A Connecticut IBM LBPS (Seterus) Short Sale Closing

LBPS- IBM Lender Business Process Services, now known as Seterus is a relatively unknown lender that I have only had the “pleasure” of dealing with twice. 

The first time, I took a Middletown, CT short sale listing November of 2010, which thanks to Seterus is still in the approval process with no end in sight (it is now August 2011). The experience has been one of the most miserable I have ever been involved in. HAFA is partly to blame as my client wanted to go that route…but I digress.

This Deep River, CT short sale was not as painful as that one, likely because my clients opted out of HAFA at their first opportunity to do so (always a smart move). After two months on market a strong cash buyer was secured for the property. Seterus lagged in moving the file along and our negotiator was generally unresponsive. Two months later, after continual harassment, the negotiator finally got us a response. Not a terrible timeline and I have seen worse, but still a generally unpleasant experience.

We received a denial for “insufficient offer”. This condo complex had just lost its FHA approval, leaving a highly limited buyer pool. This devastated the values in the complex…however this failed to make sense to our negotiator and she insisted on more money for the unit.

The buyer did agree to increase their offer just slightly and a quick rework of the numbers got us something approvable. This IBM LBPS (Seterus) short sale closed two weeks later.

Facing foreclosure in CT?