Over the last 7 years I have done many short sales with Countrywide and believe it or not some were quite easy.
Roll forward to today. Understanding the volume of short sales that Countrywide are dealing with in today's pre-foreclosure market you would think that as an organization they would try to improve the service level of their customers.
In the past usually people requiring a short sale were in default on their payments and therefore were already a "risk" to Countrywide. Today however it is a very different story.
More and more homeowners are not in default but cannot sell their property for what they owe so they also need a short sale or have to bring a great deal of money to the closing table to sell their homes.
I also understand that lenders should not bear the brunt of the declining market because they loaned money on homes when the market was strong but looking at the "big picture" if they are not reacting in the early stages of helping a homeowner, inevitably their losses are greater than they would have been.
Countrywide set up a department called the "Hope Department" where homeowners that are not in default yet can talk to a counselor to see what can be done to help them - great idea! Wrong. This department in my opinion is just the same as any other department. They ask you a bunch of questions on your financial situation and then when you cannot meet the criteria they are told to look for they tell you that they cannot help you! What good is that.
If you are lucky enough to get a purchase contract on your property or listing and submit the short sale package to them, this is where the frustration begins. From the point of faxing to being assigned to a negotiator takes approximately 10 days. Checking in with customer service is the least frustrating way to find out what is going on with your file. Just ask them to read the notes to you, they will tell you everything. Don't for one minute think that you are going to be able to "talk" to your negotiator in the beginning, they are more protected that the President. Make sure with the customer service person that what you sent them in your package is everything that they need for the package. If anything is missing get it to them a.s.a.p. nobody can afford to delay any decisions made on your package and if it is not complete there will be a delay.
Within 2 weeks you should receive a call for the BPO or appraisal. Work with this agent or person to get this done quickly, they are also under a timeframe. Give them a copy of the purchase contract, talk to them about the property and the situation. Don't forget, this is the most critical part of the whole short sale - acceptance or rejection will be based on the BPO.
After this allow 5 days before you call again. The results should be in at that point. Again the customer service person will be able to tell you this. If it is not there then make a follow up call to the person that did the BPO and ask them to re-submit their package to make sure it gets into the Countrywide system.
When the BPO is received it generally takes the negotiator 24-48hrs to review the package and then if the offer is within the guidelines they will submit it for approval. If not they will usually call you and counter the offer.
Here comes the fun - If your offer is accepted then they want you to close yesterday! Don't get too frustrated. They know you can't but they ask anyway, just like the rest of us they are testing the water.
Do your best to keep the buyers informed during this whole process and make them aware that when the offer is accepted they will have to move fast.
All in all and putting everything into consideration Countrywide do eventually help their customers and they have vastly improved their communication on the customer service level. Use these people, they are your best source of information and if they feel that you need to talk to the negotiator they will get you to them easier than you would just trying to circumvent the system.
Now, if there are issues like a bankruptcy involved then that is a whole other ballgame. I will talk about that next week.
Stay strong fellow short sale people. Banks are more open these days than they have ever been.
Thanks for reading.
Kathy Morris.
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