Parallel Processing

During a short sale there is often a great deal of stress and confusion surrounding what the bank is actually doing at any given moment.  A short sale negotiator must continuously follow up with the short sale department of a bank in order to ensure that the file is moving through the stages smoothly.

But sellers, buyers, and agents must remember that there is more to a bank than the short sale department.  While the short sale is active, there can still be other processes that are going on concurrently and independent of the short sale review.  Many times I've been called or emailed by a frantic seller regarding a call or a notice they received from the bank which somehow led them to believe that their short sale was not being reviewed.

Notices and communications should be brought to the attention of your negotiator, but most of the time actually do not mean anything in direct relation to the short sale review.  At any given moment; the short sale review, foreclosure process, and collections efforts can all be happening at the same time.  While there is some minor relation, these are mainly just parallel processes.  To elaborate:

• Collections Efforts - During a short sale review, the bank may still make attempts to solicit payments from the borrower.  The borrower can firmly reply that they are in active short sale review, but often times this is of no importance to the bank.  It is the collection department contacting them, independent of the short sale, and all they are interested in is getting a payment.

• Foreclosure - The bank will often continue to exercise its right to proceed with foreclosure throughout the short sale review process.  Again, it's not that the bank as an entity doesn't know about the short sale, but rather that the foreclosure department is on its own schedule.  The borrower may receive foreclosure documents as the review goes on and should always forward these to their short sale negotiator.  Most often when push comes to shove, the bank will postpone any actual foreclosure sale dates as long as there is a valid offer being reviewed for short sale.  However, it may become necessary for your negotiator to contact the respective departments to remind them of where things stand from time to time.

When a borrower is in default, the bank sees this as a major risk and does what it can to get its money.  They are very persistent to this end and will more often than not continue 'round-the-clock to pursue means to get money.  From the routine (collections) to the extreme (foreclosure) the bank will be after money in one or more ways through processes that are independent but parallel to the short sale review.