Consumer complaint received 2015-06-18
Product: Mortgage — Other mortgage
Issue: Loan modification,collection,foreclosure — 
Company: NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE LLC (CA)

We are attempting to short sale our home. We hired a realtor in XX/XX/XXXX to help us figure out that our home is worth {$500000.00}, which is approx. {$50000.00} less than what we owe. 
Our realtor contacted Nationstar in XXXX of 2015 notifying of our need to short sale. She was told to get and submit an offer to start the process. We listed the house at {$490000.00} and received an offer for {$490000.00} with 3 % closing costs. Our realtor was told that the offer was accepted but that we would have to participate in an auction style sales event on Homesearch.com in order to have Nationstar agree to the short sale. They stated this was to provide a price verification and a possible increased selling price. We had no knowledge of what this auction was, beyond what our realtor explained which included the fact that Nationstar would be charging a 5 % fee on any buyer through the website sale. Confident that we already had a buyer at a fair price, we signed the paperwork. Finding out it would take several weeks to even start the auction our buyer rescinded their offer. Nationstar was notified and we were told that we could get another offer not subject to the 5 % fee if it was submitted before the start of the auction. We did so and submitted it for {$470000.00} with XXXX closing costs. 
The buyers offer was accepted and the opening bid was set at the price of that offer. For reasons unknown to us the offer was rescinded by the buyer. At this point we had no offer on the house, but were on the schedule for the auction to begin in a few days. The opening bid was listed at {$270000.00}, on a home worth {$500000.00} according to our realtor, and {$470000.00} according to their companys independent appraisal. 
At the end of the auction event a " winning '' bid of {$380000.00} was submitted to us for approval. Because it was so low we declined the offer. After consulting with our tax attorney and our realtor, we decided to try again with a new offer in hope that the value of our home was established and an offer for more than their auction was able to bring in would allow us to get an approval for the short sale. Our realtor contacted Nationstar and was again told to submit an offer to start the process, but they would not confirm whether we would have to do another auction. Unfortunately by this time our home had been sitting on the MLS for XXXX months. Our realtor advised potential buyers that she was not sure what the buying process would translate to until we heard from Nationstar as to whether we would indeed have to do this auction style marketing event. A buyer submitted a purchase agreement for {$440000.00}, a price significantly higher than what was procured through the first auction event, but less than what they would have offered as they were n't sure if they would have to pay a 5 % buyers premium to Nationstar/Homesearch.com. After many calls, emails, and inquiries from our realtor to Nationstar we were told we would indeed have to market through Homesearch.com and that the offer submitted for {$440000.00} was declined. 
Our realtor advised our buyers if they wanted to purchase the house they would have to do so through the auction and pay a 5 % fee. 
Again, we had to agree to the auction process to be able to sell our house because at this point we realized that Nationstar was not going to allow us to sell our house outside of their website auction. Again the opening bid was set at {$270000.00} even though we had given them an offer of {$440000.00}. The auction was set for XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX. The winning bid came in at {$430000.00} which is subject to their fee of 5 %. The winning bid was placed by the same buyers who submitted an offer to us for {$440000.00}. 
Nationstar declined an offer of {$440000.00} through our realtor, but have now accepted an offer for {$430000.00} from the same people who will be paying a 5 % fee to them through their auction.