Hello...
Waking up this Thanksgiving morning, I am thankful for one thing... the banks are closed! As our market sees a mixture of bank-involved properties, the interaction with the various departments (or lack there of) can make you want to pull your hair out. I am involved in quite a few and if you reference my picture, you'll see that its been a while since I have had an easy bank interaction. I find that with each new bank or servicer the process changes. The departments have different names and the numbers are never published. As a bonus, when you think that you're making some progress talking with a human and they give you the "right" number to call... you get transferred to silence. Then, of course you call the number back and again... silence.
Home Retention Dept, Loss Mitigation, Workout Dept, Executive Team... all the usual suspects when trying to submit an offer to the bank. But, with ActiveRain I think there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. We are fortunate to have a network of top-producing agents, title agents, and lenders here. It seems to me that we can tap that network and compile a list of contact numbers and departments for the various banks, asset managers, and loan servicers here that can help to streamline the process and make life easier for the overburdened banks and frustrated real estate agents. I think that in the end this will also help to keep the borrowers out of foreclosure and keep those buyers that are hard to come by, interested in the bank-involved property.
So let's get to typing and pool the resources to get some info in a concise blog, here. If you have had some experience, either bad or good, in communicating with a bank... speak up! Help your fellow agents and share your experience. Most importantly, share which bank/servicer you dealt with, the department that worked best, the most appropriate number to call, and if you have a contact that did a really great job... let's get his/her name also.
With FannieMae holding off on foreclosures for a short period, this gives us a moment to circle the wagons and really figure this process out before the backlog that will likely start '09. We can make some lemonade out of the banking lemons and take it upon ourselves as real estate agents to help these banks move through REO inventory and prevent foreclosures. If we do all of that, we might even get some good media coverage as an industry. Let's have '09 be a time to shine for housing markets all over this great country!
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