Comments on: Do Banks Really Want Your Home?

By: Morgan

Morgan — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:45:48 +0000

Ron » I’m not a real estate agent so I’ve never actually sold a property short. I simply said that I thought the advice in the book was extremely valuable based on my knowledge of the subject matter. That being said I know a ton of folks in the short sale side of loss mit, have interviewed and spoken with many experts on the subject so based on that knowledge I feel confident with my recommendation. You may not and that’s completely fine with me.

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:50:01 +0000

Morgan….

You recommend that which you are selling? How many properties have you, yourself, short sold?

By: Morgan

Morgan — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 02:14:29 +0000

Ron » Short sales are a nightmare, regardless of the BPO. I recommend Richard Geller’s advice on short sales. How to short sell your home in 9 days. I think it is probably the best advice on short sales I’ve read. http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=2256469 please note i am an affiliate; but i recommend it whole heartily because i’ve personally reviewed the information.

By: Mike Dillon

Mike Dillon — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:19:34 +0000

There is a simple solution to that problem, Lisa. Hire more people OR accept fewer files. Servicers potentially pocket any fees associated with modifications as well – depending on the wording of the Pooling & Servicing Agreement in the trust prospectus.

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:02:55 +0000

We’re doing a short sale. We weren’t investors or flippers. We are professionals who have always been on top but in the last year+ we crashed and burned when my wife lost her job and the RE market collapsed. In addition to that, my payments have risen to more than my gross pay plus the bank screwed up my escrows to the tune of $8900! There’s a lot more that has happened to us as we take a dive through a low point in our lives, but we’ll be back. Unfortunately, the bank that has our note is putting us through absolute hell with the short sale. They’ve also gotten two BPO’s (one for the “first” and other for the “second” mortgage). They were done by different people and are radically different. One side has approved the sale and the other side is saying no because of their BPO…which is wrong! But, they don’t care. When I do web searches I’m finding I’m not alone when it comes to this treatment from them on a short sale. “Loss Mitigation”???? Funny term given we’re going to lose everything by being forced into bankruptcy and they end up with nothing. I have yet to figure out why making our lives more miserable than they already are plus losing “any and all” compensation is “loss mitigation”. Then again, after dealing with them for the last 3mo I find it hard they even function to begin with.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:50:40 +0000

Wow….i am amazed how naive you all are about loss mitigation, workouts, shortsales and foreclosure…do any of you actually work in the industry??? Try having a loss mitigator/negotiator with 300 files on average and see how you’d do

By: Leo

Leo — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:47:10 +0000

Foreclosure court experience has shown that servicers are rarely “authorized to foreclose”. Servicers are usually nothing more than that, a mere “servicer” under contract from the true party in interest. Unless the servicer is in possession of, and produces a power of attorney authorizing foreclosure proceedings as agent for the true holder of the note, the servicer/bank has no standing to bring the action.
Most of the time only HUD has that power, people just don’t know enough to ask. If one writes HUD or Fanny Mae, etc., asking for a copy of the letter of authorization to XYZ bank to execute foreclosure proceedings in their name, one will get a letter back stating they never issued such authorization. In court, one merely has to show the court the reply from the real party of interest. This brings up the jurisdiction question as to whether the plaintiff has standing to bring for the action, rather than the issue of whether the homeowner is in default or not.
Only the holder in due course, or his direct agent can bring forth an action, and that has to be accompanied by the original signed note by the homeowner. If any of these items is not present, case dismissed.

By: Leo

Leo — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:01:02 +0000

May I comment on what is the true nature of a “servicer”. They are merely that, nothing more, and certainly have NO foreclosure power.(unless assigned that power of attorney by the actual party in interest. Only the holder in due course has the power to foreclose, and then to prove standing as such, if challenged, must produce the original note signed by the property owner. In many cases, only HUD has the power to foreclose unless authorization to foreclose in their name has been assigned in writing, perhaps to the local servicer. Those who are in foreclosure need to ask whomever the current holder of the original note is, to produce the authorization giving the servicer that right. Many people in this situation have asked HUD to supply them with the authorization letter and have received the reply that no such letter exists because the servicer was never authorized to foreclose in their name. The servicer in court has been dealt a “death blow” because when the property owner challenges the servicers standing, and they cannot provide it, the matter quickly switches from a forceclosure action for non payment, to one of jurisdiction of the court to hear a matter where plaintiff cannot prove standing to bring the action.

By: short sold my home

short sold my home — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 22:13:14 +0000

I short sold my home earlier this year. It’s definitely not an easy process by any means. Even once I had a offer on the house, it still took nearly 3 months to finally close the deal. I was lucky and had a real estate agent with alot of short sale experience so that helped a ton.

I think doing the short sale was a good move though, but I started the process early and had good support. Good luck to anyone facing a short sale, make sure you have someone (family, friends, etc) that you can share your thoughts and frustrations with.

Regards,

By: Morgan Brown

Morgan Brown — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 19:07:22 +0000

Wow Jeff – that is an amazingly insightful post in to the world of loan servicing. It is clear that short sales are not the easy answer that everyone assumes them to be. It’s not that they should be easy but that they (up until now) were such rare occurrences that the system is not set up to utilize them as a loss-mitigation tactic; and the setup currently in place pales when compared to the well oiled machine that is the foreclosure process.

Jeff – any chance that you’d like to do a guest post on servicing issues when it comes to short sales – or would you mind if I did one off of the knowledge you’ve provided in the above comment? I think it definitely warrants its own post – to say the least. If you’d like to discuss further please email me at morganb [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thanks for the insightful and revealing commentary.