An (Unnecessary) Foreclosure Victim

I was sad to see a new listing pop up this week. It was one of my previous listings that had since been foreclosed on and was now for sale by the bank. The sad part is that the bank foreclosed even though I had sent them a legitimate offer as part of a short sale.

It was the classic case of getting the runaround from the bank. We listed the property and got offers. I had all the paperwork in order and had jumped through all the hoops to submit the offer to the lender- one of the big players in the sub-prime loan game. However, once it was ready for the banks consideration- no reply.

Worse, when I called them to check on the status (enduring excruciating hold times), if I ever talked to a human they would tell me that I needed to talk to someone in a different department and then proceed to give me the exact phone number that I had just called in the first place.

I don't want to scare you away from attempting a short sale or trying to buy a house this way, but just be prepared to wait. It's not uncommon to wait weeks or months waiting for a response from the bank. In our case, the seller apparently didn't have that kind of time.

I know that the bank's 'loss mitigation departments', as they are often called, are completely swamped at this point. I suppose we may have been moved to the top of the heap if this was a high dollar property. Still, the home was a really big deal to my client and I'm sorry to see it end this way.

-Peter

www.NashvilleCityHomes.com