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What is the Problem With 2014 Sacramento Short Sales?
The problems with Sacramento short sales in years past used to lie with the banks and the buyers, but those days are long gone. Buyers and short sale banks are not the source of our misery today. Most of the buyers who enter an agreement to buy a short sale are willing to wait it out and realize there are a few fees the bank might not authorize such as pest and home warranties and 100% of the escrow fee. They possess realistic expectations. The banks have invested money and effort into establishing entire short sale departments that mostly did not exist from 2006 to 2008. They’ve put systems and procedures in place, and are constantly tweaking their efficiency and effectiveness.
There are some banks that face little struggles now and then such as the Chase HELOC departments in Equator and the banks that try to satisfy regulations and cope with the fallout from the National Mortgage Settlement, yet cause months of delays due to ineptness, but for the most part, you can’t really blame the banks anymore when a short sale takes forever. OK, you can blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but even those guys are shaping up their systems. Rarely a day goes by when I don’t receive a timely email from somebody at Fannie Mae to say by golly they have received the BPO, and they’re still working on a pre-approved value. It’s better than a poke in the eye with a stick, even if it’s sorta meaningless after 2 weeks.
I’m not getting a lot of pushback and attitude from buyers either because they are educated now. They do their own homework online, they talk to their buyer’s agent, and they’re prepared to wait for short sale approval. They realize that when they go into an escrow in which the Best Sacramento Short Sale Agent is negotiating, that escrow is likely to close. I cannot remember the last short sale that did not close, and I’ve closed hundreds of them — more than any other real estate agent in a 7-county area since 2006.
The problems I’m seeing today do not stem from buyers nor the short sale banks. Nope. They cannot shoulder the blame anymore in today’s Sacramento short sale world. Instead, the problems tend to stem from the sellers themselves. There’s not always a full proof way to figure out which sellers deserve help and which don’t really give a crap. So, try not to blame the agent if the short sale goes south because the sellers messed it up. Most of the short sale agents I know are professionals who care deeply about their sellers and sometimes can inadvertently overlook their shortcomings.
Short sale agents need to be more vigilant, especially since short sales make up such a small portion of our market (about 10%) — short sales now appeal to smaller pools of buyers and will take longer to sell. Fact, Jack. My advice to fellow Sacramento short sale agents is try to make certain the effort you expend is for a seller who is willing to cooperate and see it through to the end. Otherwise, cut the losers loose. You owe it your own sanity, and you owe it to the buyers. You may represent the seller, but you still owe honesty and good faith dealings to the buyers.
Sacramento Sellers Hounded By So-Called Short Sale Agents
I don’t ordinarily like to expose or discuss the underbelly of the real estate business, but I will if I believe it has value to the consumer. There are some agents who talk trash about other real estate agents just to make themselves look better by comparison, which is kind of scummy and throws a person into the same camp. But there are good and bad professionals in any business, anywhere you look. Sometimes, it just might seem like there is more disparity in real estate. Perhaps because there are so many of us — something like one out of every 35 people in California holds a real estate license.
Take one of my new clients, for example. While talking to this seller last week — who is about to embark on a short sale — he told me something must have happened recently to trigger all the calls from short sale agents. He said his phone had been ringing off the hook with offers of “assistance.” He was very surprised at the nature and tone of some of those calls and wondered how they got his number. The sad thing is, nowadays, falling behind in your mortgage payments can trigger such a flood of harassing soliciting calls.
First, nobody should attempt to do a short sale by hiring some agent who calls out of the blue or shows up on their doorstep. You should get your short sale agent from word of mouth or through research. Ever since the booming end of the colossal short sale era in 2012, agents have been frantically trying to grab that elusive golden ring of short sales. Even if they have no idea what they are doing or they have attended a half-day class and are now calling themselves an “expert” in short sales — how is a seller supposed to know if they are fakes?
Second, a seller should not be forced to do a short sale, pushed into a short sale or talked into doing a short sale. If a seller doesn’t want to do a short sale, why should that seller be harassed called by other agents who are trying to get some business? Agents typically don’t go around calling complete strangers and pushing them to sell. But some agents will do it to a seller who has an underwater home.
The way they get the seller’s phone number is by subscribing to a service that provides it or by getting it directly from the bank. Some banks such as Wells Fargo and Chase Bank have been reaching out (ack, I hate that term and look, here I am using it) to real estate agents and promising them short sales in exchange for a little mortgage business. They give the agents a list of sellers who are in default (behind in their payments), and agents cold call this list and try to persuade a seller to list with them as a short sale. It wouldn’t be so bad it were only one agent doing this, but it’s dozens of them and. in many cases, these are first- or second-year agents without a lot of experience. Because veteran real estate agents typically do not cold call.
The other way they find out is by asking a title company to provide them with a list of homes in preforeclosure or by subscribing to a private service that provides them with this very public information, or going to the office of the county recorder to find the information in person. Some agents belong to a program called HR 3648, which I suggest you steer clear from. A nonprofit director called me the other day to say she received a letter from HR 3648 that made it look like it was part of Keep Your Home California.Org. I did a search on that website and could not find Program 3648. No surprise.
If you’re looking for an experienced Sacramento short sale agent, ask for a referral, and you might very well be referred to me. I have a lot of previous satisfied short sale clients, hundreds of them. You can research my professional stats, or you can just call Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759, Lyon Real Estate.
Agents Who Represent Themselves on a Short Sale
Trying to buy a short sale for yourself is like yanking out your own tooth with a pair of pliers. Some people say the whole experience of a short sale reminds them of a root canal. When I was a kid, my mother used to tie a string around my tooth, and she tied the other end around a door knob. Then, she slammed the door. Sometimes, it took a couple of tries. Yikes. But it beat grabbing the pliers and doing it myself.
I don’t know of a single lawyer who would try to practice law in a field in which the lawyer had no knowledge. Yet, real estate agents try to do it all the time. In fact, when I represent lawyers for short sales — and I work with a lot of lawyers — I always suggest they get legal advice from a real estate lawyer. If a lawyer is in corporate law, she doesn’t know the ramifications of a short sale. Likewise, agents who work in residential real estate should not try to sell commercial property. It’s bad for the clients. It’s probably a violation of the Code of Ethics as well because it’s not in an agent’s clients’ best interest to hire a novice who knows nothing about the field to represent them.
The only thing that’s worse than representing a client when you should not is when that client is yourself. Because that’s just plain stupidity at the worse levels. I have an agent from southern California who is trying to write an offer on a short sale for herself. She apparently knows little about residential real estate in Sacramento, much less a short sale. She is also not a member of our Sacramento Board of REALTORS, so we are not required to reciprocate with her.
I have explained to the agent that she was missing the correct forms in her offer to make it a short sale offer. In short, the offer she dropped at my office because she doesn’t “do the computer” is not written correctly. I explained some of this to the seller when I sent it to her and suggested the seller ignore it. The offer has not closing escrow written all over it. The proposed buyer did not follow instructions in MLS because she cannot read the instructions as she is not a member. Her loan is complicated, involving several community agencies, which makes her not a good candidate for a short sale, even if her offer was written correctly, which it is not. Short sale approval letters from the banks on this particular short sale stipulate a 30-day closing, and her loans would take at least 45 days. Her preapproval letter is outdated and does not include a calculation for HOA dues, yet she is trying to buy a condo. And to keep a small commission because she has a real estate license.
One in about every 35 people in California has a real estate license. Having a real estate license does not make a person a real estate agent. You know what makes a person a real estate agent? Earning your living as a real estate agent, year after year. It’s experience.
When it comes time for my husband and me to buy another home in another area, I am certainly not planning to represent myself. I will hire an experienced local agent who works with retirees. There is just too much that could wrong. This particular real estate agent is doing herself a grave injustice trying to save a couple of bucks. She should hire an experienced Sacramento short sale agent to help her to buy a short sale. When I told her in the nicest way I could think of that she deserves her own agent, she raised her voice, threatened to call the NAACP and accused all agents in Sacramento of discrimination. What?
I wanted to say: Lady, I can’t see you over the phone. I have not seen a photo of you. So, I do not know the color of your skin and even if I did, which I don’t, it would not make any difference. Moreover, to imply that this Sacramento short sale agent would discriminate is simply preposterous. It’s completely ridiculous. Insulting. The problem is this poor woman needs help. She says she has a friend who is a real estate agent in Sacramento. I sure hope she calls him.
