RealTown's RealTalk

I posted the comments below on a Short Sale group on LinkedIn yesterday, but thought it might be appropriate to post on Real Talk also.

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Recently I received several emails from walkawaytoday.org regarding a short sale I have listed. The first ones invited me to become one of their affiliate agents and later to submit my property to them for acquisition, which I did not do. The last email opened with: "This is a verification email to let you know we did receive your property information that you submitted to our site for acquisition."

I responded back on their last email advising them I had NOT submitted any property for their review or acquisition, they should NOT take any action regarding any property I have listed and asked them to unsubscribe me from their email list. In their first emails, which I deleted, they offer a $500 referral fee for my listing and more compensation when they re-list and sell it (not as a short sale.)

From what I saw on their web site, they do not advise the sellers they will get no money when they sign over their listing to this organization, but they offer the seller the ability to walk away sooner and get on with life and that they will not have to bother with REALTORS and short sales.

They state the sellers will not have to pay them & that they make their money from the negotiation process. They also say in their FAQ that their legal department deals directly with the legal department of the lender and gets much quicker responses than if a short sale were being processed with a Loss Mitigation Department. Regarding whether a seller could rent back from them, it depended on whether they qualified to rent, etc.

Based on their web site FAQs, I see no benefit to a seller in signing over their property to this company (or anyone else) just to "walk away today". It seems that is the only "benefit" they are offering to sellers. Giving away your property and moving out quickly is not necessarily a benefit for many people as I see it. Sellers may need to/want to stay in the property during a short sale process as long as they can to plan for their next move.

Has anyone had any experience with them or any thoughts on this organization?

Sue in Geneva, IL

Hey Sue,

I just stumbled upon your post here. Let me see if I can assist here, as I have referred three clients to walkawaytoday.org now, so I can give you an unbiased opinion as a Realtor.

I work in southern California, and as I'm sure your aware, we were one of the hardest hit markets. I am primarily a listing agent, so I was forced to learn short sales because many of my sellers fell behind, or no longer desired to keep a home that lost 1/2 it's value overnight.

Anyway, I usually carry 20-30 listings at a time, but anyone who has done short sales knows how time consuming and frustrating they are. I would have buyers walk because the bank would not respond in time. The banks would change conditions on us, and make closing difficult, etc. Then, after all that, they knock down my comission. Nice. Unless all you want to do is short sales, and specialize in them, they are not worth the time and frustration.

Anyway, A friend in my office told me about walkawaytoday.org. I was skeptical just like you, but my experience, and my clients experience has been good. I get paid a referral fee of $500 up front, plus they relist with me down the road once they've settled with the bank at 6% comission. I just received my first listing back, and it's a regular listing now, not a short sale.

Regarding your specific questions above, they do fully disclose to the seller everything, and I mean everything. They have a packet that the seller has to fill out and part of it is full disclosure that the seller will not receive compensation.

The benefit to the seller is that the result is just the same as a short sale, but walkaway approaches the bank entirely different than you or I. They go at them from a legal standpoint, then use leverage to buy the bank note at a significant discount.

Hope that makes sense

James Ray

ReMax Pros

Realtor, ABR, GRI

Hey Sue,

I bumped into your thread, and I just wanted to add my comments too. I was a licenced Realtor, and actually got into a lot of land development, etc the last few years. Anyway, times got rought obviously, and I lot basically all my projects.

I had a few investment properties that I bought '0 down' on 80/20 leans here in Utah. Anyway, renters moved out and I didnt have the funds to cover the mortgages while trying to get a new renter and fell behind.

I was referred to walkawaytoday.org by my Realtor, and transfered two properties to them. That was about 5 months ago. They just finished settling with the bank on the first one, and bought the note from the bank.

They're close on the second, which is with Wamu (or what was formerly wamu), so that one has taken a bit longer. They told me up front to expect the process to take 4-6 months because they are dealing with the banks legal dept, etc. Anyway, overall I've been happy with them, but sometimes I have a hard time getting thru to them. I've found email to be the best method of communication.

And to your point, they do a bunch of dicslosure up front, and I was fully aware of what they would do for me, and any risk involved on my part. It was worth it not to have to go thru the short sale fiasco.

Mike Watson

Recovering Investor :)

Sue-

I have been researching this company as well and have seen comments on various blogs. On more than one occasion, I have seen a Realtor comment about their POSITIVE experience with this walkawaytoday.org, but each time I cannot seem to locate the Realtor ANYWHERE on the internet. When was the last time you were not able to find a specific Realtor on the web??? on www.remax.com, there is no James Ray listed on the national roster. Another agent that made positive comments about this company on another blog I also could not find on the Remax national roster. Maybe James Ray would be will to provide his website or phone number?

Chad E.

Broker, Minnesota

Michael, what was your issue with them?? I've referred three listings, and worked with Chuck at their company. They've done a good job on all three, and I just got my first listing back from them at 6% after they bought the note. They had me list at a 90 day quick sale price. How many sellers are that easy to work with?

Who were you in contact with over there? maybe I can help get you in touch with someone else?

Hi --

James writes that:

>>>Michael, what was your issue with them?? I've referred three listings, and worked with Chuck at their company. They've done a good job on all three, and I just got my first listing back from them at x% after they bought the note. They had me list at a 90 day quick sale price. How many sellers are that easy to work with?

James -- what is the name of your brokerage? In what city and state do you work?

Thanks.


Peter G. Miller

Unless James Ray can proove his identity, I would take what he says with a grain of salt. I know that this is a public site, and virtually anyone can log on to boast their business or make false claims.

I too, was contemplating on referring this site to my client, however, after reading the comments from Chad, it makes sense that we need to do our due dliigence before 'referring' our clients to an organization we know nothing about.