Eric lost his home to foreclosure, but unlike other homeowners, he had actually been trying for the past month-and-a-half to buy it back from the mortgage company for more than the mortgage. The law firm that was handling it, however, wanted an extra $20k in fees to make that happen. He told the realtor that he would buy it for more than it was going to be listed for. The realtor told him that he couldn’t make a bid until it was “active,” which would happen on 11-29. On Sunday he tells the broker he;ll give an offer on Monday. Monday rolls around and they’ve already sold the house to someone else, for less than Eric was willing to pay. They said they “forgot” that he was going to make a bid. Eric is livid. His story, inside…

I recently lost my home to foreclosure. The sad part is I tried for the last 30-40 days before the foreclosure to buy my home from the mortgage company for more than the balance owed on the mortgage. By this time, the mortgage had been referred to a local law firm, which wanted almost $20,000 in fees above the balance of the mortgage. They would not negotiate at all. A friend was helping me try to save my home, but the $20,000 in fees on top of the $100,000 owed was insurmountable.

Fast forward to the house being put on the market. I met the realtor handling the sale. I told him I wanted to make an offer to purchase my home back. I was told I could not make an offer until the listing was ‘active’, per NC law. I was told on Friday 11-28th that the house would go on the market on Saturday 11-29, after which I could submit my offer to purchase. They put the house on the market for $49,950. I called the broker Sunday evening to tell him I would be putting my offer for $50,500 in on Monday morning. I got a phone call on Monday morning telling me that they had already taken an offer, communicated it to the seller and had it accepted and the house was under contract.

Keep in mind the following:
1- The property is in Durham, NC
2- The REO firm in charge of the sale for Homecomings Financial is in San Diego, CA
3- The local real estate firm hired by the REO firm to market and sell the house is in Raleigh, NC

The original story I was given was that an offer was made and accepted on Saturday, and that the contract on the house was already signed on Monday morning at appx. 10am EST. When I remarked that it was odd that all of this happened over a Sat. and Sunday, and that 10am EST was 7am in San Diego, I started getting various changing storied from the Broker-in-Charge.

Long story short, the story now is they simply ‘made a mistake’ when they ‘forgot’ that I wanted to put in an offer. Despite my being in regular contact with their broker. I found out today that they actually took the offer to purchase which they accepted on 11-24.

AT THAT TIME, I WAS BEING TOLD I COULD NOT YET PUT AN OFFER TO PURCHASE IN, BECAUSE THE HOUSE WAS NOT YET AN ACTIVE LISTING AND IT WAS AGAINST THE REAL ESTATE RULES IN NC!!!

The listing real estate company is Weichert-Welcome Home in Raleigh, NC. The broker representing the ‘purchaser’ is with Weichert-Mark Thomas Properties in Durham, NC.

I will have to wait until the deed is recorded before I can find out how much the sale was for, but I have been told that the sale was for less than the listed asking price.

Remember, I was trying to pay HIGHER than the listed asking price…

I apologize for the poorly written email. This is so damn emotionally draining and frustrating, and there is nothing that I can do. I was willing and able to pay my mortgage off in full and then some and was rebuffed. Then when I again tried to buy my home back, I was lied to and deceived so that the house could be sold for less to someone else, who happened to work with an affiliated company.

There is so much wrong here.

Thank you for reading this. I am so sick about all of this. I’ve been trying for almost 4 months to save my home, BY PAYING THAN OWED AND THEN MORE THAN THE LIST PRICE AND EACH DAMN TIME I HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE RUN AROUND, LIED TO AND/OR IGNORED.

I honestly don’t get it. So Homecomings lost a bunch of money on just my home, despite me trying to pay it off in full.

Here are the people and companies I dealt with:

Listing Agent/Firm:
Weichert Realty – Welcome Home
4805 Green Rd. #103 Raleigh, NC 27616
http://bit.ly/10Ssc

I attempted to work with Jim Wilson to resolve this issue.
Mr. Wilson is the Broker-in-Charge as well as owner of this branch.
Mr. Wilson is the individual who ‘just plain forgot all about my offer’.

http://www.weichert.com/search/offices/office.aspx?site=wdc&office=50-J46

REO Asset Mgmt company:
Advent REO LLC
1951 Fourth Ave #302, San Diego, CA 92101
www.adventreo.com

I spoke with Josh Purkiss to try to resolve this issue.

‘Buyer’s’ Firm/Broker:

Weichert Realty – Mark Thomas Realty
3901 University Drive Durham, NC 27707
http://www.markthomasrealty.com/

The broker representing the ‘purchaser’ is Doug Osborn.

The Mortgage Company is Homecomings Financial, a division of GMAC.
www.homecomings.com

My gut read on this story is that the various parties Eric was dealing with were in cahoots with one another to buy the place cheap. Here’s commenter dwasifar’s take on the situation:

“What happened here is obvious. Someone involved in the process of selling this home, either in the lawyer’s office or in the realtor’s, put together a sweetheart deal for themselves or a friend to get this property at a bargain price. They shut Eric out of the process by misleading him so they could get the house themselves for the minimum the bank was willing to accept.

At the very least he should document what happened and inform the seller. The realtor and/or lawyer basically stole money from them, and they are probably not aware of what happened.”

(Photo: woodleywonderworks)

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