BG, It’s unclear to me whether that extra cash was outside of escrow. Maybe our poster can clarify. At least once, he indicated, though vaguely, that it was through escrow.
I’d like to know if these intermediary “short sale specialists” are common. If they’re involved in negotiating loan transfers or payoffs, they’re required to be either licensed RE brokers, or licensed lenders through the DOC. I suspect lawyers are allowed to do it too.
If these intermediaries are common, it’s just one more indication of how totally inept lenders are. They’re doing thousands of short sales. They should have people in house to do this sort of thing, rather than pay a 3rd party extra cash. This may be a perfectly normal short sale transaction, but based on info provided, it smells very fishy.