Urgent Short Sale Deal And The Lender Has Already Approved The Price
February 2, 2008
We recently ran a report in the local MLS here and found over 75% of the properties in foreclosure that were represented in the MLS as potential short sales, ended up being auctioned off anyway. Many were lost after the agents turned down offers from investors to buy the properties and negotiate on their own.
We also have been contacted by many attorneys who are diligently working to determine agent culpability. In obtaining this information they are looking to the level of experience the agent represented to the client and how the client was harmed by the agent’s incompetence. The results were more than compelling. They could also be cause for many, many lawsuits.
Here are some of the things we found that were misrepresented and completely adverse to the homeowner’s best interest:
1. Agents representing themselves in print and online as short sale experts without ever previously completing a short sale transaction.
2. Agents not informing their clients that they were indeed not experts and in fact never successful in a short sale transaction
3. In an extremely time sensitive transaction, Agents not returning phone calls or summarily dismissing offers without ever submitting them to the homeowner or understanding the complexity of the transaction.
4. Agents not having the requisite skills, knowledge or historical experience to properly package, submit and negotiate with the Client’s lenders on behalf of the Seller and prospective Buyer.
5. Agents sending offers to the bank for approval when the bank is not the owner of the property. Did you actually tell the client that the bank would choose what offer they should accept?
The bank would have to agree to accept a discount on their payoff which would allow the sale to close, but in no instance, are they Party to the contract. Since they are not Party to the Contract just how did you give them authority OVER the homeowner to instruct you as to what offers to accept or decline?
Let me guess, you asked your broker or someone in your office if that is what you should do or your broker demanded that you do a short sale in that manner. I guess you weren’t the expert after all. An interesting question is was your broker an expert?
I can see attorneys licking their chops already. Didn’t anybody think about the ramifications of hordes of commission hungry agents running haphazardly across the Country feeling duly deputized by their brokers as short sale experts with little or no experience in that type of transaction?
We have recently spoken with MANY attorneys who are looking into this and finding and determining that this could indeed be a breach of fiduciary responsibility and a cause of action for substantial damages.
If you thought the Ummel case opened the door of litigation against real estate agents, I think we may see a legal tsunami once the ineptitude of the “short sale expert” is brought to light.
It will not be hard to prove damages and there will be overwhelming information that can be discovered via subpoena and otherwise.
If you were guilty of violating your fiduciary role as the agent working on behalf of the Seller by advertising yourself as a short sale expert when you indeed were not, you might want to might want to speak with a good attorney.
And for Pete’s sake, don’t you know people can read what you write on AR and other Internet websites and blogs?
You’re making things too easy for the lawyers to give you one of “life’s lessons“.
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