I sold a nice 
townhouse in Easton Pennsylvania to a young couple in 2005 Two years later, they called to ask if I could sell it for them. They were behind in the payments, and divorce was causing things to go sour.
We listed the home for sale in 2007, and the market caused us to reduce the price below the previous selling price from two years ago. We were informed by the lender that we did not need any approval from them until we had a fully executed agreement of sale.
It took a couple weeks to get the parties together, as now they were living in different locations, and communication was difficult. We submitted the Agreement of sale in October to the lender. Then I began to learn the process of the Short Sale. No mater what, the lender is busy, and it is going to take some time. Lots of time. No matter what I would say, it was still on the bottom of their pile, and it would take time.
First of all, it takes 48 hours of only business days for them to acknoledge that I have sent them a fax. Actually it took the first two weeks for them to say they received my documents. Every time you call them, you have to go through a process to identify who and why you are calling. I needed a letter of authorization, which would allow me, as their Realtor, to inquire about their loan. This of course needed to be signed by both sellers, who were difficult to reach. After they acknoledged that they received the agreement of sale, it took another week for them to tell me what they were missing. There was a long laundry list of hoops I needed to jump through. Some of these hoops were high off the floor and were on fire.
Finally, after waiting 48 business hours after each fax, they received everything, 
and I received a letter in the mail that said they were allowing me to be an authorized person, able to talk to them about this loan, and the possible solution. It took another four weeks, for them to assign it to a negotiator. I would call weekly. About every other time I would call, and of course you can never talk with the same person twice, they would tell me that they still needed some items, and that I was not authorized to talk with them about this account. Even when I would read their auythorization letter to them on their company letterhead on the phone, it was not good enough. I offererd to fax the letter to them, but that of course, would take 48 business hours for them to receive my fax.
To say the least, they treated me with disrespect every time I would call, and it was very easy to lose my cool and want to yell at them. I am just the Realtor. If the buyer goes away, because they tire of waiting for a decision, then I would go away as well. They, the lender would still have this outstanding debt, which they clearly did not care about. They have a big pile of folders on their desk, and I will just have to wait. 
When I would try to reason with them, and tell them it is in their best interest to actually look at this file for review, I was made to be the bad guy. Why was I the only one who cared? The seller did not care, they turned off all the utilities, since they could not pay. The lender did not care, they were too busy. AAAGGGGHHH! How frustraiting.
Finially, I got the name of the Negotiator. I was not allowed to know how to contact him however. Not his phone number, fax, email, nothing. They did everything possible to make it difficult. Then one day I got to speak with the negotiator directly, and noticed that he was a real human being!. WOW! What progress! But would the buyer continue to hold out? They told me it could be another 60 to 90 days for the negotiator to make his decision.
The negotiator ordered a BPO, to see the value of the property. It took 19 days for the appraisal person to actually call me to get the combination to get into the property. Then another 2 weeks for them to get the information to the negotiator.
Last week, the buyer's agent decided along with his buyer, that 10 weeks was long enough to wait to see if the agreement of sale would be accepted. I received a release of the 
Agreement of Sale, along with a request for their deposit money to be returned. AGGGHHH!!! HOw horrible! Would I need to start all over again, marketing the property? I could never beat the foreclosure process for them now! The world was coming to an end!
I called the negotiator again that day, and could only speak with a person who answered the phones, and told me that I was not an authorized person on the account! This was TWO GIANT STEPS BACKWARDS!
Later that day, I also received a call from the appraiser, doing the BPO, who said he was done, and I should be hearing from the negotiator very soon.
On December 31st, the negotiator called me and left me his phone number! WOW! What a piece of important information! When I called back, he answered the phone! WOW! They had decided to accept the buyer's agreement of sale. I promptly called, and the buyer had not yet found another home, so they decided to move forward and apply for his mortgage.
Now they want to do the home inspection, and of course the property has had all the utilities shut off. That is the next challange. We have come so far, I am sure we can come the last extra mile to make this one close!
Keep your fingers crossed! We actually got the lender to accept the buyer's agreement of sale! What a bunch of aggrivation. It looks like it all paid off after all!
Don Bradbury
Comments(9)