photo courtesy of bgilliard
I hate this sort of phone call.
I'm picking up the phone in just a moment. It's the sort of phone call I hate to have to place. I have to let a client know some news that changes everything for them today. As of this morning, they were happy people. This afternoon, they won't be. We've been looking for a property for them for two weeks now. We're looking at foreclosures mostly and we finally found one that was going to serve their needs. We wrote a very strong offer after I did my research on the property. Full price because we didn't want to lose out and we knew the seller's situation thanks to their listing agent. We wanted to go in strong to secure the home for us. We sent the offer in and received a counter.
Yes, a counter offer. On someone who was heading down the path to foreclosure. Seems the agent miscalculated the payoff amount. This seller is desperate to sell to get through this with barely a scratch and we were willing to help them (and get the house my clients wanted). The note came last night and I spoke to my clients. They weren't pleased, but they agreed to work it out. We made a verbal counter offer and I received email notification early this morning that we were good to go and I could get counter-signatures.
Then the emails came.
The first one asked me if we could make the option fee as a money order because the listing agent's client didn't have a bank account set up yet in their new hometown. Ok, fair enough. I arranged it. Signatures and money order will be in place today at 2:30. Sweet. *Beep beep* My email again, better check it. Ugh. Seems the agent not only miscalculated the pay-off value, but also didn't find out that the bank have moved to foreclosure status and assigned a lawyer to the case. Suddenly, we're now looking at a short sale. My clients aren't interested in the short sale wait. I guess we'll find out what my client's think when I pick up the phone.
Agents - stay on top of the foreclosure process.
If you're going to list and work with foreclosures, short sales, and cases where it's getting close; please keep up on the property. I know we're dealing with sometimes irrational and logic-defying banks, but this has wasted my time, the client's time, and probably frazzled them one last time. My clients did all they could to help your client. My clients were willing to go above and beyond what they wanted to initially do. They actually were trying to get a new house and to help your client (yes, they really cared). All of it? For nothing. Now we're faced with the truly irrational and logic-defying status of a short sale. We're going to see if we can push it through anyway, but had the listing agent just stayed a little more on top of the case, I might not be making this dreaded phone call.
In a city like San Antonio, we have far less foreclosure (or near) inventory than many cities. If we work hard, we can clean this inventory up. But only if we work hard, smart, and efficiently and stay on the ball with the status of our listings. So please, I beg you, check where your listings stand right now - and update, correct, or change if necessary.
All content ©2008-2010 by Matt Stigliano unless otherwise noted.
Matt Stigliano, Realtor® Becker Properties | (210) 646-HOME | www.RErockstar.com
"Your all access pass to San Antonio real estate."
So, Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum are in your neck of the woods, too? Agents who haven't got a clue, can't figure out what the client needs and lose track of the process are not only annoying, but have some real issues that should be brought to the broker's attention, if you ask me. Which you didn't.
How right you are-the agent should have known the status of their listing-this would have saved you and your customer time. I wish you success with the sale.
Don - It frustrates me to no end. I just had the conversation. My clients are fuming and I don't blame them. We have been helpful and flexible with this property, but now we face the fact that we may not move forward. You should have seen the look on my broker's face today when I got the email and told her.
Pat - And that's where the conspiracy theorist in me takes over. Did they know? Was I played? I sure hope not, because that would be even worse than this. I started today ready to get down to business on this one, now that plan has been derailed.
I think it's a little early to throw in the towel for your buyers. A threat of the foreclosure attorney getting involved just didn't happen yesterday. It is either assigned or not assigned yet (in Illinois anyway). Most of the time if it's a strong offer they forget about assigning it to an attorney. Good luck but don't throw in the towel yet! Your right that the LA should have been more proactive in this situation but she also doesn't know when the bank will just assign it either. That's why keeping everyone in the 'legal loop' is so important.
Its that "list it now -- figure it out later if it sells" agent working in your area too... man that guy must be lic everywhere
Lyn - There's no throwing in the towel. My buyers are frustrated though and wondering if it's worth dealing with this property. According to the agent an attorney has been assigned (per the email today). The offer was strong and cleared everyone (bank and seller) what they needed. Now the wrench is that the payoff is going to be higher, therefore it must be a short sale (according to the agent). Clients are discussing and we'll see where we get.
Eric - This was specifically listed as "pre-foreclosure" (actually "pre-forclosure") and I made an effort to do my research before hand. Was this price going to save it from foreclosure and pay off any seller's costs (loan and closing). We made a very specific offer to net everyone what they needed so that we didn't have to move to short sale status. Now it's as if someone woke up this morning and said "we need more money" and we're not prepared to go higher (and with good reasons to back that up - not just emotional, but cold hard figures).
This is one of the reasons that many agents avoid short sales. Much easier for the buyer agent and the clients to purchase a REO property.
This is truly frustrating for all parties involved. I hate that fact that their trusted individual (their agent) has mis-calculated their bottom dollar & not done their homework.
Roy - That's what we've been sticking with so far - my clients aren't interested in waiting at the bank's mercy for an arbitrary amount of time only to be told no.
Kristin - You already had your ear bent on this topic at the office.
Update: We didn't deal with the bank. We found another home and placed an offer on it tonight. Bank loses. Sad thing is I can't imagine them getting what we were willing to pay for it once it goes to foreclosure, so the bank has lost on this deal.
Wow, I have a very similar experience recently. It is really frustrating but this is why training is so crucial. When Shortsale and Foreclosure training came out, I jumped on it. I quickly learned that on the listing end there is alot more work to stay on top of.
Good luck!
I am so glad I have people that take care of that for me . . although even when I was doing my own short sales I knew exactly when it was going to sheriff sale! HELLOO MCFLY!!
Angela - One of these days I'm going to write the opus in my head about foreclosure, short sales, and all the problems I see with them. I've been working on it forever and still haven't managed to type it out. PS Glad to see something kicked your blogging into high gear lately. I look forward to reading more!
Tami - I understand that things can be frustrating for the listing agents on these properties, much like they are frustrating for those of us on the buyer's side, but to let a mess like that pass? Ugh.
I have seen a lot of APSS properties go to foreclosure lately. It really just baffles me. You can extend a foreclosure on a property up to fifteen minutes up it going to auction ( In most cases). It takes a lot of work and patience, but it can be done.
Just read your update....best of luck with you new property!