Frustrating Short-Sales: Posted By Realtor Sara Griffin

There are a number of frustrations when having to deal with short-sales. First off, each bank has different standards as to the timelines in getting paperwork pushed through for approvals or assignment to the negotiators. Each representative that I speak with has different timelines as to how long it will take to get short-sales approved and to whom the paperwork has to reach to be approved. Some individuals reveal that it will take between 15-30 days, continuing to push the dates back further and further, until the buyer’s agent, buyers, listing agents, and sellers are all extremely frustrated and discouraged with the process. Some banks announce from the beginning that their process could take several months.  A minimum of three months has passed and nothing has been accomplished in most cases. Second, the guidelines and response times need to be set the same for every bank. There needs to be a national standard that the banks follow as to the response times. Every bank has set their own standards, and when speaking with a different representative each time you call in, some cannot even find the paperwork in the computer or off of the fax after it has been sent numerous times before, and the destructive cycle continues. Third, the passing of the short-sale packages from employee to employee and loss of faxes due to the fact that there are several fax numbers becomes frustrating and tiring day after day.  Many phone numbers that when called lead to a dead line.

            The bottom line is that there needs to be consistent structure within the individual banks, and the regulators need to write laws with specific guidelines as to how the banks structure themselves. Once the specific guidelines are written, the banks would have only so much time to approve the short sales. As an example, it should take 15 days for the short-sale packages to be assigned to the negotiator, then another 15 days from that point to get the information to the investor who only has possibly another week or so to agree to the terms of the offer, and submission back to the bank. At this point the appraisal is already done, the short-sale and offer from a buyer are approved, and escrow begins. This process would improve the waiting time from the beginning if all worked toward reaching the set standards.

             Once the negotiator has been assigned, we as agents working on behalf of our clients need to be able to get a hold of the representative handling the account. It is understood that these individuals are extremely busy, but not being able to even get a name or number of a negotiator leads to frustration and discouragement. I as an agent need to be able to call or email the negotiator if need be, so this information should be in the computer system readily available the moment I or any other agent calls in to discuss the account. It is pointless to call in to speak with someone who is unaware of the information on the account, then shuffles the phone call until a dead phone line is reached.  There needs to be universal fax numbers to individuals assigned to the accounts. Once that certain account is faxed in, it needs to be directed to the appropriate person by way of last four digits of account or so on, and used consistently within the banks as to the work flow. There are a number of banks that are able to pull the accounts up and view them from the moment the paperwork is sent through the computer, and they are on your tail to get the paperwork in on time. If only each bank was this organized and consistent, the frustrations would end. As a Realtor, I along with many agree that we have a strong hand in leading the negotiations behind the law makers and are available to put forth as much if not more time and energy to help solve these problems and frustrations as we have sitting on the phone on hold waiting to speak with a representative at the banks.

Sara Griffin

Comments

[Brennan Doherty]

I work for a real estate investment firm in Orange County, CA and I personally know that short sales are a pain to do. Obviously if banks want part of their loan back and not a house, they would negotiate or forgive debt. They are in the banking business, not the real estate business after all. But I've found dealing with angry clients on the phone, that banks are taking their sweet time and giving no updates on the progress as it goes through the system. Like you said not being able to get a hold of the negotiator. Also one company called CEG Investments tried to scam the firm. The "office phone" was never picked up during work hours, and the answering machine didn’t even say "CEG Investments" it said "If you need help with your investments leave a message." Very unprofessional, so watch out for loan modification companies and short sale "experts". The worst part was the name he was using wasn’t his real name and when doing background checks on him there was no person by the name. When asked, he said "my wife has a stalker and for our safety we don’t use our actual last name. Be aware there are people out to scam you on a regular basis. Some people are taking advantage of distressed homeowners and are trying to screw them over.

[Cherie Doughty]

This is the main reason why I got out of the business. I use to work directly for a lender in their corporate office. It was wonderful. I know how the system worked, what was needed, and a basic timeline for everything. There was a structure and a system that everyone one followed. When my company went out of business, I started working for a broker. I was at the mercy of the lender, and I hated it. It seemed like no one knew what was going on and had no clue how their company was ran. It made me look incompetent to my clients, and that is not good business. Working with realtor became a nightmare for purchases (and it is not their fault). When the market went down the drain and everyone started trying to short sale their homes, the banks had no clue what to do. But it has been 2 years now; you think that they would have some sort of guideline and structure for how they treat short sales. It would make everyone's life easier. Or at least train their reps to give accurate information. It is frustrating; I hear the horror stories from my friends about the hell they go through with the banks. It is a nightmare, my hat is off to the Realtors and Loan Officers who are still making it work, I don’t have the patience.

[Carmen L. España]

I am a first time homebuyer and started talking to some realtors about buying a house within the next 9 to 12 months and I have seen some properties with the "short sale" label. I have a limited knowledge of what a short sale is, but fully understand that "in theory" banks are taking a loss with short sales, therefore is not in their best interest to expedite the paperwork on short sales.
I know that in my case, since I am trying to buy a home, my answer, if I ever get one on a few proposals I have signed, would arrive in about 6-12 months which is when I am planning to become a homeowner, and if the bank's answer never arrives, then I will move to the next step, with a different alternative. Short sales, like everything else, are a blessing for some of us and a nightmare for most.

[Carmella Grato]

I have been trying to get loan motification threw my bank for the last 9 months. I finally had to hire someone to help me because it felt like nothing was happening by me doing it. Now it's going on 4 months with the attorny and I am in the final stage of it. I had to pay a couple of thousand out to get threw to the bank and I shouldn't have had to. I'm a banker and I understand what that agent in that article was saying. They need to make changes for banks to follow. They have to high of turn overs so it seems like know one now who's doing what or it take a long time to get threw to someone that does.

[ingrid oviedo]

Ingrid Oviedo

talking about Obama he has been working hard to get the economy up and so the people that are unemployed have the change to get a job. Although its kind of hard because Obama owes alot of money so there is no way he could send people to build new companies or etc. First he needs to fix the problems that the last president had so he can help the other people. the economy is so bad that there going to suspend the medicare so people that have medicare are not going to be able to use it or have after july 1, 2009. Although banks are helping alot not all the people have houses so what about the people that have apartments how would they get help? they are just thinking on people who has properties but they dont think about the other people.

[Jorge]

I definitely know where this person is coming from, having two parents that would never give up in order to refinanace our house, we have come a long way of being persitant in not getting stepped over by banks. They kept pushing dates futher back in order to refinance, it almost took about half a year in order to proceed with the loan modifications, a structure definitely needs to be built in order to keep the sanity of people. Banks definitely need to step it up.