Short Sale Advice from Zillow

Call me a copycat, but I so love this answer from the Zillow Advice area re: Short Sales, I’m linking to it and pointing out an extremely interesting part as opposed to writing a post on my own.

The person who wrote the post on Zillow, Rachel Rosen, first of all states that she’s been through a short sale and feels she might be a little biased. Let me take a moment to say, “ouch!” to Rachel. I cannot imagine the emotional affect the extended process of a short sale can have on a person, but I do know it isn’t pleasant or calm. Kudos to her for writing about her experience and helping us all out.

This is the most important part of the information she shares –

Regarding the short sale package, do not send this in piece meal. Keep fax confirmation sheets, emails if electronic, or mail via certified mail. The person who sends this should call as soon as possible to verify the bank has received it. Every time you or your agent call, write down who you spoke with, when you spoke with them, exactly what they said, and what they are/were wearing. Keep a log every time the bank is called. They should be called every week for an update. This seems extreme, but in my own experience they apparently “lost the paperwork”, or told me I was missing an item at least three times. This is important to be on top of, because if your “file” is missing one item, or one T is not crossed, your process starts all over. It was 5 months before my bank even told me if the offer was accepted or not.

You read that correctly – five months! And that was just until she heard about the acceptance. Mutual acceptance just gets the ball rolling, so her ordeal was certainly not over at that point.

The record-keeping is the most crucial portion of a short sale. That cannot be understated. In addition to the reasons she gave, it always seems to me that the person I need to speak with is either a) on vacation or b) on maternity leave or c)has been promoted or d) left the company. If I have the name of the last person I spoke with and a recap of what was discussed, it helps immeasurably.