San Jose Short Sale Agent: Silicon Valley Foreclosure Prevention Specialists

I am mad as hell as I write this entry.  Once again, dual track foreclosure has proven to be alive and well and being practiced by one of the large banks in Silicon Valley.

What is dual track foreclosure?  Simply put, it is when the lender agrees to work with homeowners on a loan modification request, but also continues its foreclosure effort  simultaneously.  If the homeowners are being given the chance to work on a loan modification, why not stop the foreclosure effort until the resolution of the modification request?   The problem is that by permitting the homeowners to work on a loan modification, it gives them the false impression that the foreclosure action has halted during the loan modification process.   Those homeowners whose loan modifications are rejected are discovering that their homes are being foreclosed soon thereafter, often not giving them enough time to prepare to deal with the loan modification, let alone the foreclosure.     In even worse scenarios, the homeowners are being foreclosed on while they are anxiously awaiting answers to the loan modifications.  Homeowners are given false hopes of saving their homes through a loan modification, but while they are working through the process, their homes get unceremoniously snatched away without warning.    

Legislative efforts were made earlier in the year in California to try to stop this deceptive practice by the lenders, but it never passed.   The lobbying efforts of the lending institution were sufficient to get the bill killed in the California Senate.  The despicable practice is still not illegal and being widely practiced.

Being the San Jose Short Sale Agent, I received a call from a prospect today who was referred to me by a recent client for whom I completed a successful short sale.  He wanted me to help him because he spoke with someone at Wells Fargo who kindly informed him that they denied his loan modification and by the way, they are going to foreclose and sell his home (court house auction) next week.   Here is an example of a dual track foreclosure at work.

This homeowner had trouble making his mortgage payments because his wife had lost her job.  They went from a two income family for which they qualified their loan to a single income family.  They had been working with Wells Fargo since April of this year to get qualified for a loan modification.   After months of providing documentation, they were told a few days ago that their loan modification was being rejected.  And also, by the way, the foreclosure auction (Notice of Trustee Sale) had been scheduled for next week.  When the homeowner asked if he could get a 30 days extension to hire a Realtor to do a short sale, they rejected that request as well.

I would love to help this homeowner, but the problem is, with less than a week to go before the auction date, I cannot stop this trustee sale from taking place.  Even if I had a viable offer in hand, most lenders and Wells Fargo, specifically, will not stop the sale if the sale is scheduled to take place in less than 7 days.    Had the homeowner called me a week or two ago, I could have worked some magic, but now with less than a week to go before the sale date, he is out of options.   Had he not relied solely on the bank to and taken other steps, we could have prepared him for a HAFA short sale and probably gotten him $6,000 to pay off the second lien and another $3,000 in relocation expenses.  Instead, he will get nothing for months and months of waiting.

Some of you skeptical readers out there may be wondering if I may be exaggerating how often dual track foreclosures may be occurring in the real world?  More often than  you would like to believe and sometimes with confusing results.

Family Fights to Keep Home After Accidental Sale – Local News – Sacra Men To, CA – Msnbc
For homeowners out there who are  working on loan modifications, do not put all of your hopes into that one basket.  The chances of homeowners getting successful permanent loan modifications are small to begin with, most receive a temporary modification or are summarily rejected like the person who called me today.   So protect yourself and  consider multiple options, do not make the mistake of believing that the lender will have your best interest at heart.

This is the dilemma that over 6.3 million homeowners must face today: they can’t afford to keep their home, but they cannot afford to sell it either. Truly a situation where these homeowners are stuck between a rock and a hard-place.

These are both financially and emotionally difficult times for these homeowners and also ideal climate for swindlers to come swooping in. However, there is a solution available for these homeowners without falling victim to fraud. I invite you to do your due diligence and find an agent who can help you out of this dilemma who has the experience, the skill set and references to protect your financial future.

Change the Course Report

A prospective client came asking for help.  She had a short sale specialist working on her case for over a year.  The thing was, this agent was not even local (from San Diego) and would only tell her that things were going well for well over a year; not much communication, just that things were OK every few months.  The distance probably had something to do with the lack of continual communication.

Only recently, did she receive a call from him saying the lender would not be approving the short sale and would now be foreclosing. This came as a complete shock to her.  This was obviously a case of dual track foreclosure or simple negligence on the part of the agent.  She said the agent was basically backing out and telling her that he could no longer help her.  She wanted to know if I could help by replacing him.

It’s easy to wonder why someone would simply trust an agent for over a year and not ask questions or demand that she be kept apprised of the status of the short sale more frequently than a few times a year.  I pulled up the county record to see how much time was remaining on a Notice of Trustee Sale (NOT) and to see if we could save the short sale.  My search found that the NOT was filed over 3 months ago.  I needed to get more information.

I asked her to get a copy of her file since the agent was essentially firing himself and I needed to know what type of communication had been initiated and what the lenders had agreed to in writing.  I also asked her to get me a copy of the NOT to find out the attorney service handling the sale.

After a week or so, I followed up and not surprisingly, she got nothing from this agent.  Nothing in writing.  Not a copy of the NOT; not a rejection of the short sale letter from the lender; not a copy of the short sale package that was submitted on her behalf; not even a cancellation of the listing agreement; nothing.  Only words.

I wanted to help her, but with no documentation and only verbal statements, I could not commit myself to help her out of her predicament.  Given her particular situation, I seriously doubt anyone could help her with no documentation of what had happened before and being asked to step in only with the verbal understanding that foreclosure is imminent.

How could this individual have avoided this type of crisis?  I’m not going to go into allegations here without seeing any documentation, but it seems like the agent who professed to be a specialist perhaps was not so experienced.

I believe she did not have to be in this situation.  The best way to have avoided this crisis, in my opinion, was for her to have done her due diligence when hiring someone to help her out initially.   You really do not get a second chance when you are dealing with foreclosures.

First, she should have hired someone locally rather than someone who is 500 miles away to market and sell her home.  From what was described to me, he really didn’t know the local market and did not price it correctly nor put in a lot of effort to get it marketed correctly.  If she were not getting answers, she could have dropped in on a local agent to demand answers in a more timely manner.

Secondly, she is a young computer literate woman; she should have done some research into who she was hiring.  After all, she found me online.  She should have Googled the person’s name and see what was said about the individual.  She may not have gotten everything she needed, but she would have discovered if someone were alleging bad service or worse.  People may not write nice things about you, but if they felt mistreated, they will let the world know, from my experience.

Please distressed homeowners, do your due diligence before hiring someone to help you.

We discussed previously, the Notice of Default (NOD) which is essentially the first step in the foreclosure process.  You are officially put on notice and have certain timeframes which will dictate the process by which the home will be separated from the homeowners.

After the three months or 90 days which are given to cure the default, the next step is the filing of the Notice of Trustee Sale (NOT or NOTS).   This is otherwise known as the Auction Date or Auction Sale where the home is sold to the highest bidder at the steps of the County Court House.  If a homeowner were unlucky, they may receive this simultaneously as their loan modification is being rejected – a victim of dual track foreclosure.

Sample NOTS
As you can see, the instrument is used to answer the following:  a) how much is owed after penalty and interest, b) who is owed this money and c) where the auction will take place.  It is sort of the Who, What and Where of the foreclosure process.

This is the last step in the foreclosure process.  The homeowner can stop the foreclosure process by paying the full amount listed there before the sale date; or seeking alternative options like a short sale or deed in lieu.  When you receive this notice, you really must act fast.

Continued……

When I tried to explain the situation to Negotiator A that Negotiator B was out sick and I would try to get the approval to him before 10 AM the following morning, he told me it was too late.  He assured me that because I missed the deadline he gave me, he could not stop the sale.  I refused to concede and told him I would get it to him before the sale, even if it was too late and a waste of time.  I would not give up my effort or hope.

Needless to say, despite my protest to him that I would not give up, I felt devastated inside.   How was I going to get an approval a matter of a few hours the next morning when I couldn’t get anyone on the phone?  Things looked truly bleak.

I started calling at 7 AM the following morning and got Negotiator B, her executive office and a senior manager involved and yelled, screamed, threatened and otherwise made a lot of noise to a lot of people.  I was such a pain and made so many calls, I managed to get an approval letter generated in 3 hours!

By the time I got the letter in my Inbox, it was 10AM.  By the time I was able to send the letter to Negotiator A, it was 10:05 AM, 5 minutes after the sale date. When I called Negotiator A to check his Inbox, he told me not to waste his time.   He wasn’t even going to bother sending the approval letter to his superiors to attempt to stop the sale, but I begged and cajoled him into forwarding it, despite being a few minutes late.  I just had to hope for the best.

Three days later, Negotiator A still claims not to know what happened, but I called the Reconveyance Company and learned that the sale was stopped and the sale date has been postponed.  Why Negotiator A will not give me details about the extension and status when Negotiator B and the buyer both keep calling to find out what is going on  is beyond me.  But all I need to know for right now is that the auction was extended and we have more time to close this sale.

“Never Give Up” is emblazoned on the side of Queen of Apostles Church on my route home.  I’ve read this for years and perhaps that phrase had embedded itself deeply into my consciousness, but that was exactly how I felt on that Monday after Thanksgiving.  If I had given up because Negotiator A told me it was not possible, or even when I felt hopeless upon discovering Negotiator B called in sick on the due date, then I would not have had the pleasure of telling the sellers that I was able to get the auction date extended and to give them hope that we will succeed in fighting their foreclosure; and it makes me feel pretty good about myself too.

It is quite common to hear about the emotional responses of homeowners facing foreclosure.  I have personally seen many bank owned homes (REOs) where all of the cabinets were torn off the walls, every single door knobs was stolen, walls were peppered with holes and carpets were soiled with who knows what…..

I suppose these were often the emotional responses of perfectly rational homeowners having irrational responses upon learning that their lenders would force their family out of their homes and try to sell their homes at auctions.   I imagine I would not react in such drastic ways; but who knows how one would react unless one were in the other person’s shoes?

Well, here is a homeowner’s reaction to a foreclosure notice………