Trustee Forces Me to Short Sell My Home, and Appoints a Real Estate Agent
My question involves bankruptcy in the state of: California
About two weeks ago, I went to my meeting of creditors in Riverside, CA. I was going through a typical CH 7 BK up until the point where the trustee asks me how far behind I am on my mortgage payments.
I informed her that I'm quite a bit behind, at least a year behind but that I'm trying to modify my loan and waiting on Chase to decide. All the paper work has been submitted to Chase, I'm just waiting for an answer.
The Trustee tells me "no, we're going to have to short sell your home. We're going to appoint John Doe in San Diego County as your real estate agent."
I'm sitting their baffled, as is my attorney. I chime in that I'm still waiting on Chase to answer, but she says that I'm gonna have to a short sale nonetheless. My attorney asks to speak with her, and that he'll speak with me outside.
He comes back out and says he's going to have to work on my case and get back to me, as he's never seen this before.
A week goes by, and I don't hear anything. Then yesterday, I'm bombarded with phone calls from other realtors that want to see my home. I ask them how they got my number. They tell me that it's been listed as a short sale, and my name and number are the contact information for the home, and I'm the person that's going to show them the house.
I call my attorney, who is obviously dodging my calls. Today, his paralegal calls and says that the home might not even be in my name. They're working to clarify that. Two years ago, my wife paid $3K upfront to one of those companies that helps you modify (or doesn't, as in my case) your mortgage. Evidently, the papers we signed MIGHT have authorized to put their name on the house and remove ours. At least, that's why I'm being told by a paralegal. Paralegal says she's going to work on this further and get back to me. When I ask her what happens if the house is in the name of that crappy company that we naively gave our money to, her response is, she doesn't know either way. Doesn't sound like my attorney has an idea either.
After that phone call, I was served with documents saying that basically the Trustee appointed John Doe of XYZ Realty to short sell my home. I have 10 days to respond.
I dropped my attorneys office with the doc's I was served, but he was too busy to see.
What do I do? Am I SOL?
Re: Trustee Forces Me to Short Sell My Home, and Appoints a Real Estate Agent
what the trustee is attempting to do is cut a deal with the mortgage holder to accept less than current value and sell the property "short" but above the amount the secured creditors demand, by doing this they capture money which they can use towards debts.
The sale won't always happen because the secured creditor will want a minimum amount and sometimes the trustee can't make that happen
you could also try to convince the secured creditor (chase) that you will be able to pay your mortgage once out of chapter 7, assuming they have not signed anything binding with the trustee yet.
but if you have been on a course towards foreclosure for a while now the bank will likely prefer to have a quick and clean short sale instead of a drawn out foreclosure and foreclosure auction
Re: Trustee Forces Me to Short Sell My Home, and Appoints a Real Estate Agent
You do understand the trustee represents the interest of the creditors not you? This is a matter between the Chase and the Trustee.
I disagree with Lehk, while the trustee can't force the lender to take a short sale, there is plenty of incentive for the Chase to take the short sale and run rather than having to ride out the stay and hope that the borrower isn't still going to continue the default and they ahve to foreclose and likely end up with an REO.
Re: Trustee Forces Me to Short Sell My Home, and Appoints a Real Estate Agent
I hope you have an aggressive and well qualified attny.
Not getting into the issue of the title to the property. . .
A trustee’s attempt to sell the home out from under the debtor (bypassing any claim to a homestead exemption) is not new. All across this Country trustees are attempting to cut deals with lenders and short sale buyers for a kick back to 1) line their own pockets; 2) line the pockets of their buddy the realtor; 3) line the pockets of their attny if one is hired; and 4) when all is said and done, give a few bucks (and I mean “very few bucks”) to the unsecured creditors. This process has had some success and, unfortunately, I have not seen any attorneys take the trustees to task.
In the past the properties stolen by the trustees were either investment property or, if the debtor’s residence, being surrendered to the lien holder. What does your Statement of Intention show as it relates to the property?
I recommend you take the time to read the below threads for a better understanding of the issues and problems.
http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.ph...t-quot-trustee
http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.ph...charge-(Chap-7
Des.
Re: Trustee Forces Me to Short Sell My Home, and Appoints a Real Estate Agent
Thank u for all of ur answers.
I was completely taken aback by this. Attorneys that witnessed it said that they've also never dealt with this. So this came out of left field.
Each time a realtor has called advising me that my house is already listed, prior to me rec'g any paperwork (like the kind I did today) all said was illegal to do. But each said something different as far
My biggest gripe is that the trustee hand picks a realtor for me to use. Geez. I can't even use one of my choosing. The realtor isn't even in my county. He's nearly 3 hours away.
That was strange.
I think it's one thing to say u have to do a short sale, but then tell me I have to use this guy. Seems crazy to me. Not very ethical. Why does it matter to the trustee, who I use?
I'm going to read those other threads. And have to look into getting a decent attorney.
Thanks for the input so far!
Re: Trustee Forces Me to Short Sell My Home, and Appoints a Real Estate Agent
Quote:
Quoting
flyingron
I disagree with Lehk, while the trustee can't force the lender to take a short sale, there is plenty of incentive for the Chase to take the short sale and run rather than having to ride out the stay and hope that the borrower isn't still going to continue the default and they ahve to foreclose and likely end up with an REO.
You don't disagree with me, chase will very likely want the short sale to go through because it's quicker and cleaner this way. I only stated that convincing them would be a possible way to stop this but it's not going to happen if he can't prove to chase that he will make all of his payments so they don't have to foreclose.