[quote=SK in CV]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.[/quote]
In PM (I hope the OP doesn’t mind), he first indicated he was asked to pay “…45K to the short sale specialist outside of escrow at closing.” I didn’t advise him on that one way or the other because I didn’t actually know how much was currently owing on the two loans and neither did he.
I DID explain to him that the LA (didn’t know his/her identity) was acting as a “dual agent” in this case but signed his/her first contract with the SELLER. Therefore, their fiduciary duty was primarily to the seller.
If I HAD to have a dual agent in order to acquire this property, I feel Don Pelletier would have been much preferable to use than the majority of assclowns out there. I know where I have seen Don now. He works with settlement judges outside of local Family Law depts as an “expert consultant.”
But however “legal” dual agency is, I don’t fundamentally believe in it and think it should be banned in CA. At the very least, the practice invites distrust in buyers because they don’t feel they are “represented properly” even if they are.
I DO think tran’s offer was submitted to the lender because he states he deposited his earnest money check with Don. I can’t see Don collecting the check for his brokerage trust fund without submitting tran’s offer.
$416K is MORE than a fair price for this property, in the absence of soil subsidence problems or a structural problem and IF the OP was delivered the property vacant and free of vehicles.
I gave the OP a recco to a good soils engineer and advised him repeatedly to have a contingency in his counter offer to deliver the property vacant to him a COE and schedule his final walk-thru three days before COE so he could personally check as to its vacancy and make sure all of seller’s vehicles were gone.
Seller was storing his vehicles in the rear garage/RV pad he built. The OP stated he now lived in Rosarito, BC.
It is very possible that there are cash backup offers for more than $500K and the property will appraise (if all is structually sound). The OP will NOT find another deal like this in SD County for this price range. It is a one-time deal as it had an exceptional *newly-built* garage/workshop on the premises and was located atop one of the best streets in Bonita.
As to Blue Anchor, I can’t comment. The 1st TD holder appears to be based in NY and the Countrywide/B of A (subprime?) second has been likely long ago sold off to an investor of an unk location. It very well could have been BNY Mellon’s decision to use Blue Anchor or maybe that is who Don uses to negotiate with out-of-state lenders.
The LA was still marketing the property on the MLS to obtain backup offers in case tran backed out, as is customary with SS’s.
