I have felt that short sales are drowning in a sea of processing and one hand not knowing what the other hand has been doing. In my market of Minneapolis, agents do not like listing short sale properties. I happen to be certified in short sales, so I have my share of short sales to get closed. Many agents in Minneapolis do not like to show short sales. They feel the wait is too long and they want to get paid and not go through months and several offers before it is pay day. Short sales in my area are like telling someone, do you want to date my cousin?
There are press releases that state the administration is directing banks to put short sales as a priority. In fact come April 5th money is going to be offered to parties that participate in short sales. I say, safe your money. There are not enough dollars out there to make short sales go more effectively.
Take one of my sales. Like many short sales it has two mortgages. You go to the first loan and attempt to work with them. This offer was submitted to Bank of America on December 28,2009. Now March 17, 2010 it still has not reached a negotiator. That negotiator then has to work with the investor. The purchase agreement is redefined by the bank. Then the bank says they will reduce the commission paid to Realtors. I guess spending hours and hours on the phone listening to their terrible music, being told they don't have a document I have sent them twice, stating information over and over, and trying to keep a property from going into foreclosure Is not worth much to a bank. Talk about cutting off the hand that feeds you!
My job is not over. I go through this process again with the second bank. They can be a bit easier as they realize if it goes into foreclosure they will get nothing.
I know these people on the phone have a terrible job and they are paid little. Some are doing this from a foreign country and must deal with my terrible sense of humor. It is the bank that is at fault. Their greed of creating mortgage products that were doomed to fail, giving second mortgages removing all equity from the property, and not being prepared for the collapse puts them in a bad light, so they transfer all the fault to the sellers and Realtors.
Would someone please throw me a life line? I don't see how the housing industry can ride this out without the system being repaired. The flood of short sales in Minneapolis is not going away. It is growing as more home owners see their savings go away and the only solution is to get out from under the mortgage payments. Wake up elected officials. Your constituents back home are in trouble and no one at the other end of the phone is able to help them. If anything, get better music for us to listen to as we endlessly hold for a voice that tells us how very sorry they are that they cannot help us.
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