Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

A short sale seller called me yesterday after his short sale in Rancho Cordova closed. He reminded me that he was unable to close this short sale with his previous agent. He thanked me profusely for closing this short sale for him. I had forgotten that this was listed before with another agent. That's how long I've hung in there for this seller. But it's all coming back to me now.

OK, I don't remember why his previous Sacramento short sale agent couldn't sell this home. Maybe he sold it but couldn't close it? Maybe he had little short sale experience? Whatever the problem, I'm glad the seller called me. The first thing I did was get the seller to fix the broken window in the front. That's a huge turnoff for buyers, and it's dangerous, period, to leave a home vulnerable to break-ins.

The seller had moved to Alaska for his job. A job relocation automatically makes him qualify for a short sale, or so you would think. But Wells Fargo came back and said he had too much money in his savings account at the bank. Wells Fargo said the seller could afford to make payments until he ran out of money in his savings account. That's pretty stupid, if you ask me. But see, Wells Fargo has goofy guidelines at times, and you just work with them.

We lost that buyer because we had to wait 2 months after the seller paid off his credit cards with that money. Now, the seller had no money in his last 2 months of bank statements, and the short sale could move forward. The buyer, however, was long gone. He didn't want to wait for short sale approval. Some of them don't. But you know what? There is always another buyer around the corner.

I sold that short sale again, this time to a buyer in Australia. This buyer was represented by a super delightful agent who was sweet and easy to work with. The thing about Australia, apart from the fact that they are all throwing shrimp on the barbie and they talk funny, is they are across the International Dateline. We are some 20 hours apart. It can take a full day to get a document back from Australia. Not good in a short sale.

Yesterday, we were down to the wire. We were waiting for a revised approval letter from the second lender, Citimortgage (now One Main Financial), because the approval letter was issued by a collection agency. The collection agency did not own the loan. But the letter arrived in the nick of time, and we rushed documents to the courthouse for a special afternoon recording. Good thing because Wells Fargo refused to extend the short sale, and its letter expired yesterday.

Somehow, we always close that short sale. Even the nail-biters close on time. Knock on wood. That's the benefit of working with an experienced escrow officer who has more than 25 years in the business. She and this Sacramento short sale agent make a good team. I can't take all the credit. See, your Sacramento short sale agent is only as good as the team that supports her. Plus, a short sale seller needs an agent who won't ever give up. My sellers know they can count on me for that.

This is not the first time it has happened. Unfortunately, it won't be the last. And it wouldn't be nearly so much fun if every time I called the Wells Fargo office in Des Moines I wasn't disconnected after holding. If you don't know your party's extension, press 2. And you're zapped into voice mail hell or hung up on -- one or the other.

But I stop to consider the fact those employees at Wells Fargo in Des Moines had to get out of bed in Des Moines. I try to have empathy for them. It's 28 degrees in Des Moines this morning. Probably has snow on the ground. I'm a short sale agent in Sacramento, typing at my keyboard in my robe. Our high today will be in the 60s. I can be compassionate.

The problem started a few weeks back when we received short sale approval from the first lender at Wells Fargo. We have been waiting for the approval from the second lender and kept getting the run around. Wells Fargo said it had a title issue it was working on. I kept asking for clarity and an explanation. Finally, a negotiator disclosed there was a third deed of trust showing up in their search. He told us Wells Fargo had ordered the reconveyance and had sent the reconveyance last December to a lawyer in California to record.

Why did he think this even though it wasn't true? Because Wells Fargo owns a small title company that couldn't find its plant with two flashlights and a map. Of course, in California, we pull a preliminary title report on every file. Our prelim did not reflect a third deed of trust. We ordered the recon from Placer Title and sent it to Wells Fargo. The problem was Wells Fargo did not understand that our recons in California do not contain the name of the beneficiary.

There are 3 parties to a deed of trust. You've got your trustor (the borrower), the beneficiary (the lender) and the trustee (with power of sale). The reconveyance references the Book and Page number of the original deed of trust that it reconveys. Since the recon did not name the third lender in big fat bold letters, Wells Fargo ignored the recon.

Now, right here, you've got to wonder what kind of lawyer Wells Fargo employs in California. What kind of lawyer would receive a document for recordation in December and, come February, still not record it? I'd say it's the kind of lawyer who is lying on the beach somewhere in Hawaii or maybe scooting around in a golf cart in Arizona.

I obtained a copy of the original deed of trust, packaged it with the preliminary title report and the recorded reconveyance and sent it to Wells Fargo. Followed up a week later, and still received the same message. Yup, the recon was sent to California for recordation. Makes you wanna grab the guy by his tie and pull his face up close to yours so you can stare into those beady little vacant eyes and beat him on the head with your shoe.

Which is what I did yesterday. This morning when I called the supervisor at 6 AM, she told me the issue had finally been resolved and the file is now moving forward for approval. Ya gotta love a Wells Fargo short sale.

There are short sale agents back East like Chris Ann Cleland who love to work with Wells Fargo on a short sale. But, here, in Sacramento, those short sales are typically a struggle. Doesn't mean I don't list them and sell them, though, because as a Sacramento short sale agent, I'm not in the practice of boycotting lenders. You work with what you get. But, still. Wells Fargo, spittooey.

When it's a Wells Fargo FHA loan, it can be even worse. Because FHA wants to set the list price, just like a regular HAFA short sale but it's not HAFA. I first listed this home in February at $189,000. We received several offers and accepted an offer of $200,000. It took Wells Fargo 30 days to close out the loan modification file and assign a negotiator. By the third week in April, we had a counter offer and a demand from Wells to change the price to $211,500.

The buyer flipped out and canceled, despite my assurances that I could make Wells Fargo understand the home should sell at our offer price of $200,000. So, this home went back on the market in early May at Wells Fargo's list price of $211,500. Because we were stuck with an overpriced home on the market, it took another 30 days to sell this in what was, due to the first-time home buyer tax credit, one of the hottest real estate markets of recent memory.

We received another offer for, you guessed it, $200,000. This was June 4th. I sent the comparable sales to Wells Fargo to justify this price, and the short sale process started over. We were a little bit ahead of the game since the BPO was still valid, but it took Wells Fargo another 7 weeks to process this file. Finally, on July 22nd, Wells Fargo promised we would have the short sale approval letter within 24 hours. But on July 23rd, a fire broke out in Milwaukee, so Wells Fargo sent everybody home.

On July 26th, we received the approval letter at $200,000, stipulating a closing date of August 20th, not quite 30 days. The real nail-biting session began when the title company sent the final HUD to Wells Fargo for approval. The days ticked by and no such approval arrived. We called and called and called. Then, the day before closing, the negotiator emailed title to say a closing fee needed to be moved from the HUD and placed on line 1101, but title could not comply because it would violate HUD regulations.

We then exchanged several emails explaining the new Good Faith Estimate requirements to Wells Fargo. Still, no approval. Yesterday was the deadline. The lender funded. Title was ready to release docs for recording but Wells Fargo would not approve the HUD unless title moved the closing fee. The negotiator left for vacation. The clock ticked. By 1:00 p.m, we had escalated the file to a supervisor. It went to management review. We needed the approval by 2:30 to record.

The title company literally grabbed the minute hand on the clock and turned it backward. At 2:40, the HUD approval arrived, docs were released and we recorded, with permission to wire funds to Wells Fargo on Monday. You know, I'm lucky that I have any finger nails left at all after this.