Lender's SHORT Sales Actions Fall Way SHORT of Earlier Promises
Lenders talked a great game when Congress was knocking on their door with new oversight legislation and stepped up monitoring of mortgage portfolios and other banking assets. The Big Banks in a survival mode made all kinds of promises about helping out home owners who found themselves upside down in zero sum mortgage loans. Lenders promised Congress and other governing bodies that they would clean up their act and start finding ways to get these toxic assets off the books pronto.
As the listing agent on a number of "short sale" transactions I have reached a high level of frustration recently because of lack of response from major lenders. Yes, I have completed short sale transactions. But, it is a convoluted process and the needle on my frustration level is way into the red zone.
COMMON COMPLAINTS ABOUT LENDER SHORT SALE COMMUNICATIONS
1. Lenders lose documents and even whole packages frequently. They often lose individual documents several times for each short sale offer we submit.
2. Lenders do not return phone calls. There may be a "live" person answering the phone but there is no one to speak to about the short sale offers. The "live" person can pull up the loan on their computer screen and tell you what documents have been logged in and other bits of information. But the path to the "negotiator" who is the decision maker at the bank is closed shut. The "live" person answering the phone is allegedly forwarding a message to a "negotiator" who is supposed to return the call in 48 hours.....fat chance. "Negotiators" are shielded from both the home owner and from real estate agents who are trying to structure the deals. "Negotiators" do not make contact with real estate agents and home owners in a timely manner.
4. EMAIL works the same way essentially. The "live" person answering the phone can send an email to the "negotiator" but these emails must go into the short sale ozone layer. No timely response is made. Once contact is finally made, you can bet they have already lost some of the documents you sent in 60 days ago.
MAJOR LENDERS NOT GIVING TIMELY RESPONSES TO OFFERS I HAVE SUBMITTED
1. CHASE: Has a central call in number. "Live" person answers the phone and can pull up some loan information on their computer screens. Once the offer is assigned to a "negotiator" there is no communication. "Negotiators" never answer the phone and their mailboxes are frequntly full so you can't leave a message. If you do hit it just right and leave a message, CHASE says someone will get back to you in 48 hours. "Negotiators" NEVER return the call much less return it in 48 hours. In frustration I contacted the Short Sale Acquisition Manager. To do this I requested the "live person" send email to the manager. Surprise, never heard back from the manager.
Timeline of a recent offer: offer submitted June 23rd. BPO Ordered on August 11. Aug 24th had confirmation title ordered and received. Still waiting on negotiator to respond as of September 16th.
2. BANK OF AMERICA: Lost first buyer because their response on a recent offer because was sooo slow. No confirmation when documents sent in. Frequently lose documents. Approvals take 60 to 90 days. Communication slightly better than Chase. However, it more like Animal House scenario where Hoover's "C" was the top of the class in the Delta Tau Chi fraternity.
3. WELLS FARGO: Wells Fargo claims the short sale process takes 25 business days. We are WAY past that point on several negotiations. Negotiators at Wells Fargo are assessable once you have an email from them. However, you will not receive the email until after they have reviewed the file.
WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCEWITH SHORT SALE NEGOTIATIONS?
Are you getting a better response from Lenders on short sale offers? Do you have any special tips and techniques you want to recommend? Homeowners caught up in this short sale process are really in one of the many levels of hell described in Dante's Divine Comedy. Seems to me home owners are being put through some unnecessary psychological torment.
If you are a manager with one of the above Lenders and want more information about the process from my end of the transaction I would be glad to work with you to streamline the process.
From my experience working with home owners who are upside down in their mortgage loans, Lender's SHORT Sales Actions Fall Way SHORT of Earlier Promises.
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Sally You are preaching to the choir here. Believe me, you are not alone, but in a big group! These lenders extend the process to where many buyers walk, overloading the system even more. I suggest if you are not a member yet go to Visit Broker Bryant's and Wendy'Short Sale Superstars. They as you probably know are very active members of Activerain. Lots of good data. Here is the link Visit Short Sale Superstars at: http://www.shortsalesuperstars.com It is free and we exchange information and data on various lenders. I have found it helpful. Dixie
Hi Sally, same experience here, I have teamed up with an experienced investors who had an established realtionship to several Lender's it is still taking time...
If you go to Short Sale Superstars, you will see that almost everyone is facing the same issues with most lenders. It has become a very twisted part of real estate. Good Luck!!