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It has been several months since I signed up for Short Sale Superstars. It is the one site I have found that has information that I like to say "you can sink your teeth in", it is not fluff but real time information to aid all of us with our short sales. I have been referring agents to this site everytime someone asks me a question.

Yesterday an agent in our office, who is on the buying end, was frustrated with an OCWEN short sale. The bank was not responding for an extension. And the Listing Agent was stumped. Our agent referred the agent to this site. That person was able to get to the right person at OCWEN and get the extension.

All because of this site and the information it provides!!

Keep up the good work!! I am on the site daily and believe me having such a comphrensive site quickly available is priceless!!

If you are a short sale buyer’s agent, it can often be frustrating waiting for any scrap of information for your buyer. After all, it might be three to five months before you get short sale approval. You don’t want to lose your buyer. It’s best to give them as much information as possible so they feel part of the process.

But just how often should you call the listing broker to check for status? I get a wide variety of buyer’s agents selling my Destin Florida short sales.

Agent Mellow:He might contact me once a month to find out how the short sale is progressing.

Agent Never: He never contacts me during the approval process. I will send him updates, but if I don’t, he’ll just be “surprised” when I forward the final approval.

Agent Antsy: He emails me almost every day. Any word? Is the appraisal back? Do you have approval? Etc. Etc.

Agent Even: He calls or emails about every week or two. He is on a program. He might check in more often if his buyer asks. But he tells his buyer in advance how often he’ll provide an update. This is the guy to emulate.

If you are a buyer’s agent and sell one of my Destin short sales, feel free to email me once a week. Don’t call on Monday - it is the highest volume call day for short sale lenders. Thursday or Friday is a good day. Prepare your buyer about the short sale process. Let them know how often you’ll be getting updates.

Work as a team with the listing agent and keep your buyer in the loop. That way, everyone will be cool and prepared when you finally get approved!

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Destin FL Real Estate

Destin Short Sales & Pre Foreclosure Help.

Read Wendy's Destin Real Estate Blog

Wendy is a short sale and pre-foreclosure specialist and has been featured in "Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine" and "Florida Realtor Magazine". Call Wendy Rulnick, Broker/Owner,to list and sell your home or condo on the Emerald Coast of Florida in Walton, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa County- Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Seagrove Beach, Watercolor, Sandestin, Seaside, Crestview, Rosemary Beach, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field.

I am challenging that decision. Your "Servicers" are hopeless. Here is just ONE example of something bordering on Fraud in my opinion, and I have asked you for help..to no avail.

CHASE, approved one of my Short Sales verbally via my friendly (not) negotiator, Leslie. Leslie informed me that my client was approved IF she would pay $10,000 CASH and also sign a $50,000 note. Hmmm..let's re-visit this, shall we?

• California is a non-recourse state. This secondary home was purchased in 2005, one loan, therefore purchase money, nothing pulled out against it. If my client opts to pursue her "put option", you, Freddie Mac will get the home back at the Trustee Sale with no right to pursue for deficiencies. You can always sue her at a Judicial Trial, but let's face it..who has the money???
• Borrower is only 3 months past due. She has maintained this home impeccably, HOA's are currrent as are taxes, she paid for all upgrades and improvements, has never been late on a payment, and continues to maintain the home and pool and landscape as if she were there.
• Borrower is now retired, living on Social Security, and is getting into her IRA to continue with the mortgage payments on this home. She is drained and done.
• Borrower paid $486,000. BPO shows Value at $135,000 today. I have an offer ABOVE MARKET at $172,000 CASH.

Here's the really infuriating part about CHASE..after we counter back with cash, but no note, my knowledgeable negotiator leaves me another voicemail stating that "upon review, the Investsors have decided that your client makes too much money and we are turning down the Short Sale." BAM! WHAT??? You already decided she qualified for the Short Sale IF she met your outrageous terms, and now suddenly, she makes too much money?? Anybody minding the store?!

What??? You mean to tell me that in this awful market of declining values and increasing inventory, YOU, FREDDIE MAC, told Chase to turn this deal down?? If my client discontinues maintaining the property, and you have to carry it another 6 months, (at least!), with no payments, pay deposits to turn on utilities again, clean and shock the pool, water and clean up the landscaping, risk letting it sit in this non-gated community VACANT, and then get just the CURRENT BPO price of $135,000 at auction, you, FREDDIE MAC, are choosing to leave approx. $30-40,000 on the table?? I AM A STOCKHOLDER here and this is NOT a sound decision for this company!

I have sent an e-mail every day to Freddie Mac..borrower outreach. I received a response to my first e-mail asking me to send my Agent Authorization letter so you can talk to me on behalf of my client. That was a week and 4 e-mails ago. WHERE ARE YOU FREDDIE MACSTERS? Having lunch with the Banksters?

As the woman at CHASE resource resolution center told me after hearing my story.."I'm sorry, Miss. Kelly. It appears you had a bad negotiator. Just re-load the offer and docs and hopefully, you'll get a better one next time." Wow..what a way to run a business. I did upload everything again, of course, because there is nothing else to do. Banksters, and Investors, do NOT want to help borrowers. They are all about their own false bottom lines.

Non-performing loans are just that..NON-PERFORMING. Get rid of them! Take the money and be done with it! What is so hard to understand about that?? Econ 101 students could do a much better job that the lot of you..

Oh, by the way, I got my HAFA certification last week. Wow, am I feeling fantastaic about how well Freddie and Fannie and all the other Banksters are going to implement this program now..

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Bob Hertzog

Summit Home Consultants

Visit The For Sale Phoenix Homes Website

Copyright © By Bob Hertzog 2010 *Making Sense of The Mortgage Crisis-How The FDIC Loss Share Program Is Hurting Homeowners*

My husband and I have submitted a fair offer on a property that was approved for short sale with Capital One. A couple of months have gone by and no one has gotten back to our realtor - I'm running out of time but REALLY want to buy this property. Is there some way to get in contact with someone at the bank? If I could just get in touch with someone I feel that I could work my way to the right person to get this moving!! Thanks in advance for any helpful info!!

This home at 352 Hwy 2, DeFuniak Springs, Florida has been approved as a HUD Pre Foreclosure sale by Bank of America. It was approved 23 days after submitting the short sale contract, buyer proof of funds and HUD. But that is not the whole story.

When doing an HUD (also called FHA) Pre Foreclosure sale, you can get the sale price approved in advance. Your seller should apply to his lender to see if he qualifies. Doing this at time of listing or before, you can really speed up the approval of a contract. You see, by getting the short sale lender the seller financial documents and request to participate, they will order an appraisal. That value is shared with the seller and the listing agent.

In this case, Bank of America took four months to send the HUD package to the seller after application. It took them almost four more months to issue an "Approval to Participate". By that time we already had a contract submitted that more than covered the appraised value.

This lengthy process with Bank of America's HUD PFS program may have been an anomaly. My advice to short sale listing agents and sellers, is to apply as soon as you know you want to go forward with the program. This will save you valuable time when you finally get a buyer.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Destin FL Real Estate

Destin Short Sales & Pre Foreclosure Help.

Read Wendy's Destin Real Estate Blog

Wendy is a short sale and pre-foreclosure specialist and has been featured in "Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine" and "Florida Realtor Magazine". Call Wendy Rulnick, Broker/Owner,to list and sell your home or condo on the Emerald Coast of Florida in Walton, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa County- Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Seagrove Beach, Watercolor, Sandestin, Seaside, Crestview, Rosemary Beach, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field.

Chase has approved the short sale of 1 Pine Ridge Trace, Destin Florida.

Details?

Senior Lien: Chase Home Finance

Balance: $185,000

Junior Lien: JP Morgan Chase Bank

Balance: $25,000

Sale price: $90,000 appr

For you sleuths who like to analyze investors, this one was Freddie Mac. The mortgage also had a sub-investor pool who utilized MGICfor credit enhancement. Basically, MGIC was the mortgage insurance company for this group of investors. MGIC only allowed $500 to the JP Morgan Chase junior lien.

The interesting thing about this process was that Chase Home Finance communicated strangely with JP Morgan Chase. Even though they are part of the same company, they had me act as a go-between to relay information, get each other's email addresses and move the process along. A good word of advice when you are dealing with any Chase division as both the senior and junior liens- initiate the process with each division separately. It may speed up your approval time.

Bottom line - this Destin Florida short sale was approved in 36 days.

If you are considering short sale to avoid foreclosure, consider hiring an experienced Destin short sale agent.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.

Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Destin FL Real Estate

Destin Short Sales & Pre Foreclosure Help.

Read Wendy's Destin Real Estate Blog

Wendy is a short sale and pre-foreclosure specialist and has been featured in "Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine" and "Florida Realtor Magazine". Call Wendy Rulnick, Broker/Owner,to list and sell your home or condo on the Emerald Coast of Florida in Walton, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa County- Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Seagrove Beach, Watercolor, Sandestin, Seaside, Crestview, Rosemary Beach, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field.

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Flash back to summer 2009. 11XXX BridgeCreek Dr in Riverview was listed for sale (short sale). The owner could no longer afford to live there, so he moved his family to the panhandle, and left his home in the care of the listing Realtor. The home was empty, the power was off, and the pool started to resemble more of a swamp then an oasis. As the year dragged on, the house sat lonely and empty, no showings, no offers, and the price kept being reduced to try and force a sale. When the listing expired, savvy Keller Williams Realtor, Tim Terpening took on the challenge of selling the home for the owner and won the listing in July 2010. That was when he called Angelina Ogle-Clarke of Bank Real Estate Solutions Inc. for help. Her company cleaned the house & pool, furnished and decorated the house, all with ZERO cost to the Homeowner OR the Realtor! Now Tim had a real HOME to market, not an abandoned, vacant, unkept listing with no utilities running to hopefully sell. That was 27 days ago. TODAY, 9/16/2010 a FULL PRICE offer came in (at the open house)!

In this market, an "out of the box" marketing strategy is a necessity. The traditional position has only one option, lower the price until someone steals the house, and with that said, a vacant home screams only 2 words...STEAL ME! We stage homes with furniture, and a sales person who works to protect, maintain and assist YOU in selling the property! This professional relieves the homeowner/bank of monthly carrying costs such as utilities, lawn maintenance, pool maintenance, cleaning services, etc. and is dedicated to making sure the vacant property shows like a model home every time it is shown to a potential buyer. Best of all our services are FREE of charge, AND we pay Realtors a referral for each home they bring into our program! Something has to change to sell vacant homes in this market, should it be the price again?

Hi folks. Today I want to clear up one big misunderstanding about the Equator.com system. For those of you that aren't familiar with Equator, Equator is the online portal that Bank of America and GMAC use to help expedite their short sales. Quite often I hear from agents, buyers and sellers that......"Equator accepted our offer" or "Equator denied our short sale." In fact, here's a question I pulled off of www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com this morning.

• "Equator accepted our counter. Then 5 days later said it "made a mistake" and rejected our offer, after it accepted. Has anyone seen this before?"

MY RESPONSE:

Equator is nothing more than a software program to help lenders/servicers process short sales. They don't have negotiators nor can they make decisions about short sales.

When a short sale is entered into Equator, the servicer (usually Bank of America), is looking at the deal and trying to negotiate a short sale that they feel the investor (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and others) AND the mortgage insurance company (MI) will accept. Once a short sale in Equator is "accepted" it is then passed on to the next entity (investor and/or MI) for their approval. This entity may very well come back and continue to negotiate or even reject the deal that was already "accepted" by the servicer.

• ***Until an actual written short sale approval letter or denial letter is issued the transaction is still being negotiated and the terms and conditions can change.

When you receive a counter offer in Equator the Seller has 3 options.

• Accept: If you accept the deal is passed on for final approval (or counter).

• Reject: If you reject....the file is closed and you have to start over. ***Warning Will Robinson!!*** NEVER reject!!! Rejecting in Equator is not something that can be retracted. If you choose that option in a fit of passion you have to start over. DON'T DO IT!!

• Counter. Unless the deal is acceptable...counter. Countering is where you have the opportunity to dispute a cash contribution, or a promissory note. It's also your opportunity to dispute the value of the property by uploading market data.

But whatever you do, just remember, you are NOT negotiating with Equator. Make sense?

By the way, here's a sample offer and counter offer from the Equator system. Hopefully this will help.

Sample Equator Counter Offer

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?

This beautiful condo unit at The Palms in Destin Florida was just approved for short sale.

Lender: Bank of America

Payoff: $324,000

List Price: $124,000

Notes: Bank of America initially rejected the buyer's offer of $100,000. They countered $119,000 in Equator, the bank's online negotiating platform. The buyer would not come up in value. Instead of simply clicking "no" i.e. rejecting the bank's counter-offer in Equator, I called and emailed the negotiator to find a solution. Otherwise, the file might have been closed. The seller also agreed to participate in the loss with a cash contribution.

Result? Approved!

If you need to short sell your condo in The Palms, in Destin Florida, contact an experienced Destin short sale agent.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.

Call toll-free 1-877-487-9639 or local 850-650-7883 ext 204

Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Destin FL Real Estate

Destin Short Sales & Pre Foreclosure Help.

Wendy is a short sale and pre-foreclosure specialist and has been featured in "Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine" and "Florida Realtor Magazine". Call Wendy Rulnick, Broker/Owner,to list and sell your home or condo on the Emerald Coast of Florida in Walton, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa County- Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Seagrove Beach, Watercolor, Sandestin, Seaside, Crestview, Rosemary Beach, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field.

Quickie -

I had a short sale approval in November 2009 WITH 6% to agents, 3% closing cost credits, and $3040 to the second lien. Buyer could not get financing and pulled out.

Approval letter I got today, roughly 8 months later:

5% to agents

2% closing costs

$2080 to second lien

I have spent a GREAT deal of time trying to learn what the issue is and why the BIG change (Wells Fargo is the Servicer and they had no idea).

Anyone know anything?

Anyone have a good contact at Fannie to at least give me an explanation?

you can reach me off here at BBenita@comcast.net if yoou do not want to post the contact info. you may have.

Thanks

Ben Benita

We recently received an email (below) from a negotiator at WF. I was told FHA is not affected, but they are not detailing what Conventional investors are. Has anyone else received this?

Hello,

I have been trying to get a short sale approved on a condo via Equator. I escalated the file and resubmitted and now the counter offer is even higher than the 1st time the file went through. Original counter was $72K now they countered first at $85K and now $75K with a 7K promissory note or 3K cash contribution and not paying a lot of fees - such as lawyer, wire, transfer and 2nd lien because they claim I did not give them 2nd lien holder's info though I put it in the comment section where they made their request.

Buyer is ready to walk! Offer is 66K which was only $6K off from original counter. Over 70 active listings in subdivision with 2 closed at 60K and 66K in last month.

Who can I call at Fannie Mae for a escalation. I can't find number or servicing agreement between BOA and Fannie online.

Any Help will be appreicated!

Evelyn