Single Jacksonville Mom Faces Foreclosure Despite 5 Offers
A single working mom trying to sell her home as a short sale wound up in foreclosure, despite what agents say were five viable offers on her house.
Palm Coast, FL – April 20, 2010
By: Jennifer Lindgren Taren Reed : First Coast News
Updated April 20, 2010 – Jacksonville – A single working mom trying to sell her home as a short sale wound up in foreclosure, despite what agents say were five viable offers on her house.
Alise Mello’s case began like many others.
After going through a divorce three years ago, she refinanced the home she and her husband shared, which she owned. She ended up with a variable interest rate and could not keep up with payments.
With a home in her name, a full time job and a 6-year-old daughter to care for, she needed to downsize and maintain her good credit score. She ventured down the path of selling short, hoping to stave off a foreclosure.
…….."Five buyers have been refused. One for $159,000. Full market price offers. Each one denied," Mello said.
the Lenders are being really ugly
There are thousands and thousands of terrible stories. Now I read that legislation in Florida has been proposed to allow foreclosure without a Judge’s ruling. What next?
Single Jacksonville mom
How about the new regulations starting around April 24, or so, before a house can be sold it MUST be inspected at the owner’s expense to be sure that it meets all the new environmental regs. If there are uncertanties, the Hazmet Rep will be called in. Where is this Socialist government going?
PEOPLE LISTEN UP!
Two issues here: According to this article, Triplet Title mediated this file. First of all title companies are insurance agencies, they are "insurance" agents NOT State licensed real estate agents. By negotiating this file they may have crossed the line by performing the services of real estate – a third degree felony. SECONDLY, this poor mother in trusted her agent to work her case and NOT an insurance agent. King says you should work with an agent trained in short sales is true but she doesn’t work her own short sale listings – she gives them to Triplet to work because they in turn get to issue the title insurance policy. I will bet my bottom dollar the only calls she made for "updates" was to Triplet and NOT to her clients lender. The negotiators log book will mostly confirm this. IF YOU ARE IN A SHORT SALE MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THE EXACT INDIVIDUAL THAT IS CONTACTING YOUR LENDER. Is it the agent that claims to be a short sale expert or is it a third party insurance agent doing it in exchange for issuing a title policy!
negotiating short sale
Can you show me anywhere it states that a title company is not allowed to be the negotiator in the state of Florida? As long as they are not charging a fee for doing so, they are ‘allowed’ to be involved. If you are thinking they benefit by doing the title work, so does a Realtor® by collecting their commission…and many tack on an ‘administration fee’ in order to be compensated for the additional time spent..in essence getting paid for modifying a loan on the back end. That, IMO, is borderline illegal. Anyone can negotiate a short sale as long as the homeowner has authorized them to. The homeowner would have known who was calling since she had to sign off on allowing them to do so. The title company is NOT negotiating the sale. The Realtor® would be the one to be re-negotiating the deal if the bank changes the terms.
Aside from that, I’m wondering why she can’t get the loan modified with the new programs out.
Just to clarify…
As stated in the just released Freddie Mac newsletter:
"The parties involved should be, but are not limited to: the buyer, seller, listing agent, selling agent, short payoff negotiator(s)/facilitator(s), and closing agent."
https://www.freddiemac.com/singlefamily/news/2010/0412_payoff_fraud.html?attr=EMC-SFNCAEFTSPF
miss use of word
I am the owner of Triplett Title and was misquoted in respect to Mediator for this short sale. I am not a mediator I am a processor of paper up to the point of negotiations. I do call and check status on short sales. My agents also make a call on behalf of their clients and the homeowner makes calls as well. This is truly a team effort. The writer is correct, under my license I can not negotiate a short sale. Under my license I can however check on status of agreed settlement for satisfaction of mortgage. Please do not be mislead by a News Anchor misquoting me.Please also look past the fact of an anonymous posting to make me look bad. I am over 12 years of title experience. I have sat at a round table discussion with many legal underwriters and discussed just what we do. I would hope in the future if one wants to question my ethics they at least spell the name of my company correctly, and be proud enough to stand behind what they say with a name.
loosing site of the subject
I also wanted to say the anonymous blogger is getting away from the true story here. This bank countered with a $176,000.00 sales price. This after the seller paid for their own appraisal and came in at $150,000.00. When presented to the bank the seller was told great we still require $176,000.00 sales price per our BPO. This seller and their agent did everything right according to the CDPE course taken by the Realtor. In this instance it is a true tragedy that the sale did not go through.
More to the story – there usually is
First Coast News apparently didn’t have much in the way of intellectual curiosity when writing this story.
A quick review of Public Records – it took a few minutes – revealed that there is a judgemment against poor Ms. Mello. The judgement was awarded in April 2009 in favor of an Edwin Norris. This judgement is a potential title cloud, and may be the reason for the denial. If Mr. Norris has a claim against the property, and is not willing to waive his claim, he may be the impediment. This may be likely as she stated that she owes $179,000, which is quite a bit more than the original mortgage amount from over three years ago.
The Bank was acting within its rights. Borrowers do not have the right to a short sale. The lender cannot defend its actions because of privacy laws. Please note (per public records) that a judge did, in fact, award a foreclosure judgement. The property has been sold at public auction. This should be an indication that the lender did everything properly.
Here is what I see (all facts per Public Records): A woman buys a house in May 2002 for $129,900. She takes out a new mortgage in August 2006 for $172,000. She does not have any equity to lose – she is not being harmed financially.
How can she keep her "good credit score" intact? She was already significantly in arrears for the forclosure process to have been started in December of last year.
The bottom line is that SHE got herself into this problem. It seems that everyone wants to be a victim and so many have refused to accept responsibility for their own actions. It is important to understand that when your bank makes a loan; it is your money and your neighbors’ money that they are lending. People entrust banks with their money. Shouldn’t protecting that money be a bank’s top priority?