Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tara Polley on July 7, 2011 at 12:43pm

Why is it being "done" by a law firm? Who does the law firm represent?

Permalink Reply by Ismael Jusino on July 7, 2011 at 1:15pm

Hi Tara and Gary,

The seller has hired a law firm in Florida to do the short sale.  I am representing the buyer. Just wanted to know if the banks will speed up things if a law firm is used?

Ismael

Permalink Reply by Jeff Payne on July 8, 2011 at 2:14am

Not likely, the process remains the same no matter who is working it.  Keep in mind that most likely the law firm has hired a processor to work the file, not likely an attorney is going to do $15 per hour work personally.  Also, do you really think that these banks are concerned about an attorney over anyone else?

Permalink Reply by Jeff Payne on July 8, 2011 at 2:18am

Gary, of course they would say that, you asked them a loaded question.  Do you really think that an attorney would say to NOT have an attorney do it?  What exactly was the liability that he spoke of and how would an attorney not have the exact same liability? 

Gary Burleson said:

I've asked the attorney with the South Carolina Association of Realtors about Realtor's liability in negotiating short sales. His response was to have an attorney do it. However, I haven't yet found an attorney in my area that negotiates short sales. There are a few third party negotiators in the area, but most short sales, that I'm aware of, are being negotiated by the Listing Agent.

 

Gary

Permalink Reply by Stephen Shafer on July 8, 2011 at 3:11am

It depends on the lender & the state the property is in. In general I do not see any advantage of using a law firm for a short sale.

Permalink Reply by Robin M. Willis on July 8, 2011 at 3:47am

In my limited experience, having a law firm perform the negotiations actually made it take longer.  I had to step in and help one of the law firms who simply did not know how to work the file through the system at BofA (pre-Equator days).

Permalink Reply by Tara Polley on July 8, 2011 at 4:36am

In general, I agree with Robin. Beyond that, the timeframe will depend more on the investor and the servicer than who is representing the seller, unless they specifically create delays.

Permalink Reply by joe beauchamp on July 13, 2011 at 3:36pm

Think about it.  A lawyer has someone step into his office, he pulls out the same sheets for inheritance or civil lawsuit or whatever and gets $100/hr, $300/hr or some such handing this to some assistant to fill out.  Or, he can be on the phone 1/2 hr per day or every other day for an account for 3 months and get how much per hour for that?  Are we above the $1/hr level there?

I think you can look through this forum and others and find a lot of complaints about unresponsive law offices when asked about "where is my short sale?"  Well, it is handed off to some phone person to call once a week to see if the bank is still solvent or has suddenly come up with a deal.

 

The other side of this is that the lawyer can be intimidating and if so will frequently slow down a short sale (as previously mentioned) as things are triple checked so that the bank doesn't mis-step.  Now, when you see the bank do something really bad, and I have not thought about the number of times that BOA has NOT done something illegal or just clearly wrong on a file (hmm.. I might have actually had a file which was not abused by BOA...don't know), an attorney can get quick attention to correction.  It is a good thing to have an attorney in the BOA mix at those times, but not at the $$ which will come out of a short sale to pay the attorney for his time.

 

I haven't looked at it, it makes sense that your FL atty simply has a room of people doing short sales or does the same thing that some lawyers do with us - just hire us to do all the work.  People feel better that a lawyer will do the right thing and the best thing for them, so, a lawyer as a front for a short sale shop looks good.  The ones with a professional setup and dedication will do well for you.  The ones that are doing it to pick up some money do a poor job of short sales.  It just depends..