Question: I’m trying to purchase a short sale with three liens. A first at 600,000, a second at 80,000 and a third HELOC at 117. The bank holding the first two loans accepted the offer, which is coincidentally exactly what the house appraised for. The first and second have been zero’d out and forgiven. The bank holding the third in line HELOC, which I’m not giving the name of (although I should because they’re very inconsiderate) are holding the short sale hostage even though they are getting ten percent of the HELOC balance. We have offered 10,000,in addition to what the first bank is passing through (5,000). I thought they would rather finish a short sale than go into foreclosure. Nothing makes sense. Recently we offered them 15,000 on top of what the first bank is passing thru, bringing it 5,000 beyond what the house is appraising for, which means it’s not in the loan it’s out of my pocket. The retailer informed me the bank negotiator said if we give the bank 22,000 they’ll sign off today on the loan, otherwise, we’ll just have to wait. This is almost extortion, because it brings the price well over the appraisal. Is this all legal?
Answer: – Unfortunately yes… and it makes no sense at all because if it goes to foreclosure the 3rd gets nothing because no one will bid more than what it appraises for. And if they don’t agree to satisfy or release the lien, then it will continue to go to foreclosure. So you have to be persistent and prove to them again and again that what they are asking for is unrealistic.
Sometimes lenders will have 3rd party collection agencies handle the negotiations once it passes a certain time frame. This is typically when you’ll find a great deal of resistance and difficulty in negotiating the price you want. These collection agencies tend to be very unrealistic in their requests. We had a situation where they were being so unrealistic that after 6 months of negotiation and getting no where, we complained to the lender and told them how unprofessional, rude and dishonest this collection agency was. So they pulled the file from them and we were able to get the short sale approved and completed in less than 30 days.
So don’t give up, be persistent, stick to your offer, make them see that they are being ridiculous in what they are asking.
HomEq Servicing. Can anyone offer any help in dealing with this awful lender? I have spent countless number of hours on the phone with this terrible institution (mostly on hold/ignore) getting bounced back and forth from customer service to short sales back to customer service.
The loss mitigation reps that I have had the displeasure of speaking with are as extremely rude as they are tremendously unprofessional. They are clearly acting in bad faith and their condescending attitudes are certainly a reflection of their lack of a basic education.
The story that I’m getting is that they take 30 to 45 days from the date they receive a short sale request before they’ll so much as review it, and put it through for approval or denial. In the mean time the seller, as well as the buyer, are left twisting in the wind. With the status of the current market and the level of difficulty in securing willing, able, and qualified buyers to make a fair market purchase offer on any property these days, it amazes me that this lender has the arrogance to treat their clients so poorly.
The HomEq Loss Mitigation rep that I spoke to, after being on hold for 56 minutes, was of absolutely no help what so ever and had only contempt and a “country” attitude to offer. Sadly, her counterparts were no better.
All I am attempting to do is assist my client in the sale of their home and it seems that this dreadful company is out to make certain that that doesn’t happen.
I just got my short sale approved with HomEq. I submitted my package on February 6th and got my approval on March 25th. It is impossible to have anyone competent to talk to. It’s more or less a waiting game.
On another note, I would have someone go ahead and review the title. I got approval to close, however, there is a missing assignment of mortgage and that is holding up our closing.
This is unfortunate and unfortunately there is not a lot you can do. Most banks are very pleasant to deal with. One thing that might help is to get the negotiators direct extension and email who is actually handling the case. It’s important to “kiss up to them” at this point even though you feel like you should swear at them. We are experiencing long delays with the loss mitigation department and acceptances to our offers. They are overwhelmed with short sale offers right now and 30 – 45 days is not unrealistic. We are still waiting on one that we started the 1st of Jan. You just have to be patient with them and bug them every other day so they do something. Keep them updated of when the auction is and try to create some urgency without ticking them off. One thing I’ve learned, if you tick off a mitigator, you might as well start a new project.
I have a current short sale that I am negotiating(I the Listing Agent on this) where the 1st lien holder is willing to accept $26k Pay Off on a $125k loan. The 2nd lien holder is now with a collection company called “LCS Financial Services-A debt collection company. The 1st lien holder only wants to pay $2,000 to the 2nd lien holder. The 2nd lien holder servicer is being really hard to deal with. They are willing to accept $10k for a $28k loan, 1st they started out at $14k, I got them down to $10k so far. They said the note has to be satisfied before a lien is released, and they are not willing to release the lien to sale the house, even if the owner takes back a promissory note.
I told them if the 1st foreclosures, they will get zero. They said, they don’t care, they will pursue the homeowner.
They are asking me to go back to the 1st lien holder to get them to pay more money to them or go to the home owner to get them to pay some towards it also. I told the 2nd lien holder the home owner does not have any money to pay them. They then also suggested to ask the current buyer to help pay it. The home is ONLY worth in AS IS condition $30k (MAX) Wells Fargo BPO came back at $30 (they told me the number).
I came back and told them that there is NO way they will get $10 based upon the MAX offer rehabber’s are willing to pay and the amount of the repairs need to be down the house ($15k of repairs). I said the homeowner is not working, he is receiving disability, is being treated for cancer and his Vietnam Vet. Then she came back and said well send me his latest bank statements and tax return to show he does not have money, then I will look at it.
So I went back to the homeowner and told him the status. He said he has some land that they may be able to use as collateral if they accept .25 cents on the dollar and pay over time. Have you ever negotiated this type of deal to get the lien holder to release the lien in order to get free and clear title to sell the house>
What do you suggest I do? Help