Tag Archives: Philadelphia shortsales

Funny phone calls: bank employees who don’t know their employers’ shortsale policies

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Following is a conversation I just had with an Ocwen employee regarding a shortsale I am negotiating:

Me: I received your letter rejecting the offer because of the closing costs. I’ve called about this before so I need clarification.

Employee: Okay….

Me: What exactly does the 8% closing cost maximum include?

Employee: Let me place you on hold while I check…. (10 minutes later) It includes everything except payment of the principal.

Me: So to be clear, the 6% commission is separate from the 8% for closing costs, correct?

Employee: Um, I don’t know.

Me: Can you check with someone who does know?

Employee: Well… (then silence)

Me: I need to know this before I ask the title company to make the changes. I don’t want it to be rejected again for the figures being incorrect.

Employee: Umm…

Then, he transfers me to the “home retention department”, without telling me first, and without bothering to get an answer to my question. Can you tell how easy this shortsale is going to be?

Diary of a shortsale – Part 2: Banks are good at being inefficient

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I had to get an attorney involved with this deal because it’s getting sticky. The seller has a mortgage and a HELOC on the property, both with the same lender. However, the lender is requiring that the shortsale for each loan be handled in different departments. That’s right, same lender, two loans, two departments. Just to be sure, I’ve called negotiators at both departments multiple times to confirm they are working together, but they are not. They each confirmed that neither knows what the other is doing.

But that’s not the worst part: they’re email communications are even worse. Instead of just sending an email with a message in the body, they send an email with an attachment. The attachment has a special link I have to click to access the message on the lender’s website. Then I have to enter a username and password to read and respond to messages. And yes, each department is using this method to send messages, and neither knows what messages the other is sending.

Thankfully, my client is understanding of how inefficient this lender is, and has been very patient so far. Now if only our lawmakers would read this blog (and many others like it), they’d understand why there’s such a foreclosure crisis. Banks are not interested in being efficient at disposing of bad mortgages. Based on their behavior and systems, it seems their only interest is to waste time.

Diary of a shortsale – Part 1: Getting all the documents together

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A shortsale is an event when a bank will accept less than what it is owed on a property in order for it to sell. The seller cannot receive any proceeds from the sale, and they must prove why they have to sell the property for less than what is owed. The process involves providing extensive documentation about the seller’s income and assets, and explanations about why they cannot pay the mortgage off.

In addition to the personal financial documents, banks also require other documents to consider a shortsale. One those is always a preliminary HUD-1 settlement statement. The HUD-1 is what details exactly who will be getting paid what in the transaction. And for this transaction, just getting a HUD-1 is proving to be problematic.

The title company for the buyer of this property is preparing the preliminary HUD-1, and they can’t even get the property address correct. They sent the first draft last Thursday night. When I called on Friday with the corrections, I was told they were busy and couldn’t get me a revised HUD-1 until yesterday (Tuesday) because of the holiday. I had to call three times yesterday and it still has the wrong address. I decided to call the buyer’s agent to get her involved (since her brokerage owns the title company, I figured she had some clout with them and could light a fire under their butts). The title clerk sent me another email last night and forgot the attachment. I have to followup again this morning.

One of the reasons shortsales take so long is because the information that needs to be provided to the bank has to come from different people, and it can get hard to corral everyone to sumbit their information on time. I’m about to make a fourth call to a title company tomorrow just to get a HUD-1. Can you image what it would be like if I had to call everyone in the transaction three or four times?

So today should be an interesting day. My hope is to have the HUD-1 so I can submit the last piece the bank needs to start considering the shortsale for this property.

Beautiful, almost new construction for sale in Graduate Hospital

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Checkout this six year old home with the best amenities in the area, all for only $599,900. A shortsale property at an awesome price. Call 215-335-6936 to schedule your private showing today!

Great home for sale in West Philadelphia: 5717 Addison Street, 19143

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Another great twin home for sale, this time in West Philadelphia. See the details below, then call 215-335-6936, or click here to schedule your private showing today!

Real estate agents: I can buy your shortsale listings

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If you are a real estate agent with shortsale listings, I may be able to help your sellers get their properties sold. I specialize in buying properties facing foreclosure by taking over the mortgage payments.

If this is something you believe would help your client, call me at 267-918-3691. You can get your client’s home sold quickly, and still get paid a commission to boot!

The importance of keeping notes for shortsale negotiations

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While doing followup on a shortsale file, I was told by the lender that the file had been denied because the requested documents had not been received. The operator rattled off a list of missing items, so I quickly looked at my notes and told the operator that the last request for documents sent to me on 10/4/2010 did not mention the items he just listed. I reread the fax I received and offered to fax it back to him for confirmation.  He put me on hold to confirm what I told him, and it turns out that the “negotiator” assigned to the file made several errors in communicating with me. So he acknowledged the fax I told him about, and he only asked me for one more revision.

If I didn’t have accurate notes, I would’ve been wasting time, arguing with the bank about the confusion. Keeping accurate, dated notes in necessary in the shortsale business.

Is your shortsale taking too long to get approved? I have the experience to get it done right. Call me today at 215-922-7900.

New house for sale in Frankford: 3259 Joyce street

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Offering a new home for sale in Frankford at 3259 Joyce Street. The home is on a friendly block, close to public transportation, and convenient to shopping and schools.

View all the photos and details for 3259 Joyce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19134.