I hope you all don't mind us Buyers posting questions - but this is one of the few site resources I've found for getting real information on short sales! So thank you for that!
As I said we are the buyer on a SS - Quicken is 1st and PNC is 2nd. We received the update below from our realtor but I guess I'm not really sure what this means - if anything - as far as real progress goes (we are 5 1/2 months into this at this point).
"PNC (2nd) states that they now have all of the docs. The next step is another BPO (apparently the BPO for the 1st lien does not satisfy them). The update states that it will take 10-15 business days to complete the BPO, receive the results, title work and credit bureau report"
Its frustrating to us that after 5+ months they say they NOW have all the docs. Boy do I wish I had a Broker Bryant nearby!! :) Just wondering if anyone can shed some light on this - does them doing title work and credit reports mean anything...or is that just part of the normal review process - before making their decision to approve or not? Obviously we are hoping we are in the home stretch but it seems neither of the agents really know at this point.
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Oh man, you had the agent that left for a new company, but is still processing the short sale, right? Also, if I'm reading your comments correctly there are THREE liens, a first mortgage, a second mortgage or HELOC, and a mechanic's lien.
Time to be looking for the door. I advise my buyer to be cautious when there is more than one lien, three, that's pretty bad. Besides that, we can tell you how banks behave (or misbehave) but what the contractor with the mechanic's lien will do is anybody's guess. The I
LOL - you are correct - that's us! We are in this one for the long haul as this home is a dream home for us and fits everything we are looking for. If we don't get it we are perfectly fine staying in our current home. It's just frustrating when we feel like the agents are not on top of their game but we can't really do anything to change that - except keep educating ourselves with sites like this one so we know the right questions to ask and what we 'should' be expecting.
I would also ask what the balance to PNC is and if it's a cash out HELOC. The 1st lender will usually only pay $3,000 up to MAYBE 10% of the loan balance. Our experience with PNC is that they will hold out on approving a short sale where they are the 2nd unless they can get 20-40% of their balance. Most of the time sellers don't have the money so the contribution has to come from......somewhere. Did the listing agent consider this or bring it up? If they hired an EXPERIENCED short sale negotiator, they should have brought this up and had the listing agent talk about this with you, the buyer, up front, as a possibility.
We were not made aware that there was even a 2nd bank involved until I asked the question myself after researching the court docs and that was several weeks into the process. I'm trying to determine - or reasonably guesstimate the balances owed on each / what the 2nd is for based on the records I've pulled just for my own satisfaction.
This is the latest update we received yesterday:
I asked if the 1st has approved and was told they have "conditionally accepted" - If PNC agrees and there are no issues after their appraisal review then it will go back to the 1st (Quicken) for final approval. It feels like maybe we are finally getting somewhere but we're still looking at at least another month based on timing we were given - in a best case scenario. The wait continues....
Tamara,
first let me just say that buyers should definitely post here, Welcome!
It would be very unusual for a 2nd mortgage to use the bpo from the first mortgage, so that's understandable and normal. I'd be a little concerned that this is going to drag on further, because PNC should have had all of the documents a long time ago. Some short sale processors wait until the first is approved, and THEN start sending things to the second. This is a big mistake IMHO, since at least the paperwork processing for the second can be accomplished while waiting for the first to approve. Some 2nd mortgages will not assign a negotiator, order a bpo, or agree to a short sale until the first has issued a short sale approval letter.
Title and credit are normal processing.
Two questions for you:
1. Did Quicken approve the short sale yet?
2. Did your buyer's agent inform you that there were two loans up front?
Thanks for the response Jim. I agree with you about waiting until the first is done to send info to the second - seems more efficient to get both the pkg upfront.
To answer your questions (1) we don't know if it's been approved by the 1st - frankly I'm not sure the agent knows either but I've asked the question and (2) they did not inform us that there were 2 loans, again I'm not sure they even knew. I researched the property records through our local online system and asked them about the 2nd when I found out! I think I surprised them a bit :) There was also a small lien showing (construction related) that I asked about as it had not been mentioned to that point either.
These are part of the reasons I come to this site for additional info. While our Agent has worked other short sales and successfully closed them, neither side seems to be very proactive - the listing agent signed a 3rd party negotiator to "do the work" and she seems to essentially sit and wait for updates.