNANT SHE HAS NONE. If all of these reasons are NOT a reason for hardship, god help me, but I don't know what IS!!!! What do I do if Wells is that EVIL that this might be declined a 2nd time????? She is current on her payments because she is foreign and from Indonesia and in her culture you make your payments no matter what. HELP! If This is declined a 2nd time, can you help me or do you have contacts with higher ups in me going straight to high ups at Wells Fargo in investor department?

Comment by Sara Garabedian DRE# 00931842 on August 4, 2010 at 9:02pm

Has anyone ever heard of Aurora changing the approval when buyer's loan docs are in! Our approval was based on a HUD submitted w/the offer. The HOA dues were 12 months deliquent. Altho we managed to get collections to settle for less, we still had approx 9 months showing on the HUD. The approval comes in w/no mention of dues, but dis-allows a few other line items. We get loan approval and recv docs a week before our expiration date, and send out the fianl HUD for review and the bank comes back w/some nonsense suddently about FreddiMac guidelines not allowing payment of more than 6 months of dues?! In our case the dues are approx $450/mo, so this is a substantial blow! But wait, it gets worse! Not only do they want to pay only 6 mo, they want the remaining balance of what is owed the HOA to be added to their payoff!! I have argued that not only is there no more blood in this turnip, this late breaking news seems out of line, especially when during a previous excrow, they had approved an amount that came close to 10 months of dues only 4 months earlier!? The negotiator said she spoke to her manager and he insists that this is the only way to proceed. Our auction sale is set for 10 days out. WHat can I do at this point to save the deal? To whom would I appeal at this point??? We are devestated! What now??

Comment by Marsha M. McKinney on July 12, 2010 at 11:33pm

This looks like the place to b e to get the answers that attack us on a case by case situation. I have some real experience with some lenders that I really can not believe that they ever planned to do a short sale. I am looking forward to having the input of likeminded agents who can provide good counsel when needed.

Comment by Andy Morris on February 3, 2010 at 12:45pm

O.K. Question what is the line that the bank crosses when you finally say... it is time to pull out the stops... the daily or twice a week follow up is not working? Is it different for each lender? Is it 30 days no response? Is it 60 days no response? Is it getting arbitrarely turned down in a week with out even ordering a BPO?

Comment by Mike Linkenauger on January 21, 2010 at 11:56am

We've definately done "all of the above" many times. We have had the best luck with going to supervisors, presidents, VP's ect... and have a pretty nice list now of many of them who can help us! Great point Andy, its all about finding the RIGHT people, and not blaming everybody at the corporation for the corporations shortcommings.

Comment by Andy Morris on January 21, 2010 at 10:28am

BTW... I am adopting a child and there have been some nightmares in customer service we have experienced as we currently foster that child. In any large bureaucracy there are lot of people who have no sense of urgency and don't carry their load. Then there are a few people that have a fire in their belly for change. They are advocates for change. If you can find these people that actually care and are at a level to influence for the better you issue you can make a lot happen. All the negative generalizations about places like bank of america can make you forget that these are orginazations of people... some who care and some who don't.

Comment by Andy Morris on January 21, 2010 at 10:16am

Ha... :) That is exactly the kind of idea and advice I wanted to elicit in this group! I have done the fax bomb and I did have my client who was keeping her home simultaneously write a letter to the editor and to the execs at a local bank that was being unreasonable. The fax bomb was for a short sale I was working on 6 years ago. I had gotten zero response after sixty days and was calling regularly. They couldn't even indicate my file was received. I believe the bank was Wilshire. I actually sent a hundred page fax that said call me over and over and over again. 20m later I got a call from a confused gal. I explained the situation and she ordered BPO right away and we had the short sale accepted and negotiated less than 30 days later. I agree that although you have to be aggressive in your commitment to move forward... in general a spoonful of honey will work much better. A pissed off loss mitigator can easily derail a short sale.

The lady writing the letter got a call back from the vice president of the Third Federal hear in the Cleveland area apologizing for foreclosing and offering to stop the foreclosure for atleast 90 days while she sold it.

I have read about instances where owners were able to create such a public relations nightmare for a lender that they would offer special programs or expedite things in such a way as to make things quiet down quickly.

Another thing that helps is if your client has an attorney to defend the foreclosure. I had a six months of negotiating with bank of america on a short sale. Over an over again they would lose the offer, deny it with out sending out a BPO, never send out a BPO, then they would say your request expired. It was outrageous. My clients hired an attorney and a this point it was about 60 days from selling at the sheriff sale. The attorney got the case thrown out of court on a technicality and a week later I got a call from the office of the president. And a week later we had an approved short sale.

Comment by Angela Alfe on January 21, 2010 at 10:03am

No, I don't do any of those. The best way to lose ground in a short sale is by doing all of the above. I get online and start pulling contact information for all of the Presidents and VPs of Loss Mitigation, Customer Service, etc. In fact, I've had to do this with both Bank of America and Wells Fargo and after sending a complete, coherent time line with a request for "their experience and expertise" to get this file closed, they have come through for me each time. In fact, on a Wells Fargo file, the negotiator hadn't touched it since July and it was the end of October when I finally found the VP of Loss Mit and emailed him. He responded back promptly, forwarded the email on to more higher ups and I had a phone call that day from the negotiator and the file closed 5 weeks later.

Never lose your cool. Do not be afraid to email VPs, Senior VPs, etc. Even their secretaries. But, your emails have to be written in a business-like tone, be factual (no blaming...nothing personal), to the point and end with the result you are looking for.

Even if no one responds, I would bet that if you call to check on status a couple of days after sending those emails, you'll start to see movement on the file. You may even be pleasantly surprised to have someone contact you.