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Elizabeth Weintraub
The Search for Intelligent Life in a Green Tree Short Sale
Talking to a Green Tree short sale bank negotiator can be like that cartoon about what dogs hear. You know what I’m referring to, right? The human is speaking to the dog, giving a lecture about not jumping on the furniture or perhaps not tracking dirt on its paws into the house, and the caption balloon over the dog’s head is an interpretation of what the dog hears, which is “blah, blah, blah.” This is what it feels like when I talk to a short sale bank negotiator. Words are coming out of the mouth of this Sacramento short sale agent, but they are ignored and must sound like incomprehensible gibberish to the negotiator.
This is so common place in short sales that my Sacramento short sales are ripe with illustrations. Let’s look at a Green Tree short sale, for example. Green Tree is famous for trying to extort extract payments from sellers during the short sale, and why not? Green Tree is a collection agency. If PNC or Bank of America transferred the servicing of your loan to Green Tree, you’re stuck with Green Tree and, by extension, so am I. But that’s OK, I don’t mind dealing with Green Tree as it’s typically good fodder for illustrations of ineptness.
The latest problem is a Green Tree short sale in which there are four individuals who have signed the mortgage. All four people have signed the promissory note and the deed of trust. Since Green Tree picked up this loan by assignment, it was not involved in the notarized signatures on the prom note and deed of trust. In fact, Green Tree might not even know how to recognize a promissory note and deed of trust nor understand the instruments even though these pieces of paper are the basis for its business. Because Green Tree has decided there are only 2 individuals noted on the note and deed of trust — because that’s what Green Tree’s incorrect records tell Green Tree.
Never mind that I sent Green Tree a copy of the deed of trust showing that all four individuals have signed it. The evidence is in front of their faces. Nope, Green Tree has demanded a new package, new hardship letter and all new documents signed by only 2 people. You might be asking what’s the harm in that? Well, the harm is Green Tree is not the lender. Green Tree is the servicer of this loan. The lender is Fannie Mae, making this a Fannie Mae short sale. And when Fannie Mae sees there are only 2 people who have signed everything, Fannie Mae will kick out this short sale package and reject it. Green Tree has refused to send the file to Fannie Mae unless we submit it with only 2 individuals. Do you see the problem?
We have talked to the negotiator and the negotiator’s supervisor. They both have demanded that we submit a package that will be rejected by Fannie Mae for being incomplete. Makes one want to grab Green Tree employees by their shoulders and shake these people.
I’m just a Sacramento short sale agent. Why am I having to explain to Green Tree who their borrowers are? Why doesn’t Green Tree employ people who can reason and think? The only way to remove a borrower from a mortgage, apart from death — which, believe it or not doesn’t do it either — is to refinance that mortgage or pay it off, neither of which has happened.
Today we will contact Fannie Mae and report this problem at Green Tree, in addition to contacting the supervisor’s supervisor at Green Tree. Somewhere, there is intelligent life in this universe.
Sacramento Mortgage Lenders Can’t Perform
Why can’t Sacramento mortgage lenders close escrow? Almost every single escrow nowadays has some loan delay that causes a Sacramento home buyer not to close. But just because everybody is doing it doesn’t make it right. Why can’t home buyers close escrow? Because their lenders can’t perform. If you’re looking for a mortgage lender to finance a home in Sacramento, I’d say an important question to ask is can they promise — can they guarantee — that you will be able to close escrow in this century? Get a timeframe and hold them accountable. This is the big white elephant in the room that everybody seems to be ignoring — lenders who can’t perform.
You know what happens when a mortgage lender can’t perform? They come knocking on the door, whimpering like a dog, holding their tails between their legs and begging: Please sir, will you extend our escrow? Sometimes that answer is NO. Especially in a seller’s market like the real estate market we have in Sacramento at the moment. Sellers get tired of waiting for buyers to close. It’s not just seller’s remorse. Sellers can and will cancel your escrow if you can’t close on time. Sellers might decide they’d rather wait until spring, when maybe prices will go up even further.
If you’re trying to close a Sacramento short sale, it’s even worse. It’s not just the seller who might refuse to extend, it’s also the seller’s short sale bank. Banks are refusing to provide a short sale extension. Those short sale approval letters contain an expiration date. If the bank will agree to extend, the bank might charge the buyer $100 or so a day for that extension. It’s a no-win situation for that first-time home buyer. It doesn’t matter what the contract says, that verbiage won’t save you. It matters how long the short sale bank will give a buyer to close, and that timeframe governs your transaction.
Perhaps a bigger question is why can’t mortgage lenders close escrow on time for today’s home buyers? What is the problem? It’s not like the banks are overwhelmed with business because there aren’t that many buyers in escrow. We have very low inventory — we have fewer than 1,600 homes for sale in Sacramento County. Interest rates are low, but they’ve been low for months and months. Yeah, loan restrictions have tightened, but we’ve been jumping through hoops for a long time. Nothing has changed overnight. I propose that banks are swamped because they refuse to hire enough people to get the job done. They’ve made so many cutbacks in personnel during the downturn that they’ve gotten used to thin payrolls. Cheapskates.
Perhaps there is some little old lady sitting in a dark room with a single light bulb dangling from the ceiling over her desk. This little old lady is working on your file. She looks at her watch. Stops working. Oh, my goodness, deary me, it’s time to go to Starbucks. She leaves. And she doesn’t come back for a few days, and nobody cares.
It’s no big secret why home sellers in Sacramento prefer a cash offer over a financed offer. The performance in underwriting is pathetic. Totally sucks. Big banks, little banks, makes no difference.
The solution: If you’ve got a choice in choosing a mortgage lender, stay local. Pick a person you can grab by the shirt collar and shake a little bit. And get that guarantee upfront that your file will be processed in a timely manner or you might not be buying a home in Sacramento.
Cat Litter Box and Selling Your Sacramento Home
I should have one more litter box than I do. I’m not following the guidelines for a cat litter box and selling. The rule is one litter box for each cat and then an extra box. This isn’t a rule designed by the manufacturers of litter boxes, as you might suspect. Although, they probably endorse it because it’s definitely to their advantage to make you buy as many litter boxes as possible. One litter box can last a lifetime, so it’s not like there is a huge motivation to buy a bunch of litter boxes. But the fact remains we have 3 cats and 3 litter boxes, and nobody wants to look at litter boxes. Not me, not house guests / visitors and certainly not prospective home buyers when touring a Sacramento home to buy.
Back when I was selling my own home and had only one cat, where to put the litter box was a huge concern. With 3 cats, it’s even worse. First, you can’t just go moving litter boxes around the house. Oh, no, no, no. Cats hate change. And they have ways of showing you their displeasure, in case you’re thickheaded. You’ve got to plan ahead. If you’re thinking about selling your home in Sacramento, deal with this litter box issue upfront, way before you go on the market. You should find the least offensive and most hidden place to put your litter box. Back in Minnesota, I used to keep the litter box in the basement but when home showing, the box was less conspicuous under my dressing table and out of view.
I also put my cat into a crate when home buyers came over. I put a big note on the crate too that warned: Don’t Pet the Cat! That’s because Brandon, a ruddy Somali, would literally knock the glasses off your face. To say he did not like strangers would be like saying it gets hot in Sacramento in the summer. You have no idea until you experience the phenomena.
There was that time I had been standing in my front yard, talking to the neighbors, when a real estate agent was inside showing my home. I could hear him knocking on the glass windows, and I thought he was showing the buyers the sturdiness of the dual pane. I had no idea my cat had actually trapped the three of them in a corner of the living room. When the agent didn’t stop knocking on the glass, I went inside to check and found them huddled in terror. Meow, said Brandon. He was sitting on the floor looking innocent.
From that moment forward, I had to lock up the cat during showings.
There are a huge variety of cat boxes available nowadays. The litter box you might use for every day use might not be the litter box you want to use when showing your home for sale. Just remember, out of sight, out of mind. Especially people who don’t much like cats will not want to look at cat litter. So, you might want to consider a covered cat box. There are cat boxes that automatically flush and sort of look like toilets. You need a water source like the valve for your toilet or washing machine to which you attach a t-connector. You also need a place to dispose of water, like a toilet or laundry box in the wall with a drain pipe.
Just make these changes before putting your home on the market. Give your cats plenty of chances to adjust to the changes. Because the last thing in the world that you want is for a a potential home buyer to open your front door, take a whiff and say, “Oh, cats live here.”
A Sacramento Real Estate Agent Answers Her Phone
Some real estate agents work on the weekends, and some agents do not. But that doesn’t stop the buying public from calling a Sacramento real estate agent. So, if you’re a real estate agent and you don’t want to work, you generally don’t answer your cellphone. Typically, the agent who doesn’t answer her phone is the agent who gets too many phone calls.
This Sacramento real estate agent receives a ton of phone calls. All the time, not just on the weekends. My telephone number is everywhere. It’s hanging from sign riders swinging in the breeze on dozens of For Sale signs throughout Sacramento and our four-county area. It’s published in MLS. I put my cellphone into Zillow, Trulia and just about all of the major websites. If a person wants to find Elizabeth Weintraub, learn about real estate or short sales, I’m very easy to find.
And I answer my phone. This fact astonishes people. A Sacramento real estate agent who answers her phone? They often say when I answer my phone that they did not expect to find a real live person on the other end. I tell them I can hang up so they can call back and go to voice mail if they like, but no, they will put up with talking to me if they have to do it. If I get a real crackpot on the phone or somebody who won’t shut up, I am capable of politely explaining that I have to go, and I hang up myself. But that doesn’t happen very often. And every once in a while I get a telemarketer. When I do, I report those callers to the government’s Do Not Call List.
But yesterday, in the middle of a quiet October Sunday afternoon, my cellphone rang. My husband and I were both reading. The wind picked up slightly. It was forecast to rain. Skies were overcast. I answered the phone.
Caller: I’m calling about Lockwood.
Weintraub: Yes. (He sounded like a really old guy.)
Caller: I’m calling about Lockwood.
Weintraub: Yes. (I set down my book and sat up. OMG, I’m thinking, is the home on fire? Is this person calling to tell me the wind just blew off the roof?)
Caller: I’m calling about Lockwood, can you hear me?
Weintraub: Yes, I can hear you. May I help you?
See, this is the part where normally a person would ask a question. They might ask if the property is still available, or how many bedrooms it has or whether there is a pool.
This is a property that I’ve sold 3 times as a short sale. All 3 escrows were at the same price but the first 2 buyers were flakes in my book because they didn’t close. It’s been listed for 10 months. It’s unusual to get a call on a property that’s been pending for a while like this one.
I asked the caller again if I could help him. He seemed agitated. Maybe he couldn’t hear very well? Oh, no, maybe somebody kicked in the front door or swiped the lockbox? Maybe he’s a real estate agent who is very angry that he can’t show the home because there is no lockbox?
He yelled at me: “What can you tell me about it?”
Well, I could tell him a lot but I won’t because none of it matters. What matters is the home is in escrow and closing this week so he can’t buy it, but if he’s interested in this neighborhood and price range, maybe I can help him? So, I tell him the home is pending and ask if he’d like information about other homes in the area.
Instead, he blurted out: “Why isn’t there a sold sign on it?”
Because we don’t do those things anymore. Especially not on a short sale. Everything is published online.
He screamed an obsenity and slammed down the phone. This is why a Sacramento real estate agent doesn’t like to answer the phone. See, a real estate agent’s life isn’t always glamorous, even if she does answer her phone.
Painting the Interior of Your House Before Selling
I was so broke when I painted the interior of my first house that I used printer’s ink instead of paint. I had access to three containers of printer’s ink in red, blue and yellow, so I did what any normal kid in 1967 would do. I painted the ceiling blue and mixed the yellow and red to do the walls. The problem with that was I did not mix enough orange so after I finished 3 walls, I ran out of “paint.” I also did not mix the colors proportionately so I could not duplicate the color. Not to mention, I did not own the home, which meant my landlord forced me to repaint prior to vacating. Have you ever tried to cover up deep blue printer’s ink?
There are consequences if you mess up painting the interior of your house. Especially if you ever want to sell that home. While it is true that you should paint your home the colors you love, if you’re gonna go all hog wild, then you’ll have to repaint before you sell or you’ll pay for it in the sales price the buyer will offer.
It’s not cheap to hire painters. A professional painter will charge you $300 to $500 or more per room. This means many people decide to paint their home as a do-it-yourself project. They think: how hard can it be to hold a paint brush? First, it’s hard to paint a straight line and tape will rip the paint off your walls. Second, you can streak the walls, end up with bubbles, dirt in the paint, raise the hair of the surface you are painting and / or splash paint everywhere, not to mention you can step in it or, worse, your cats can step in it and track painted pawprints on your furniture.
The only thing worse than that is to paint the interior of your house the wrong color. Today, white is out. Neutral colors are in. It’s what we call “coffee and cream.” Builder neutral eggshell is not very pretty but it sure beats bright purple.
Not every wall has a straight corner these days, either. You look at homes in Natomas or Elk Grove subdivisions, and all of the corners are rounded. If you want to transition colors between rooms, you need to figure out how to draw a straight line at the corner. Let’s just say very few people can do it. In fact, I haven’t seen one, and I’ve sold a lot of homes in Natomas and Elk Grove.
When I was growing up in the 1950s, all of our neighbors painted the interiors of their homes the same colors. Green was the color of choice for the living room. It was calming and peaceful. Plus, when my brother’s chameleon escaped from his cage, you couldn’t find the critter because that slimy amphibian would blend right into the walls. Our one bathroom was pink. Pink towels, pink toilet cover, pink rugs and pink four-inch tile matched the pink walls. The kitchen was a cheery yellow to compliment our yellow formica-and-chrome kitchen table. My brother’s bedroom was boringly blue, my parent’s bedroom was earthy and brown, and the girls’ bedroom was lavender. Every room was a different color.
Those colors are disastrous today. Before you put your home on the market, ask your Sacramento real estate agent if you should repaint. Ask me, I’ll give it to you straight and tell you whether that bright red wall in the dining room needs to be a different color.
