Stacy S.

Our loan was sold to SPS as we began the short sale process (kept the house for years after a job relocation but couldn't keep renting due to non-paying renters). They refused to accept the first lien offer even after the negotiator told them they were offered twice what the first lienholder typically offers. When they finally did acquiesce, many, many months had passed so the appraisal had expired. This resulted in the buyer walking and then having to restart the whole process again. When again presented with the same offer (because, again, the first lienholder only offers a certain amount), they again took a very long time to agree to the terms.

When they denied the first offer, I received a phone call from a rep from SPS asking if they had permission to contact me at that number. I replied, "I guess so, since you just called it." The rep asked what our plans were for the home since the offer was denied. I replied that we would have to relist the house and hope to get an offer to avoid foreclosure.

At no time was it discussed for us to get a personal loan to try to repay them some of the money that we rightfully owed them. They then sent a letter to our realtor asking us if we'd consider a personal loan to repay them. Follow-up questions from our realtor garnered no response.

Our first lienholder required the use of Auction.com when we went through the short sale process. They won't allow the sellers' agent to conduct negotiations and instead "do it" themselves. Their idea of negotiating is telling the second lienholder they must accept X amount or 'we' (sellers I presume) will sue them. Many, many months later the second lienholder approves the offer. Settlement is scheduled. A week before settlement was to occur, the first lienholder now denies the sale because after all this time the appraisal had expired. Of course, the house appraised higher. The buyer wouldn't increase his offer so we were back to square one.

The 'negotiator' at Auction.com would only ever want to communicate over the phone. She never had anything to say - just kept repeating herself, giving the same non-info in various ways. She told me the second lienholder had to accept the first's offer. Okay... then why aren't they? She gets the second lien rep on a three-way call and tells him that that company is terrible. That certainly didn't light a fire under anyone to get the deal done.

Since it fell through, we relisted publicly. First lienholder sent it to Auction.com who advised the realtor to list it with certain language. She ignored the directive because we already had an offer in hand that was over the asking price. Luckily, no one bid, and Auction.com was no longer involved.

Not surprisingly, the realtor's negotiator got results much, much more quickly than the people at Auction.com. We are finally rid of the house we tried so hard to keep (but couldn't sustain because of non-paying renters), no thanks to Auction.com.