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Hello all! 

I'm actually a buyer in a short sale deal in the state of Michigan. The deal started off great as a standard short sale. We submitted an offer which was accepted by the owner. We understood that the house had 2 mortgages on it, a 1st with GMAC and a 2nd with GreenTree. Further more we were told that the owner was already qualified for a short sale and everything should go smoothly. Once our offer was accepted by the owner, a little over a month later GMAC (the 1st) accepted our offer and approved the short sale. Things were looking good.

Little did we know, including our agent & selling agent, what we faced with GreenTree. Long story short, the selling agent originally reassured us that GreenTree always waits until closing to submit an approval letter. Closing came, and no letter.

Since we're the buyer, from this point on, any information we get is always third hand therefore I don't have details of what GreenTree is doing to the seller. But I do understand, from the updates we get, that GreenTree keeps stalling. At first GT told the seller to wait for phone interview call with them, then there was docs to send over and over again, and now the file is under some sort of review. This is just a short summary of stalls over months of waiting to hear from GreenTree and god only knows what else. 

6 months later and now GMAC foreclosed on the house. Luckly GMAC bid really low (way below our offer) at the Sheriff auction and they hold the deed. In Michigan, there is a 6 months redemption period and the seller informed us that he's still pursuing the short sale with GreenTree PLUS he's also pursuing a separate payoff deal due to the Sheriff's deed. Since the bid was low, he's able to offer GT more money to payoff what he owes but not all of it. His GT mortgage is a little over $50k and he has about $35K to pay with them now that there is a low bid on the Sheriff's Deed.

Even with the Sheriff's deed things haven't sped up at all with GreenTree. Now we're down to only 5 months left before the redemption period ends and GreenTree still has the file under review, far as we know. It's been 1.5 weeks since the last update which was the file was under review after he submitted whatever he did.

My question is, at this point can't the seller sell the house to us regardless of GT? Now that there is a Sheriff's Deed, doesn't the second become unsecured debt?

Thanks in advance! The information here about GreenTree has been priceless!

~Jason