Just wanted to share this with others.
Last July I started working on a short sale with Equifirst. They loaned 115k in Dec-05, for a place that was worth only 75k-80k. At that time the place had just been rehabbed 6 months before and was still in very good condition. I offered to net them $55k. My first contact, Joyce Byrd, was very nice and easy to get in touch with until but after the BPO I never spoke to her again. Reps told me she had moved to another department, though I later heard that was not true. My next contact was Greg Craig, the supposed manager of the L.M. Dept, what a joke. The only thing he could say was “I’m new here and I’ll try to find out something”. My next contact was Tim Forrester. I was told he was the the person in charge of handling short sales for Equifirst. After numerous calls, faxes and mailed short sale packages, guess what, he never contacted me. In this time the home was broken into twice. In response I lowered my offer to net them 40k. All they said through their customer service reps was that my offer was not accepted. I could never actually talk to anyone with some decision making power. At the auction in December nobody bid the 92k they were asking, so they took it back.
Fast forward to today and I am searching the MLS and what do I find? You already know, the place I was after and it’s listed at 40k. After R.E. commission and actual selling price adjustments Equifirst will net less than 35k.
Equifirst originated and owned this loan for its duration yet never moved it. Since the home is now listed I will try to pick it up if it has not been completely sacked in these past 4 months.
My guess is that since the company was being sold at the time non of the employees could care less what happened. Why else would you reject a 55k offer now for a 40k offer 6 months from now.