My partner Lauri Gibson and I specialize in helping sellers in trouble to either identify workout options/consultants that can help them try everything to stay in their home or if all else fails we help them with the short sale process.
We paid for and took special training to learn how to get the short sale approved and completed in a short time frame. To date, we have been successful in completing each short sale we have listed. Our fastest approval was in 5 days with a close in 17 days.
When we took this training, we were told that we could expect about 80% to be approved. The other 20% were based on inefficient processes and servicing conditions of the banks themselves.
Well, we may have run across our first bank, that by their very process are unable to take advantage of the short sale benefits. We currently have a client that has their loan with Citi Mortgage. The client was assigned a Loss Mitigator, whom they attempted to contact numerous times to always reach a voicemail. Lauri, after many phone calls as well, learned that the Loss Mitigator no longer worked at the company and had not done so for some time.
We have received an all cash offer for the client's home that fits the financial criteria that most banks accept and so we have been trying to contact the bank and get a Loss Mitigator assigned. Lauri has been told that we will not be assigned a Loss Mitigator for some 3 to 4 weeks, due to the fact that once received the short sale package is sent to a clearing house in St. Louis and that it will take from the time of receipt 3 to 4 weeks for the package to be processed and scanned into the system. When we asked on behalf of the seller if they realized the consequences of this process, they expressed that it is just the way they do business. The client could bring current their mortgage payments.
WHAT IS THIS BANK DOING? Where in any business proposition is the rationale for such a STUPID decision? Whomever is in charge of their process should be fired. That a national bank would make such a stupid business decision is beyond comprehension. Their bottom line is on hold for the processing of a clearing house? It must be a strategy to lose as much business as possible and drag the entire economy into a black hole. Citi Mortgage you get the award for BIGGEST LOSER!
To date, we have worked with professional people who express a desire to work through this real estate and mortgage market crisis. People have been polite and professional. We have felt a collaborative effort to move either to a solution that keeps the servicing of the loan with the current lender or moved aggressively to relieve both the lender and the seller. It has positive connotations for the market when relief is met on two counts and opportunity met on the buyers' side.
I have chosen to blog about this because of Citi Mortgage's non-caring and irresponsible method of doing business. The only way that change will occur is if they are exposed to the public for their business practices. It is our responsibility to bring these issues to light and to let the consumer and other professionals in our industry know when policy and procedures affect the welfare and health of our industry. It just doesn't cut it to NOT CARE anymore!
Citi Mortgage wake up before it's too late! I wonder what is REALLY UP with Citi Mortgage?
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I agree... it is really horrible. I find more than 50% of mortgage holders are like this though. The only other thing to do is to visit the corporate office in person and talk straight to the top executive and on down until you find a listening ear.