Redwood City Short Sale Closed, Most Challenging I Ever Had

I finally closed a Redwood City short sale that started in Sept of 2011. Yes, one year for a short sale. What was the problem? Let me count down just the top 10.

10. The sellers asked another agent in my office to sell this home as a short sale but this wonderful agent had never listed a short sale before. She asked me to help her, but by the time she did they were 2 weeks from the trustee sale date and the sellers were sitting on a perfectly good offer they thought was too low.

9. There was a first and second loan with Chase as well as a large 3rd loan which was a carry back from the previous owner. The seller wanted me to negotiate with Chase but have her lawyer negotiate with the 3rd lender.

8. The seller refused to give me any of her financial documents and said she would provide them to Chase herself.

7. The first approval came in Dec of 2011 at purchase price with 5K going to the second and 11K going to the 3rd. The seller said the 3rd lender was going to take that offer, but then the lawyer for the seller said the 3rd lender rejected the offer.

6. The buyer offered to give the 3rd lender another 10K. No response from 3rd lender. Chase said the buyer could not pay off third.

5. The approval from Chase expired, the negotiator at Chase left the country, the house was put back on the market asking for a large contribution to the 3rd. Chase said buyer could not pay off 3rd.

4. New buyer came in and offered 30K to the third on top of the old price (515K).

3. New BPO said house is worth 540-560K so Chase said offer is not high enough. Lawyer for seller and seller told me I should start negotiating with the 3rd. He said he wanted 80K from the buyer and 7K from Chase. I get him down to 50K, Chase said submit again.

2.Buyer, Chase, 3rd lender, seller all agreed to purchase price of 562K with 50K going to 3rd from the buyer and no contribution from Chase. Chase inexplicably changed their policy and will now allow the buyer to contribute to the 3rd payoff. Chase said close by Aug 31.

1. Lots of delays getting the loan funded. Aug 29th still no loan docs. Chase said after 10 trustee sale postponements they were done. Close on Aug 31 or they take the house back. Seller was in Europe but managed to come to back last week of Aug to get her things and sign off. Buyers agent got lender to fund without loan docs and we somehow managed to get buyers signed and closed on Aug 31.

This was a tough one. Most short sales are not this hard, but the secret here was believing that no does not mean no. Not a lesson I would want to teach to my children, but in the short sale world it is a great one.

Marcy Moyer
Keller Williams Realty
www.marcymoyer.com``
marcy@marcymoyer.com
650-619-9285
D.R.E. 01191194

A Great Result on a Very Hard Redwood City Chase Short Sale

I have been working on a Redwood City short sale with Chase since last September. Now if this were 2009 this would be more like dog bites man rather than man bites dog. But it is 2012 and most short sales do not take so long. However, this one has a 3rd loan for a lot of money and it slowed the process down.

Selling the property at market value was not that hard, despite being on a fairly busy street. We got an offer for $510,000 and a BPO for $510,000 so it started out ok. By December I had approval on the first and second with a payoff of 6K to the third who had previously owned the home and had a $120K note on the property.

Third lender said no way. He wanted 65K as a note from the seller or cash from the buyer.

Buyer and seller said no. Buyer walked.

House went back on the market and we got another offer right away. This was February.
Chase did a new BPO and said the value had increased to $560,000. New buyer agreed to pay the 3rd loan 50K plus $560,000 to chase. After several months Chase said no, they were not going to allow the third lender to get so much money. That was May.

We were then told to try submitting a new offer to see if we could get a different answer. Well that sounded like the definition of insanity to me, but we tried. So we submitted a new offer of $562K plus $50K going to the third lender. Keep in mind that every month during all of this we had to get Chase to postpone the trustee sale.

So several weeks ago the new offer for the Redwood City Short Sale got to the new negotiator who ordered a new BPO. She said the BPO's value had not changed again and the offer was fine as it was. I asked about the issue of the third lender getting so much money and she said she thought it would be fine.

I was doubtful, but she was right. Today we got a Short Sale Approval Letter!!!!!  I never believed this would happen but I persisted anyway and it was worth it.

So now my Redwood City Short Sale has Chase Approval, my sellers can get on with their life, the buyer has the home of his dreams, the third lender who is a human, not a big bank has at least a good portion of his money back, and Chase can get a bad performing asset of their books as well as market value for the home. We all won on this one.

If you have any questions about buying or selling a short sale in San Mateo or Santa Clara County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer
Keller Williams Realty
www.marcymoyer.com
marcy@marcymoyer.com
650-619-9285
D.R.E. 01191194

Be Careful Your Redwood City Loan Modification Attempt Does Not Led To Foreclosure

Sad story. A client told me last February that she was not able to make the payments on her $750,000 home loan. The house is now worth about $400,000 and this person wanted to get a loan modification and get the principle reduced. I can not tell you how many times I hear this story and how few times I have heard that there actually was a principle reduction. Actually I can tell you how many times I have heard of a principle reduction, once.

Ok, so it is bad enough that banks have been unwilling to reduce principle but things can get worse. My client received a Notice of Default last February and at that point she decided to try to to get the loan modification. In November she was finally offered the loan mod, which she turned down because not only did she not get the pricnciple reduced, but all the missed payments and late payments were added on to the back end of the mortgage.

So on Dec 20th she got a Notice of Trustee Sale and on Dec 26th signed a listing agreement to short sale the Redwood City  home. Here's the problem. While getting an offer before the sale date of Jan. 12th would be hard, but possible, the Mortgage Servicer, Carrington Mortgage said no deal. THEY DO NOT POSTPONE TRUSTEE SALES FOR SHORT SALES.  That is harsh. Not only that but in order to do a HAFA Short Sale and get the auto postponement you need to initialte it 60 days before the Trustee Sale Date.

So now, this person is going to have her home foreclosed. I am very sorry for her, but maybe someone can learn a lesson from this.  

Do not put your head in the sand!!!!! If you can not make your payments do something the first month it happens, not a year later. If you have a change of circumstances, lose your job, get divorced, your loan resets, have a health problem, do something right away. If you want to keep your home and can make payments if they are lowered then apply for a loan mod. Don't do it after you get the notice of default, because by then it may be too late. Some banks will allow you to postpone a sale up to 3 days before the sale, but not all. If you can not make payments and need to short sell, do it right away, not at the last minute. Don't take chances with your financial future.

If you have any questions about buying or selling short sales in San Mateo or Santa Clara County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E. 01191194

Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto, Ca. Specialist in Short Sales and Trust and Probate Sales

What I Learned About Chase Offering To 3rd Liens on a Redwood City Short Sale

I know a lot of you are going to think I am crazy but I really love short sales. I am sorry that the market is such that there are many people who need to sell their homes short, but that is the current reality. Given that reality there are many things about the short sale process that I enjoy, fewer things that I just tolerate, and even fewer I hate. 

I HATE PRIVATE THIRD LIENS ON SHORT SALES!!!! I can not emphasize this enough. 3rd liens are always tough, but private ones are the worst, because very often there is an emotional component to the person holding the private third, and also because it is often not a large, impersonal bank losing the money, it is a real person, who probably was depending on that income.

But feelings aside, I learned something very interesting today from Chase. I was told it is their policy to only give $1000 to a third lien, period. This is good information to have, because while they made an exception for me on a Redwood City short sale, I do not expect to get it again. 

So next time I take a short sale listing with Chase as the first lender and a private 3rd lender, I will be able to negotiate upfront with a solid number. If the third is unwilling to take $1000 then I can hopefully find out what they will take, and get that worked out up front.

If you have any questions about buying or selling short sales in Santa clara or San Mateo County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E. 01191194

Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto, Ca. Specialist in Short Sales and Trust and Probate Sales

It's a Good Idea To Check Your Redwood City Trustee Sale Postponement

Unfortunately many homeowners get behind in their mortgage payments. The good thing is that there are many programs out there to help homeowners including loan modification programs or short sales.  Very often a trustee sale date is set before a short sale or loan modification is completed, but this date is most likely be postponed in order to give the homeowner the opportunity to work thinking out with the bank. The homeowner or their agent needs to ask the bank representative with whom they are working to postpone the trustee sale date. That rep will then make sure it is ok with the investor on the loan (which it usually is) and then postpone the sale. The record of postponement can be found on foreclosure tracking sites like www.foreclosureradar.com

However, sometimes mistakes are made.  While I do not subscribe to the theory that corporations are people, it is actual people who have to deal with the day to day operational issues, and sometimes they make mistakes.  Someone may have agreed to a postponement and for what ever reason the word did not get to the person who actually makes that happen.

Last week I went to a trustee sale on the San Mateo County court house steps for the first time. It was very interesting. There were 2 people there whose homes had been scheduled for a trustee sale but were postponed. At the beginning of the sale the auctioneer reads off the addresses of the sales that have been canceled or postponed. The people who were there to check on their homes left after they heard that their postponements actually did happen. At the time I thought that was overkill, but I changed my mind quickly.

I was there checking on another property that had been listed as a short sale. This particular property was sold back to the bank, by mistake. It had in fact gotten an offer that was acceptable to the bank but someone forgot to stop the sale. It was not a big conspiracy or a plot for the bank or investor to take back this property, just a human mistake.

So if you are in a situation where there is a trustee sale date that you have been told is postponed or canceled, I would recommend going to the court house on the originally scheduled date and making sure. It is a lot easier to save your house before a foreclsoure than after.

If you have any questions about short sales in San Mateo or Santa Clara County please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

D.R.E. 01191194

Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto, Ca. Specialist in Short Sales and Trust and Probate Sales

Can Redwood City Short Sales Be Sold To Flippers?

If you are selling your home as a short sale and it needs work you may get one or more offers from flippers. These can be contractors or investors who want to buy your home at a discount, fix it up, and then resell it for a profit. I do not believe there is anything unethical about this, and in fact I used to flip homes myself, but that was a different market.

However, there are many banks who disagree and often will put limits on the minimum time a home must be held before they will lend on it for the next buyer. That is an issue for the buyer of your short sale. As a seller there is a more important issue for you. Some banks will make a buyer sign a notarized document promising not to resell the home for a minimum of 90 and up to 180 days after the purchase.  If you accept an offer from a flipper it is a good idea to find out ahead of time if your lender has a policy about minimum holding times after close of escrow.  there is no point in taking your home off the market for 4-12 weeks and then get a notice from your lender that the buyer needs to hold the property for longer than they want. If this happens the buyer will walk, and you will need to start over again.

If you have any questions about short sales in San Mateo or Santa Clara Counties please feel free to contact me.

Marcy Moyer C.D.P.E.

Keller Williams Realty

www.marcymoyer.com

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto, Ca. Specialist in Short Sales and Trust and Probate Sales