Countrywide: I can honestly say this is a first for me!

Oh man, oh man, oh man.  You a re in a mess alright. Our office had a similiar one.  We sold the property and a year later they were notified it was going to sheriff sale and they had to evacuate the home.  This one was with Chase Bank. We got it straightened out fortunately.  But the second year did the same thing.  Sheriff showed up told them it was up for sale and they had to evacuate.  This time the new owners hired a foreclosure attorney to take care of it, and so far so good.  No more visits from the Sheriff!

Sheesh! I have about 6-7 short sales w/ Countrywide and it's been rough! I finally got one approved today after over 21 months... not days, months of work! Countrywide was so stupid to deny the first three offers on the property because of "insufficient funds" and I was finally able to get a new appraisal of the property since they wouldn't believe me on how much values had dropped since their first appraisal. I cannot even start to put my self in your shoes, I would be horrified if I got that phone call. The worst part is no one at the banks care enough to fix it. It's such a shame!!!!

Jennifer Horton

www.BeautifulHomesOfMarin.com

I am shocked to read that this could happen. I guess we have to read and compare account numbers carefully and not just loan amounts.

Where is the buyers lawyer in all of this?

Frank,

Any updates on this transaction? I have done two short sales in the past year. It's something that we have to deal with. Like you, I learned a lot very quickly. My last transaction was as a buyers agent only. The listing agent notified the second lender as requested but when I asked about the primary lender he told me that we didn't have to worry about them because being first in line they were going to get all their money. When the title called the first lender to get the final payoff figures they were informed that it went to foreclosure the day before. Well, since that would cost the first lender $3,000 the second lender had to bite the bullet for the cost. But the trickle down theory had the second lender asking us Realtors to take less commission, 4% instead of 5%. Well, since I did all my home work and the other Realtor did not I insisted on my 3% co-broke like what was offered. You just have to be as thorough as you can but even what happened to you could happen to us. Thanks for your post

Frank,

Any updates on this transaction? I have done two short sales in the past year. It's something that we have to deal with. Like you, I learned a lot very quickly. My last transaction was as a buyers agent only. The listing agent notified the second lender as requested but when I asked about the primary lender he told me that we didn't have to worry about them because being first in line they were going to get all their money. When the title called the first lender to get the final payoff figures they were informed that it went to foreclosure the day before. Well, since that would cost the first lender $3,000 the second lender had to bite the bullet for the cost. But the trickle down theory had the second lender asking us Realtors to take less commission, 4% instead of 5%. Well, since I did all my home work and the other Realtor did not I insisted on my 3% co-broke like what was offered. You just have to be as thorough as you can but even what happened to you could happen to us. Thanks for your post

Frank,

Any updates on this transaction? I have done two short sales in the past year. It's something that we have to deal with. Like you, I learned a lot very quickly. My last transaction was as a buyers agent only. The listing agent notified the second lender as requested but when I asked about the primary lender he told me that we didn't have to worry about them because being first in line they were going to get all their money. When the title called the first lender to get the final payoff figures they were informed that it went to foreclosure the day before. Well, since that would cost the first lender $3,000 the second lender had to bite the bullet for the cost. But the trickle down theory had the second lender asking us Realtors to take less commission, 4% instead of 5%. Well, since I did all my home work and the other Realtor did not I insisted on my 3% co-broke like what was offered. You just have to be as thorough as you can but even what happened to you could happen to us. Thanks for your post

Doing mortgage fraud investigating, I get people coming to me with stories like this all the time.  It's an internal Countrywide/BofA problem.  As long as the title work is correct, your clent is fine.  It's actually an easy fix for Countrywide.  The problem was you were talking to the wrong person and the wrong department. 

Frank - wonderful story (for me to read that is ...) - Hope it turned out good in the end.  Steve Dilbert above me seems to think you're all good.  hope so. 

At first I thought that your post was that you finally got a short sale done with Countrywide (not the easiest bunch to get through).

Anytime I think that I may want to pursue short sales, I will just reference your post.

It seems improbable to me that people over there can be that stupid on accident.  Hope all went well.  I would be curious to know if everything worked out...

Wow, keep up up with what is going on, this is crazy

Oh gosh, what a mess! Keep us informed....we deal with CW all the time and have luckily not had anything like this!

But yes there seems to be a lot of turnover with them, keeping in mind most of the reps are probably from other industries and are just picking up jobs there to pay ends meet.

Keep us posted!

Tracy Venezia-Royce

Live Free Investment Group

602-957-7773

Tracy@livefreeinvestmentgroup.com

Frank: if you have not already, have the title companies attorney get involved, they insured the title and should go to bat for you.  sorry to hear of your troubles Good Luck keep us posted!!

You have to love Countrywide these days there one of the worst banks to deal with. I'm not surprised that this happened its unfortunate for you and the the new home owner but if countrywide dose not get there act together there going into receivership.

I have not worked a short sale with Countrywide but I had a buyer make a offer in one of there homes. They rejected our offer and we did not go under contract. In less than two weeks they lowered the list price to below the offer we made and sold it for less. How crazy is that! How would you like to be a investor in Countrywide and have them do stuff like that.

While short sales take a lot of time I do believe  as realtors we can improve the process by providing comprehensive documentation to educate and assist the loss mitigation negotiators. These departments are expanding so rapidly and many of their employees are not well trained because of it. In addition, they are working in offices far removed from the markets we are working in. Submitting great short sale packages with all the documentation needed to demonstrate our superior understanding of our local market, the specific property we're negotiating etc, we can do a lot to ensure our short sale packages don't get "filed" because they are incomplete or inadequately informative.

It is easy to get frustrated but let's try to remember the human element too. Refering to people as stupid and incompetent can't do much for a positive working relationship. Our ability to work well with these people will make the difference between a closed transaction and one lost in limbo.

Oh Joanne, that is a way too sensible comment for this string of comments.  LOL

I found the whole string compulsive reading.  

Starting with OMG.  to that's what title insurance is for and Steve's you are all good!!

Well worth the read.

It looks like you just have to keep trying and trying and trying, and hope some system will make it get better.  Margaret C.

I too found this string compulsive reading.  I love hearing other Realtors take on things.  I've been listing Short Sales in Palm Springs, CA for 5 years now and CW is not one of my worst experiences!  Figure that one out.  I am closing up on one now that has 2 loans with them and the MI on the 2nd was sold to a collection Agency!  EEEEK!  We are down to the end it appears, because I finally tracked them down and got to their payoff number..we'll see if I get the promised Approval Letters this week.

I learned something here again..do NOT speed over the Approval letters.  I am going to look at the 2 I got yesterday and double check those addresses..wonder if I missed a zip code???