San Jose Short Sale Agent: Silicon Valley Foreclosure Prevention Specialists

Short Sale Negotiators working for lenders will say and do whatever is necessary to gain any perceived advantage.   Saying and doing things that are questionably ethical or flat out lies are not uncommon.  Like the general public, there are good negotiators and there are bad ones who give the whole industry a bad name.

I have been dealing with a tough negotiator for a large lending institution.  In my experience, I find there are two major types of negotiators working at lending institutions: one type tries to bully and overwhelm you - sort of like a large child who wants to overwhelm another child by the threat of doing bodily harm; while the other type tries to rely more on finesse and starts off being helpful and cordial and sets the tone for the duration of the negotiation process (we will leave out the third type which is simply clueless and overwhelmed).  I am a person who believes in the Golden Rule, so needless to say, I would rather deal with the latter types who don’t try to annihilate the opponent.

Unfortunately for me, my tough negotiator was the first type (let’s call him Negotiator A):  he wanted to show me that he is a tough negotiator who takes no prisoners.  He started the relationship by demanding an unreasonable price that was beyond market value and essentially forcing the buyer to walk out on the deal. The net proceed he wanted alone was more than what the buyer had offered.

Needless to say, it took a long time to find a second buyer, but we managed to find someone who was willing to pay something very close to what he was demanding.  Unfortunately, while we were waiting for the second buyer, a Notice of Trustee Sale had been filed.  I couldn’t and he wasn’t willing to request an extension on the sale date unless and until I had a viable buyer.  Now that we had a buyer willing to pay close to what he was demanding, I requested that he extend the sale date which was scheduled for 10 AM, November 30, 2010.

He told me he would only agree to extend the sale date if I could provide him with the written approval from the second lender.  He demanded this of me the Tuesday afternoon before Thanksgiving.   Now getting the second to settle before the first settled was going to be a difficult task in of itself, but to do this essentially during the Thanksgiving weekend was going to be a monumental task.  He knew it, I knew it.  He told me I had until end of business day Monday, November 29 to get him the written approval or there would be no way to stop the sale.

I had to be constantly on the phone with the second lender’s negotiator (Negotiator B – who just got a new offer package) and force her to make a decision in less than three days – all while I was at a family gathering in Southern California for the weekend.  Although Negotiator B  knew we had until Monday to provide the written approval to the first, Murphy ’s Law kicked in.  She was missing in action Monday morning.  Out of desperation, I tried to get her manager and her senior manager on the phone, but was unable to reach either.  I got a horrible sickening feeling in my stomach……….

I get upset when people don’t try their best.  I realize everyone is different and has different personalities, but we, as Realtors, are all in the business of representing the best interests of our clients.  As Realtors, we have a fiduciary duty to our clients: this means we are to put client’s interest ahead of our own.  We must do our best for our clients.  I’ve heard too many Realtors cave into the lenders without putting up much of a fight.

With the economy still in its anemic state and unemployment level still hovering near historic high of 10% (11.5% here in Silicon Valley), the prospect of depleting the inventory of distressed properties in the immediate future does not seem feasible.  The high level of unemployment and implementation of HAFA with the support of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac means the next few years will be busy years for short sale.

If, you therefore, choose to make a living helping distressed homeowners fight foreclosures, then by all means go out and fight for them because they need all the assistance you can provide.  This often time means pushing on even when the lenders say no or put up road blocks in your path.  The negotiators working for lenders are not highly compensated and are often over-worked, so they simply do not care and are often willing to send homeowners into foreclosure because of minor technicalities.   Some will help out homeowners by going out of their way to help your clients, most will not.  It’s the nature of the bureaucratic systems in which they work.  It doesn’t mean they are bad people, it just means there is little or no incentive for them to go out beyond what is expected of them.  After all, they work for organizations that engage in semi-deceptive practices like dual track foreclosures.  So it is up to us, the Realtors to step up and earn our commissions.

As a San Jose Short Sale Agent, I recently received a call from an attorney friend of mine who wanted me to help his client because the East Coast lender/servicer denied their loan modification request and would not agree to extend a trustee sale which was scheduled some three weeks out.   He got tired of dealing with this lender and wanted to know if I could get the sale date extended and complete a short sale.  Three weeks to stop a foreclosure was a tall order, but I thought I could help.

Getting a bona fide buyer took longer than I anticipated and we had only one week left before the scheduled trustee sale.  I immediately contacted the lender to advise them we had a solid offer and that I had just submitted a short sale packet.  The curt response I got was that their investor had a policy not to extend Trustee sales unless the short sale packets were submitted at least 10 days prior to the sale date: I was three days too late. She would not even consider looking at the offer or the packet. 

I had worked too hard during the past two weeks to simply be told that due to some arbitrary deadline; my clients were going to be thrown out in the street when we had a perfectly good buyer wanting to purchase their home.   I escalated the matter to the negotiator’s supervisor.  She simply reiterated their investor’s policy and told me there was nothing she could do.  I wasn’t going to be stopped by these bureaucrats who didn’t want to lift a finger.  I searched the internet and found the Corporate Communication Director’s contact information.  This time, I was going to use my ace card: my client’s hardship was his wife’s cancer. While she was receiving treatment, she eventually lost her job and the second income which was required to meet their mortgage obligations.

By the time I got the number and the email address (they are in the East Coast), the office was closed, but I left a voicemail and sent an email explaining my situation and that I would contact the local media and explain that the big East Coast lender, because of an arbitrary deadline and because it was inconvenient, would rather throw a cancer victim out into the street, even where there is a willing bona fide buyer, because we missed an arbitrary deadline by three days!   I was not going to let my clients get thrown out into the streets when we had a willing buyer.

The following afternoon, I got a call from the executive office.   They were more receptive and cooperative then the loss mitigation department employees.  The helpful woman said she would get in touch with the appropriate person at the loss mitigation department and do everything she could to get an extension on the sale date.

The next day, I got a call from someone who was a VP at loss mitigation, she began to tell me that the sale date could not be extended because it was the investor’s policy and therefore, they could not deviate from it and began to tell me all the reasons why her hands were tied.  This was a completely different response than the woman from the executive office.

I wasn’t going to simply accept her explanation, I simply would not accept that they had zero influence in extending the trustee sale; I didn’t fall off a turnip truck yesterday.  I called the executive office and again threatened to call the local consumer affairs reporter.  This time the helpful lady told me to disregard what I was told by the loss mitigation employee because she was going to pull strings and get it done.  She asked me to trust her and to call the attorney service the next day and confirm for myself that the extension was granted.  I had no choice as we were down to four days before the sale date.  I called the attorney service the next morning and got the news I was waiting for: we received a 60 days extension.

Between the attorney friend and myself, we were told on four different occasions that the trustee sale could not be extended.  They were simply refusing to lift their fingers to help out the borrower.  I had no choice but to refuse to accept their answers because doing so  would mean that my clients would literally be thrown out into the street when we had a willing buyer to take their home.   I was not proud of exploiting my client’s cancer condition, but I had to protect their interest by any means necessary.  In the end we persevered because I refused to listen to them when they told me no.   I guess I am hard headed in that way; but my clients are thankful and that is good enough for me.