Patty Manzi’s Tri-Valley Real Estate Blog

Its been just over a week since I last updated on the short sale saga.   As of my last post, January 28th was the target date for the ‘valuations’ phase to be completed.  Well that date has come and gone with no movement at all.  The only good news is that an appraiser contacted me at the end of  last week to schedule an appointment for the appraisal.  We scheduled for today at 10am.  This morning at 8:15 the appraiser called and the appointment was rescheduled for tomorrow.  According to the appraiser, the bank has a deadline of 7am on Thursday to receive the appraisal, so I am hoping it gets completed tomorrow.   This is needed to complete the ‘valuations’ phase of the process (you know, the process that was supposed to be completed by the 28th!?)

 In the meantime, my sellers have been getting bombarded with letters from other agents advertising their services to list the home.   Along with the letter comes a printout from ForeclosureRadar.com showing the Projected Sale Date on the property of less than a week away.  Of course my clients freaked out a little; the bank has never notified of a sale date.  I contacted Foreclosure Radar and was advised they pick up the information based on the Notice of Default (NOD) date.  Their system automatically enters the Projected Sale Date based on the time allowed by California Law which is approximately 120 days from the NOD date.  Other real estate companies cruise these sites looking for potential foreclosures in the hopes of swooping in a picking up a short sale before the foreclosure process is complete. 

I verified with the bank that we indeed had no sale date issued.  The negotiator assured me that the valuation phase will only take 7-10 business days then will be moved on to the negotiator (again, what happened to January 28th??).  Once this file goes to the negotiator the process moves relatively quick.  So they say……………

I’m about to catch you up to the current day on my short sale story. 

I noticed this morning on the online tracking system that the negotiators name had been changed from “Generic Negotiator” to an actual persons name, complete with an email address!  Naturally I fired off an email with many questions.  I am sure I will not get a response, if I do I will be very surprised!  So I then called the short sale department.  I was advised that the first negotiator (Generic) had completed their Valuations review and sent it to a second negotiator (the one named on the system) for review.  Apparently the file can go to up to three negotiators for Valuations review.  The good news (I think) is that the Valuations task has a system completion date of January 28th.  Now, that only means they are supposed to have the task completed by then, doesn’t mean they will, but its a target date – which I like   Today, it feels like we’re getting closer to success!

Stay tuned for the latest and greatest as the saga continues………………

Its January 12th and I’ve been checking the online site daily for new tasks and none have been issued.  I call the bank to get an update and am advised that all tasks are complete on my part but the (elusive & unamed) negotiator has an outstanding task that was due to be completed on January 9th.  This rep emails the negotiator while I am on the phone to request the task be completed so we can move on with the process.  The rep advises the task should be completed in the next day or so.  The rep also advises that with this online system the short-sale process takes no more than 45 days to close provided all parties submit their required tasks ON TIME.  So I guess that means we are already delayed 3 days since the negotiator is late with their assigned task. 

January 15th -The negotiator should have completed their assigned task by now so I call for an update. Oh huge surprise, the task is still incomplete.  The rep today tells me an email has already been sent, to the negotiator so we just have to wait.  The negotiator will get to it as soon as they can…………(heavy sigh).

In mid-December we have some movement. I received a call from a agent who has an order from the bank to do a “BPO”.  A BPO is a Broker Price Opinion.  The bank hires independent agents to go out and do an interior & exterior visual evaluation of the property condition, take some photos, and report back to the bank with a list of comparable sales in the area.  This gives the bank an idea of what the fair market value is for the home.  So knowing that this has been ordered makes me happy and makes me feel as if things are moving forward – FINALLY!    Oh wait…….

Two days later I receive a call from the ‘assigned negotiator” who informs me she is NOT a negotiator, but rather a customer service agent assigned to make a contact call to the parties involved in the short sale.  This call  is to inform me the bank has now decided to process all of their short-sales through an online site which allows short sales to be completed in a timely manner.  (Good, considering we are 2 months in and feeling like the whole process has stalled.)  She instructs me to go to the site, register, then call another number to initiate the file into the new system. 

Great!  I hop on the Internet and create my FREE account.  I then call the number I was given.  The news is not good.  The rep I spoke with said the homeowner has to register first and the bank needs their approval via conference call to connect me to the account.  (??!!)  We discussed the fact those were not the instructions I was given by the faux negotiator and she explained to me her high level of training in this area.  This whole process is taxing my patience in a very BIG way.  I then remember that every time I call this bank each person gives me a different story, so I use that to my advantage this time.  I hang up the phone, wait 5 minutes, then call back and get a different person. 

This very nice rep takes my call, adds the file to the system, initiates the tasks, advises me to log on daily to see my tasks, and we are done!  She advises the seller does need to call to create their own account, but they can do that anytime.  Finally – some cooperation!  I am feeling confident about this new system and its ability to streamline the process. 

Oh, but that confidence is very short lived…..the very next day I log on to the system and I have an assigned task!  I upload the required document and send.  The next day I log on to find my previous upload was rejected!  Nice….so I do it again.  The following day I see the task was accepted and I have a new task.  I upload the requested photo and send.  

Three days later I get another task.  Its the day before Christmas eve and I am eager to get this thing rolling before the holiday. However, I am shocked to see this new task is to fill in about 100 or more lines of data pertaining to the transaction.  Purchase price, dates, names, account numbers, etc, etc, etc…!  Data that has already been submitted to the bank when we first opened the short sale, but I comply and do it anyway.  Completion of this task immediately generates a new task which is to upload just about EVERY DOCUMENT in the file.  The same Documents that I used to gather the information for the 100+ lines of data that I just input.  The same Documents that had been uploaded to the bank back in October.  The same Documents that the bank has supposedly been reviewing for the last 60+ days!  Two steps forward, and 75 steps back!

I called the bank to find out why we had to do this. I was informed that the original file had to be closed and none of the information is allowed to be transferred by them to the online system.  SO, here we are back at square one!  I proceeded to uploaded all the documents, closed up the office, and went home feeling just a little bit like George Bailey (from Its a Wonderful Life), but at the last minute decided against stopping to jump off a bridge.

Ah December, the holidays are looming, the end of the year is near, and it sure would be nice for all parties concerned to have a conclusion to this situation before 2010 is upon us.  Uh….no such luck however.  The bank seems to have taken a vacation too…..

First phone call of the month I am asked by their automated answering system to enter the loan number.  I am given a recorded message that “A workout specialist is reviewing the file and the next update will be available on December 28, 2009″ .  Really?  What happened to the 10-15 working days?  What about the negotiator being assigned by December 14th?  I pressed the “0″ button to be transferred to an operator and requested the short sale department. I was disconnected.

It was at this point that many things became crystal clear to me. The reps on the other end of the phone ask for my information (same questions each time I call), then they read a script on their computer screen which is everything takes 10-15 business days.  At this point we are approaching 60 business days and I feel as if we are right where we started. 

I called back and was told by a different rep that a short sale negotiator HAS been assigned.  I am not overly excited at this point becuase I have been mislead before and dont beleive anything they are saying now.  However, I was given this persons name, but no contact information.  I was then advised the negotiator now has 4 WEEKS, or 20 business days to contact me.  If I havent heard from the negotiator at the end of 4 weeks, I can call back and request an ‘escalation’.  I wonder what that means. Do they actually get out of their chair and go put a sticky note on someones forehead?  I guess I will have to wait and see.