As a Real Estate Broker in the Phoenix market, I deal with short sales on a regular basis- they make up about 50% of the homes on the market. So most of these homes are already in foreclosure- meaning they have gotten the foreclosure notice, which gives the homeowner 3 months before the bank forecloses on their home.
So most of the time people call me with 1-2 months until the foreclosure date. This is generally fine, we market the property at a reasonable price- to obtain a buyer and must send the purchase contract to the homeowner’s bank quickly, to avoid foreclosure.
This process of making sure the bank has all the paperwork and following up is where most Realtors fail, most Realtors are not detailed enough to follow up. This is where we thrive. Follow up is our main goal, there is way too much room for the bank to lose documents or in general to make a mistake.
Recently, I had a home that Chase had basically forgotten. Even with our 2 weekly calls, they would give us updates, but somehow this home wasn’t moving forward in their system. So I called 2 days before the foreclosure date, spoke with the Chase negotiator who told me she would process the file right then. I was shocked, why hadn’t it been processed before? There was no good reason!
The day before the foreclosure, the home was still listed on the auction website. I spent my entire day speaking to different people at Chase, all of whom told me the foreclosure would not be postponed. I then called our client, told him that even with all of our efforts the lender would foreclose on his home.
The day of the foreclosure, the home was still on the auction website, I called our negotiator who assured me her boss, some manager at Chase, was trying to postpone. About an hour before the foreclosure, the foreclosure was postponed.
The moral of my little story is most foreclosures can be postponed, if you have an offer and have been working to sell the home. Most are much easier than the above situation, but the lenders would prefer not to foreclose if given a choice.
The only case in which I have found this to not apply is on condominiums. It seems the lenders believe these units are worth far more than anyone is willing to pay, thus we cannot secure a buyer and the condo goes to foreclosure.
