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Extortion from banks on short sales

Posted by Jim Stewart on March 3, 2010 at 11:26am

I have two short sale listings where the mortgage company is Everhome Mortgage. They are requiring that I go through National Quick Sale for the actual short sale processing. The problem is that National Quick Sale wants up front money, one percent of the sale price plus another $250 processing fee for the "right" to do business with them even though I don't want to do business with them. They say the seller cannot pay the fees and that they must be listed on the HUD as coming out of my commission. Can they really do this???? Am I just naive??? I view this as complete extortion. Home values here are much lower than national averages and on one deal I would end up making only $320 and the other only $1000. Hardly anywhere near enough to justify the work. Thoughts or advice from the gallery??

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Comments

Jim Stewart August 24, 2010 at 6:51am

Well, they say they are the next wave. I'm not so sure I agree. I, too, had a VP call me when I pitched a fit. And then another VP called me later when I added an unflattering post to this site. Seems to me that if you have to resort to company "higher-ups" to justify your business, something is wrong with your biz model. Real value should be easy to spot and doesn't need to be justified by a "you need us because I say you need us".
Melissa Polce August 24, 2010 at 5:17am

I am now just going through this...a seller called AHMS and then called me to list...once we had things set I was informed NQS had to come on board...conveinent as I had done all the work including garnering the offer and ss package...I pitched a complete fit and the seller did too...AHMS would not budge on me using NQS so a VP called me, wiped out the $250 file fee and set up fee, also cut me to 1/2%...which is still bull for doing NOTHING but what are we to do, I hear these companies are the nest wave...everyone has a hand out and I have to hand over control to someone I dont know who may or may not get the answers and approvals I need-UGH
Ben Benita June 10, 2010 at 6:48pm

I would have an attorney fire off a letter, or, have them put something in writing that ANY monies paid to them are fully refundable WITH INTEREST if the deal does not close .......AT A MINIMUM.
Find out whot he investor is on the note as well and inform them of this practice......
Ben Benita March 9, 2010 at 5:47pm

NO CHANCE you should pay ANYTHING up front to them. File a complaint with teh OCC, Office Of The COmptroller Of The Currency:
General info. - Http://www.occ.treas.gov/
E-mail for OCC -- Publicaffairs3@occ.treas.gov,

complaint web site for them - www.helpwithmybank.gov, start here, online customer complaint form,
helpwithmybank.faq@occ.treas.gov
they are higher than even the FTC and rule over how banks do business (we learned about them roughly 3 weeks ago), get them involved and watch how things change for the better on your end. As far as coming out of your commission, again, COMPLETE BS.....you should contact the OCC first thing in the morning about this.....keep us posted.
Bryant Tutas March 8, 2010 at 2:12am

Jim. Maybe the seller can sign a note for 1% of your commission? Or how about have the buyer pay a portion? Or structure it so the commission being paid you on the HUD is 4% -the fee to NQS. The buyer side get's 2% from the seller and 1% from the buyer. That would mean Everhome is only paying 6% and NQS is being paid out of the commission.
Jim Stewart March 7, 2010 at 12:40pm

Bryant,
I saw the same thing you did. When I confronted the NQS person about that language she said EverHome does not pay the fee and allows our commission to be no more than 6%, regardless of whether we have to pay the NQS fee out of that or not. I'm going to take care of my clients but I won't be taking any more EverHome short sales either.
Bryant Tutas March 7, 2010 at 10:39am

Jim. I have heard of NQS but have never worked with them on a short sale. According to their website this is how they charge:

FAQ: What does NQS charge per short sale?

NQS charges a technology and processing fee on all successful short sales. The fee is the greater of $1,500 or 1% of the sale price. In no event shall the fee exceed 25% of the real estate commission. In some cases, the fee may be paid in whole or in part by the servicer, GSE, or other third party.

I believe I would make sure that Everhome sees this. Then I would place the charges on top of my regular commission. If that is not acceptable to Everhome then I guess I would just need to make a business decision on whether or not I wanted to get involved in the short sale at all.
Terry L. Osburn March 5, 2010 at 3:54pm

This is a new one.....sounds like a conflict of interest. I agree, NQS is NOT a party to the contract and the bank should pay for the processing themselves.....Frankly you do not ned a third party system.....This would be a good one to send to your senator or congress person.
Dean Ouellette March 3, 2010 at 9:15pm

This is a new one to me. Remind me to stay away from them. That is rediculous. I dont even know what to say, I guess you could try to get to a senior veep at Everhome and tell them 1) Seller cannot afford it 2) NQS is not a party to the contract and it is a respa violation to use the commission to pay them and see if they have an internal system you can use. Im lost on this one. I would love to hear others thoughts