Friday is Good News Day…Thank You Fannie Mae

Westcoe Realtors, Riverside California…We generally try to make Friday good news day.  Seems like a good way to end the week and set us all off on a great weekend…and so today, I will share a story with you about Fannie Mae.

If you are a regular reader of this blog (and of course you must be or you wouldn’t be reading this now), then you know that I can be very direct with my comments about some of the bizarre real estate decisions and practices of both our government (State and Federal) or the banking industry.  There is generally enough head shaking in these two areas to cause multiple migraines trying to understand why things are done the way they are.

However, every now and then, a little ray of sunshine gets through…just enough to let us know that all is not lost, and there are good people who still care about doing the right thing.  And today, that ray of sunshine is brought to you compliments of Fannie Mae…and specifically, the manager of their REO Asset Department. 

First, understand that much of the responsibility for sorting out the mess that exists in our real estate world today falls on the shoulders of good people locked into a vastly overwhelming system.  It is mind boggling the amount of properties, decisions, reports, deadlines, etc. that must be handled in the sometimes insane arena of foreclosures.  There are thousands of properties in some phase of the repossession process, and too many times details and common sense can fall through the cracks, lost in the maze of misinterpreted communication and chaos.  All of us in the industry know this, but that generally doesn’t make it any easier to deal with our frustrations when things go haywire.  Most of the time our recourse for problem solving is lost in the faceless bureaucracy that exists in large organizations, but not this time.  This time, Westcoe was able to find a white knight.

Without boring you with all the details, Westcoe represented a buyer who was about to lose the purchase of their home (a Fannie Mae foreclosure) because of the communication issues that can occur when overwhelmed people are tired and not at their best.  We had no way to communicate directly with the seller, and this transaction was dead.  Frustrating for us and the buyer to say the least.

Normally, all would be lost…since in an organization as large as Fannie Mae, getting to the right people who can intercede is next to impossible.  However, undaunted, Westcoe finally was able to contact a wonderful gentleman with Fannie Mae (whose name shall be withheld to keep his phone from ringing off the hook) who not only took the time to hear our story, but then calmly intervened on our buyers behalf to solve the problem and let our buyer purchase his home.  This may not seem like a big deal in your world, but in ours, this was the equivalent of moving mountains.  Why?

As I said, the foreclosure system is inundated with repossessed properties that simply are too much for everyone to handle.  No one foresaw the extend of this banking meltdown, nor the resulting affect on so many properties…and we can all lament about the inefficiencies inherent in any large organization, but the reality is that people can only handle so much before they begin to operate at less than their best.  Imagine a very busy ER room at a hospital with only one doctor.  Try as this doctor might, they simply cannot give quality care to every patient.  Unfortunate, awful, but it is the hand that has been dealt, and one simply does the best one can in a bad situation.  Such is the foreclosure world today.

So…back to our white knight.  Solving the problem was great…being reminded that there are caring people who will take the time to listen was even better.  Westcoe received a wonderful dose of humanity from this person, and as a result, our buyer now has their home.  Sometimes, the good guys do win in the end, and we all need to remember that.  Thank you again H.D.  Westcoe is proud to give Fannie Mae the credit they deserve and earn on this one.

Take care everyone, have a great weekend, and as always, let us know if you have any questions or need us to address any issues you may have about the wacky world of real estate.