Top 3 best and worst lenders to work short sales with in 2017:
In a decade of working short sales, I’ve dealt with pretty much every lender out there. Some are fantastic, some are awful, and they all change every year. The Winners and Losers of 2017:
The Winners:
Chase - I almost hesitate to add Chase, because there are some smaller lenders that do it better, but due to the high volume of short sales we end up doing with this lender year after year, I’m going to have to include them as my favorite “big guy”. I don’t get excited when I hear Chase….but Chase will be reasonable…reasonable timelines, reasonable negotiators, reasonable results. Unlike the other big guys (Wells Fargo, Bank of America) who tend to change their tune every few months or years, Chase has a consistent short sale process and rarely sways far either way from average. If you need to short sell with Chase – it’s going to be a very average short sale. There will be no celebrations, but there will be no tears either….but it’s going to end just fine…That’s about all I can say for Chase.
Ditech - We didn’t used to see a lot of Ditech short sales in prior years, but there seems to be more of them lately. Ditech has responsive negotiators and produces quick approvals. They are consistently easy to work with and if all the stars align you can count on Ditech having an approval in hand within a month or two, every single time.
Ocwen – I love Ocwen and when a client tells me they need to short an Ocwen loan, I am absolutely DELIGHTED! Ocwen is my absolute favorite in 2017! Ocwen wasn’t always a breeze, but in the past few years they have really picked up their game again. You can always count on Ocwen to deliver a stress free, smooth short sale approval in just weeks!
The Losers:
Wells Fargo – I don’t know where Wells Fargo keeps going wrong, but they sure do it over and over again. I am not sure if it’s the eternal corruption, the constant turnover, bad management or all of the above, but Wells Fargo is simply a disaster. What other lenders can do in 6 weeks takes Wells Fargo 6 months and about ten more rolls of red tape. Now if you want to short sell and you have a Wells Fargo loan, don’t despair! It will EVENTUALLY get done, just don’t count on any good times ahead.
Bank of America – Oh how I love to hate Bank of America. There was actually about a two year period (maybe 2010ish?) where it seemed Bank of America would change their wicked ways…But no…no such luck. It didn’t take long for BOA loss mitigation to return to the mess they always were.
The only silver lining with BOA is that it seems they just like to sell off their bad loans instead of actually dealing with them…so odds are if you are shorting bank of America, pretty soon Nationstar or SPS or Carrington will own your loan…and congratulations! You are no longer dealing with Bank of America. This is a blessing!
US BANK – As in all prior years ever recorded, US Bank remains at the bottom of the list of the very worst lenders to have to short sell. If you need to short sell and you have a US Bank loan – count on a very long and a challenging process. I once got a US Bank short sale approved in 9 months – It was a miracle! On average the others have been more like 2 years. 2 VERY LONG, VERY PAINFUL, VERY FRUSTRATING YEARS. In a decade of working short sales I have worked with US Bank way too often, and without a doubt – I can say that this sad bank has ZERO redeeming qualities.
There you go! My top 3 and worst 3! If your lender didn't make the list, don't hesitate to reach out and ask! Odds are we have worked with them and will be happy to enlighten you!
Last Updated on October 30, 2017 by Minna Reid