IndyMac Bank: How shortsightedly stupid!

Greetings.  I have been trying to communicate with IndyMac Bank.  The talks have been ongoing for over a year.  Each rep states that someone will contact me shortly.  They have seen the hardship letter, appraisal and financial info  The response from this bank is we are very busy and we will get in touch with you soon.  It appears they were caught with their pants down and cannot handle the amount of foreclosures.  There is a reason the stock (IMB) went from over $40 to under $10.

Is there anybody out there that has completed a short sale or Deed in lieu with this bank?

I just got off the phone with IndyMac.  These are the facts as explained to me:

1)  From the point of the receipt of a short sale package IndyMac can take anywhere from 60-90 days to render a decision

    a)  That decision could include a counteroffer (no time frame was given for how long it would take the bank to respond to a buyer's counteroffer)

2)  IndyMac basis their decision on fair market value

    a)  Basing their decision on the "fair market value" as determined by an appraiser essentially means that if you list your house for $30,000 less than what you owe and only get one serious offer after 3 months, IndyMac will use the subjective and utterly useless determination of "fair market value" (determined by an appraiser) and will reject the offer.  The problem with this is that you've already determined the "fair market value" by listing your home on the "fair market" for 90 days and the "fair market" has determined that it is worth exactly $30,000 less than what you owe, as evidenced by the offer.

    b)  Further, basing a decision on "fair market value" also means that they will not take individual circumstances into account.  For instance if their determination of "fair market value" is $25,000 above your best offer, they would rather foreclose and pay a lawyer, broker and possibly a contractor anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 to do so, even though you've lost your job and don't have the ability to pay and will surely be foreclosed upon.  By accepting the short sale offer they'd only lose $25,000 instead of the potential $50,000 that it typically costs a bank to foreclose, repair, hold and sell that property.

3)  Their IS a $300 application fee for SOME loans but not all
    a) Whether or not there is a fee depends upon the investors who buy the loans.
    b) I can't think of anything more absurd than charging a homeowner $300 who can't afford the mortgage payment.  I would tell IndyMac that if they were going to attempt to charge $300 I would just let the house foreclose and live "rent free" for 6 months until the sheriff comes by to ask me to leave.

4)  I am a licensed real estate broker in the state of NC and (though I'm not a lawyer and not offering any legal or financial advice) I will tell you that from what I've read a short sale damages your credit score equally (or nearly equally) as a foreclosure.  Further, from what I've been told by the bank, NC is a non-deficiency judgement state meaning that the bank cannot legally pursue you for the amount of money that they don't recover through the foreclosure process (I don't know if this applies to investment properties).

I hope this helps!

I am usually a big fan of David's but I don't understand the complaint on this.  Complaining about a fee is very shortsighted I think.

It costs these servicers a ton of money to deal with SS and they are flooded with ridiculous lowball offers from every newbie who bought a course.  It really is amazing that they have done all this work for free up til now.  Banks/lenders have a long history of charging fees to offset costs.  But also they want the fee to discourage alot of investors from making offers.  They know that the ones who are discouraged by a little fee are not the ones who were going to buy the property anyway for a good price. 

If you are a serious buyer/investor who has done their homework on a property and understand what percentages a lender will require from a short sale then you will pay this relatively tiny fee to make much more on the deal.  If you are someone who will refuse to pay a $300 fee on a deal that could make you $20,000 you are not smart.

I am a SS investor who is angry that my deals now take twice as much work as they did 2 years ago because LM's are overwhelmed with lowball offers and incomplete packages from newbies.  I'll gladly pay the fee and I'll expect faster decisions and in the end I'll make more money.

First off, the fee of $300 is sent to the current homeowner in there package of financial things that they need to get back to Indymac bank before the offer that they have received will be looked at. It does not say that the fee should be charged to the investor.  I think it would be one thing if by paying the $300 you would get a quick response. I have been told it can take up to 30 days.  With what is happening in my location you can't keep a buyer on the fence for 30 days. 

 Another questions what if you get 2 offers do you charge each buyer $150 each.  This is another way for the banks to say "Its bonus time". 

Yvette Sloan

That backward approach to helping homeowners blew up in their faces. But who services the loans these days?  I have a seller who also has IndyMac and we still can't figure out where to send paperwork. Help please.

IndymacFed.  Use Certified, RRR Mail.  Send the application to the last address on the lender's correspondence... and it will get to where it needs to go.

I have not heard anything about the $300 fee from Indymac (other than on the blog).  I'm wondering if they've suspended the practice or if I'll get hit up for it later?

I have been waiting for the BPO to "show up" for almost 6 weeks now and they've "lost" my paperwork twice already.  The real kicker was when I was asked to re-fax the purchase offer because my paperwork was "all the way at the other end of the hall" and it would be easier to just re-fax it!!!  Before I had patience and tried to play the game because I know it's a bureacracy but now I know they're just screwing around.  The real example of their stupidity lies in the fact that they're just creating bigger losses for themselves.

my wife and i just sold our house through short sale with indysmac bank,they didnt even mention a fee for any thing,i told them we are just going to mail the keys to them because they didnt even care what we were going through.this is the worst bank to have to deal with,they had my wife crying every time she talked to them and me pissed off,finally i just started acting just like them,that seemed to get the ball rolling.these people are DICKS so just be a DICK back at them it might just get through to them.im glad we sold our house,the bank is taking a big loss and our credit will stay good and we can buy another house in a year if we want to,i doubt it though.yes indymac bank is terrible they would rather take a loss than help the home owner.and we were there for 12 years.

Please keep in mind that Indymac is now defunk.  It was sold to OneWest who got a sweetheart deal from the FDIC.  Yes, the FDIC.  Under this deal, OneWest has NO risk of loss and they are looking at a guaranteed 25-30% ROI on all loans.  This is NOT a joke as can be seen in court records.

You can see more about this here:

http://dailybail.com/home/how-the-fdic-is-killing-short-sales-the-story-of-onewest-ind.html

Guess who the investors are behind OneWest?  George Soros, Michael Dell, Steve Mnuchin (former Goldman Sachs executive), and John Paulson (hedge-fund billionaire).  

 Bottom line, if you are with Indymac/OneWest....sorry.  If not, do NOT bother with these assets.  Realtors should boycott and/or filter out assets held by these companies since you will not be treated in a fair manner.  You will only waste your own time and the time of your potential clients.