A Look At The Short Sale As A Work In Progress

Two weeks ago, I posted the second entry to this subject of representing the buyer in a short sale transaction. We have discussed the aspects of this transaction up until the seller’s lender had approved the short pay settlement.

In our contract, we agreed to deliver the earnest money deposit to the listing broker within 72 hours of the bank’s approval.- The first thing I did was call the buyer to let him know that our offer had been accepted – and to remind him that he needed to deliver the earnest money to the listing broker.

Acceptance by the lender of our offer also triggered the due diligence contingency which gave us seven days to perform any tests and inspections. In some instances, I would have made this contingency for ten days, but in this case it was unnecessary. I advised the buyer to pay for a professional home inspection – and referred Charlie Thompson of Attics and Under Home Inspections as the man I would recommend.

I delivered the earnest money to the listing agent, and the buyer scheduled an inspection with Charlie Thompson. A few days later, we got together at the townhome to meet Charlie and find out what was right and wrong with the dwelling. As usual, Charlie found several items that needed to be addressed – but nothing of great import that would cause us to terminate or attempt to renegotiate our agreement. All in all, he liked the unit and felt the buyer was buying a good unit.

Meanwhile, I forwarded the bank’s approval letter to the closing attorney so that he could begin his title examination. A few days later, the attorney informed me of a small title problem regarding the chain of title. I gave him the contact information for the asset manager at the bank, and let him earn his money.

The attorney resolved our title issue in a few days, and sent us a copy of the preliminary HUD-1 settlement statement for our review. After a minor change, we approved the HUD-1 to be sent to the lender for approval. Once again, the lender gave us speedy service and quickly approved the HUD-1.

At this point, we were ready to close. We set the closing for the following Monday, and notified all parties.

Closing was quick and painless for the buyer and seller. We were in and out in twenty minutes, as this was a cash transaction.

I must admit, this short sale has really encouraged me – and I hope we see more like this.

As always, if you have any questions regarding real estate in the greater Atlanta area, feel free to contact me here.

Foreclosures, Short Sale, Trends | 9 Comments »

A Look At The Short Sale As A Work In Progress

Two weeks ago, I posted the first entry to this subject of representing the buyer in a short sale transaction. We prepared the short sale package and submitted it on March 23rd; and provided a missing document the next day.

On March 25th, we verified that the bank received the missing document – and also learned that the file had been assigned to a Loss Mitigator. At that time, they would only provide us with the Loss Mitigator’s name, email address and fax number – no phone number. That’s okay – I don’t like trying to call these guys, anyways.

On March 30th, the bank informed us that the loan’s investor would not agree to pay any HOA transfer fees or Third-party Negotiator fees – but there was no notation as to who the investor is. To keep things simple, we started to work on revising the package to reflect the investor’s position on these issues.

In war and short sales – you have to pick your battles carefully, and you must keep in mind that the other side wants to feel like they gained some ground, too.

We also inquired as to whether our request for a Broker’s Price Opinion had been ordered – and we were told that a BPO was performed last December 22nd, but they were uncertain whether a new BPO had been ordered. Keep in mind that we’re still dealing with the lower level at the bank – and NOT the Loss Mitigator.

At this point, we also noticed that the property had been scheduled for foreclosure auction on April 6th.

On March 31st, the Loss Mitigator emailed us back indicating that our offer was in line with their value on file – and informing us that there were three additional bank-specific documents that they needed to be completed. The funny thing is that these new documents simply reformat information that we already provided. He also reinterated the fees that the investor would not pay.

So we sharpened our pencils and revised our numbers for the Preliminary HUD-1 and Short Sale vs REO Asset Retention Comparison Analysis – as well as updated our package with the additional requested documents. We rewrote our Proposal Letter; updated the Index and Cover; and created a new pdf file to transmit to the Loss Mitigator.

Our updated package was uploaded to a private area on our website, and a link sent to the Loss Mitigator on April 1st. In our package, we reminded the Loss Mitigator of the impending date of the foreclosure, as this would severely curtail our prospects for success.

The Loss Mitigator acknowledged receipt the next day and promised to get a review completed ASAP.

At this point, we don’t want to be a nuisance to the lender. They have been very good with their handling of our file – and the last thing we want to do is create a situation where our file gets pushed to the back burner – especially since the property is scheduled for auction in a few days.

So our next task is to ensure the auction has been put on hold – so we call the attorney handling the foreclosure  the morning of the auction to inquire as to the status of the property. Fortunately, the bank has instructed the attorney to put the foreclosure on hold.

The next day, the Loss Mitigator informed us that our short pay settlement had been approved – and simply needed to know if we could close by the end of the month as stated in our contract.

With the banks approval in hand, we created a package to transmit to the attorney so that he could get started with his title work. We also let the buyers know that it was time to get a home inspection so they could truly ascertain what they were buying.

I must confess that the speed by which the lender and investor have responded is both welcome and heartening. Last year, I witnessed several instances where the sellers could no longer wait for their short sales to be approved – and filed for bankruptcy protection. Needless to say – this tends to kill short sales.

Yesterday, I participated in a webinar hosted by Bank Of America where they were explaining their new system for getting short sales processed in a timely manner – and I must admit, I am encouraged by this development. BofA has not been a  trusted friend to the short-seller in the past – and their stated commitment to "People, Process and Technology" should improve the speed by which the short sales can be accomplished.

As always, if you have any questions regarding real estate in the greater Atlanta area, feel free to contact me here. 

Foreclosures, Short Sale, Trends | 4 Comments »