Is anyone here a real estate agent?

[KanoasDestiny]

If you're an agent and familiar with short sales, and you don't mind answering a couple of questions, could you please PM me?

Thanks.

 

[KanoasDestiny]

I know I posted on here a couple of months ago about a house that we "should" be getting any day now. We put our bid on it in June, and we STILL haven't been given keys. I'm so irritated but we have so much time and money invested in it, that we don't want to wash our hands clean of it. The following is what has been going on over the past 7 months (it is a short sale home)...

June 1st - we went and viewed the house with an agent.

June 2nd - we put in an offer for $15,000 less than the asking price.

June 3rd - we got a lender and told him that we keep our savings at home, rather than in a bank. He told us to get our money in the bank ASAP. (we did)

June 5th - we found out that FHA wouldn't go rural (100% financing) on a mobile home like our agent had told us, and that we'd need a 3.5% down. I paniced and we revoked the offer.

June 12th - we resubmitted our offer and asked the sellers to pay 6% of the closing costs.

June 18th - found out sellers would accept $25,000 less than the asking price but they would only pay 3% of the closing costs. We counter-offered, asking that they pay 4.5% of the closing and pay for our certs.

June 25th - the sellers agreed to our offer and terms.

July 6th - our lender told us that we are going to have a problem because there was no paper trail for the $3,000 that we suddenly put in the bank. (at his urging)

July 20th - we opened escrow.

August 1st - the appraisal came back as $23,000 less than the agreed price. We had to go back into negotiations with the sellers. (new contract)

August 14th - sellers got back in touch with us, and requested a copy of the appraisal, so they could make their decision.

August 20th - lender told us that he would use a special form from our personal bank to show our last 45 days of activity, rather than use our last 3 normal bank statements. We had to pay $15 for that paperwork.

August 28th - they finally agree to the appraised amount and returned the necessary paperwork, so that we could continue with escrow and the underwriting.

September 20th - escrow should have closed.

September 30th - we found out our lender's underwriting company didn't want to finance the house.

October 5th - we restarted the loan process over again with a different lender. We locked in our interest rate for 60 days, and had to pay an extra $275 to have the appraisal looked at by this office.

November 9th - we got a call from our agent saying that the new lender wanted a well and septic cert done on the property, and we would possibly have to pay an extra $700. Also, if escrow didn't close by the end of this month, the house would go from a "short sale" to a "foreclosure".

November 10th - went in to sign an updated contract at seller's request and found out that they would need to cover the cert costs per contract. (we wouldn't have to pay the $700)

November 24th - went in and signed final Home Owners Insurance documents.

November 25th - found out the bank that is selling the house got a new assessment manager and she was reviewing the new contract, and wasn't returning phone calls. They did cancel the foreclosure process though, since they were so close to selling it.

November 30th - we missed the deadline for the $8,000 tax rebate, but thankfully, the government extended the time period.

December 3rd - found out that the bank was no longer honoring the original agreement. They were refusing to pay any closing costs and for the certs that had already been done. We would have to come in with an additional $4600 to cover closing. We did find out that our lender had waited an extra 15 days to lock in the interest rate, so we were good until the 21st.

December 4th - agent contacted the previous assessment manager, and she took over dealing with the contract again. She assured us that the original contract would still stand and they would pay for the original terms. (meaning we wouldn't have to pay the $4600 or certs). We were told that the assessment manager has some 200 files on her desk.

December 12th - the home owners insurance company started insuring the home. (We better not have to pay back whatever they are getting paid because we don't own the home yet!)

December 21st - loan officer called us because our "locked in finance charge" period had ended. We had to pay an additional $500 to lock it in for another two months or we would have to go through all of the paperwork again.

January 8th - agent told us that she spent all day on the 7th going between the bank, their agent's office, and our lender, to see what the hold up was. Apparently, the hud-1 that our lender's office did, didn't match the seller's hud 1. They were at a stand still because neither place wanted to re-write the hud-1. She forced our lender's underwriter to re-do it. She also contacted the actual sellers (John and Melanie) and they told her that the house would be going into default any day now because nothing was being done.

Since the 8th, we haven't heard anything. We are calling our agent almost on a daily basis to make sure that she isn't forgetting about us. She keeps telling us that the other agent (the bank's agent) hasn't heard anything. If I'm not mistaken, an appraisal is only good for 6 months, which means that it will be void on the 4th of February (almost 2 weeks away). I've emailed her twice over the past two weeks, asking what will happen if the appraisal expires, and she hasn't responded back. I just called her and asked her, and she said "that's a good question, let me call your lender and ask him." Why did it take her two weeks to find out? Also, our locked in Interest Rate is up on the 21st of February.

We don't feel like our agent is doing enough (it should have never been a month before she realized there was a problem with the hud1) but other than bugging her, we don't know what else to do. Is it wrong to contact the bank's agent and ask what is going on?

 

[Brandi*]

My husband is a Real Estate agent here in northern CA. He worked in new home sales for about 5 years and then crossed over into resale about 2 years ago. I had him read through your post. Unfortunately, what you have written sounds like your typical short sale transaction. There is almost always more then one lender involved on the sellers side and each of them wants a certain amount of money for the home. The home cannot close until each of them settles. If one of his buyers is interested in a short sale he always checks with the selling agent to insure that all lenders have approved pricing on the subject property. If not, he won't show the property because it can add months to the deal along with a lot of headache.

He did say from the sounds of it, your agent is doing the best she can with what she has been dealt with. She can only update you on what info she has been given. Most of it is out of her hands. Unfortunately it is always the agent who gets the brunt of the buyers anger because it appears that he/she is doing nothing when in reality there is nothing more she can do until the bank decides to move on their end.

As far as the Hud1 and the loan docs....those are between your lender and the seller. Your agent has no control over what is written on them or how quickly errors are fixed. My husband has also had this same issue. Very frustrating but nothing he could do but stay on their tails about getting it fixed. Not sure that this was at all helpful lol....but if anything I hope it helps you understand the position your agent is in.

As far as your agent not calling/emailing you back for two weeks.....that is NOT COOL! I would be upset too!

Good luck with everything! I hope things start to come together for you. Once you get into your new home you will forget about all this headache

 

[KanoasDestiny]

There is almost always more then one lender involved on the sellers side and each of them wants a certain amount of money for the home. The home cannot close until each of them settles.

Thank you so much for responding Brandi, and please thank your husband for me. I greatly appreciate it! The house that we're hopefully getting was already "Approved for Short Sale" before we put in an offer. Does the above response still work for that? We were recently told that a Short Sale is harder to close on than a foreclosed home. I sure wish we would have known that beforehand.

I do understand that it's not all our agent's fault, and that she can only do so much. But all along, she has been telling us that she'll tell us when she hears something. Then weeks go by, and we call her to check in, and she unloads all this stuff on us that she's known for days/weeks. I feel like there isn't any communication. It also upset us when we have been asking her what the hold up was for the month after we signed our last paperwork and she kept assuring us that everything was fine. Then she decides to check into it and finds out that there's a problem with what our lender's paperwork and the bank that is selling's paperwork. If she would have just looked into it when we started having our suspiction that something wasn't right, then we could have saved a couple of weeks.

I think we're just starting to panic because we are almost to the point where we're going to have to decide whether to pay another $400 for "another" appraisal (which will begin our whole paperwork and negotiating all over again if the appraised price changes) and possibly another $500 for our interest rate to be locked in for "another" 2 months. Thank you again for your response. We keep seeing all of our friends who only have to wait a couple of months before they're given keys, and we're going on 8 months. We're officially losing hope!

 

[Sunny]

What exactly does the term "short sale" mean? We're looking at properties right now and I see that term quite often but, from what I've read in this thread, I may be wrong it what it means. I thought it means that the seller wants to close quickly, or immediate possession, or something like that, but I'm starting to think not.

It must be sooooo frustrating to be dealing with all those delays and roadblocks!! My heart goes out to you!

 

[Charley]

Wikipedia ~ Short Sale

 

[Brandi*]

A short sale is when the home owner would like to try and sell their home for less then they owe the bank. Say you owe $420,000 on your property but it's only worth $350,000 now. If you come into a hardship you can ask the bank if they are willing to take an offer for less than you owe. Since there is usually more than one lender involved, they all have to agree on a price before the sale can take place. Over all they are just a pain in the butt! I am also an agent but have not been working and I only have a little experience. But when I was working with my husband we avoided short sales like the plague! Very few actually make it to closing before the home goes into foreclosure. Foreclosures are pretty simple. The only drawback to buying a foreclosure is that the bank usually won't fix anything and they don't usually have history on the property.

Oh and sometimes they say "approved for short sale" but that doesn't always mean they have approved pricing.

It does sound like your agent isnt communicating with you nearly often enough. It sounds like she is getting frustrated too but she needs to remember that it's her job!

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Brandi, thank you! Your answer makes so much more sense than how it was explained to us by our agent.

She told me two weeks ago, that the people who bought the place still technically own it, but they don't have any say of what happens with it. She never mentioned that there were probably more than just the one bank looking over the paperwork, and needing to come to an agreement. Now, if our bid was accepted, does that mean that it was agreed on by all involved?

We're so worried that the place will end up going into foreclosure, because it was supposed to in December. If it would go into foreclosure, what are the chances that we could get it that way? I'm almost scared to ask my agent that because I don't want her to assume anything. I do know that in over a year, we are the only ones who put an offer on the place. So much for thinking this was a done deal!

Also, why would a bank wait until a home goes into foreclosure? They don't actually get as much for a foreclosed home, as they do a short sale or regular sale, do they?

 

[Brandi*]

The home owner can accept the offer but they still have to submit it to the bank for approval so no, it really doesn't mean anything. If it goes into foreclosure then you will most likely be dealing with a bidding game. If there are other buyers interested in it at that time you will have to out-bid them.

The only reason we can think of as to why the banks let so many of them go to foreclosure instead of going through with the short sale is because of the tax benefits.

Hope that makes sense

Just hang in there! Everything happens for a reason and I'm sure your waiting won't be in vain

 

[Sunny]

Thanks for the explanations about short sales! That was most helpful!!

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Well I talked to our escrow officer today and she says in her opinion, it isn't looking good. The bank that has the home is refusing to contact the listing agent although she's trying on a daily basis. Shouldn't she be going there and personally taking to a manager or something??? I'm just sick over this! We've waited nearly 8 months, trying to think of places to put things once we get it, and making plans for the future. I'm heart broken and upset! Why did the bank ever attempt to sell the home if they really didn't want to? It makes no sense! We've been advised not to put anymore money towards it (new appraisal or locking the interest rate in again) until we know 100% what the bank is attempting to do.

 

[Brandi*]

I'm so sorry to hear this

It is so unfortunate. Your agent has no idea who the asset managers are and often times they aren't even in the same state as the property. Also, hubby says that some banks only allow you to call in once a week to check the status. The more you pester them the less likely they are to get to it. It's pretty crappy how much control they still have! But I agree....putting more money towards the property would be risky. If you do end up losing this deal I would recommend steering clear of short sales all together! Foreclosures are a much better option.

Again, I'm sorry this is happening. I hope everything turns around and you get the home!