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Altisource, GoHoming, and Premium Title of California Problem Transactions

By Tony Cannon

Real Estate Agent with Bressi Realty Carlsbad CalBRE 01318292

April 10, 2012 08:57 AM

Do you have a purchase transaction with Altisource and Premium Title of California? Did you buy a home in southern California through http://www.GoHoming.com? Well get ready for a wild ride! I recently closed two transactions with investor buyers which started out with an online offer at GoHoming.com which was accepted. The initial part of getting the purchase contract signed, earnest money deposited, and contact information went well, but after that was more of a challenge. The first transaction was 2 months late in closing and the second transaction was one month late mostly due to Premium Title of California not ordering HOA(homeowners association) documents.

What you will experience is just about everyone you talk to on the phone or by email are based out of India. You will not get emails responded, and when you try to phone, the phone gets disconnected, noone answers, or if you leave a voice message, your call is not returned. There will be upwards of 10 people involved in the file and not one of them seeming to take charge of keeping to a schedule. If a buyer delays closing, there may be penalties involved, but a seller delay of 30 days can be made unilaterally and without compensation to the buyer. The listing agent is also never involved in anything including to help expedite matters.

I guess if you don't plan anything around the closing date and have no need for an ontime closing, you can accept the inevitable delay. Or if there is no HOA, maybe things will go smooth. As is the case with many bank owned homes, you hope you are getting a decent price to compensate for the pains, costs, and extra hoops that have to be jumped through just to get a home to closing.

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Tony Cannon

Bressi Realty Carlsbad - Oceanside, CA

Real Estate - Oceanside Carlsbad

Yes Bill, do buy the townhome. And having your own title company and lawyer will surely help.

The buyer's broker commission I think was reasonable so I don't know if your broker should get a bonus from you...maybe just some aspirin!

I actually had a call from someone at Altisource after hearing about this blog. She knew they were having some service problems and wanted to know my specific issues to try and improve things for the future. I told her to write on this blog so at least others would know there is someone out there who actually cares(and doesn't live in India). So far she hasn't made a comment and I wish I had noted her name. Seems on my last Altisource transaction the buyer was charged $520 at closing for 2 months of HOA dues, and the HOA only got $260 of that. Wish us luck getting the missing $260 refunded!!!

Apr 22, 2012 09:34 AM

Amanda Lott

Keller Williams Brandywine Valley - Chadds Ford, PA

MBA, KW Luxury, ABR, Green

It is a bad experience for buyer and for seller. In addition to all the previous agents' comments, the contracted title company is very slimy. Be careful with the WebTech fee. They add it to the buyer's offer at the web offer form, then they tell you they will credit it. Then they add it to the HDU again. The title company says they can't do anything about that. The asset manager says the fee should be charged once, credited twice. The asset manager called me (the buyer's agent) to disucss, then abruptly said, "I can't talk to you, you represent the buyer." ??? Then the title company wouldn't reimburse the listing agent for the township certs. The title company said those were HOA docs, when they are clearly township resale docs. A very slippery outfit, not for buyers who care to have an accurate purchase and HUD.

Apr 25, 2012 03:32 AM

Amanda Lott

Keller Williams Brandywine Valley - Chadds Ford, PA

MBA, KW Luxury, ABR, Green

Here is the explanation of the webtech fee: "It is charged in the sales price-which the buyer agrees to at time of signing the contract. On the HUD the web fee is then Charged to the buyer on the back BUT then credited to the buyer by the seller on the front, making the fee on the HUD a wash-reason-so that a check is cut for this fee. Yes, the fee that is included in the sales price still stands, making this a fee the buyer only pays for once (again in the sales price)."

Apr 25, 2012 04:00 AM

Tony Cannon

Bressi Realty Carlsbad - Oceanside, CA

Real Estate - Oceanside Carlsbad

Just a follow up to my last comment about the HOA dues fee overcharge. I actually did get numerous timely email responses from a US based person at Premium Title of California, and as it turns out, it was the HOA property management or collections agency who had made the accounting error and not Altisource. So you see, they aren't always to blame!

May 02, 2012 02:50 PM

Karen Anne Stone

New Home Hunters of Fort Worth and Tarrant County - Fort Worth, TX

Fort Worth Real Estate

Tony: In the transactions you are speaking of... are these India-based centers just customer service call centers, or are these the actual locations of the lenders ? I would never put up with that. In the past, I would insist that I be given local numbers of people a bit higher up the chain... people who actually have the day-to-day hand-on experience of working these files. I have never been refused this request.

But, then again, you are in California, and I am sure things are very different there from the way they are in Texas.

May 02, 2012 04:01 PM

Tony Cannon

Bressi Realty Carlsbad - Oceanside, CA

Real Estate - Oceanside Carlsbad

Hi Jean,

It’s good you have been able to use your own title company.

While it is possible something remote like the seller does not have clear title could be preventing their signing documents, it is more like overworked, underpaid, or just don’t care about getting things done in a timely fashion. My experience is the seller really doesn’t care about closing on time even though they have a cost of ownership the longer they have the property. I was just making an offer tonight on GoHoming.com and wanted to specify 21 days for closing, but the shortest they would allow me to choose was 30 days. That’s just one example of the lack of motivation.

Try to email as many people at Altisource as you can and phone also if you want to get to closing faster. Eventually you will find one person to respond.

Tony

Jun 11, 2012 03:33 PM

Karen Anne Stone

New Home Hunters of Fort Worth and Tarrant County - Fort Worth, TX

Fort Worth Real Estate

Tony... maybe it is something in your local water supply that the sellers are drinking, but for my sellers it is an extreme rarity that they are not very concerned about closing ON TIME. The great majority of them have another home to purchase... and if their own closing is delayed, it throws everything off. Can customs in an area vary that much ?

Jun 12, 2012 01:20 AM

Tony Cannon

Bressi Realty Carlsbad - Oceanside, CA

Real Estate - Oceanside Carlsbad

Hi Karen,

I think the motivation to close on REO properties varies depending on the bank involved, or more specifically the asset manager or servicer who is assigned. I am constantly amused or amazed at the illogical process banks use when involved with REO or short sales.

Jun 12, 2012 03:06 PM

Karen Anne Stone

New Home Hunters of Fort Worth and Tarrant County - Fort Worth, TX

Fort Worth Real Estate

Tony: Fortunately in the Fort Worth market area there are nowhere near the number of REO properties that you folks appear to have in California. Over the last four years I have had three Short Sale listings, and closed all three successfully.

Fort Worth never had the huge "bubble" of excalating property values like Vegas, Phoenix, Florida and Caifornia had... so we never had any bubble to "burst." Just a gradual property value growth of between 2 and 4% typically. There were other areas that were more active, and some, a very few, that lost value.

Those few were mainly because out-of-town investors from Vegas and CA came into the area, and were blinded by the low prices, and bought fives and tens of builder spec homes at one time.

Unfortunately for them, the on-site sales folks "saw them coming" and unloaded all there "turkeys" on these folks, and then the investors not ony could not rent them, but after about a year of trying, they either tried to short-sell them, or just walked away. But those new home neighborhoods were few and far between, as they say.

Jun 13, 2012 02:21 AM

Tony Cannon

Bressi Realty Carlsbad - Oceanside, CA

Real Estate - Oceanside Carlsbad

They are a legitimate company that will eventually get things done, but you should double check everything they do. Here in California, the escrow company needs to be licensed by the Department of Corporations, Department of Real Estate, or Department of Insurance, I think, so you could complain to them if they do mess up and you cannot get them to correct the error.

Jun 14, 2012 03:30 PM

Scott Allen

Scott Allen Realty - Spokane, WA

Sure they are legitimate.....just enough. In Washington State, they now list all their properties inhouse (Realhome Solutions) and take the pictures submitted by the BPO agent for the listing. What's even better........the listing agent isn't in the area, license address is Georgia, doesn't belong to mls, has all 100+ listing in the State and so on. So how much could they possibly care or what motivation do they have......this will continue because some agents are ok with $39 bpo's and can't SELL anything else.

Aug 08, 2012 04:14 AM

Tony Cannon

Bressi Realty Carlsbad - Oceanside, CA

Real Estate - Oceanside Carlsbad

Thanks for the comment Scott. Any thoughts on what we can do as agents to improve or change the process?

Aug 08, 2012 05:13 AM

Athina Boukas

Virginia Capital Realty - Richmond, VA

Certified Residential Specialist (CRS)

A lot of this sounds just like the lack of service and response I had with HUD, Freddie and Fannie sales. With HUD it took 6 months to close a cash transaction. But at least they allowed an inspection contingency after getting the winning bid.

GoHoming asks buyer to do inspections on their "timed bids" BEFORE placing your bid, or winning it.

Am I missing something?

When we called the listing agent to get authorization to turn on utilities on buyer's expense for a pre-bid inspection, we did not get a response. How do people buy cash/conventional without inspection? There are 3 days left to bid....

Aug 14, 2012 06:48 AM

Tony Cannon

Bressi Realty Carlsbad - Oceanside, CA

Real Estate - Oceanside Carlsbad

Hi Athina,

If they don't let you turn utilities on, or if the property is occupied, buyer's often have to assume worst case scenario for the amount of risk and expense they could be taking on and adjust their bid accordingly. You would think a seller would want to cooperate to get the best buyers, but the GoHoming folks do not seem to be of that mindset.

Not a strategy we choose to employ, but market inventory and bank decision makers are focing us to write offers on properties sight unseen and then use the couple days after acceptance before deposit is due to actually attempt an inspection.

Aug 15, 2012 10:31 AM

Tony Cannon

Bressi Realty Carlsbad - Oceanside, CA

Real Estate - Oceanside Carlsbad

Hi Lawrence,

I understand what you are saying and I have no explanation for the logic. I have seen the same thing on short sales where bank approves a price with a closing cost credit, and then if a new buyer comes in at the same net price not asking for a credit, the bank will reject it, even though their net is the same.

I would continue to ask various people at Altisource and Premium Title to see about lowering the purchase price to bidding price, but I am not putting much hope of you getting them to change their ways.

I don't have a secret way of getting the right person to talk to at Altisource.

Sep 01, 2012 02:10 PM

Tony Cannon

Bressi Realty Carlsbad - Oceanside, CA

Real Estate - Oceanside Carlsbad

Hi Jean,

Thank you for telling us about your experience. That was a smart idea to have the buyer's premium not included in the purchase price.

GoHoming is now www.hubzu.com. We'll see if the website change corresponds to any other improvements.

Sep 28, 2012 04:34 PM

Inna Ivchenko

Barcode Properties - Encino, CA

Realtor® • GRI • HAFA • PSC • Short Sale • Probate

They are in India, true. Hubzu is outsourcing, so what? Agent or seller who submitted a listing is here. I'm right now bidding on the property that started very low, but it has no limit to bidding( agent/seller set the time while entering a listing), so it is not that difficult, since you need NO paperwork at all to submit your offer( comparing to homepath?! where tons of scanning, wet signatures, no help whatsoever). If i have any questions, I just ask them via 'live chat', fast help, i have no complains. I knew about title/closing potential problems, we chose to have local services.We'll see. Wish me luck:)

Mar 20, 2013 04:03 AM

Tony Cannon

Bressi Realty Carlsbad - Oceanside, CA

Real Estate - Oceanside Carlsbad

Thanks for your comment Inna. I would agree the first 48 hours including the auction bidding at Hubzu.com seems reasonably efficient. I am currently on my 6th or 7th property in escrow with Hubzu Altisource GoHoming. I am getting better email response from the transaction coordinator this time, but we are still about a month late in closing. The issues this time were not being able to get a key to enter one of the structures(that took a couple weeks to resolve) and an inaccurate title report which left out important details such as easements and code violation liens. Had we chosen our own title company we could have avoided the latter problem, but buyer was trying to save some money. I warned him ahead of time about these issues and now at the end is having to switch title companies and pay for it himself anyways.

Mar 21, 2013 02:23 PM

Tony Cannon

Bressi Realty Carlsbad - Oceanside, CA

Real Estate - Oceanside Carlsbad

Hi K.,

It's been a while since I got an offer accepted at www.Hubzu.com. The prices for the winning bids plus the 5% buyer's premium pretty much make them market value. So who wants to deal with these guys and the extra risks of a sight unseen, as-is sale, and possibly evicting the occupants?

So I am not sure if their process has improved, but if you can at least tell your buyers to be very patient and not make any moving plans ahead of schedule, it might be a safer bet.

Aug 06, 2014 03:02 PM

Tony Cannon

Bressi Realty Carlsbad - Oceanside, CA

Real Estate - Oceanside Carlsbad

I might need those meds as I have been trying for the past 2 months to get Premium Title to complete the simple task of recording the document showing some county liens were paid off on a transaction with them 2 years ago. After going through 4 chains of command there and never getting a call or email back(even though their voice mails say they respond within 2 hours), I sent a simple one minute email to a competent title company and got the job done. Thanks Premium Title....it's nice to know some things never change

Mar 17, 2015 03:09 PM