Short Sale, Contacting The BANK!
Ok to get a short sale started you ask the home owner for the right to contact his mortgage company right? Ok once he gives you the ok, what department do you contact? Do you have to go through the lawyer? Are you up front with the bank in telling them im an investor and plan to pay off the mortgage if they are willing to take %50 of the owed balance?
Get in touch with the decision maker in the "Loss Mitigation" department.
I can see the pre-qual requirement.
but REQUIRING you to go to them? That sounds illegal.
You can submit ANY offer you want, it just maybe circularly filed.
I just made an offer on a CW REO on 5-2-07. They do have some terrible hoops to jump through. In my area they are listed on the MLS and it states you must get a pre-qual from them to make an offer. If you have a Tri-Merg credit report that you broker pulled within the last 30 days, they will take that for the pre-qual.
I think the part about within 5% of asking price is probably the agents experience, not a set rule. Submit whatever amount you want and he will have to send it on because of fiduciary requirements.
Check their REO website to make sure their asking price matches what the MLS states. If their is a price discrepancy it is likely that CW has lowered the asking price, but the MLS has not been updated lately. CW seems to be very unwilling in my area to work with people on unloading their REOs. If you do a google search on CW and their REOs, there are some great blogs and articles about why this is.
Good luck with your offer and I will let everyone know how mine goes.
SL
B-Low,
Thanks for the tip. At least now I know that it is not all Countrywide offices that insist on pulling your credit. I will investigate further and see if I can find a reasonable countrywide office.
Thanks,
JS