Email Elizabethsacramento short sales
The Dangers of Hiring the Wrong Short Sale Agent in Sacramento
The best short sale agent in Sacramento is Elizabeth Weintraub.
Enjoying a reputation in the real estate industry as a Sacramento Realtor with integrity (and a person who gets the job done) has been very helpful for my clients because it means my listings carry weight. What do I mean by that? It means an agent doesn’t have to worry when he or she spots a listing with the name of Elizabeth Weintraub attached to it. By the very nature, Elizabeth Weintraub listings relatively assures buyer’s agents that their transaction will conclude without drama or a pile of complications. If that particular home is a short sale, all the better; no fear, it will likely close.
I received short sale approval on a fixer home in West Sacramento a few days ago, which I forwarded immediately to the seller. He was completely stunned that I had received the approval so quickly, within a few weeks — especially due to the fact that his short sale had been initially rejected only a few days ago. It needed one little tweak to qualify, and we submitted revised documentation that addressed the particular protocol demanded of us. Some other agent might have thrown in the towel after the rejection. I don’t take no for an answer.
The thing is some home owners are really suspicious about their lenders. They make up all sorts of stories to fit any given situation, perhaps to help them cope with the confusion and utter bewilderment often apparent at certain lending institutions. Some sellers are paranoid and believe their banks employ sabotage. Bank employees can be crafty but they’re no Robert Durst. If you haven’t seen that HBO 6-part Documentary, The Jinx, I encourage you to watch it because it will leave you feeling creepy for days, which is better than feeling your bank is out to get you.
My seller said that many agents were vying for his listing and calling him to list his home. He interviewed a handful of real estate agents but he kept coming back to my name as the best short sale agent in Sacramento. I’ve sold more short sales since 2006 than any other real estate agent in a seven-county area. This guy and his family needed a professional who would get the job done, and said he didn’t want to take any chances so he hired me, and I got his short sale approval. The seller said he did not think another agent could have done it. His situation was complicated.
Short sales are all a little complicated. Yesterday a fellow called to say he was parked outside his new home, which he found on Zillow. Well, that home is closing escrow in a few weeks, so it’s not his new home. We chatted for a while and discussed how he’s living in a rental that is a short sale and thinking about buying it. He wouldn’t tell me who listed that home but continued to insist the agent, a property manager, was a “very experienced short sale agent” because the agent, most likely, had told him that. There’s a sucker born every minute, according to PT Barnum.
Who is the lender, I asked. Did the agent tell him that with Nationstar as the lender, the home is going to an online auction where another buyer can swipe the home? Nationstar short sales are animals onto themselves. Unless the investor is Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, that’s where Nationstar short sales go these days. Then, he admitted he had submitted an offer through the agent-slash-property manager, and was in escrow. He has a fiduciary, which means all further questions need to be directed to his agent. I can’t interfere. Our conversation ended. I doubt that guy is buying a house, though.
Ways to Know a Bank Will Approve the Short Sale
Buyers who plan to buy a short sale in Sacramento should receive some kind of assurance that the bank will approve the short sale. In other words, the odds should be in their favor, especially if they have to wait 6 months for an FHA short sale or 90 days for most other short sales. If a buyer is to invest that amount of time, wouldn’t it be nice to know whether the bank will approve the short sale?
For starters, a buyer can approve the odds by buying a short sale listed by an experienced Sacramento short sale REALTOR. By experienced, I mean the REALTOR has a long track record of closing many short sales, not just a handful. It seems that some agents close one or two short sales, and granted it can seem like a lifetime, but two short sales does not make an agent an experienced short sale agent. It makes the agent somebody who ventured into short sale waters and came out without drowning or getting shot, a note-worthy accomplishment but it doesn’t mean much.
Some agents will list a property as a short sale simply because the seller asked them to do it. They never ask the seller if there is genuine hardship or qualify the seller at all. Some agents don’t even negotiate their own short sales. Not really knocking the third-party negotiators, but they don’t seem motivated by the time is of essence urgency that listing agents tend to possess. It’s often just another file. But I think buyers would rather see the file with a third-party negotiator than with an agent who doesn’t know what he or she is doing. Still, all in all, buyers are typically better off if the listing agent negotiates the short sale, has experience and has qualified the seller.
I can say all of this because I’ve sold hundreds of short sales and negotiated tons, more than any other Realtor in a 7-County area in Sacramento Valley since 2006. When I spot a short sale in MLS that is pending short lender approval but is mispriced, that’s a pretty good sign the short sale will end up back on the market at a much higher price or simply rejected all together. The mispricing is typically too low. I don’t know where agents get some of these prices — I think they pluck numbers from thin air, hoping and praying in vain. Banks want market value. End of story.
If you’re searching for a Sacramento short sale agent, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. If your short sale is doomed, you can trust that I won’t list it. My short sales close. Can’t recall that I have ever lately had a bank reject a short sale. You can put faith in the odds that the bank will approve the short sale when you’re buying a short sale listed by Weintraub.
HAFA Short Sale Guidelines for 2015 To Pay Sellers $10,000
As if we needed a new incentive to lure the last rush of Sacramento short sale sellers into the arms of HAFA, the $10,000 cash at closing incentive should do the trick. It’s true, effective February 1, 2015, every short sale governed by HAFA is eligible for up to $10,000 as a relocation incentive to the seller. Ten large ones is the new number in HAFA short sale guidelines for 2015.
The other bell and whistle thrown into the mix is an increase in the maximum payment now allowed to second lien holders. Providing that lenders have not set an aggregated cap on the payment, they can collect up to $12,000. For the Green Tree short sales, PNC short sales and USAA short sales, that is welcome news, especially for those hard-money loans. It makes doing a short sale, including the investor incentive payouts behind-the-scenes, even more attractive to a junior short sale lender.
The lingering question is where will these short sale sellers come from? There has been a big fallout of short sales and the inventory has dwindled. Whereas a few years ago, I might have handled 70 listings at any given time, my short sale inventory has dropped to an amount I can count on one hand. Most agents don’t do any short sales at all these days. Because everybody who was underwater who should have done a short sale has already done a short sale or their home is right side up again . . . except, except for those who put a gun to their head and didn’t pull the trigger . . . until now.
I’m talking about those many loan modifications that were doomed to fail from the get-go. That’s the new crop of Sacramento short sales. Homeowners who wanted to avoid the short sale and elected to stay in the home by modifying a loan payment to an adjustable rate mortgage. Many loan mods adjust after the 5-year mark. Well, for many, 5 years is here NOW, and they still can’t afford a mortgage payment increase. That’s where the new short sales are originating. The switch from a loan mod to a short sale is upon us.
In addition to struggling to make mortgage payments, the condition of the home might have been neglected for a while. Of course, banks will still want market value, and they probably won’t take poor condition into consideration, which means short sales will continue to be a hassle for the uninitiated. But at least they now give a seller an incentive to get rid of the property for once and for all, through a short sale. Providing we can find a buyer who wants it.
That will be the kicker. If a buyer doesn’t have to buy a short sale, a buyer probably will gravitate toward some other home to buy. My prediction is short sales will take much longer to move, and the wait will be long. It will be the wait to find a buyer. Not the wait for the HAFA short sale. For a Sacramento short sale agent and her seller, a HAFA short sale is almost always the preferred type of short sale because HAFA has its act together now, after all these years.
There Are Enough Crooks in Sacramento Short Sales
We have enough crooks in Sacramento short sales that we, ourselves, don’t need to add to the mix, whether we are a seller, a buyer or a real estate agent. I tell my short sale sellers that they need to keep their noses clean. Don’t do anything that the lender can later construe to be mortgage fraud. Because if a seller is dishonest, the bank can reverse the release of liability for that short sale and pursue a seller for the remaining balance, which is the whole reason to do a short sale in the first place. To get that release of liability.
I realize that sellers are upset with their banks, and they hate the fact they’ve been strung along for years paying on rotten loans that they can’t afford but that is no reason not to level with the bank during a short sale. Sellers also tend to worry that if they don’t make up some facts to color their financial situation the bank won’t approve the short sale. What they don’t realize is the banks typically prefer a short sale to a loan modification.
If you’ve been in the middle of a loan modification or attempting to obtain a loan modification and been turned down, you’re probably a prime candidate for a short sale. Especially if your bank is one of those institutions established for the sole purpose of picking up worthless mortgages. The bank might expect you to short sale.
Sometimes sellers want to say, for example, that they live in the property so they can apply for a $3,000 relocation incentive. If they don’t live in the property but instead live elsewhere, that could be mortgage fraud if they lie about it. Collecting $3,000 under false pretenses could cause a bank to withdraw the release of liability on that short sale after it closes. The bank could also demand the return of the $3,000, and then prosecute the perpetrator for a million dollars-plus. Mortgage fraud is a federal crime.
California Civil Code 580e (effective 2011) gave sellers the protection and the release of liability in a short sale, but it also takes it away if the seller commits mortgage fraud. If you’re contemplating such an act, you might want to ask yourself if the consequences are worth the risk. It’s not a harmless act of omission. The bank will track your credit card purchases, examine where your credit card statements are delivered and check to see if cable TV is still in your name. Don’t move in furniture because the BPO agent will open the refrigerator and check to see if the washer and dryer are connected.
You either live in the property or you don’t. Don’t mess around.
The Broken Sacramento Short Sale is Not a Real Listing
When the phone call starts out with the caller apologizing for not calling this Sacramento real estate agent earlier in the game, I tend to go on red alert. Because if they knew to call and didn’t, there might be something wrong that I can’t fix. But you never know. Particularly in a Sacramento short sale, sellers often end up listing with the wrong agents — those who don’t live up to their expectations — but sometimes the expectations themselves are out of line. I have to figure out which.
Real estate agents can end up as the punching bag simply because there’s generally nobody else around when things don’t pan out. That comes with the territory. Sometimes they deserve the fickle finger of blame pointed in their direction but not always; we’re all different. Here are two different types of situations. In this first transaction, a seller called to say he hadn’t heard from his agent in months, and didn’t know what was happening with the sale of his home. Wha?
There was no sign in the yard when I went over to the house. It was listed in MLS and this Sacramento short sale had expired in pending status, which is a status that can draw a fine from MLS because expired pending status listings are not allowed. Yet, there it was. Lonely and forlorn. Weeds overgrown. The lockbox was still on the gate with a key inside. The gate was unlatched, banging in the breeze on the fence. It’s hard to say what had transpired in that listing, but it’s now in escrow with me, sold again and pending.
Earlier last week a seller called to plead that I sell her home as a short sale because she discovered that I’ve closed hundreds of Sacramento short sales. I do hold the dubious honor of having sold more short sales in a 7-county area than any other agent for the past 8 years. She had a hard-money second with 21st Century, so I know the problems associated with that particular type of short sale and how to handle them. We talked for a while, and it was beginning to look like I could help her but it was bugging me that she had dinged around for more than a year and did not receive some type of approval or rejection letter. The facts just weren’t adding up.
Then I asked the important question. Was she living in the home? Nope, she had moved about a year ago. OK, second-most important question: Did she buy another home? Yes, she did. All right, third-most important question: In whose name? It was her name. Ding, ding, ding. Like I told her, she can easily find some agent to list it — many so-called short sale agents don’t understand short sales even though they may have a certified designation next to their name — and there’s a small chance, maybe a 10% chance that her Sacramento short sale might get approved, but those odds aren’t high enough for me to take that listing.
I prefer to take listings that close. Much of my successful career is due to the fact that?I inherently gravitate toward the 100% closings. Even an overpriced listing will eventually come down to a point where a buyer will want to buy it, but one can’t fix a broken short sale. Before any of my Team Weintraub members allow a buyer to sign a purchase offer for a short sale, we check it out to assess whether it will close. Not all of them will because not all of those short sale listings are a short sale to start with.
