The Ultimate Runaround With Chase Bank!

Short sale properties have become all too prevalent in the Tampa Bay market.  Their purpose is to preserve some of the seller's credit and save the lenders thousands of dollars in attorney's fees.  This sounds like a worthwhile plan for both sides but apparently the lenders don't see it that way.  They seem to enjoy giving the sellers and REALTORS the runaround.  A recent event with Chase Bank has reiterated this fact to me.

In January, a qualified first time home buyer looking to take advantage of the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, submitted an offer on a home which I had listed.  After submitting all the paperwork, waiting, resubmitting paperwork and then renegotiating the purchase price at Chase's request, we were hopeful that the property would close prior to the tax credit expiring.  Well, rather than contacting us with a closing date, the negotiator for Chase Bank decided that he didn't have enough paperwork.  He requested tax returns which hadn't been filed because Chase Bank wouldn't send the seller a statement of interest he had paid on his mortgage in 2009.  The negotiator said that either the seller file his tax returns or he was closing the file.  The seller complied but the negotiator still wasn't happy.  He then required the seller to create a profit and loss sheet for a business, which they could clearly see from the bank statements, had only brought in $30 for the year.  Still this wasn't enough.  Now we're at a crossroads.  The seller is out of town on a missionary trip and the negotiator says that if the seller doesn't submit ANOTHER bank statement and sign his electronically filed tax returns by the end of the week he's closing the file. 

Really Mr. Negotiator, you don't have sufficient paperwork to see that this seller doesn't have enough money to pay for his $69,000 home?  We have a buyer who would love to buy the home at the price you requested so that Chase Bank doesn't have to pay thousands of dollars in attorney's fees to foreclose and this isn't good enough for you?

Chase Bank is not the only culprit.  Negotiators with many of the banks seem to be on a power trip and revel in the ability to bring even more burden upon these desperate homeowners.  They make sellers and REALTORS jump through a string of hoops and make buyers wait sometimes eight months for an answer and closing date.  The lenders and their negotiators could care less about the home owners, REALTORS or buyers.  The ridiculous part is, if lenders would get their act together and put a system in place to quickly close these short sale properties they would not only avoid the costly foreclosure fees, they would be able to hold the value on properties.