Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Makoto Sato on January 29, 2010 at 10:06am

BofA may ask your seller to hold a promissory note for the shortage...

Permalink Reply by Gunna Voigt on January 29, 2010 at 12:08pm

Are they kidding or are they naive? When they write the "Hardship letter" and give their financial and income statements, the bank will know that there is no immediate hardship. So, they may have to sign a note for ten ykears or whatever the bank tells them, if they even consider this "short sale".
There chances are not too good.

Permalink Reply by Pam Patterson on January 29, 2010 at 1:21pm

Don't take the listing - its the ultimate headache and not worth your time

Permalink Reply by Gunna Voigt on January 30, 2010 at 2:57am

I've been thinking about this on my way home on the Parkway. Why do we take listings? 1. To sell them, 2, To attract buyers and posssibly other sellers. 3. To do business with 2.! If the house is attractive and "showable", take the listing, it'll pay back one way or the other. But don't kill yoursself solving the problems of people who should know better!--- And maybe they'll go for the bank's demands and sign the note! Wait and see!

Permalink Reply by Scott F on January 30, 2010 at 5:01am

Thanks everyone for the great feedback, I appreciate it!

Permalink Reply by Katerina Gasset on January 30, 2010 at 11:10am

Take the listing! We get strategic and investor short sales approved through BofA all the time.
You don't need to have a hardship to do a short sale.
Each investor, NOT servicer- determines their criteria for short sale approvals.
So you have to find out who actually owns the note.
That will then tell you what the chances are to get this through.
But they moved already- so now they have 2 payments- can they comfortably make the 2 payments? Many times there may not appear to be a hardship but through a deep and good qualifying interview we can usually discover something that the banks will accept at the end of the day- this is a business decision for the banks.
We even just got an approval from one lender to allow for a grandparent to buy the house and to let the son and his family still stay in the house! So much for only arm lengths transactions! I can't tell who it was, we were sworn to mums the word.
Rules were made to be broken.
There are exceptions to all the rules, especially in the wild wild west of short sales!
I am sorry I am late to reply, I hope you can still take the listing!

Permalink Reply by Karen Key Smith on January 30, 2010 at 7:05pm

Scott Oh my goodness you mean you have actually had a bank that DOES NOT check financials!! That is amazing. B of A is certainly not any easier and in fact it keeps getting tighter every day it seems. Are you sure that they really do not have a valid hardship such as their job outlook and future if they keep going on as they are before? I actually had a customer who I suspected was not really a hardship but according to all their factors considered together they qualified for a short sale.

I spoke to a lawyer this week because I did not know what to do with my customers who I suspected really did not deserve to do a short sale and he reminded me that was not my call!!! I guess you just do your job as a Realtor and it will fall where it may.

Permalink Reply by Jeff Payne on February 1, 2010 at 9:29am

I agree 100% with Katerina, she is right on the money. The severity of the hardship is what is really in question here. I have done short sales for investors and homeowners with little or no hardship. Sellers do not have to be destitute to qualify for a short sale

Permalink Reply by Scott F on February 1, 2010 at 10:44am

GREAT feedback everyone! Thanks again. Just a FYI to respond to Karen's question about what banks do NOT check financials... Citi does not if under $200K loss. Wachovia checks nothing, in fact they dont even require a hardship letter anymore. In fact, they have run specials to where my clients actually got paid $2K at COE.
Those banks are very easy to work with if you can target that business!

Permalink Reply by Karen Key Smith on February 1, 2010 at 11:46am

Thanks so very much for that great wisdom about Wachovia and Citi.... but all my folks have had HUGE losses but that is great to know. I will go sniff out Wachovia out there!!! Just kidding of course I love to climb mountains so I really enjoy my tug of war with B of A!!!! I am glad I am hanging with smart people!!!!!

Scott F said:

GREAT feedback everyone! Thanks again. Just a FYI to respond to Karen's question about what banks do NOT check financials... Citi does not if under $200K loss. Wachovia checks nothing, in fact they dont even require a hardship letter anymore. In fact, they have run specials to where my clients actually got paid $2K at COE.
Those banks are very easy to work with if you can target that business!