Jacksonville Real Estate Ramblings

I've noticed a trend with banks who have a faster short sale procedure, and the banks who are slow, don't have that same trend. I think it's something that should be brought out in the open, so other lenders who are having a difficult time approving short sales in a timely fashion could learn. I notice when I communicate with one person, the process is much better. Here's some examples:

GOOD EXAMPLE:

Taylor Bean and Whitaker,I know they are kinda a bad example due to their fall from grace, but they had their short sale process down. Once I faxed the short sale package to them, it was never "lost" and I was assigned a negotiator, who had a direct line, direct fax number and an email. When I called the negotiator, she returned my call quickly, but her response time to emails was even better! The process took about 3 weeks for short sale approval.

BAD EXAMPLE:

Had a short sale with Navy Federal, sorry NF, gotta throw you under the bus! Their process from the time I faxed the short sale package was 2 months, which isn't too terribly bad but has room for improvement. I never could directly call or email my negotiator or asset manager, I always had to speak to one of the gatekeepers, who would always tell me different information every time.

GOOD EXAMPLE:

AMHSI did a great job. Once they got the package, a negotiator was assigned. I had her direct number, fax and email. She had at least 100 files but she stayed on top of her game. There were 3 contracts on this before the house finally closed with the third buyer. The first two fell through due to the buyers. The first two short sales were approved in a matter of 2-3 weeks. The last! Get this.... was approved in one day! During the holidays to boot!

Besides dealing with long short sale approvals representing the buyer, I've been lucky in the fact that most of my short sale listings have had lien holders who have it together. Plus, I have learned to put together organized and complete short sale packages, have constant follow up without overkill and I believe in being very humble and respectful to the other person on the phone.

Back to the common trend, the lenders who we have to call in and get a random person each time have slower short sale approvals, lose the short sale packages more and tell you a different process each time.

The ones who have fast approval times have not lost my package, I can contact the negotiator directly without having to go through the gatekeeper. Oh and let me throw one more thing out there, they also tell me what they need to net instead of playing games and saying they're not "allowed" to tell me!

I have one more good example and a process that every lender should implement:

BEST EXAMPLE:

Wells Fargo Financial, which is different than Wells Fargo Mortgage, has their act together. The moment you list it, you send in a short sale package. They assign the negotiator, who orders a BPO. We then use the BPO value. The negotiator is the same one through the whole process. We know upfront if the seller is approved for a short sale. Once a month, the listing agent  fills out a market report, sends it to the negotiator and the price is re-visited. You work as a team and the negotiator will approve the price changes, so you never have to deal with having a home that has comps to justify a higher price but the subject property just isn't selling and the listing agent has had it at the higher price but can't get it moved. Then the BPO comes back at the higher price and the bank won't move, no matter that you have given them the showing log and history showing price changes and showing history. Once we had an offer, we had an approval within a week. Closed 30 days later!

Just think of how many more Jacksonville Florida homes would sell before they were foreclosed on, if every bank took the same approach as WF Financial!!!

What we really need as an industry is to have a meeting of the minds. We need to have real estate agents, attorneys, loss mitigators from the banks that are failing at the short sale process and loss mitigators from the lenders who are slam dunking short sales. Whoever is involved with the real estate transaction needs to have some input. We need to find out why lenders are taking so long and why some have the process down so well. I get frustrated with the banks, but honestly I don't know what goes on over there in their world, just like they don't know what goes on in mine. Maybe instead of throwing money at the problems with bailouts and tax credits,we FIX the problems so our housing market can improve, which in turn will improve the economy.

That's my take on short sales, what's yours?