Another Foreclosure Sale Stopped Just an Hour Before!

      At 9am this morning we received a frantic call from a buyer’s agent on a deal that we are closing at the end of this week. Supposedly the auction date of today August 1^st at 11am was put on hold according to One West Bank and we even had a motion to cancel letter from the foreclosing attorney. The agent was checking on line and found that the sale was still on schedule! After wasting time calling the lender and trying to get something done we only had one option left and that was to drive down to the courthouse with the seller and a stack of paperwork on the file including the contract, payoff letter, etc. and personally file a motion to cancel the sale. We got there at exactly at 10am with the sale scheduled for 11am. With less than an hour left before the sale we had the seller file a motion to cancel the sale together with all the paperwork and I’m happy to say that it worked!

     We’ve been working this short sale for months with constant communication with the bank and them telling us that the sale was on hold and everything was on track to close. It just goes to show that you can’t leave it up to them to do what they promise they would do. I’m not sure exactly who dropped the ball or if it was intentionally dropped, but I am sure that if we hadn’t taken action and gone down there ourselves to personally file the motion to cancel the sale, it would have gone to sale. Although we haven’t had a close call like this in a while, it was a good reminder to us that sometimes there is a huge disconnect between the banks and the court system and you just can’t leave it in their hands. The fact is that a $10.00 per hr negotiator doesn’t have anything at stake and they probably couldn’t care less about the seller losing their house or you losing a deal.

      The common belief is that you need an attorney to file this type of motion…not true. However, the seller needs to be with you or you must have a power of attorney from the seller. Also, you must have all the paperwork with you that support your claim because if the judge is still not convinced, he can still let the sale happen.