Short Sale Success...Notice the Small Things...

I had been working on a Short Sale for over 4.5 months only to learn from the 1st mortgage company (WellsFargo) had closed the file over $3,800 that the 2nd mortgage (WellsFargo) had been requesting.  Let me back up - here is the info on the deal.  We have a 100% cash buyer ready to close.  I had an approval from the 1st and the 2nd said they needed to net 10% of what they were owed ($6,800).  The 1st said they would only give $3,000 - "not a penny more."  So we had a good old fashion stand off.

When I called the 1st mortgage negotiator for at least the 8th time (following my Top Producer systems of course) looking for some answers on what they wanted to do after about a month stand off- I was told the file had been closed.  I could have turned my desk over - all that hard work to end without any notification of the file being closed...Grrrrrrrr...

Instead I received a pep-talk from another agent on our team and we resubmitted the entire short sale packet again.  Low and behold we were assigned to the same negotiator.  I sent a rather frustrated email to the 1st mortgage negotiator just explaining the frustrations from the agent view and what we needed to do to get the job done.  Much to my surprise, I received a phone call that same day from the negotiator.  She said that the "investor needed to see someone else contribute to the 2nd mortgage."

I asked if we could counter back to the buyer for the difference and she said that the 1st mortgage would want all of that money then too.  She than said if the agents would contribute "maybe like $2,000" she could get it to work.  I then said if we contribute $2,000 she can have approval today?  She then confirmed.

I then asked what if we contributed $1,000 - would that work?  Again, much to my surprise she said yes!  We then called the coop agent and agreed to split the $1,000.  As much as I hate having to contribute any of the commission to a short sale $500 was not a bad deal on a 6% payout.

I truly believe that the short sale could have been approved sooner if I would have been able to have that same conversation with the negotiator.  They all have rules to follow and she was just following procedure, but I now know how I will approach any similar matter in the future.

Hope it helps you as well!!!