Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jeff Payne on June 1, 2010 at 9:05am

Great advice Ben , when are you sending me your book :) If it has 1/2 of the info that you have given on here, it will be worth alot of $$$$$. That is of course after you give me a copy ???

Permalink Reply by Ben Benita on June 1, 2010 at 9:26am

Not allowed to promote on here, BUT, since you asked, book is 99.99999% done.

Everytime I re-read it I add more stuff....
First time I have ever done anything like this (a book or course) and I know at some point you have to say "ok, that's good......" just heard to make that decision.

Give me another 7 to 10 days and I will put the word on the streets.

Thanks for the feedback, glad to help, and hope you are kicking some backside.....

Permalink Reply by Sharon Horne-Ellstrom on June 2, 2010 at 1:22pm

Ben,

Super tip...I have been working with BOA and Equator since about last September and I love it when folks share what they are learning along the way. It's an ever changing game, with moving targets. Great to have you providing tips and advice for all the rest of us!

Sharon

Permalink Reply by Juliana Oprea on June 2, 2010 at 1:49pm

Ben,

I'm new writing on this forum but I was reading almost everything posted here. I need advise on one of the short sales with BOA.

First, thank you for advise in asking for file/case # as I think this is what happen in my case. They were giving me the way around telling me the file was escalated but it fact it was not. Last Thursday I got the number for CEO's office and spoke with Carlos Torres. He gave me a case # for the escalation and told me I should hear something back from the negotiator by Thursday (tomorrow). Not to mention that I've been sending emails in Equator to Team Leader, Manager, you name it but nobody bother to reply. Seems like everybody was protecting this negotiator, Vickie Nixon although she was constantly behind on her tasks 1/2/3/4/5/6 days.

Now, Vickie Nixon just sent me an email to inform me that our offer was submitted today to the investor for approval and that usually it takes 4-6 weeks for an answer. Yesterday when I called, a supervisor was nice enough to look into the system and told me that they have the approval from Freddie Mac in file for the last 9 days!

Any advise would be greatly appreciated as I am desperate at this moment to close this transaction ASAP. We have an ALL CASH offer at the fair market value and we opened this transaction in Equator on 02/23/10.

Thank you everyone in advance for advise!

Julia

Permalink Reply by Ben Benita on June 3, 2010 at 12:48am

Julia, not sure what you need advice on exactly, seems like you already kicked some butt and just need to wait for the letter from Freddie.....I am not certain what has been going on with Freddie (I do a bi-weekly conference call and several others are having issues with Freddie as well, including:

1) Delayed Acceptance letters -- much like you are experiencing, it does not take 4 to 6 weeks to write a letter
and
2) Freddie foreclosing MUCH MUCH more often - I can only assume it has to do with teh HAFA program and Freddie making extra cash therefrom. In the last 3 weeks we have lost 5 properties to foreclosure, more than we have in the last 6 months and several other persons I know are experiencing the same thing......

Will keep everyone posted if we hear any "logical explanation"....I know using "logical explanation" when referring to short sales is inappropriate, but, it happens.....
:-)

Permalink Reply by Juliana Oprea on June 3, 2010 at 1:16am

You know what's the sad part? Freddie foreclosing on properties and then trying to qualify the borrower and see if they can reverse the sale. I'm also working with Titanium and I've been sent out in numerous times on behalf of Freddie after foreclosing. The sad part is that most of the times these borrowers do not qualify anyway as this was the first reason for a short sale.

I will call again this morning and see what I can find out. I am not satisfied with a negotiator sitting on the file for almost 3 weeks until she sends the file to investor and just tells me that I have to wait. From your own recent experience when Freddie is the investor, does it really take 4-6 weeks to get an approval letter or there is still hope to get the letter sooner?


Ben Benita said:

Julia, not sure what you need advice on exactly, seems like you already kicked some butt and just need to wait for the letter from Freddie.....I am not certain what has been going on with Freddie (I do a bi-weekly conference call and several others are having issues with Freddie as well, including:

1) Delayed Acceptance letters -- much like you are experiencing, it does not take 4 to 6 weeks to write a letter
and
2) Freddie foreclosing MUCH MUCH more often - I can only assume it has to do with teh HAFA program and Freddie making extra cash therefrom. In the last 3 weeks we have lost 5 properties to foreclosure, more than we have in the last 6 months and several other persons I know are experiencing the same thing......

Will keep everyone posted if we hear any "logical explanation"....I know using "logical explanation" when referring to short sales is inappropriate, but, it happens.....
:-)

Permalink Reply by Juliana Oprea on June 3, 2010 at 1:21am

I know some cases when BOA put the short sale on HOLD and they offered HAFA to the sellers. The seller had to respond or in some cases they did not even qualified but it took another month to move the process and continue with the short sale.

Juliana Oprea said:

You know what's the sad part? Freddie foreclosing on properties and then trying to qualify the borrower and see if they can reverse the sale. I'm also working with Titanium and I've been sent out in numerous times on behalf of Freddie after foreclosing. The sad part is that most of the times these borrowers do not qualify anyway as this was the first reason for a short sale.

I will call again this morning and see what I can find out. I am not satisfied with a negotiator sitting on the file for almost 3 weeks until she sends the file to investor and just tells me that I have to wait. From your own recent experience when Freddie is the investor, does it really take 4-6 weeks to get an approval letter or there is still hope to get the letter sooner?


Ben Benita said:

Julia, not sure what you need advice on exactly, seems like you already kicked some butt and just need to wait for the letter from Freddie.....I am not certain what has been going on with Freddie (I do a bi-weekly conference call and several others are having issues with Freddie as well, including:

1) Delayed Acceptance letters -- much like you are experiencing, it does not take 4 to 6 weeks to write a letter
and
2) Freddie foreclosing MUCH MUCH more often - I can only assume it has to do with teh HAFA program and Freddie making extra cash therefrom. In the last 3 weeks we have lost 5 properties to foreclosure, more than we have in the last 6 months and several other persons I know are experiencing the same thing......

Will keep everyone posted if we hear any "logical explanation"....I know using "logical explanation" when referring to short sales is inappropriate, but, it happens.....
:-)

Permalink Reply by Ben Benita on June 3, 2010 at 1:59am

Julia - there is always hope, but, we are in the exact same situation on at least 4 of our short sales with Freddie, we have a verbal "yes" from the Servicer, and, just waiting on Freddie to sign off.

Know as well that there are 3 levels of short sale "acceptance" based on:

1) The Investor’s acceptable appraisal or BPO valuation percentage - your gross offer compared to BPO
2) The Investor’s acceptable percentage of value to offer - your NET offer compated to BPO
3) The Investor’s acceptable percentage of total loss.

Understand there are 3 levels of acceptance:
Tier I Approval – meets one of the criteria above
Tier II Approval – meets two of the criteria above
Tier III Approval – meets three of the criteria above

with a Tier III approval, your negotiator's team lead would have "delegated authority", or the ability to approve the deal in-house. Tier 1 approvals, as noted above, need to go back to Freddie for a final sign-off. I would guess, based on what you have told us, you have a Tier 1 and there is not much you can do about it unless you track down someone at Freddie Mac and REALLY get after them for a decision (we have tried this in the past and it stirs up a MONSTER hornet's nest when you piss them off......wonder how I know that?????
:-)

My Suggestion -- contact your negotiator, the supervisor, and the team lead not less than 3 times per week with voice mails and e-mails like:
"The Buyer wants to pull out"
or
"My broker is getting mad at me b/c this is taking so long"
or
"Buyer's agent tore me a new one this morning"

Permalink Reply by Stephen Shafer on June 3, 2010 at 3:11am

Juliana, Who is Caelos Torres & what is the CEO phone number#?

Juliana Oprea said:

Ben,

I'm new writing on this forum but I was reading almost everything posted here. I need advise on one of the short sales with BOA.

First, thank you for advise in asking for file/case # as I think this is what happen in my case. They were giving me the way around telling me the file was escalated but it fact it was not. Last Thursday I got the number for CEO's office and spoke with Carlos Torres. He gave me a case # for the escalation and told me I should hear something back from the negotiator by Thursday (tomorrow). Not to mention that I've been sending emails in Equator to Team Leader, Manager, you name it but nobody bother to reply. Seems like everybody was protecting this negotiator, Vickie Nixon although she was constantly behind on her tasks 1/2/3/4/5/6 days.

Now, Vickie Nixon just sent me an email to inform me that our offer was submitted today to the investor for approval and that usually it takes 4-6 weeks for an answer. Yesterday when I called, a supervisor was nice enough to look into the system and told me that they have the approval from Freddie Mac in file for the last 9 days!

Any advise would be greatly appreciated as I am desperate at this moment to close this transaction ASAP. We have an ALL CASH offer at the fair market value and we opened this transaction in Equator on 02/23/10.

Thank you everyone in advance for advise!

Julia

Permalink Reply by Stephen Shafer on June 3, 2010 at 3:12am

Ben, Thanks, I will ask for the case & file # every time I call now.

Permalink Reply by Juliana Oprea on June 3, 2010 at 3:24am

Carlos Torres is the contact person from CEO's office. I took the phone number from this forum. The phone number for CEO's office is 704-386-5687. He escalate the file and told me that I should hear something back from the negotiator no later then 5 business days. The 4th day she finally sent me the email.

Not to mention that before calling CEO's office I did follow the regular channels, by sending emails in Equator to Team Leader and Manager but nobody had even bother to reply. I'm wondering what happen to the 48 hr rule to respond, that David Sunlin was promoting in the conference call with NAR? He was so proud of BOA improvements in the short sale process. To me it sounds like BOA has two different standards: one for public media and the real one where nobody cares.

Stephen Shafer said:

Juliana, Who is Caelos Torres & what is the CEO phone number#?

Juliana Oprea said:

Ben,

I'm new writing on this forum but I was reading almost everything posted here. I need advise on one of the short sales with BOA.

First, thank you for advise in asking for file/case # as I think this is what happen in my case. They were giving me the way around telling me the file was escalated but it fact it was not. Last Thursday I got the number for CEO's office and spoke with Carlos Torres. He gave me a case # for the escalation and told me I should hear something back from the negotiator by Thursday (tomorrow). Not to mention that I've been sending emails in Equator to Team Leader, Manager, you name it but nobody bother to reply. Seems like everybody was protecting this negotiator, Vickie Nixon although she was constantly behind on her tasks 1/2/3/4/5/6 days.

Now, Vickie Nixon just sent me an email to inform me that our offer was submitted today to the investor for approval and that usually it takes 4-6 weeks for an answer. Yesterday when I called, a supervisor was nice enough to look into the system and told me that they have the approval from Freddie Mac in file for the last 9 days!

Any advise would be greatly appreciated as I am desperate at this moment to close this transaction ASAP. We have an ALL CASH offer at the fair market value and we opened this transaction in Equator on 02/23/10.

Thank you everyone in advance for advise!

Julia

Permalink Reply by Brigitte Powell on June 4, 2010 at 1:00am

I am told that Freddie is not paying buyers closing cost for Conventional loans (only FHA and VA) and never has, can anyone verify this? The buyers are paying the closing cost themselves now and are still doing a conventional loan. I am also told that Freddie does not pay for a home owners warranty (was told earlier that they did) This "escalated" short sale with a case number :-) has just been sent to MI for approval. What can I expect from now on? I told my escalation short sale asset manager that this first time home buyer needed to close before June 30th

Ben Benita said:

Julia, not sure what you need advice on exactly, seems like you already kicked some butt and just need to wait for the letter from Freddie.....I am not certain what has been going on with Freddie (I do a bi-weekly conference call and several others are having issues with Freddie as well, including:

1) Delayed Acceptance letters -- much like you are experiencing, it does not take 4 to 6 weeks to write a letter
and
2) Freddie foreclosing MUCH MUCH more often - I can only assume it has to do with teh HAFA program and Freddie making extra cash therefrom. In the last 3 weeks we have lost 5 properties to foreclosure, more than we have in the last 6 months and several other persons I know are experiencing the same thing......

Will keep everyone posted if we hear any "logical explanation"....I know using "logical explanation" when referring to short sales is inappropriate, but, it happens.....
:-)

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