AR members, Feel free to borrow any part of this letter to Vice President Biden which finally resulted in a closed short sale.
In response to several requests to share a short sale letter campaign I referenced in a previous blog post (http://activerain.com/blogsview/1565737/i-wanna-crow-but-better-bark-), I am posting it here. I hope it will help someone else get the ball rolling on their stalled VA short sale. It did for me.No, Vice President Biden did not himself respond, but several others from the Veteran's administration did, and the follow-through did not stop until the sale was finally closed last week.
Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States
Subject: Urgent! Please help these active duty Iraq veterans.
October 27, 2009
Dear Mr. Vice President,
I am Elva Branson-Lee, an Atlanta, GA metro-area real estate agent. I am forwarding this letter to you on behalf of two United States Army soldiers who are victims of the nation's current real estate crisis. I am currently working to assist one soldier (name) in purchasing a home from another soldier (name) before the home goes into foreclosure and becomes a significant blight on the selling soldier's credit (not to mention the surrounding community).
When processing short-sales, lenders typically state that deliberations on whether to let the sale proceed "...will take 45-60 days." The home in question has been on the market as a "short-sale" for the past 5 months without the lender making a deliberation on whether they will accept the current (or ANY offer). Previous buyers for this same home have been lost due to the untimely response of the lender.
Mr. Biden, for the past 59 days the lender GMAC/USAA has had a complete short-sale package with a market-value offer between these two soldiers which has been sitting in a bureaucratic queue waiting for 60 days to go by. Meantime the lender has initiated foreclosure proceedings, with a foreclosure sale now scheduled for Tuesday November 3, 2009.
The lenders ‘ lack of attention to the short-sale offer is the reason we are now in this eleventh hour situation, and the reason they say they cannot forestall the pending foreclosure is "because it's a VA loan." It's been my experience that a conventional or FHA loan that has an offer on the table encounters no red tape in forestalling a foreclosure and moving forward with the short-sale. Since the only reason they say they can't forestall the foreclosure is that this is a VA loan, all we're asking for is an injunction or an escalation that will forestall the foreclosure and give these two soldiers the time to have their short sale considered. I'm sure you will agree that our troops desire and deserve the same consideration as any ordinary citizen.
All it takes is an internal phone call within the lender's organization from one department to another to forestall a conventional or FHA loan foreclosure. Why should there be extra hoops to jump through to forestall a VA foreclosure? (See lender contact Info end of letter).
Sir, if your office could contact the lenders, I am sure our troops can get some more timely consideration for preview and deliberation on the pending short-sale.
If the soldier's home actually goes to foreclosure sale as scheduled on November 3, 2009, it will not be able to be rescinded from foreclosure, thus, negatively affecting the selling soldier's credit and penalizing that soldier from purchasing a home for at least 7 years. Also, the soldier wishing to purchase under "short-sale" procedures after having tendered an offer to the lender, GMAC/USAA loses the opportunity to buy the home he desires.
I thank you on behalf of both of these Iraq war veterans who because of their ongoing service to our great country are not able to attend to these communications and details themselves.
Elva Branson-Lee, Real Estate Agent
Solid Source Realty GA
Atlanta, GA
404.226.2085
GMAC Mortgage Corp
David M. Applegate, CEO
Eric A Feldstein (President, GMAC Mortgage Group, LLC)
4 Walnut Grove Drive
Horsham, PA 19044
800.627.00128
www.ditech.com , www.gmacbank.com
USAA
Josue J. Robles, CEO
David Bohne, President
9800 Fredericksburg Rd
San Antonio, TX 78288
1-877-569-4632
1-800-531-USAA (8722)
Cc: Carl Levin, Chairman Senate Armed Services Committee; Christopher J. Dodd, Chairman Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs; Daniel K Akaka, Chairman Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs; Jim Lehrer, Newshour With Jim Lehrer, PBS-TV; Ali Velshi, CNN, Special Investigations Unit; Steve Kroft, CBS 60 Minutes; Carrie Teegarden, Atlanta Journal Constitution Sunday Business Watchdog Reporter; managing-editor@nytimes.com; David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times Business Editor; Hal Ritter, Editor Associated Press, NY ; David M. Applegate, CEO GMAC Mortgage Corp; Eric Feldstein, President GMAC Mortgage Group, LLC; Josue J. Robles, CEO USAA; David Bohne, President USAA
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