Am I the only one seeing this more and more? This year, the new thing seems to be that final water bills from the previous borrower, must be paid by the Realtor?Then I have to submit for reimbursement, and my best hope is I get reimbursed in the next 90 days.The listing commission on this latest property is $975, and I just found out there is an unpaid water bill for $245.24, that I have to pay, submit for reimbursement, and hope I get my money in less than 90 days.I was told by my Asset Manager that New FNMA rules don't allow any expenses under $1000 to be on the settlement statement.I don't want to lose these listings, but this is getting ridiculous.

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  • Hi Robert,
    If the water utility is from the City a lien should be filed with your county. Some of the smaller private water companies do also file liens, and some don't. If there is a lien, it should be cleared off the title by escrow before closing. I have no idea how your AM can make you responsible for their job of providing a clear title.

    How did your AM learn of it? Either you told them, as you were required and did not pay it at the time of discovery, or it is a lien on the property that came up in escrow.

    I am curious as to which, because it is scary to me that clouds on titles might start to be passed on to the realtor's to be cleared for a property to close.

    I have used several programs to help keep track of my invoice billing, but still looking for one that suits me better. Anytime Deluxe is a non-REO related program I have had for many years and the other is iagent through Aspen Grove.

    I would also like to thank Cindy for sharing her knowledge of the industry with us. I have learned a lot and some suspicions have also been confirmed!

    Nick - you are right about the mandatory Invoice Management company. I also work assets for outsource companies who require this particular Invoice Management company now be used. I think we are all at least $3,000 out on utilities and with this extra charge, that will grow. They say you can submit more than one bill to the property for your $5.00, but since you only have 5 days to get the bill submitted and they do not all arrive / come due the same day - that sounds good but does not work out too well....

    This is not an IMC that we 'choose' to use. This is a mandatory required company we had to pay $50.00 to sign up with and get charged $5 per invoice, up to the first 5 for the property - so an extra $25 per property. More tax deductions!!
    • The title company sent over the requirement to pay the lien.

      I was thinking about sending them a bill for $25.00 for doing title clearing work.

      I don't ask them to write purchase agreements, I don't understand why they're asking me to clear titles.
  • Here in Louisville, KY I have to go to the utility company and show ID to prove that I am not the person who owes the debt, then they (water, gas & electric co's) will turn on in my name. Everything here is tied to your SS#, so a lein can be placed on the individual.
    CM
    www.RedFrogHomes.com
    • Each deal I get on my hands on, these days is about putting money out of my pocket. Re-key orders are killing me and I've thinking in buying a 'bumping keys kit", so I can do my own change of locks and avoid the conflict of not getting paid.

      I use Quickbooks for all my bookeeping chores!
      • I use bargainlocks.com and buy the door knob set for $5.99 a piece. The last time I purchased, if you bought a case, it brought the per set price down to $5.23 a set.

        I also get them all keyed the same, so I'm not having to keep track of different keys.

        Their combo lockboxes are also very reasonable.
  • Usually from the time you have taken possession of the property you will be turning on any utilities that are required by the AM, if there are any. At that time you should be checking to see if there are any past due bills and also if they are lien-able. If so the AM should be notified immediately. I guess this is the reason why so many REO agents tell us we need to have $50,000 to $100,000 of capital to carry these bills. All I know is that last year I was given enough REO to carry me through the year but keeping up on the expenses is definitely a challenge:) good luck all
    • I've always considered research for "lien-able" items to be a process of the title insurance agency. At least the better ones.
  • More and more outsource companies (asset mgmt companies and not the actual bank) are requiring agents to do more of their responsibilities. I.E.,requiring you to pay the HOA fees. Why? Because they don't want to have to wait for reimbursement so they pass it on to the realtor.
    This is a fact - one asset mgmt co has a mgmt contract with this one mortgage co. The mortgage co pays to the asset co a mgmt fee of $750 per file, interior BPO's are $150, ext BPO's are $125, realtor commission is 7% - the asset mgmt co in turn pays the realtor $50 for ext BPO and $60 for int BPO, the commission is 5% with 2% to listing agent of which the listing agent must pay a 35% referral fee to the asset co. Eviction costs by the asset co are passed on to the mtg co for reimbursement. This asset co. does not reimburse the realtor their out of pocket expenses until they get reimbursed by the bank - so once a month the asset co. submits their invoices - it is another month before the bank reimburses the asset co so by the time the realtor gets reimbursed, 90 days have passed but usually it's 120 days or more.
    This is why we are seeing more and more new asset mgmt companies pop up because this is where the money is at.
  • Robert,

    I have to agree with you about the new rule with the water bills. I do not understand why the bill does not following the customer but instead stay with the property. If the customer ran up the water bill then it needs to be put on their credit. Why would the water company let someone run up a large water bill before turning off the water.
  • It is getting ridiculous. I was recently forced to sign up with an invoice management company that charges me $5 per invoice that I submit for reimbursement. On top of that, it cost me $50 to sign up. So, if I pay $100 for a re-key, I am going to get $95 back.Out of the hundreds of invoices I pay per year, $5 will add up real quick. They are charging me for using my money to secure and manage their property.

    How are you managing your invoices? Do you have a system that allows you to keep track of what you pay and when, or if, you get it back?
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