There are short sale agents back East like Chris Ann Cleland who love to work with Wells Fargo on a short sale. But, here, in Sacramento, those short sales are typically a struggle. Doesn't mean I don't list them and sell them, though, because as a Sacramento short sale agent, I'm not in the practice of boycotting lenders. You work with what you get. But, still. Wells Fargo, spittooey.
When it's a Wells Fargo FHA loan, it can be even worse. Because FHA wants to set the list price, just like a regular HAFA short sale but it's not HAFA. I first listed this home in February at $189,000. We received several offers and accepted an offer of $200,000. It took Wells Fargo 30 days to close out the loan modification file and assign a negotiator. By the third week in April, we had a counter offer and a demand from Wells to change the price to $211,500.
The buyer flipped out and canceled, despite my assurances that I could make Wells Fargo understand the home should sell at our offer price of $200,000. So, this home went back on the market in early May at Wells Fargo's list price of $211,500. Because we were stuck with an overpriced home on the market, it took another 30 days to sell this in what was, due to the first-time home buyer tax credit, one of the hottest real estate markets of recent memory.
We received another offer for, you guessed it, $200,000. This was June 4th. I sent the comparable sales to Wells Fargo to justify this price, and the short sale process started over. We were a little bit ahead of the game since the BPO was still valid, but it took Wells Fargo another 7 weeks to process this file. Finally, on July 22nd, Wells Fargo promised we would have the short sale approval letter within 24 hours. But on July 23rd, a fire broke out in Milwaukee, so Wells Fargo sent everybody home.
On July 26th, we received the approval letter at $200,000, stipulating a closing date of August 20th, not quite 30 days. The real nail-biting session began when the title company sent the final HUD to Wells Fargo for approval. The days ticked by and no such approval arrived. We called and called and called. Then, the day before closing, the negotiator emailed title to say a closing fee needed to be moved from the HUD and placed on line 1101, but title could not comply because it would violate HUD regulations.
We then exchanged several emails explaining the new Good Faith Estimate requirements to Wells Fargo. Still, no approval. Yesterday was the deadline. The lender funded. Title was ready to release docs for recording but Wells Fargo would not approve the HUD unless title moved the closing fee. The negotiator left for vacation. The clock ticked. By 1:00 p.m, we had escalated the file to a supervisor. It went to management review. We needed the approval by 2:30 to record.
The title company literally grabbed the minute hand on the clock and turned it backward. At 2:40, the HUD approval arrived, docs were released and we recorded, with permission to wire funds to Wells Fargo on Monday. You know, I'm lucky that I have any finger nails left at all after this.
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