Everybody knows that I am a Sacramento short sale agent who carefully chooses the short sales she agrees to list and sell. That's because everybody knows that my short sales tend to close. Especially a short sale in Land Park. I sell enough homes in Land Park to know the individual neighborhoods intimately and, besides, I live in Land Park. There are many neighborhoods within neighborhoods in Land Park. Prices can vary dramatically from street to another. But it wasn't price that made this Land Park short sale explode.
It was the bank. Central Mortgage.
Most of my Sacramento short sales tend to be Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo or Citimortgage. The big four. But, I've done enough short sales with Central Mortgage -- and by enough I mean I can probably count those short sales on both hands -- that I know they tend to be slow and quirky. It would also not be unusual to get assigned some old grumpy negotiator. I got a different negotiator this time. Maybe Central has increased its staff?
We accepted an offer the first few days in May and sent the offer, an accompanying BPO, the HUD and all required paperwork to Central Mortgage. Called every week. Yes, all the docs are in. Yes, the BPO has been completed. Finally, in mid July somebody at the bank looks at it. The negotiator generated a lengthy letter.
In this letter, she asked for 17 different things. I did not see any objection that was insurmountable until I got to the bottom of the letter. At the bottom, she basically said that it didn't matter what we did. We could increase the offer price, we could comply with every nuance and request, but regardless, she would not postpone the trustee's sale.
We had two weeks to close. That's OK, if we generated an all-cash offer, we could close in 2 weeks and beat the auction date. That wasn't the kicker. The kicker was the negotiator said even if we could meet all the terms and be ready to close, there was not enough time to approve the short sale. She could not approve it because she would need to review it. And after she reviewed the file -- which would obviously take her a long time -- then she would send it to the investor. The investor would need at least a couple of weeks.
All of this meant there was no time left to approve the short sale prior to its auction date. She could have said that in the first sentence of the letter: Hey, sorry I let this file sit on my desk for 2 months, but now I have no time to do my job and this is going to foreclosure. Because that would have been a more accurate picture. But no, the negotiator must have spent an hour carefully drawing up her list of 17 items before she told us to go fly a kite. Unbelievable. Why go through the motions?
No time, no time, no time, no time
No time, no time, no time, no time
I got, got, got, got no time
I got, got, got, got no time
I got, got, got, got no time
---
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.
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Elizabeth, people can do anything if they put their mind to it, obviously this lady did NOT want to even consider an approval. Makes everyone waste the time with the paperwork.
Hi Elizabeth,
That's part of the problem with short sales. At times both sides are guilty of not providing all the information needed for timely resolution. This negotiator wasted your time, the Buyer's time and the Listing Agent's time.
Yeah, Gary, but why did she write that long letter? I could see if she was billing by the hour but she's just a clerk.
You'd think, Pat, that when she first picked up the file she would have realized it could not be processed within their caseload in 2 months. I'll remember this episode with the next one.
Good MOrning, Elizabeth. I have so much trouble with this kind of action from the bank. It demonstrates a real lack of comprehension of the homebuying process (very ironic since they are a lender).
Hey Melissa: Have you ever done a Central Mortgage short sale in San Diego or do you not see these in the southern part of our fine state?
How heartbreaking for the sellers. You know - I believe all this stuff is karma driven. That negotiator behaved as if she had no heart. If she takes the time to write letters like that one that all time suckers, no wonder she's behind on her work. Sounds very inefficient. It will come back around to bite her in the butt one day.
It sounds as if she wrote the letter because she is required to ask you for certain documents. She is following a manual and most likely considers she has done her job beyond what is required of her. No thought of the homeowner or their situation - or anyone else's time for that matter. I just had a similar situation with Chase.
Featured in the group: Bartender, Make it a Double.
That negotiator might get to her files faster if she quit wasting so much time on long, meaningless letters.
Elizabeth - I know that we have a different system, so our experience may not apply, but i all of our short sales when we get to this situation, closing attorney files with the court and asks for more time, and so far every time the judge would grant it.
Elizabeth - I think you have outlined what is so frustrating about short-sales. Those with the power to do something to make a transaction work, are slow to move. They are adept at pushing paper from one side of their desk to another, while not really accomplishing anything. They get paid either way, but it is costly to those their inaction and misdirection affects.
I analyze my short sales from all angles before I list them and try to head off future problems before they occur, but I could not foresee any reason why this home in Land Park would not qualify for a short sale. It had short sale written all over it. There could also be government incentives for foreclosure in the investor guidelines.
Funny story, though -- I had another home in Land Park listed that should have been listed in short sale territory. When I shared that bit of knowledge with the seller, she freaked out, refused to believe me, and wanted to list with another agent. I noticed yesterday it sold (a year later) at the value I told her. She obviously had to take money out of her pocket to close escrow. It would have cost her a lot less if she had done this a year ago.
Elizabeth ... Amazing and disappointing to hear that the lender negotiator in your Land Park short sale asked for 17 different things and then said it didn't matter because she would not postpone the trustee's sale. I wonder what drove that decision.
Extremely frustrating and you are right, she could have just said it at the top of the letter, I'm sorry, I let this slip but I think she thought you wouldn't read to the bottom of the letter. It's like when we would write papers in school, and in the middle of the paper, we would write something like "I drink Coke" just to see if the theacher was paying attention and reading! It's a shame and it stinks. Really, really stinks!