Short Sale turned into Foreclosure
This is the best resource out there. You have all helped tremendously for the past 10.5 months. I'm hoping you might have some useful tips for us now.
I have been reading this site religiously for 10.5 months, when my husband and I had our offer accepted by the sellers (contingency basis) on a short sale. The sellers hired an agent who had never done a short sale before. Despite my agent's requests, the seller's agent wouldn't hire a lawyer (there were title issues debts, etc that the closing attorney I had selected ended up trying to deal with). Finally 8-9 months into this, Bank of America (first lienholder) issued an approval (no counteroffer!) - we had until 10/10 to close.
We had the inspections done, and since there was a small issue, we negotiated a $1500 closing cost credit for which we needed to get re-approval of the HUD from the lienholders (particularly BOA). A couple of weeks before the 10/10 deadline, since there were still title issues and we hadn't gotten approval from the credit union (2nd lienholder), we signed the P&S and the sellers' agent was to immediately request an extension (to 11/23 the latest) to close. I believe that BOA didn't get the extension until AFTER 10/10, and set a foreclosure date. We (and 'we' includes seller's agent!) only found out late afternoon on 11/15 that the house was going to be auctioned off the very next morning! Neither the agent nor the sellers had any idea. Sellers would have had notice except they had abandoned the property and removed the mailbox so they could not receive notices via mail. I tried tweeting that very afternoon. BofA_help was responsive, but it was too late to halt the sale.
Desperate not to lose the house after over 10 months of patiently waiting, I located the auction and all the notices (all properly done per laws of MA), got a certified check for the deposit, and went to the auction. The realtor took the house back on BOA's behalf. I introduced myself to her and explained our situation, and talked with her at length about our options to purchase, and we traded contact info. She also provided the attorney's contact info.
I contacted both the realtor and the attorney right away - the realtor indicated she will let me know if she hears anything about the property being listed, and the attorney indicated that he only handles the auction closing, not necessarily the REO sale (depending on whether BOA chooses them to work the sale as well). The attorney did suggest I contact BOA directly - but I don't know the best way to go about this! I tried the BOA foreclosures number but can't get a person without putting in a loan number. We really want this house (everybody thinks we're crazy but it's the only house we loved, even after 2 years of hunting!) and we want to put an offer in before it is listed. I intend to contact the realtor regularly, but want to go straight to someone at BOA.
Do you have any recommendations for us? Please help. We don't want to lose this because the sellers' agent didn't know what was going on and refused to hire an attorney.
I can say one good piece of advice: Short sellers - please be careful who you hire and pay attention to what's going on. The sellers in this case now have foreclosure on their credit report and both banks will be going after them for deficiencies for a while.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tara Polley on
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I'm so sorry this happened to you! As an agent who has represented a buyer in a similar situation, I had success in calling BofA's REO department, rather than the Foreclosure department. They should be able to tell you which agent they are assigning to the file, and you can contact that listing agent to put your offer in asap. It will take a few weeks to get the house listed, get the appraisal back that will set list price and be ready to accept an offer (sometimes they won't accept one until the property has been on the market for at least 10 days to ensure they get the highest and best price) but if the agent is cool, they will keep you in the loop and allow you to get your offer in right away. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by josephine on
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@Tara: Thank you, we will try the REO dept. I found this number 866-781-0029 but if anybody knows of a better number, please let me know!
@Harry: Thanks, and this is why we would like to try to get our offer in as early as possible. We have some things going for us that we think will help our offer seem more attractive than other offers.
I will keep you posted! If anybody else has other ideas, please let me know!
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Permalink Reply by Steele V. Propp on
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Understand that you won't be getting an offer in early. But rather you will be trying to be first in line when offers are considered. As stated there may be a minimum time that the house will have to be on the market. That is becoming more and more common.
So it is a must that you find out who is the new listing agent and be in regular contact. Then you can be ready for when it is opened for offers.
You make an excellent point about consumers using experienced agents who have a successful track record in dealing with short sales. The current rate of fall through is at about 50%. And even with a good agent you have no guarantees on a short sale.
Each case is unique.
Good luck. Be persistant.
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@Steele: Thanks for your input!
Update: My agent called BOA's REO department and found out the property, though BOA still holds it, is now a Fannie Mae loan. My agent got the Fannie Mae number and called them. Fannie Mae told her the house would be listed after a "quality control" process and there was nothing else they could tell her. We now have alerts set up on that site.
And the saga continues....
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Permalink Reply by Jen Basnight on
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Unfortunately, it may take months even days for this property to hit the REO market but I have heard of successes with buyers purchasing the home in the in between stage. Be persistant. I would also suggest agents and all those involved in a transaction these days to set up "Google Alerts" for the specific property address. Google Alerts are emails sent to you when Google finds new results -- such as web pages, newspaper articles, or blogs -- that match your search term. You can use Google Alerts to monitor anything. In Virginia, if a home is going to foreclosure it must be advertised in the local media which is also online. Setting up a google alert and also doing periodic searches in regards to listings and properties will assist in auction date awareness. Good luck. I would love to hear an update.
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