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Short Sale Negotiators Should Move to South Carolina
An endearing thing about the South is the way people interact with each other. Whereas, I, for example, will tell you to your face exactly what I think — although, even a critical statement will be tempered somewhat — that method of communication is a stark contrast to the way it’s done in the South. I am called all sorts of sweetness in the South. I am addressed as “darlin,” which immediately warms me up to the person speaking until I begin to wonder what he wants. Oh, nothing, he’s just holding open a door for me to pass through. My feminism cringes a little but I fast get over it.
Why, this politeness and gentleness is so contagious a person could bless my heart and tell me not to worry my sweet little head over it, and I would not be offended no matter what the issue was at hand. They could be dropping nuclear bombs on the city, and I wouldn’t care. Southern hospitality is not overrated. It’s the real thing.
Short sale negotiators should be forced to spend some time in the South before working in customer relations at a bank. If every time I spoke to a short sale negotiator, I was treated the way the nice residents of Hilton Head, South Carolina deal with strangers, this Sacramento short sale agent would have died and gone to heaven.
This view in my blog today is of a cold, wet beach at Hilton Head, South Carolina. But the people here are so danged charming, I don’t give a hoot that our weather kinda sucks. Can I interest ya’ll in some grits?
Major Bank Settlements Pay Cash for Short Sale
Can you get money for doing a short sale with Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo or Citimortgage? That’s most likely the question in the minds this morning of many past, present and future short sale sellers. You might get enough cash to take a French Polynesia vacation, you never know. The New York Times reports payments as much as $125,000 to reduce principal balances could be offered as a result of these bank settlements. And the bank I see paying out the most in Sacramento is Bank of America on those Cooperative Short Sales. Yup, banks will pay cash for short sale.
Remember way back when, when this Sacramento short sale agent suggested that Bank of America was actively dumping those old Countrywide loans? It seems I was right on the money with that call. If I spotted a Countrywide loan in a short sale, on that hunch alone, I routinely directed the seller to a Cooperative Short Sale. Never had a Cooperative that way rejected. I have probably initiated more Cooperative Short Sales on my own through Bank of America than any other short sale agent in town.
I recall one instance in particular. I was dealing with a third-party vendor, either REDC or DTS, don’t recall, there are so many. This particular third-party vendor was telling me we had to do a HAFA, and I insisted, no, it needed to be a Cooperative Short Sale, even though I was going out on the limb a little with that demand.
I was driving through Midtown Sacramento with the top down on my car, so it was hard to hear the caller on my Jawbone, but we argued for a good 14 blocks, all the way from J Street to Broadway. Finally, I suggested she call her supervisor to discuss because I didn’t want to hear from her again about a HAFA when this short sale was destined to be a Cooperative. Sure enough, a day or so later, the bank switched to a Cooperative despite the negotiator’s initial objections. That seller received more than $10,000 to do the short sale and no documentation was required. It can pay to disagree with an individual’s assessment. Because individuals aren’t always right.
For months, Bank of America has been releasing servicing. Sometimes, the service release happens smack dab in the middle of a short sale, which is a rude awakening. The bank needs to pay Fannie Mae $11 billion and needs to get that money somewhere, so it’s dumping its loan portfolios. Part of the problem with that is it’s reducing competition among lenders if Bank of America withdraws from the mortgage market. When competition is reduced, it hurts consumers.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. If you’re looking to see if you could be a lucky recipient of cash for a short sale, call this Sacramento short sale agent and I’ll check it into for you.
Photo: Flower of Tahiti, by Elizabeth Weintraub
The Best Part for a Short Sale Agent
I’ll cut right to the chase. The best part of a short sale for a Sacramento short sale agent is at closing — but the reason why it’s the best part might surprise you. A fellow short sale agent friend in Virginia says one of her associates reports that she dreads closing a transaction. This agent says when a transaction closes, it means she is in the unemployment line. Out of work. Searching for new business. Depressed. That’s crazy. Because closing is the best part of the short sale for the short sale agent.
It’s not the money. Heaven knows it’s not the money. Short sale agents do 2 to 3 times the work in a short sale over a regular equity transaction for the same amount of money. Why would anybody in her right mind do 2 to 3 times the work for the same amount of money or, even less, because sometimes in a short sale an agent has to discount her commission or kick back some of it to make the deal work for the bank and the seller. What kind of fool would willingly do that? Who knocks herself out like that?
For starters, it’s because that’s where much of the business lies in Sacramento. Something like 1 out of every 3 escrows is a short sale. So, if an agent doesn’t work in the short sale end of the business, she’s missing a lot of business. If an agent specializes in short sales, like this Sacramento short sale agent, she gets a lot of business.
One thing is identical across the board. When the short sale closes, and I get to make that last phone call to the seller to say it has closed, well, that is truly the best part. I can hear the sighs of relief over the phone. The giddiness that it’s over. The happiness of being able to put the ordeal behind.
Because I am in French Polynesia right now, I have missed calling my sellers at closing. I have no cellphone in this part of the South Pacific. My TC calls to let them know; I send an email. But sending an email is not the same thing. It’s especially rewarding the last few days of the year, when sellers are worried about year-end reporting and income taxes like now. I had 4 closings on Friday and I’ll have another 6 or so on Monday. So, my TC gets all of the fun at the moment. She deserves it. She works just as hard and rarely gets to hear first hand how happy sellers are when a short sale closes.
Photo: Sunset in Rangiroa by Elizabeth Weintraub
When the Short Sale Bank Says No
You know the people I have empathy for? Is it my inlaws stuck in Chicago or my sister and niece in Minnesota who are enjoying those not-so-balmy temperatures? Or, is it the house sitters who are taking care of our home in Land Park? Nope, it’s those buyer’s agents in Sacramento who emailed some 20 offers yesterday for a home in Elk Grove. I answered email after email late last night after we landed in Tahiti. Explaining how many offers we received and how the seller is leaning toward accepting a cash offer. But the best news I got was not the short sale approval on yet another short sale in Elk Grove (which also arrived via email), it was the fact we received an extension from CCO Mortgage for my seller who is dying.
Short sale bank CCO at first said it would issue no such extension and would, in fact, start the short sale over if we could not close by December 20th. Sometimes it does not pay to take NO for an answer. I wrote a letter to the negotiator, set forth a plea for an extension, and the “absolutely no extension declaration” turned into a yes, here is your extension!
My Elk Grove seller is not a short sale though, which is another reason that buyers are climbing all over each other to buy that home. The dilemma is should the seller take a cash offer without an appraisal contingency or a financing offer? That’s a decision she needs to make. A cash offer will probably not yield as much cash as a financed offer as buyers who choose financing will pay more. They’re not forking out hard cold cash; they are financing that price increase. Of course, if the home doesn’t appraise for a ridiculous price, it doesn’t matter what a buyer offers to pay if it won’t close due to a low appraisal.
But how many offers does a seller need? Excuse me, there seems to be a large pelican-like bird on my deck that I need to check out. This is the view I woke up to this morning. Helps to put some of these dilemmas into perspective. All I have to say is Thank You, RBS Citizens Bank . . . and I hope my Elk Grove seller makes her decision soon.
A Countrywide Short Sale in East Sacramento
I recently closed a double Countrywide Cooperative Short Sale through Bank of America in East Sacramento in which the seller received almost $17,000. He had been recommended to this Sacramento short sale agent by a former client who had insisted that he call me. That’s probably because I handle each of my short sales with focused attention. Because each one is different. See, another agent might have just listed this short sale and sold it without giving the seller any cash. But if there a way I can get my sellers cash without making them totally miserable in the process, I go for it.
This home in East Sacramento was also owned by a lawyer. I handle many short sales for lawyers, and I really enjoy working with lawyers. One of the super fun aspects of working with a lawyer is when I get to say that I cannot give legal advice. That tickles me to no end. At least lawyers understand this concept, though, and they don’t keep grinding me.
The minute I spotted the double Countrywide loans in the public records, I suspected this short sale would make a good candidate for the Cooperative Short Sale program at Bank of America. I don’t know if B of A specifically targets those old Countrywide loans, but if I were Bank of America, I know I’d want to get rid of them. It’s not bad enough that Bank of America is being sued by the Feds for Countrywide’s old HSSL (high speed swim lane) — a loan process of pushing loans forward, allegedly with little regard for accuracy or conformity — but the process had became known as the Countrywide Hustle, a practice carried on after Bank of America took over Countrywide. Bad on so many levels.
Still, we started this short sale in May of this year. A time of year so beautiful in Sacramento that it’s like living in Carmel without the prices of Carmel except, yeah, we don’t have any dogs running on the beach or a beach — just clay soil and skunks in the yard. By August, we finally had our Cooperative Short Sale agreement signed and approved. I don’t put my short sales like this on the market until we get the short sale preapproved. Why drag sellers and buyers through that process? I’ve learned over the years that it’s much better to just wait. After we got the approval, it took B of A another month to come up with the BPO. By mid September, we were ready for the market. Who says a Sacramento short sale agent doesn’t have patience?
However, the good news is once we had everything in place and received an offer, the bank approved the short sale in 3 weeks. Bank of America just zips along when finally in Equator, and receiving the preapproval for the Cooperative Short Sale upfront really speeds up the process. Plus, the seller received almost $17,000, which he wasn’t expecting. He was happy to simply short sale the East Sacramento house and to obtain a release of liability. The cash was simply icing on the cake.
