National Closing Center

Posts Tagged ‘loss mitigation’

Some time ago I’ve asked members of Broker Agent Social, a network community of real estate professionals, to share their horror stories about dealing with the banks while trying to negotiate short sale.

Here are some interesting replies I’ve got:

I had a short sale listing settle on July 30, 2010 with Litton Loan Servicing. Actually the process getting to settlement was pretty smooth. No major issues, negotiator was responsive, etc. On August 12, 2010 I received an email from the buyers’ agent indicating that the back door of the home was kicked in, the door knob was replaced, a security plate was installed where the deadbolt was located and a lockbox was placed on the new door knob. This was 2 weeks after settlement and the new owners had moved in and were all set up. I called Litton Loans multiple times to reach someone to find out what was going on. After multiple calls due to being disconnected, transferred and disconnected I finally reached the short sale closer I had been working. She said she would look into it and provide me some answers. Two days later I received a call from ZVN Properties in Ohio who indicated that they had received a lock out order on August 5, 2010 from Litton Loans (one week after settlement). ZVN sent out a crew to change the locks. Whoever they sent to the home should have realized that the home was being lived in. I do a lot of lockouts and have to go through hoops to determine if the home is vacant before I would ever have the locks changed but this particular crew did no such thing and kicked the door in, breaking the door and door jamb in the process. Buyers are looking to be compensated for the damages however my question is why would the bank have the locks changed when they didn’t own the home. It had never gone to Sheriff’s Sale and there was not even a notice for Sheriff’s Sale ever received scheduling it. There was nothing noted about any kind of eviction process which had begun. I found the whole thing to be extremely unsettling especially for the new owners. What I find most concerning is that the bank that had settled on this home proceeded with this type of action 2 weeks after the settlement took place. This all happened very recently and I’m not sure whether the buyers will pursue this through the courts or not.

Jeff Huss, Exton, PA

I have a short sale that I’ve had listed since April of 2009.  I only has one lien holder, BOA.  We got an offer accepted in June of 2009 and waited for a response for over 10 months.  Finally the buyer walked.  We put it back on the market and we have yet to get an offer.  The price is now lower than the accepted offer we had.

Greg Kobylenski, Holland, MI

I was representing a buyer in a short sale purchase subject to bank approval. Bank of America was the existing mortgagee. My buyer made a full listed price purchase offer on 2/16/2010. It was finally approved by Bank of america on July 16, 2010 with the condition that it close by JUNE 25, 2010. When I questione this “typo” I was informed that we would have to start over with obtaining the bank’s approval. This took another 32 days, fortunately my buyers were willing to extend the closing deadline and hung in mostly due to the fact they are still eligible for the $6500 tax credit if they close on this property by 9/30/2010. A bureacratic nightmare brought on by the inability of Bank of America to function in an efficient manner to say the least.

Michael Davenport, Sarasota, FL

These stories are seemingly different, but they have two common factors: processing a short sale takes unreasonably long time and one representative does not know what see other is doing, ad nauseam. Anyone who had a chance to represent a seller in a short sale process knows that anecdotal situation: if you keep calling the same bank and get different representative every time, you will probably hear as many versions of what’s up with your short sale file as there are representatves.

So what’s the solution? I sincerely believe that in the current market the best solution is outsourcing. Of course, even the companies that offer short sale processing cannot guarantee positive results every time. However, just the option of taking all the burden off Realtor’s shoulders saves him or her a lot of money and time.

Secondly, if outsourcing company does nothing but keeps calling the bank day after day, it still has a better chance of achieving better results just because they had enough time to speak to tens of different representatives and maybe find the one that actually knows what they are doing.

Finally, skilled and trained staff members that do nothing but negotiations are much more effective than overwhelmed and Realtor whos has much more responsibilities than negotiating short sales.

Care to share your own horror story? Post in the comment section or email us at info [at] nc-center.com.

Have a smart short sale negotiation tactics to share? Do the same. We want to hear from you!