OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD 2012

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Short Sale Shenanigans

Since December of 2010, we have been in Short Sale Limbo.  We have a contract on house that we want to buy which is a short sale.  Two nights ago, we received a call from our Realtor to say that there is another offer on the property that has been accepted by the buyer.  Our first contract stated that the Seller could not accept any other offers....Anyway Yesterday morning I was up at 4AM, unable to sleep because of the whole situation. I wrote a letter to the broker that supervises the Seller's Realtor.....

( Names have been removed for now)


February 16, 2011


Dear Ms. ~~~~~~~ Broker



Good Morning.  Let me introduce myself before I continue.  My name is Lisa ~~~~~.  My husband and I have a contract to purchase the property at ~~~~~~~~~~~~. This property is our “dream” home for the rest of our lives.  We are excited at the prospect of moving to Lake county to be closer to our children and our grandchildren. 

We have been patiently waiting for a response to our offer since December 6th.  In fact, our deposit of $960.00 is still being held in escrow by the law firm of ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~, and as of yesterday a representative of that office ( ~~~~~~~) told me that she currently has my other check for $1040.00 that has not been cashed but is being held.  I do not understand why they were so quick to cash the first check in December 2010, but have not made the effort to cash the second check which has been in their possession for approximately 2 weeks, do you?

After speaking to my Realtor, ~~~~~~~~~~~~ last night, I have to tell you that I was not able to sleep all night.  Please understand that I do not have a background in real estate or any knowledge of how short sales and or foreclosures work, but I do trust my Realtor, ~~~~~~ to guide me through the process.  She has kept me well informed of this transaction through forwarded E-mails and texts regarding telephone conversations (or lack of) during this whole process. 

After talking to my Realtor last night and finding out that there is another contract on the property at Turkey Farm Road, I am heartbroken. It seems that your associate ~~~~~~~~~~~ has manipulated us to perhaps seek a higher commission from another buyer? I do not know her motivation, maybe you do.   I am sure that my Realtor  has provided you with all the details and the time line of when we signed our first contract, and our second contract.  Not to mention the two pages I had to initial last week to give The Seller permission to accept other offers is OURS is not accepted by the bank.  My concern is was our second offer even presented to the bank?  Where is the proof, where is the paper trail?

Again, I don’t know the ins and outs of Real Estate, Short Sales, or Foreclosures.  I just know that this transaction that is being handled by your associate, ~~~~~~~~~~~ has been less than above board.  I do not have the means to hire a Real Estate Attorney to help me figure out this complicated situation.  But, it did occur to me early this morning that I could write you a letter to let you know how I feel about this.  It also occurred to me that I can CC this letter to ~~~~~~~ REALTY CORPORATE to let them know how I feel about my experience with your associate.  I will forward this letter to every ~~~~~~ REALTY CORPORATE office that I find on the internet, until I find the right individual to talk to. 

It did occur to me that since I do not have the financial means to hire a Real Estate Attorney at this present time, I will move forward and contact the local news stations to present my situation to each and every one of their “Consumer Reporters”.  Perhaps one of them will find this particular situation timely with reference to Short Sales and ethical Real Estate transactions.  It may be just the “sweeps” topic that will interest one of the major news stations.  Then again, they may have heard about this type of behavior before and it may be nothing new.  Regardless, I will make sure that other individuals looking to buy a short sale house in today’s market will think twice before considering Your Realty Company as their representative. 


I hope this letter provides you with some insight on how disappointed we will be if we do not get the property on ~~~~~~Road.  It may or may not be in your control at THIS time, but it does appear to me ( a Real Estate novice)  that this transaction and  your  ~~~~~~~ associate should have been better supervised.

Regards,

 Lisa
  
I feel so much better for getting my feelings down on paper.  And yes, I did send the letter to the broker.  We shall see what happens.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

I do so hope that your situation gets figured out. That seems horrible and definitely shady circumstances. We are actually purchasing a short sale home here in Washington state ourselves. We put an offer in on the first or second week of january and just heard back from the bank concerning the offer that the seller and we agreed upon. They raised the price by $10,000 but are going to cover some of the closing costs like we asked. So we are accepting the offer and should be closing in 30 days as the terms were set if all goes well. So short sale's I think can be done correctly just from our experience so far but I think it depends definitely on the brokerage and the bank the seller has doing the work for them. I hope to keep things like this in mind when I get my real estate license as this does not make for a good real estate agent as they are definitely not thinking of you or their clients but sounds like only themselves. Again will pray for you and your family and this situation.

jpkittie said...

good for you!!!

Jane said...

Good for you Lisa - it sounds like you haven't been dealt with fairly and like you, I would want to know every last detail and try to turn things around. Good luck to you - I will watch how things unfold with great interest.

Alan said...

Great work, letting them know that they can't get away with it!

Thanks!

Louise said...

so you've been gazumped! Thats so frustrating! is there a real estate body you can contact for advice on the legal aspects of this?
The kind of people that do these things don't care a jot about what's ethical or the right way to treat people. If the realtors have done anything against there associations code of ethics or against the law then I'd make a formal complaint. so sorry this has happened to you, hope things work out for you

Robert @ The College Investor said...

Short sales are so incredibly frustrating. I put an offer on a property that was a short sale several years ago. The offer was sent to the bank as part of the short sale package, and we were sure it would be accepted because it was the price the bank countered a previous offer at.

It was then accepted, and we agreed to a 30 day escrow. The only condition was that the home owner had to sign a promissory note to the second lien holder. I would not go into escrow until I had a copy of the signed agreement because I didn't want to pay to start escrow only to be screwed by the current owner.

Well, the owner never signed the note, and the bank foreclosed and sold the house at auction, and I never had a chance to buy it. Very frustrating!

Maureen said...

Bit of spam there me thinks.......

Your letter is matter of fact and so articulate that I would think somebody would sit up and take notice, you have been treated exceptionally badly, hope the outcome is good for you.

Robert @ The College Investor said...

Short sales are so incredibly frustrating. I put an offer on a property that was a short sale several years ago. The offer was sent to the bank as part of the short sale package, and we were sure it would be accepted because it was the price the bank countered a previous offer at.

It was then accepted, and we agreed to a 30 day escrow. The only condition was that the home owner had to sign a promissory note to the second lien holder. I would not go into escrow until I had a copy of the signed agreement because I didn't want to pay to start escrow only to be screwed by the current owner.

Well, the owner never signed the note, and the bank foreclosed and sold the house at auction, and I never had a chance to buy it. Very frustrating!

Alan said...

Great work, letting them know that they can't get away with it!

Thanks!

jpkittie said...

good for you!!!

APooh4U said...

I do so hope that your situation gets figured out. That seems horrible and definitely shady circumstances. We are actually purchasing a short sale home here in Washington state ourselves. We put an offer in on the first or second week of january and just heard back from the bank concerning the offer that the seller and we agreed upon. They raised the price by $10,000 but are going to cover some of the closing costs like we asked. So we are accepting the offer and should be closing in 30 days as the terms were set if all goes well. So short sale's I think can be done correctly just from our experience so far but I think it depends definitely on the brokerage and the bank the seller has doing the work for them. I hope to keep things like this in mind when I get my real estate license as this does not make for a good real estate agent as they are definitely not thinking of you or their clients but sounds like only themselves. Again will pray for you and your family and this situation.

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