I feel like I have crawled naked through broken glass. Maybe more like crawling naked through broken glass in the dark without my contacts. Because even though I may have been down this hallway a bazillion times, it's always different when it's littered with unexpected obstacles. You can't always predict every obstacle in a short sale, regardless of how many you have closed.
I have a pretty good idea what will happen in just about any short sale scenario. Once I know who the lender is and I listen to the seller's financial woes and hardship, I am pretty accurate with my estimate of events and time frames.
But nothing really prepared me for that last Bank of America / AMS Loan Servicing HAFA short sale. And I still have one more of those babies to go. At least it's in escrow with a short sale approval letter. Although, I have to say, I had to email the approval letter to AMS because the negotiator didn't have it. In fact, the negotiator went over to Equator and rejected my settlement statement for no good reason. That was my tip-off that the negotiator did not realize that this HAFA short sale had been approved. How do you like those apples? It only took us 3 months to approve a preapproved HAFA and the negotiator did not know it had been approved.
Once I got through to the AMS HAFA escalation team, everything moved smoothly, quickly and efficiently. That's the secret weapon for your HAFA short sale. Your Sacramento short sale agent can play TAG, YOU'RE IT with the AMS negotiator, or she can go to the AMS HAFA escalation team.
After 3 months of short sale hell, we had 9 days to close this short sale. Nine days to get the appraisal. Three days to get through underwriting. Every day there was some new requirement to tackle. Sellers living in different states. But the mortgage broker, buyer's agent and the buyer worked closely with my escrow team and everything was resolved, just in the nick of time. We needed to record on Thursday to pay the second lender by Friday. If the second lender did not receive payment on Friday, the loan would be sent to collection and the approval would expire, deader than a door knob.
As luck would have it, we closed on Thursday. It closed by the hair on its chinny-chin-chin. I can't take the credit. It was definitely a team effort. This Sacramento short sale agent works with the best team in Sacramento short sales. Nothing ever gets done with one hand slamming the desk. It takes the cooperation and determination of an entire village. I celebrated this morning by sleeping in. That's my recharging reward.
---
Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
Lyon Real Estate 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.
Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.
The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.
Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice. It could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.
