I am working on getting a short sale approval for a house in Destin FL. The mortgage is about $200,000 and the offer is for $130,000 (modified for the sake of confidentiality), which is slightly under maximum market value of $145,000. The lender is Vanderbilt Mortgage. To be blunt, they are not nice. Most lenders have been in this game long enough to know how the system works, and have probably had thousands of short sale requests. Vanderbilt just doesn't want to play. Here is what is going on:
Faxed Vanderbilt 41-page short sale package with typical items, contract, settlement statement, hardship letter, etc.
After several days and numerous phone calls to Vanderbilt, they state the party handling the file is on "vacation" and to fax all to a different number.
After several more days and numerous phone calls to Vanderbilt I am told they cannot find the fax. OK, I am used to this sort of thing, so ask where they want me to fax it the third time. The girl says, "You don't need to fax it again, just tell me the net." I was a bit dumbfounded, and pressed that I didn't want to waste the effort I had made in preparing the package. She insisted and I told her. She said she would give the "credit manager" the net figure and told me to call back on Wednesday. I called back on Wednesday as instructed, and was told the offer was "rejected". Oh, that's nice. "What's the counter?" I asked. I was already getting a sick feeling about this bank, call it "short sale intuition". The gentleman told me there was no counteroffer, but if I called back Thursday he would tell whoever was in charge to give me a counter.
I called back on Thursday. That's today. I was told the person I spoke with yesterday "did not know what he is talking about. We do not counter offer." I asked "Is this a guessing game?" She wasn't very pleasant, and said mortgage balance was $200,000. I told her that wasn't market value. (By the way, most lenders understand that.) She actually said, "Well, it may or may not be market value." And she proceeded to arrogantly spew forth about how they normally don't entertain short sales and they don't do things like other companies do.
Fascinated by this statement, I decided to do a Google search on Vanderbilt Mortgage. Wow. On their site they claim to be the largest lender for manufactured homes. But several of the Google results are findings like "ripoff report", "scam fraud alert" "complaints", etc. Apparently a lot of people don't like Vanderbilt. Me either.
It's Wendy!
Wendy Rulnick, Broker, CRP, CRS, GRI, ABR Rulnick Realty, Inc.
Search Destin real estate and vicinity.
Short Sale Pre Foreclosure Help.
Specializing in real estate sales on Emerald Coast of Florida: Destin Florida real estate, Santa Rosa Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Seagrove Beach, Watercolor, Sandestin, Seaside, Dune Allen, Blue Mountain Beach, Freeport, Rosemary Beach, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field.
Call toll-free 1-877-ITS-WNDY (1-877-487-9639) or local 850-650-7883 ext 204
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Copyright © 2008 By Wendy Rulnick. All Rights Reserved. *Short Sales: Attitude and Guessing Games* Contact Wendy Rulnick regarding Destin Florida real estate and vicinity.
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It amazes me they're still in business with an attitude like that!
DJ - They might not be for long!
Wendy, This sounds exactly like the scenario I just had with Countrywide. They outright rejected a cash offer that was right at market value. No counter, no explanation and there was nothing I could do about it. Very frustrating. I have now placed the property back on the market at a higher price and there has been ZERO activity since. Of course I've only been selling property in my specific market for 14 years so my estimate of value can't possiboly be right.
Bryant - You must be way off in your value! All I can do is shake my head and write a post...grrrrr grrrr. By the way, love your blog.
Wendy....I'm very impressed!!! Listening to the birds on the balcony with your tablet pc huh :) You've got an Integrated Marketing campaign splattered all over the Internet. Very well executed!!! Congrtulations!!
Sergio - Thank you! I've got to really get away from this computer sometime, though!
There are so many frustrating things about this situation, but one that has struck me quite a few times is why is there so much reliance on faxes. It seems like faxing is not the most reliable way of passing on information and that one way to streamline some of this entire process would be for the lenders to set up a centralized email address that the paperwork could be sent to. They could set up an auto-response back to whomever sent the email that the email was recieved. It would at least bring them up to the 21st century.
Carolyn - I'd fear they'd lose the emails, too!
I have a co-worker who I give 25% to who negotaites short sales very successfully. Fortunately, he has been doing this for years, even before this latest economic debacle. He talks "BANK TALK". This way, I do not have to deal with the endless phone calls and run around. It is a win-win situation for both of us.
Still amazed at this late date by lenders who are not getting it yet. Go figure.
Jovani - We actually took the house off the market, and it was foreclosed on.