Today was the day. It was off to the courthouse with my sellers for their Summary Judgment Hearing.
We have an approved short sale on their home, with a closing date with the new buyer for June 15, 2010. We were going to court, to be sure that the county is aware of the approved short sale, so they would not set a foreclosure auction date to sell their house on the courthouse steps.
We arrived at the courthouse at 8:40 AM for our 9:00 Hearing. We had all of our documents together; the approval letter from the sellers short sale lender, a copy of the fully executed contract with all of the signed addendums, a letter from the title company facilitating the short sale, indicating they were working with me on the sale and all of the title company's correspondence with the lender.
We sat down in the judge's chambers as they got the seller's lender's attorney on the phone. We identified ourselves and the judge told the sellers to explain why they were there. Mr. Smith (not his real name) told the judge that they had an approved short sale on their property with a buyer and a closing date of June 15, 2010. The judge asked the attorney on the phone if this was correct.
THE ATTORNEY TOLD THE JUDGE THAT THERE WAS NO RECORD OF AN APPROVED SHORT SALE WITH THE LENDER! (This is the short sale lender's attorney!)
WHAT? I almost fell out of my chair? The date on the short sale approval was May 5 - two weeks ago! The short sale lender's attorney doesn't have a record of it? This is my biggest frustration with short sales - one department doesn't know what the other departments are doing.
At this point, of course I had to pipe up with, "Judge, we have a file with the short sale approval and the contract in it, here, if you'd like to take a look at it."
"Are you living in the house?" she asked the sellers. "No," they responded.
"So, you have no record of an approved short sale?" she asked the attorney on the phone.
Here I go again. I waited for permission to speak. This hearing was to determine if the court was going to proceed to set a date to auction this owners house off in a foreclosure sale. We have been on the phone everyday with the short sale lender. We finally received an approval, and now we are working towards getting this to closing. "Judge, I have a letter from the title company that has been working with the short sale lender, including all of the correspondence between the title company and the negotiator." I wanted her to take the documents from me, so she could see for herself.
"I am taking your word for it. The seller has another 30 days before we set a foreclosure sale date. By that time the closing should take place," the judge sharply responded.
So, that was that. We were done, the sellers got 30 days to complete the short sale, and the judge didn't look at any of the documentation.
It took a total of 7 minutes.
When we got downstairs, the courthouse was on lockdown, as someone had called in a bomb threat in one of the cars in the parking lot. We waited there for about an hour, before they let us go.
A couple of minutes down the street, I headed towards Wal Mart to grab an item I needed for the day. And, I noticed the store became full of police officers. They were evacutating people. There was a bomb threat there too, but this time it was a bomb inside, so everyone had to leave.
I got in my van and headed back to the office, tickled that we received our 30 day extension to keep my sellers property from hitting the chopping block. But, still shocked that the short sale lender's attorney had no record of the short sale approval on the books.
Sandy Shores Realtor, Melbourne FL Real Estate
Brevard County Real Estate and Investing
I specialize in Residential, Investment and Relocations.
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that for you
Sandy,
Sounds like you need to contact someone higher up in the lien holders chain of command...
Ann Hayden in Wildwood, MO
Sandy
Just stay focused on closing the sale, soundslike your not getting a lot of cooperation.
Good luck and success.
Lou Ludwig
I was at the Sprint Store at The Avenues at 9 a.m. and was wondering about the court house. Now I know! I was at Walmart at 840 sp I guess I lucked out!
Sandy, you are a pretty calm cookie talking about the bomb threats - I guess nothing can phase you after dealing with short sales! LOL
Good job Sandy. Not all judges are postponing foreclosures these days.
Good job getting that extension. I've been to the courthouse with sellers as well. It is amazing how the loss mitigation department does not communicate with the legal department. You almost think it was intentional mis-communicaiton in this computer age.
Ann, It seems that the right hand in these banks just doesn't always know what the left hand is doing.
Lou, Great point. It's important to stay focused on getting the property to closing.
Gary, Wow, you seemed to get lucky on both accounts - your timing was pretty good yesterday. You by passed the courthouse and got in and out of Wal Mart before the bomb threat there.
Mary, Well, we heard that there is one guy that has called in over 40 bomb threats in the past 25 days in our area. So, we all kind of figured it was this guy up to no good again.
Gabe, Fortunate for us, they are listening to the owners, and if they have an approved short sale with a buyer in place and a set closing date, they are allowing them a bit of flexibility.
Rob, I don't understand why they even get the legal department on the telephone with the judge, if they are not communicating with the loss mitigation department.
Sandy ~ What a day you had. Glad you got your extention for your sellers. It's typical the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Whats up with the bombs??? Time to move to the mountains? lol Would love to have you.
June, The sellers are tickled that we got the extension. It does seem that communications are a real problem here. They found out that the guy calling in the bomb threats is a homeless man - they are having difficulty finding him. He's called in over 40 of them in our area in the past month.
What a day! Makes one appreciate the simple things in life!
Hi Marilyn, Crazy times we're living in, that's for sure.
Sandy really a shame that the judge totally ignored you. Doesn't she realize that these corporations are huge and complex animals?
Sandy - I think all this short-sale lender stuff is making us all very old before our time! The people holding much of the power to make or break the real estate market, are inept at using that power. They exasperate the heck outta me! You aren't the first one to observe the left hand not knowing what right hand is doing inside this banks is insane. And quite frankly, in a day where computers have a program for everything, one would think each bank would have a corporate wide computerized method of handling their properties.