Good Afternoon April. I can certainly understand and appreciate your anger and frustration. I have several agents in my office who represent many holding companies and their bank owned properties. If your counter did not reach Fannie Mae before the auction agreement took effect their is nothing Fannie Mae could have done to protect your contract. If the property does not sell at auction you can bet it will then come back on the market. It may not be Fannie Mae, but it will come back. Geoffrey Cardwell is my top foreclosure specialists and 99% of his business is bank owned properties. If you would like to discuss your situation with Geoffrey, please feel free to call him. His cell phone number is 472-7053. I'm sure he can answer any questions or concerns you may have. In the interim, best of luck to you. Please do not hesitate to call me if I can be of assistance. Candy C. Dennis, Sales Manager Long and Foster Real Estate. 623-2500 or candy.dennis@longandfoster.com

Unfortunatly, this happens and Frank is correct until you are returned a fully ratified-signed by all parties written contract then anything can happen. The problem is most banks have two departments. Loss Mitigation and a foreclosure department. One negotiates with sellers before a home is sold at auction in case of short sale or sometimes they can figure out an alternative such as a loan modification. The other dept organizes and authorizes either a trustee sale or auction and then sometimes will resale properties as reo-real estate owned, bank foreclosure sales. The right dept never talks to the left and they never even speak internally. This is the most agents hate dealing with short sales and foreclosures. Until banks decide to restructure and combine these two departments like Wells Fargo has done, this will continue to happen. For sellers who need to sell- they are best to work with an agent who works with an outsourcing company. Outsourcing companies know the internal map of the banks and can get deals thru that no one else can. Buyers- need to understand the pros and cons of trying to buy a foreclosure or short sale but working with an experienced agent is usually the first prerequisite.

April,

It sounds like you you did not have a RATIFIED contract, and that your first offer, and counter offer, were still too low. This is a classic example of why a home buyer should always make their first offer, the highest and best offer possible. Any home seller is allowed to continue accepting multiple offers, and they also reserve the right not to sell at all - especially if they feel the offers are too low.

Where was your Realtor and/or attorney throuighout this entire process?

Frank Biganski, Realtor
(757) 303-0517
EZ-Vest Realty
Newport News, VA 23602