Don’t lose your house! Especially after a Realtor (who’s been certified to help) has offered to help you. But you didn’t accept that help because you were waiting for that modification to be approved.! Do protect yourself and make him show proof of his certification. But keep in touch in case that modification fails to materialize. This way you can develop a plan B.As a Realtor, I sometimes work for a Bank Servicing Company (BSC). I won’t mention the name of the company. My title there is a Home Retention Consultant (HRC). I’m a liaison between the borrower/homeowner and the bank.
When the bank cannot get a hold of the borrower/homeowner (who is having trouble making their payments) the bank hires a BSC which in turn hires me to physically go out and knock on the door and see if I can make contact with the borrower/homeowner and let the borrower/homeowner know that the bank would like to talk to them about a modification or other foreclosure alternative. They can either call the bank while I am there or they can call later.
I received an assignment about one and a half years ago to go out to this house and talk with the homeowner. She answered the door and stepped outside her home to talk to me. We talked and she said she would be right back. She came back with her phone number and told me that we should meet down the street at Starbucks since she did not want to upset her mother who was living with her.
A couple of days later we met. She was very cordial. She asked me what I needed. I told her that the bank wanted to talk to her about an offer for a modification that they had sent to her. I was to follow up with her and pick up the documentation that the bank required for the modification offer.
She insisted that the modification paperwork was already completed and sent to the bank. She said she was laid off before but she just landed an even better job. That income and payments would no longer be a problem. She once again insisted that she had received the modification paperwork from the bank and she had completed it (including the form that needed to be notarized) and had sent the whole package back to the bank. I felt relief for her and her situation. She seemed to me to be pretty competent and that she could fill out the required forms for the modification with no problem or help.
I left Starbucks feeling pretty good about this assignment. I reported back to the BSC what I was told and left it at that.
Well back to today, I was looking in the multiple listing service (MLS) for properties for my client and what did I find? Yup, you guessed it! That borrower/homeowner’s home I had visited a year and a half ago listed on the multiple listing service (MLS) as a Fannie Mae repossession. The homeowner that I visited, counselled and felt pretty good about lost her house and didn’t call me to try to help her.
Not to deviate from this subject but I have to side with the bank on this one issue. We just had a meeting with Chase and they informed us that Chase makes on average one hundred and eleven (111) attempts to get a hold of the borrower before they foreclose on their property. That’s phone calls and letters to the borrower/homeowner.
This distresses me very much! I’m very sad about this situation! I should have been following up at least on a quarterly basis to see how she was doing! Maybe I could have helped her. Maybe not! But at least we could have tried.
There are 13 ways to avoid foreclosure. If you are a member of the armed forces, there are 14.
I’m sure we could have used one of them to help her avoid foreclosure (no, it doesn’t always have to be a short sale). Possibly even had her lender assist her with moving expenses if a short sale was even necessary.
I promised to myself to be more diligent and follow-up with distressed borrowers at least on a quarterly basis. After all we are all people. We should help each other out. People deserve better! I wish her luck and I hope she realizes this isn’t the end. In three years she can buy again. It really isn’t that long to wait.
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