Countrywide Mortgage business practices continuosly sabotage deals and hurt buyers and the investors who have a vested interest in the properties for sale. To illustrate this point, here is a scenario that shows just how poorly run Countrywide is and how management either doesn't know what they're doing or doesn't care:

One of the requirements of anyone wanting to buy a foreclosed property that is owned by Countrywide is that they must get pre-approved by Countrywide and have a letter stating so.  This is done by the company in an effort to get the buyers of the homes to use Countrywide as their lender.  They are not forced to use Countrywide to buy the house, but a lot of the time the Countrywide loan officer does in fact get them to use Countrywide.

Countrywide also does an appraisal of the property prior to listing it with an agent.  This appraisal price is in the computer system at Countrywide and anyone with access to the file can look at the appraisal price.  This includes the loan officers.  The same loan officers that are writing the approval letters for the buyers.

And the loan officers are telling the buyers the appraisal prices.  And the asset managers can't figure out how the buyers negotiate right up to the appraised value and then stop. 

Imagine our horror as the real estate agent, when we wrote an offer for our client in a dual agency capacity and our own client is told the appraisal price by the loan officer (but doesn't tell us) during the negotiations.  And just think of what the buyer said to us when he was offering more than the appraisal price.  Needless to say, he believes we were lying to him and we knew the appraisal price and were representing the seller (Countrywide) and screwing him over even though we had zero knowledge of the appraised value, ever. 

That deal blew up three weeks ago.  That buyer is gone.  The house has received exactly zero offers in the last three weeks.  And the loan officer continues to work with buyers of Countrywide houses.  And continues to tell them the appraisal prices.  And what does management do when this is brought to their attention....Nothing.