Fastest (and slowest) short sale servicers

Submitted by bmartin@varealt... on August 20, 2010 - 1:06pm

Lenders are taking heat from buyers, sellers and Realtors® for the length of time and complexity involved in going through a short sale. You've probably got your hunches about which banks are the worst to deal with and which ones take the most time to complete a transaction. Well, HousingWire magazine recently published a list ranking selected major mortgage servicers by how quickly they conduct short sales. Here's the scoreboard:

  • Quickest: GMAC, averaging about 6 months per transaction
  • 2nd fastest: CitiMortgage, about 7.5 months per transaction
  • 3rd place: Wells Fargo, roughly 8 months per transaction
  • Last: Countrywide (Bank of America) at 13 months per transaction

Any surprises?

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Submitted by Anonymous on August 21, 2010 - 4:46pm.

I'm not shocked at all. I've been dealing with short sales for about two years now. I will have to agree with the rankings that were posted by HousingWire. GMAC was definitely the fastest bank that I dealt with. WaMu (now Chase) was a close second (PRIOR to them being merged). Persistance is key with ALL of these banks. You have to be dedicated to the process and making follow up calls. It's a shame what they put us through just to get them to recognize that you faxed them the documents. I don't understand why their using such an antiquated system!!! One word to describe the process - FRUSTRATION!

Submitted by Anonymous on August 21, 2010 - 11:43am.

I have been dealing with short sales for over 4 years and the biggest problem is the unprofessional people on the front lines that you have to deal with. I spent more time refaxing things I had faxed, being hung up on after being on hold for 45 minutes (purposefully), and then - once I got everything up and ready to go - they slashed my commission (non-Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac) and told me that "too bad"...they would just let my client go into foreclosure unless I cut my commission. HSBC, Bank of America and Chase are some of the worst.