Sacramento Short Sale Approval Delays Can Raise the Sales Price

I wrote on Sunday about how I listed this Sacramento short sale from a remote corner in the world, using a spotty internet connection at Rangiroa Atoll during Christmas vacation. I also mentioned the fact that if a short sale takes too long to negotiate or a Sacramento short sale agent has to start over because a buyer walked, the price of that short sale can go up. In this particular short sale, the seller had received a short sale approval but some mismanagement or confusion caused, he said, by his previous agent, resulted in a cancellation. Hence, he hired me.

Of course, I could daydream that all sellers should just list with me in the first place and avoid those types of hassles, but the truth is I could not handle the volume of every single short sale in Sacramento, nor would I want to. And there are other good short sale agents in Sacramento, some of which work at my company and to whom I occasionally refer business.

We went on the market at the price the banks had previously approved for the seller. Part of the problem was one of the banks sold the servicing of the loan since then. This is a phenomena I am seeing more of — banks dumping underwater loans and / or servicing to the market that was created to purchase worthless debt, some of which the banks own. The bank ordered a new BPO, even though the previous BPO had not expired.

Whoa. Prices were bouncing upwards. Now the bank wanted 20% more than it wanted a month ago. It’s a seller’s market in Sacramento. I presented that counter offer to the buyer, and the buyer immediately canceled. I don’t know what that buyer thought he could buy now that he was no longer in contract. Not my problem, though.

Found a new buyer and put that buyer into contract at the higher sales price (which by now, I should point out, is much higher still but the buyer has the price locked). We thought everything was going smoothly until the new second lender decided it wanted a lot more money than what the first lender was willing to allocate. The investor was Fannie Mae, so unless that bank has never dealt with Fannie Mae before, the bank should know that Fannie Mae has its maximum, and that’s the maximum. Fannie Mae does not allow anybody else in a short sale to pay the second lender, either.

That was little battle with the second lender, to get the bank to understand a) the first loan was really owned by Fannie Mae and b) the max is the max per Fannie Mae. After what seems like another couple of months, the second finally agreed and issued its approval letter.

Right before the lender’s property preservation company called and was about to shut off the water and change out the locks. But fortunately, that did not happen, and we were able to move forward to close. If you’d like more information about a short sale in the Sacramento region, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.