Gainesville, VA

In the ongoing saga of Short Sales and Foreclosures, the Obama Administration plans to announce this week a carrot and stick approach to deal with the issue.

650,000 borrowers have signed up for temporary loan modifications under the federal Making Home Affordable program enacted earlier this year. However, it is estimated that only a fraction of the borrowers who are eligible for the program have a "permanent" loan modification, and that many individuals are being told that their bank "doesn't participate" in the program.

In addition, short seller's, who have a legitimate hardship such as a job loss or medical issue, are being told "that's not my department", and "I will get to it later", when dealing with big banks.

With an estimated 20% of all home owner's currently owing more on their homes than the market value, "short sales" aren't going away anytime soon.

So far the big banks have implemented a sort of "hide and seek" approach to short sale transactions, in the hope that some home buyer's and seller's would give up, and find another way.

One of the lesser known, but equally as important reasons the First Time Home Buyer's Tax Credit was expanded and extended, was that the Halls of Congress were swamped with angry phone calls from constituents who waited month's for a bank's response on a short sale, only to be given misinformation, wrong information,or in the case of some institutions, outright lies.

After it came to light, that many of these "bailed-out" financial institutions were awarding big bonus's to corporate executives, while at the same time, dragging their feet on loan mods, and short sales, public outrage has pressured both congress and the administration to be held accountable to these now partially "publically owned" institutions.

Johnny "Culdesac" Yankoviak

11/30/2009

www.johnnyculdesac.com

Listing and selling short sales are easier when you have systems in place. As an experienced Gainesville, VA short sale listing agent, I can tell you that there are certain practices that are a matter of routine that make getting that short sale approval much easier.

Even something as simple as household chores are easier, and faster, when you have systems in place. Take the Cleland family morning routine: a routine that serves two adults, five indoor cats and one outdoor cat. There are several things happening at once, but in a relatively small space. Indoor cat dishes are cleaned and replenished, outside cat dish is replenished and outdoor cat given morning lap time. The kitchen sink is cleaned out and the dishwasher is emptied. Recycle is taken out, coffee is made, along with breakfast, and all creatures with, or without fur, are set to start their day. All of that happens in fifteen minutes. It would take someone unfamiliar with our systems twice as long until they got their own systems in place and knew the layout of the Cleland house.

A SHORT SALE LISTING AGENT HAS ROUTINES AND ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS THAT ACCOMPLISH THE MOST IN THE LEAST AMOUNT OF TIME NEEDED.

An experience short sale listing agent has been down the short sale road and knows how to keep files straight for easy referencing, who to call, how to reach them, when to reach then, how often to reach them, what they need and so on. It's a matter of routine. And that is why experienced short sale listing agents will have successful short sale after successful short sale. They have their own systems in place and that work well with the systems already in place at the short sale bank. They have the lay of the land and know the most effective way to get to short sale approval. They are not the agents in the market constantly complaining about how long a short sale takes, or how work intensive it is. Experienced short sale agents have diced up the necessary work into manageable steps and can easily keep the short sale on track to approval.

As a Gainesville, VA short sale listing agent, I take a lot of pride in my systems. They are the foundation that get my short sale sellers to a successful settlement.

Wells Fargo's home equity short sale call center must not realize that I, and others that may be calling them, own clocks. Why? I called at 11:15am, Eastern Time, and received the following message:

We're sorry. Wells Fargo's call center is closed. Please call back during our regular business hours: Monday thorugh Friday, 8am-6pm Central Time.

Admittedly, I'm not the genius that Albert Einstein was, but I think I know how to tell time across time zones. Central time is one hour behind Eastern time. So I was calling at 10:15am Central time. That's over TWO HOURS past the start of their regular business hours.

Wells Fargo's primary mortgage short sale department works like a well oiled machine. If only their home equity short sale department had the same work ethic, business sense or common sense. I honestly don't understand the problem. I would blame it on the holiday weekend that just ended, but this is not an isolated occurence. This "business hour" problem has happened to me three times in the last 14 days. It's completely unacceptable.

And to make matters all the more frustrating, the individual negotiator you are assigned makes a personal choice as to whether or not they will share their email address with you, or through the folks answering at the call center. Of course, on the file I am calling about, the negotiator has chosen to NOT communicate via email and his files are marked as such. Using the simple firstname.lastname@wellsfargo.com formula, I could get a hold of him, but if he doesn't want to communicate through email, and has already made that clear to me, what are the chances that my emailing him would actually do anything to HELP this short sale?

I would not be surprised if this Wells Fargo home equity short sale call center hours of operation issue continued throughout the day. I guess the call center employees and negotiators just an extra day off. I'm glad that's not my work ethic.

Today was an off balance day in the life of this Gainesville, VA short sale agent. Mentally, I'm in holiday mode. All my clients are tucked in with their contracts until next week. Any buyers not under contract are taking a breather for the Thanksgiving holiday. So I stayed in my pajamas longer than normal today. Imagine my surpise when the phone rang and it was a reporter for WAMU radio.

HE WANTED TO INTERVIEW ME TODAY ABOUT SHORT SALES.

They also wanted to interview a short sale seller. No luck. People either like their privacy about the issue or are out of town. So I set an appointment, jump in the shower and get ready. As I am putting the finishing touches on my outfit (two tone hoop earrings) I hear a thud going down the stairs. I have five cats. Unless they are chasing one another, there is not usually a thud.

I peek down the stairs and I see my Penelope (a two year old rescue, and shy as can be) seemingly falling down the stairs. I know if I go after her, it will be worse. She doesn't like to be picked up or advanced on quickly. I yell for my husband.

My husband James is the calmer of the two of us. He slowly approache Penelope who was now gimping to one side and headed for the stairs to the basement. She made it down the stairs, fumbling all the way. Then, at the bottom, was suddenly fine.

I was panicked. I tried to find someone to cover the interview that was in 30 minutes. I did. I made an appointment with the vet for later in the afternoon. And then my husband's voice took control, "Penelope's a bit off balance, but looks okay. Her leg probably fell aleep. Go do your interview and I'll watch her."

Spent a delightful thirty minutes or so with Jonathan Wilson of WAMU chatting about the ins and outs of short sales in Northern Virginia. I felt calmer just being out of the house. By the time I got home, my husband had found what he thought to be affecting the cat. An inner ear issue, which the online source says, usually goes as quickly as it comes.

So now, my household is as off balance as Penelope going down those stairs this afternoon. Wait and see. The same lesson I shared with WAMU about short sales. You have to have patience. How can I endless patience when it comes to listing and selling short sales, and be so impatient with a cat illness?

Short Sale Settlements are Best Split.

As a Gainesville, VA short sale agent, I am happy to report that I have been to many short sale settlements in 2009. (Yes, these short sales do indeed get approved and go to settlement.) As I usually represent the short sale sellers, I know that the emotions are bittersweet.

Most short sale sellers do not want to sell their house. They love their house. However, the home has become unaffordable and the sellers will generally find themselves financially insolvent. If they could stay in that house, they would. Short sale is the best possible solution for them to have a chance at not ruining their credit by allowing the home to go to foreclosure. So at settlement, they are happy to have avoided foreclosure, but sad to have to sell the house.

Mix this with the emotion of excited home buyers at the settlement table and you have an uncomfortable situation. Buyers will either sense the bittersweet feelings coming off the seller and downplay their own excitement, or sellers will try to rise to the ocassion and do their best to smile and laugh. Or maybe the buyer doesn't even think about things they are saying. I once represented a seller where the buyer said at settlement, "I can't stand it that people are able to walk away from their homes and my tax dollars go toward the shortfall." I'm sure that buyer wasn't directly speaking to the seller (who had been transferred out of the Country on business and never missed a mortgage payment) but there were hurt feelings on the seller's side nonetheless.

It has been my experience, across many a Gainesville, VA short sale settlement table, that short sale settlements are best when they are split. That means that the seller signs at one time, and the buyer signs at another. That way, no one is feeling forced to act a certain way other than how they feel. The seller can feel the loss of their home and have that private moment. The buyer doesn't have to stuff their complete and total excitement. And neither party needs to watch their words.