I am now starting to get national recognition for my blogs about banks, I thought I would share to my national audience some information about Chase banks and how they operate within the world of short sales from all of my experience of dealing with them and the hundreds of files I have completed or tried to complete with them. I have been doing short sales for over 5 years now in San Diego so my tenure is extensive.
First I would like to address one procedure Chase Bank short sales. On about 50% of my short sale files with them they make it a procedure of speaking with a short sale client on the phone before deciding whether or not they will allow the homeowner to do the short sale. The purpose of this is clear and simple, and I have sat in almost all of these conversations. The reason behind this is, is most of Chase banks representatives that handle short sales are trained in the art of being a debt collector. Their goal is to get the short sale homeowner on the phone to berate them and try to squeeze more money out of them before the property goes to foreclosure. They will say things such as “How could you do this to Chase bank?”, “How could you steal our money?”, “ Can you borrow money friends or family and give it to us?”, “Can you empty your retirement savings (401K) and give that to us?” and also my favorite, “ We will come after you for everything you got for as long as we can!”. Now understand these are clients and homeowners who are already in distress and are trying to do the right thing by doing a short sale on their home. Any attempt to by pass this part of the short sale process will result in Chase Bank closing out the file or denying the short sale. I have seen and heard this first hand and I usually have to coach my clients ever before speaking with Chase Bank and interject when things get out of hand. The whole point of hiring a real estate broker or attorney is so the clients do not have to deal with any additional harassment, but to put it simply Chase Bank does not care about their clients. They only see them as people whose lives they can destroy, to collect further money.
When it comes to approving a short sale, I will say, Chase Bank will approve them (in time) and will try everything they can to maintain the right to collect upon their distressed client in a short sale if they can. If they are they investor (owner of the loan) they will forgive any remaining deficiency balance if your broker has enough experience to negotiate this in the approval letter. If they do not, Chase Bank will try to issue an approval letter stating they will come after the home owner. If Chase Bank is not the investor they will always issue an approval letter stating that they reserve the right to possibly come after the home owner for the balance unless it is fought at the administrative level or with use of an attorney. I have even seen at times that Chase will issue a letter stating they would rather foreclose on a homeowner than allow a short sale, even when the bank will make will make more money with a short sale. So be very careful.
When it comes to loan that are second loans with Chase Bank, which are typically recourse loans, meaning they can come after you for the remaining balance they will almost always issue an approval letter for a short sale stating they will be coming after you. And Chase will always choose to let a property to go to foreclosure and reject a short sale than deviate from this standard approval letter stating they will come after the home owner. Any attempts to bring this to the attention to the administrative level or CEO will go unheard and unanswered because Chase bank would rather sell off this bad debt to a debt collector if they can, and make another dollar than help a distressed homeowner do a short sale and help a community retain its property values.
Bottom line is this. I deal with hundreds of banks of a daily basis in the short sale world, and no other bank treats its clients so poorly and with such viciousness as Chase Bank. I kind of see it as the same situation as when things go bad in life you learn who your friends are who you can count on. When this market started to turn for the worse over 5 years ago every bank developed their own personalities and developed their own methods of dealing with their clients. Banks like Wells Fargo and Wachovia took the high road and treated clients with respect and looked to the future of retaining and keeping distressed homeowners as clients for the future ad also forgave them for any remaining balance on a loan in a short sale. Chase Bank became public enemy number one in my world along with Bank of America, and treat their clients so poorly and I was so appalled that I made a vow to never use Chas Bank again for any of my personal business nor allow any client of mine to ever use them for any banking, loan, or financing of any kind. I made a promise to inform everyone I knew about Chase Bank worked and how they treated clients who were going through the foreclosure or short sale process. So be careful if you are a homeowner with a loan with Chase before you agree to a short sale, and make sure you know what kind of loan you have and make sure your agent or broker knows what they are doing when dealing with Chase, and have the ability to have an attorney negotiate on your behalf if needed. I always have attorneys working with me now when it comes to dealing with Chase bank and their short sales.
Kurt Wannebo
San Diego Real Estate and Investments
www.shortsaleinsandiego.com
I had an absolute nightmare dealing with Chase on my personal short sale, which ended in foreclosure in Oct 2009. The collectors were actually very nice right up until we got an offer and started the short sale process. The Chase rep told me they would agree to $320,000 (my payoff was $374,000)and my buyer was stuck at $310,000 (the home appraised at $505,000 Dec 2006). I finally negotiated the buyer up to $320,000 and at 3p the day before the foreclosure sale, the bank rejected the offer and told me that based on a DESKTOP appraisal using comps from 2007 and 2005 that my house was worth $420,000. Well, I’m no genius, but 22 mos on the market indicated otherwise. It’s been 5 mos – the house is now priced at $234,000 (with 6% commission, 3% closing costs, and a $6500 tax bill). Idiots.
This is very true. The Chase negotiator I was assigned was Anthony DeTommaso and he requested to speak with my client. We all were on the phone together and he did just that…berate my client over what she did with the money, why she can’t pay back the money, and then requested a settlement on the loan from my client. When she declined, he threatened to cancel the file. I was able to get the buyer to come to the table with money in addition to the money offered by the first lien-holder to partially satisfy his request. The final result was Chase closed the file and preferred the property to go into foreclosure where they as the second lien-holder will get nothing, and attempt to collect in full from the borrower in the future. Made no sense!
I have been researching the topic of foreclosures and short sales in an effort to gain more knowledge; attempting to assist a family member who currently is in default. I have worked in the mortgage industry for 15+ years as a loan officer. I am appalled that of all banks, the current mortgage is with CHASE. They denied a loan modification. Even when an organization such as NACA got involved, NACA said they were indeed the most difficult of all banks to negotiate modifications with. It saddens me reading the above comments from Former Chase Client, that 1.) had a loan mod been considered at what they currently haven’t even secured in the way of a purchase, not only did they walk from a willing buyer, they lost money and time… equating to substantially greater losses to them as a bank.
2.) they did a number on the Former Chase Client… adding a foreclosure of record, adding stress to the persons life, and making them move on… with out resolution
3.) shows how a giant in the banking industry could care less… especially if their coiffures remain in tact… guess they haven’t heard of being powerful and gracious…
I can understand why Short Sale Kurt would spread the word about the spirit that evidently operates in this company…. it is diseased and cancerous.
I have handled many short sales in the Park City Utah area and I have found virtually everyone to be 10 times more work than it needs to be and much longer as well. They could finish most files in 30 days instead of the 180 to 360 that it usually takes. I sell high end homes and I have seen on numerous occassions where Chase has lost hundred’s of thousands more because of their lack of organization and arrogant attitude.
High end short sales typically take longer with any bank due to the high amount of loss.
Have you heard much about people’s experiences with Chase after the short sale. We just completed ours and, unfortunately, our second mortgage was through Chase. They did exactly as you stated above and agreed to the sale with the right to come after us. I’m curious to see how they proceed from here. Do they automatically send our debt to a collection agency or will they try to settle with us first? Do they ever just forgive (wishful thinking) even though they legally have the right to come after you?
Thanks.
They will try to collect but you can also settle with them. I have heard of Chase calling clients after the fact to do what is called “soft collections” where they simply call you and ask for money, but I have not heard at this time of Chase actually filing a lawsuit to collect on a homeowner – YET! The best you can do is to try and negotiate a payoff with them. Typically you can settle in the 5% – 25% of the remaining balance range. Or you can talk to an attorney or debt settlement company to try and settle the debt for you.
I agree with this as well, I honestly think that the system needs some sort of regulation by laws that can’t be desputed. Our real estate team had a recent incident with a different bank and I honestly believe that the foreclosure could have been avoided. The person on the other end of the phone seemed like it was a power trip more than anything else.
The Kiper Team
Many lower level people might decline a file or have power trips at any bank. That is why we never accept a declination on a file unless it comes from a SVP or higher leverl of management.
My husband and I went t0 chase 2 years ago we have sent in 4 packages for a loan mod. We have heard nothing. They declined our 1st short sale. We now have another short sale but no one will call us or the title company back. We have been told that Anthony has the file. He went on vacation for two weeks and no one touched the file. I am sure this is the same Anthony that Mark on the blog talks about. Does anyone have a number for chase short sale? I have 3 people who are managers Dana Pam and Mary i call every day they never call back or pick the phone up.
Jennifer,
There are plenty of people that will help you at Chase, you just need to escalate the file properly to the right people.
I would love to see Chase go under and out of business! They deserve everything that is coming to them and it will eventually catch up to them in time. They suck as does their foreign debt collectors that harass you if you are one day late on a payment. The one thing that they don’t expect is when I start threatening them with my own violence or start screaming at them or even with an attorney to sue them. They usually hang up on me and I don’t hear from them for a while. I fight their fire with more of an inferno than they ever imagined and it just shocks them into shutting down and hanging up on me. The sooner they go belly up, the better we will all be and the sooner that the mortgage mess will correct itself. Good Luck to those dealing with these imbeciles!
Dont see Chase going under anytime soon. They are doing quite well.
I have to disagree with this post, I have had much success with Chase approval letters and removing deficency language. I have found all the negotiators I have delt with at Chase to be responsive. My problem is with BofA, I find that bank to be one of the worse to deal with.
Anna,
Please understand that I have probably closed well over a 100 files with Chase. Some remove it, some are hard. I pretty much could tell you from day one which loans will get and which wont. I would say i can get deficiency removed on about 90% of them. I can also get about 85-90% of deficiencies removed on BofA as well.
What about when BofA owns both 1st and 2nd liens, as I have one right now with an approval letter (that I worked on for a year) but they are refusing to remove the deficency language and I have sent emails to everyone and their mother on this. It keeps falling on deaf ears. And they were the ones that told me client they couldn’t afford the home and they needed to short sale but yet they want to pursue a deficiency. Defeats the purpose of the short sale. Any advice?
My wife and I spent the last 4 months trying to buy a short sale that was, unfortunately, financed by Chase. It took two months to reach an agreed-upon price because they were so slow in responding. When we finally submitted our offer that we were told they would accept, we were informed that they assigned the file to a new negotiator. We heard absolutely nothing from them for two months after that. They postponed foreclosure the first month, and after another month they let it foreclose. It is just now being listed as a bank owned property……. for $12k less than our offer was when it was a short sale.
When I try to envision in my mind who these people are, I keep picturing this giant office full of chimpanzees in suits and ties running rampant, hurling computer monitors and fax machines across the room.
That last comment made me lough, well I have an offer on an approved shortsale since oct 22, two weeks after I was informed it was assigned to a negotiator and that short sale process had to start again, now is nov 21 and no answer yet, my offer is very close to market value, would anyone know, how much longer will they take? It will be an FHA loan.
Kurt,
I’m stuck with an arrogant negotiator who also flip flops and lies every day. I’m a real estate agent in Northern California, and it’s my first time dealing with Chase on behalf of a client. How do I get to find out who her boss and her boss’ boss is, as you said a Senior VP, or an escalation department like what B of A has? With the B of A system, when I get e-mails from the escalation department, they sign off with a line stating that if I don’t hear from them within 24-48 hours, I would be to call their manager, whereas with Chase, nothing similar is stated. I have no clue who she is other than a pure negotiator. I’m dealing with a very high end home; B of A is the primary lender and has already accepted and approved the short sale; Chase is secondary with a much smaller loan but have still been negotiating with them over the last 2 months. The negotiator at Chase refused to let me have any contact with her boss or management, and stated that she is representing senior management. Any help you can give about contacting senior management or to point me in the right direction would be so very greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for your time in advance.
Just wanted to add my nightmare story of a Chase short sale. I had an offer for my home just $9,000 shy of my mortgage amount. Chase took NINE MONTHS to process the short sale. Amazingly, my buyer hung in there because he really wanted the house. Because of the long delay, his mortgage appraisal expired, the house had to be re-appraised, and of course the value dropped. So the offer ended up being about $50,000 less than the mortgage, all due to Chase’s incompetance. It finally went through but I had to pay a HUGE tax bill on all the “forgiven debt” and had to destroy my otherwise perfect credit. By the way, my situation was not caused by an unaffordable mortgage; I just got caught in between buying a new house and selling an old one, I paid 2 mortgages for 2.5 years, throwing away over $100,000….!
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