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Old Republic Equity Credit Services, Inc. Puts the Kabosh On Agent Commissions and Short Sales

By
Commercial Real Estate Agent with Intero Silicon Valley and Rebekah - Two Names You Can Trust!

I have the pleasure of working with a BofA first and second on a short sale. I know! Scary enough to deal with BofA. But wait, there is more.

Apparently Old Republic Insured the second and BofA redeemed the insurance thereby assigning the second lien to Old Republic. [ I've actually had conflicting stories on this - it seems to be another one of BofA's collection arms.] Now I have this wonderful Blair Townsend | Short Sale Specialist girl telling me that I make too much money and they want to dictate the terms of the short sale on a property where the first is owed more than the sale price.

Remember the good old days when lenders knew their underlying security was worthless and they happily signed off for $2500?

To top that off - we have the trustee sale looming just a few days away. So now, instead of the banks mucking up the works, the insurers are.

Here are two things that don't make sense to me:

1) If Old Republic Title wants to stay in business it needs to have a different name than the same company that treats Realtors like dirt.

2)If you are going to be in the insurance business you have to expect losses. If I wrecked my car and the insurance company totalled it. It's not the salvage yard's fault that wrecked steel is only going for .10 cents a ton and they'd just laugh at you if you expected them to kick in their profit because your insurance business isn't going so well.

The banks want us to do short sales because it makes them more money. Otherwise these properties just go to foreclosure and they have to spend the time and money to fix, market and sell the property. They shuck and jive saying they are now the kinder gentler bank. Legislation is even passed so Realtors WILL DO short sales - since so many jumped out after working 10x harder on a real sale only to get a partial commission and not even a parting "thank you".

If I had to do it all over again would I put myself through 6 months of paperpushing and negotiating only to be ripped off by Old Republic in the end?

Ultimately, I do what I do for my client.

I think most realtors do it for the client.

Which is why so many realtors have gone through their SEP IRAs and are on the verge of losing their own homes.

 

 

Posted by

Rebekah Owen, MBA

SanJose-RealEstate since 1988

www.RebekahOwen.com

650-492-5958

CA 00994952. TX 0555675

 

Comments (11)

Anonymous
Mark Bosola

Rebekah, I have the exact same situation.  Exactly the same with BofA two loans, MI from Old Republic, the entire story.  It took a year for BofA to approve the short sale due to the fact they kept moving the file...first with BofA negotiator, the outsourced to Titanium Solutions, then moved within Titanium Solutions, then back of BofA via Equator.  Finally have approval from BofA with a maximum payout to Old Republic of $3,000.  Old Republic wants $9.500. No one is budging and BofA will not allow additional funds in for the second from any other party.  Did you by any chance get the deal done, or did it go to trustee sale/REO market?  My lesson learned is that I will not enter into another short sale transaction with BofA if there is a junior lien holder involved.

Sep 28, 2010 08:24 AM
#1
Anonymous
Mark Bosola

Rebekah, here is my contact information which was omitted from my comment post:

Mark Bosola, Ascent Real Estate

2900 North Park Way, San Diego CA 92104

619-251-2346 or MBosola@AscentRealEstate.net

Sep 28, 2010 08:27 AM
#2
Rebekah Owen
Intero Silicon Valley and Rebekah - Two Names You Can Trust! - San Jose, CA

9/28/2010 Update

 

Bank of America declined the short sale because it doesn't fall within HAFA guidelines. Under HAFA the max paid to the second is $6K but Old Republic wants $25K - more than 4 times the HAFA guidelines! Greedy Bastards! The sale date is in 6 days and I am debating re-submitting to see if Bof A will cough up more bucks. It may be worth it just to let my client live rent free for a bit longer. Even if we do get this done somehow, my chances of making a commission are nil.


Did I mention that my client hasn't made a payment since Jan 08?

 

The MOST interesting thing about this blog is that I have gotten dozens of calls from folks in the same mess - even poor SOBs dealing with Blair! I've also collected facts and figures documenting similar total loan balance figures but with Old Republic accepting much lower offers than my client was given. Our deal was a 80/20 purchase money security with $150K owing on the second. So far I have 5 people that have similar total loan balances with offers from Old Republic in the $8500 to 12,500 range. Are some sort of favorites being played or are they just discriminating against my client due to his sexual orientation?

This could get to be VERY interesting.

Sep 28, 2010 10:59 AM
Anonymous
Mark Bosola

The loan balance my client has with the second (or the amount paid through MI) is $95,000.  They are insisting on 10%, $9,500.  Was your research on other deals Old Republic has accepted based on information from other agents, or were you able to find a different research for that?  I spoke with an independent short sale negotiator today that worked with a similar situation.  She was successful by contacting Freddie Mac directly (I don't know if that applies to you) with a comparison of the offer and the opening bid amount that was determined for the trustee sale.  She was able to get BofA on behalf of Freddie Mac to allow funds to be paid to the second from other parties (buyer, agents, etc.).  I have not been successful in getting the bid information from Quality Loan Services for such a comparison, but I will be contacting Freddie Mac directly to see if I can get some sort of escalation for review.  Good luck!  It's a tough position to be in looking at something that looks dismal, but not wanting to give up fighting for your client.

Mark Bosola, Ascent Real Estate, 61-251-2346, mbosola@ascentrealestate.net

Sep 28, 2010 02:37 PM
#4
Tony and Suzanne Marriott, Associate Brokers
Serving the Greater Phoenix and Scottsdale Metropolitan Area - Scottsdale, AZ
Haven Express @ Keller Williams Arizona Realty

Junior Liens when handled correctly do not need to tank a short sale transaction.  Persistence is key.

Dec 23, 2010 04:00 AM
Anonymous
Antonio O Yepez

Rebekah,

I defenitly agree that it is a BofA sister company some way some how. So did the deal ever closed? If it did what did they settle for? I have the great Blair my self as my negotiator (not good) She is asking for 10% (10k) of the loan and cut the commissions to 5% Thanks for all the great information Im in the Sacramento Area if you ever need anything.

Antonio O Yepez

916-410-5201

Jan 28, 2011 02:17 AM
#6
Rebekah Owen
Intero Silicon Valley and Rebekah - Two Names You Can Trust! - San Jose, CA

After 28 months of working on the short sale, BofA finally sold the property at trustee sale.

 

Old Republic got nothing.

 

My client got 28 months of late payments and terrible credit.

 

I think he would have been better off filing BK 2 years ago but it's hard to know. There is so much mis-information out there it makes it hard to know if the short sale is truly helping my clients.

 

 

May 26, 2011 01:22 AM
Anonymous
Louise Dela Cruz

I am dealing with this now.

BofA actually had the 2nd and SOLD it to Old republic in the middle of my transaction.

BofA declined the HAFA approved sale claiming "Old republic will not accept HAFA" despite the fact I had uploaded the approval letter into the library.

I am starting now all over as non-HAFA.

The first thing BofA wants once it was initiated in Equator?

"Please have the seller call 866.880.1232 as she is HAFA eligible".

I am not looking forward to working this again however I am committed to seeing this thru until there is an approval or a denial, again.

I will always work short sales with any Bank and with any second; it's the way of the world, the new world.

I will keep you posted and thanks for sharing your story!!!

Jul 11, 2011 01:28 PM
#8
Anonymous
Anna Boyd

B of A first and second with Old Republic PMI.  Took 2 years and 7 buyers.  In the end, Old Republic accepted 7500. It was always the Old Repubic PMI and length of time to get approvals that was causing the delays. The addition beyond what BAC first was paying was $4500.  Seller paid $3k and I paid other $1500 as buyer and agent were already picking up $2k in back HOA dues and another $900 utility lien.

Aug 12, 2011 01:00 PM
#9
Anonymous
Sandy Rippel

We had the same thing happen.  First mortgage was with Bank of America.  Second mortgage was with Twin City Federal, who had decided a $3000.00 setllement was okay for a short sale settlement and then Bank of America took so long to decide on what they wanted on first mortgage, that Twin City Federal cashed out the second mortgage to Old Republic, which we were never informed about.  From there on we had to deal with that b--ch Blair Townsend at Old Republic, who decided that they would only accept $12000.00 for the second mortgage.  Oh the total amount of the second mortgage was $20,000.00.  Those greedy bastards at Old Republi are what prevented the short sale to go through.  The house will be going on a foreclosure sale on January 9, 2012.

Meanwhile, while they all got bailed out, our credit is trashed!

 

God bless America...ha!

 

Jan 06, 2012 03:34 AM
#10
Rebekah Owen
Intero Silicon Valley and Rebekah - Two Names You Can Trust! - San Jose, CA

It seems to me that if every payoff is for a different percentage of the outstanding balance, then Old Republic is discriminating against certain clients. Hmmm

Jan 07, 2012 01:50 AM