West Coast Jenn gave up on the short sales

My apologies to those that have been awaiting any news that I might provide a short sale success story. I can't believe I last posted almost sixty days ago. Six zero.

So much has happened in sixty days I don't really know where to begin. We pulled the plug on both of the short sales that we were in contract on. The first one (BofA) we had been in contract for five months and they still had not even completed a BPO. The second one (Suntrust) was relatively new in it's timeline but never really had a chance to work through to see how it would go.

We have been busy packing and working on closing our local office so that we can relocate to work from our Arizona branch. For a fleeting moment we did consider holding out to buy a short sale in Phoenix but then I remembered all the headache and disruption it has been to our lives so we passed on that option.

Originally we were going to get out to Phoenix and rent for six months or so until we could figure out the lay of the land so to speak. One crazy day we decided we were just going to buy something so that we could put this all to rest. When I say crazy I really do mean crazy- we wrote an offer on a "flip" property that we had never even seen. In a neighborhood we had never visited.

So if you want to know- we got the house. We are closing on Monday. But don't think that there is any less stress that comes with buying a flip property and let me tell you why. First of all, if it is being sold in a time period less than 90 days from when the investor took ownership you are in for all kinds of headaches. Currently VA is the only loan type that does not prohibit a flip transaction, but we are not veterants.

Fortunately for us the home was nearing the 91st day from when the seller took ownership so we waited until that day and submitted the contract right out of the gate. If we were obtaining conventional financing and the seller had listed the home at more than a 15% profit over what he purchased it for then we would have been in for even more headaches. Lucky for us we were able to qualify for FHA financing and because the home had been owned for at least 91 days we only needed to obtain one appraisal.

However the appraisal was shaky at first, and we were scared we would need to go for an appraisal review. I see very few appraisal reviews that agree with the original value, most come back with a cut to the value. We wrote the contract without an appraisal contingency so this meant that if the appraised value was substantially lower than our sales price we were still locked in to our sales price with no repercussions on the seller. Note to most average buyers out there- this is NOT, NOT, NOT a good idea. We were playing with fire. Fortunately for us we did not get burned- too bad. The value did come in $2500 lower than our sales price which means we are completely out of that cash but for all the housing problems we have had over the last seven months with trying to purchase a home we figured it was collateral damage. We were ok with that.

We are moving one week from today. Incidentally, the home does have a basement. So the house that started this whole crazy blog - you know, the one with the basement that we just had to have? Well, we still got our basement, just happened to be in another state.

Everything happens for a reason.

update from sc

ahhhh...i havent posted in forever!! my regular blog has divorced me because i ignored it for so long. i do have good news though. i just saved a bunch of money on my.....never mind. no, i really do have good news! we were assigned a phase 1 negotiator this week. i spoke with her yesterday, and she assured me that she would begin working on our file on monday!! yay!! also, boa ordered an appraisal on the house. the appraiser came by on friday, and he said he would have his report to the bank on monday. so it sounds like things are starting to happen!!

on the flip side though...our realtor called this week and told us that our buyers are going to start looking for another place, because its taken so long to get anything moving on this house. i am just hoping that we will make some progress and they will hang in there for a little bit longer. keep your fingers crossed for us!!

West Coast Jenn Update

I can't believe I haven't posted in at least two weeks. Wow.

Well, for those that are wondering, we pulled out of escrow on the Bank of America/Countrywide short sale. Five months in, no BPO back, and several incompetent negotiators later we decided that we could stand no more. Luckily for us our sellers were kind and let us out of the contract. Lucky for them their house went right back into contract, probably within 48 hours. I will hope that they are able to close quickly- but I will definitely be keeping my eye on that home to see when it finally does close escrow (and for how much!).

We did actually get a bank owned offer accepted. YAY! Sadly, we also got some not-so-fortunate news about our jobs so we opted to decline the bank counter on that home. We still have jobs- they just won't be based out of our same office. We will have to relocate in order to preserve them. The last two weeks have been pure hell. Stay? Or go?

We also then decided to tell the seller of the other short sale we were in contract on that we wanted out of escrow on that home as well- more because we did not want to prolong the escrow period and possibly run a chance that the home would go into foreclosure if we did not provide enough notice that we were not going to close on it. I would forever feel responsible for putting the seller in that position so we did notify them right away. I think it was about two weeks ago now.

Actually, tonight I spoke with my realtor (who incidentally has become an even closer friend than she was before) and asked her to call the listing agent of the Suntrust short sale home. They are still waiting to hear from the back up offers if any are interested enough to pursue escrow before they remove it from contingent status so I asked my realtor to let them know that there is a possibility we would still be staying in the area (myself with a different employer, my husband with the same one) and that we would hopefully know within two weeks. If the seller is interested in waiting out our nightmare for the next two weeks we would really like them to keep us in escrow. We really, really want that house. I have been dreaming of the half acre lot that the home is located on and all the fun things we could do with it.

Needless to say, this has been an emotional few weeks for us. Let's recap, shall we?

We went into contract on a BofA short sale in May. Moved out of our home and leased it to tenants for the next two years in August. Wrote several offers on bank owned homes and all were rejected. Went into contract on a Suntrust short sale in late September. Found out in late September/early October that the rental we are living in is in pre-foreclosure. Found out our employer is closing down our office and we will either have to relocate or find new employment. Finally got a bank owned offer accepted but had to decline it because of the tenuous employment situation. Let go escrow on the short sale that started this whole ball rolling. Let go the short sale that we had our hearts set on after the first short sale we were in escrow on. Living in total chaos with no idea what tomorrow will bring, or what state we will even wind up living in.

Hmm. Just another day in Paradise?

news (or lack thereof) from south cackalacky!

well, we have had a FEW things going on. i've talked to the bank a few more times since i last posted...pretty much the same story there. loan is STILL in modification. go figure. i did talk to someone yesterday who seemed like she might be able to help. most of the time when i call, no one in the short sale department will give me the time of day...they just send me straight to the modification department to try to get the file transferred back over. finally, a nice woman named nana (yes, that was really her name!) said she would try to help. she brought her supervisor over and explained my situation. the supervisor told her what buttons to press, and said it should be done by monday, and for me to call back then. time will tell...

also, we had a couple come by last thursday and look at the house. they didnt come with their realtor, they just showed up at the door at 6:30 in the evening and wanted to know if they could take a look around. of course i said yes. they loved the house, and said they would be writing an offer the next day. i was very up front with them and told them that we were doing a short sale. i got a call the next day from their realtor saying that they wanted the house, but couldnt make an offer because they needed to do a contingency offer, and of course, the bank wont accept contingency offers.

lastly, a gentleman from out of state came today to look at the house. he loved it as well. he was particularly excited because we have high ceilings in our garage. weird huh? it seems he is a car buff, and wants to install a lift so that he can look UNDER his cars. my agent called this evening and said that he wrote an offer this afternoon, BUT he has to close within 30 days. i told my agent that the only way that could happen is if he offers the amount that we owe the bank. that amount happens to be oh, about $40k more than his offer. doubtful. even knowing that there isnt a chance in hell that he will do that, i will still go to bed tonight hoping and dreaming! it would really be perfect if the house sold right now. my husband's company has a job right now in myrtle beach...he's been going down there 2-3 days a week. the company decided to go ahead and rent a house down there for the next year since he will be there so much. if our house sold, we could all just move down there and live rent-free for the next 10-12 months. did i mention that they are looking at ocean-front houses with pools? yeah. so keep your fingers crossed for me m'kay? by the way, i thought i would show you a picture of our house. i like to post pictures of things, and since this is a blog about buying and selling houses, i thought it might be appropriate!

Quick Update- East Coast Jenn!

I had to give myself 24 hours before writing this post. I'm not kidding. I can totally understand the perspective of those people who just go postal on a business that they feel has wronged them. I can not explain the rage I fell when I get off the phone after having been d!*%ed around by one of BoA's "service" reps. When I called last night, they told me that our file is STILL in modification. Just to review:
Submitted all paperwork on 8-24
Paperwork sat on fax until 9-9
I called every other day or so until 9-23, when I found out that our file was sent to loan modification "by mistake".
Since then I have called on 9-23, 9-24, 10-1, 10-6, and 10-9. Each time I call, they tell me that they have transferred the file back to short sale. Each time, they have lied.
My realtor sent me another text last night saying that he feels like the buyers might stick with us if we could only give them something to hang on to. I wish I could. My husband decided it would be a good idea to write them a letter. I suggested that they just come read this blog!! Thats all the updates they need! I will include the letter that my husband wrote. It hasnt been proofread yet, so forgive the mistakes. I am just too tired to re-read and proofread it! As Jenn has said before...please dont copy content!

October 9, 2009

Dear Home Buyers:

My wife and I wanted to take some time to give you an update as to where we currently stand with Bank of America regarding the short sale process of the sale of the house. First of all, we wanted to thank you for your interest in our home. We have thoroughly enjoyed living here and will be sad to leave, but due to circumstances beyond our control, it is imperative that we move. We know that you will truly enjoy living in this house!!

As you are well aware, we listed the house well below market value with the intention of pursing a short sale with Bank of America. We had tried unsuccessfully to sell the house at or above market value for six or so months, but due to the economic climate we were unable to sell. Like many homeowners, we have experienced some financial hardships and our options are limited as to how we can remove the debt of our home and minimize the financial damage. The best option for us is to sell the house at market value. The worse option is foreclosure. Because we are in a “buyers market” right now, we elected to purse the short sale process with our Bank of American. This limits the financial loss to BOA and limits the damage done to our finances. Foreclosures costs banks approximately $30,000-50,000 dollars; therefore banks are very open to the short sale process because they can recover the majority of their investment.

The short sale process is extremely buyer friendly because the buyer is almost completely assured of receiving a great deal on the purchase of the house in question. Using this house as an example, you will be receiving, essentially, a 20-25% discount on the purchase of this house. The downside to a short sale is that it requires a little extra measure of patience. Any time a bank is faced with losing money, they try many different “offers” to entice the homeowner to remain in the house (this has been our experience at least). Bank of America has been making “offers” to us over the last 6 weeks, all of which are in an effort to minimize their losses. Because we want to move (and need to), we have declined their “offers” but it has taken an unfortunate amount of time for them to “get the message” that we are not interested in staying in this house. Bank of America is a multi-trillion dollar company which means that they are massive and have many layers which equates to things taking a little more time to get done compared to a local credit union.

With all of that said, we currently know the following:

1. We have transmitted to Bank of America all of the documentation that they have requested thus far.
2. Bank of America has a file set up for our short sale account.
3. They are currently reviewing our file and the documentation contain therein.

If you were to equate it to a 5 step process, we are beginning step 3 which involves a “negotiator” that has been assigned to our short sale account. He will review our account and documentation and will make an initial assessment which will then have to be approved by his superior. That would be step 4. Step 5 will be getting the paperwork generated and move toward a closing date.
I know this has been a frustrating process for you as it has definitely been a trying time for us as well. We are trying to remain patient and truly hope that you will remain patient with us. We are fully committed to seeing this process through until the end.

After all is said and done, you will purchase this house at a great discount and will truly enjoying living in here. We know the long term enjoyment your family will have here will far outweigh the short term process we are going through now.

We stay in contact with the bank at least twice a week to receive any updates they may have. We will continue to push the process through as quickly as we can and will start providing weekly updates through, Brian, our realtor. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to pass any questions and we will answer accordingly.

We are looking forward getting this short sale completed and for you to move in!!!

Sincerely,

Travis and Jennifer

Today's Update on Bank of America Short Sale

Do you recall that I mentioned a BPO had been ordered on the Bank of America short sale and it was supposed to be back on the 22nd of September? And then do you recall that somehow the BPO wasn't back and the file got reassigned to a new negotiator on the 24th of September? And finally, do you remember how I mentioned that the new negotiator had not replied as to the status of the BPO?

Today's update was that the new negotiator ordered the BPO on October 6th. What happened to the one that was ordered and was expected to be returned two weeks prior to that?

Next follow-up date is scheduled for October 15th. Remember me saying that I automatically added thirty days to the date they gave us for delivering any updates?

Well, I must say, today we had enough. After nearly five months of insanity, incompetence, and outright stagnance we asked our realtor to cancel escrow. Can you believe we even held out for five months? I still can't believe it has been close to five months since we started this process. Five months, and still there is no BPO back. No idea if our offer was even going to be accepted by Countrywide/Bank of America because they had no idea what the value of the home was yet.

I do feel bad for the sellers. I know that with their beautiful home (with a basement!) they are not going to have any trouble lining up another buyer again- and hopefully they will find someone that is willing to pay more than we were to compensate for the headache they will have to endure to get the transaction to the finish line. But I do feel bad because with Bank of America they will have to start all over with getting their short sale package back in. I feel bad because, like me, they probably really just want closure to this whole deal. Unfortunately, I can look for closure by trying to buy another house. They won't get closure until the deal actually closes or until the house forecloses. Sad either way.

So as of right now we are still waiting to hear if our offer got accepted on the bank owned home. But, as crazy as I am about having an alternate plan, we are looking at another bank owned home tomorrow morning just in case this one doesn't come through. The one we are looking at tomorrow has been on the market for almost two months with no offers so either there is a dead body in the living room or something is seriously wrong with it. I figure we can likely remedy either of those situations if we absolutely had to so if it means we will finally get an offer accepted we are going to proceed.

Stay tuned. You can't juggle with less than three balls, right?

No Update- From Vegas Jenn

I started to title this post "The Waiting Game" but unfortunately I already had one titled that. There seems to be a recurring theme here, huh?

We are still waiting to find out if we are going to get accepted on the bank owned property we wrote an offer on. We wrote the offer on Tuesday, one week ago from yesterday. We heard back on Monday night that they wanted our "highest and best" offer.

We bumped up our sales price and dropped the request for seller concessions. We wrote another nice letter to the asset manager, likely which did not get sent to the asset manager at all. And we hoped that it would be enough to convince them that we were most deserving of this home.

Today our realtor called and let us know that since this is a FNMA owned home there is a closing cost worksheet that needed to be filled out. I wasn't really sure 1) why this needed to be completed when we asked for no closing costs and 2) why they didn't just ask us all to do this at the same time that we sent back our highest and best offers?

Instead they gave all of us until the end of the day today to complete our worksheets and resubmit to the listing agent. That means they will send them to the bank tomorrow, and maybe the bank will have them reviewed in time to let us all know before the weekend which lucky couple will win the contract to the dream home. I really am hoping it will be us.

See, we want nothing more than to put all of this behind us. We want closure. We want to KNOW that there is an end in sight. It's great to have a short sale (or two) going, but a short sale means nothing until the keys are in your hand. Have you heard the comment "short sales are too unpredictable"? If only I had a buck for every time I heard that throughout this process...

But little secret here- bank owned are no sure thing either. Maybe they are "sure things" in other areas of the country- maybe it is specific to my area that bank owned homes are harder to come by than a home that actually still has any equity left in it. I don't know. All I know is I cannot believe the mess that we are in.

I cannot believe that buying a home (which, incidentally is hard enough to qualify to buy anymore) is actually not as easy as going out, looking at a home, and making an offer. The process goes a little like this:

Go out. Look at a home. Fall in love with it. Submit an offer. Wait for it... Wait for it... You get nothing. Move on. Shake it off. Find another. Fall even more in love with it than the last. Build hope that it will come through. Submit a more aggressive offer. Wait for it... Wait for it... Rejection. Find another home. Repeat. And continue repeating until you either find a home that will "just do" or you give up.

So far we aren't at the "anything will do" point, but it is scary to think how dangerously close we are. If you want to know, I will be blunt. If I had any idea how this whole thing was going to play out I absolutely would not have done it. We are conservative people by nature. We try hard to make sound financial choices and to make wise decisions when it comes to not moving too quickly or acting irrationally. Some might say that is a fault- considering we have probably made half the return of what we really should be making on our investments.

The other day I was asking myself, why did I do this again? It took only half a second for me to remember. I did all of this for my children. I did this for their safety. I did this to make sure that I could always provide a safe place for them to play- both inside the house and out. I guess that's all the motivation we need to get us through this. It really is true- you will do anything for your kids.

i knew this would happen...

I got a text message from my realtor yesterday:
"the folks [buyers] are getting nervous, per their realtor. i told her we would check with the bank again on monday"
first of all, i am checking with the bank ALLOFTHETIME!!!! i don't know what more i can do. they are a bunch of incompetent imbeciles, and there just isn't much i can do about that.
secondly, when we found out that these buyers wanted to put an offer in on the house, we were very up-front with them. we told them we were going to do a short sale, and we told them it would take longer to get it closed than a standard sale. much longer. i told my realtor to tell them at least 90 days. i hope he told them that, and didn't fudge it a little to make it sound better. i am going to assume he was honest with them and with me. we offered to sign a short term lease on the house so that they could go ahead and move in. i don't think their realtor ever went to them with that offer...she didn't think it was a good idea. she was probably right, but we were willing to assume the risk just to keep them from backing out.
third, they offered $205,000. we were asking $230,000. if the bank accepts their offer, they will be getting a steal! seriously, a STEAL!

i guess i'm just frustrated, because they have barely even given it 30 days, and they are already getting "nervous". i just know they are going to back out, and then we are going to be at square one, and facing a foreclosure. i cant imagine what that will do to my husbands credit. i checked it the other day...it has dropped over 200 points in 5 months. i guess it cant get much worse, huh? on a side note...i think its funny how it takes at least 6 months for good things to show on your credit, but bad things show up immediately!! i guess that's another gripe for another day!

The Waiting Game

If you are wondering what is going on with Jenn-the-buyer (AKA Vegas Jenn) I will tell you- we are just in a holding pattern.

Here is the situation:
1. Currently in contract for a Bank of America Short Sale (went into contract mid-May). No BPO received as of yet. Still in "Phase 1". As of yet seller has not had an NOD filed. No end in sight
2. Also currently in contract for a Suntrust Short Sale. (went into contract mid to late September). Have not received all seller signed addendums and according to listing agent the short sale package was "partially" submitted to Suntrust. Seller has an NOD (Notice of Default) that was filed on July 31st. Looks like potential trustee sale would commence around end of November or beginning of December. No end in sight.
3. Contract written on a FNMA owned property. No reply as of yet. Contract was written Tuesday September 29th. At the time that we wrote the contract we were the only offer in hand. Not surprisingly there are now multiple offers so we aren't holding out much hope. I can't say there is no end in sight on this as at least we should know by Tuesday or Wednesday if they have accepted it or not.
4. The short term house we are renting is currently in pre-foreclosure. We discovered that two days ago and it appears that we have until approximately mid December before the actual foreclosure and bank possession will occur. So what does that mean? It means that with the current timelines on closing escrow we will need to get an offer in on a house and get it accepted within the next few weeks in order to not find ourselves with a notice taped up on the garage and a lockbox on the door.

Oh yeah, and while we were at the park this afternoon with the kids someone stole our cooler right out of our wagon. We feel the black cloud hanging over our head right now.

^#&@&$*@^@*#^#(@& (east coast jenn)

Forgive the title. I cant think of any words bad enough to express just how pi$$ed off I am. I called BoA last night when I got home from our quick trip to the beach. If you remember, they transferred our loan from the short sale department to the loan modification department. We called last week to have in transferred back over, and they told my husband it would be done by 3 or 4 o'clock the next day. That was on 9/23. I called back on 9/24, just to make sure it had been done. It hadn't. Thee person I spoke to that day told me to call back on the 28th (Monday). I didn't call until last night because I left all the information on my desk at home. When I called, they said the loan was STILL in modification!! Because the loan is in my husbands name, he has to be the one to call and "decline" the modification. I had him call last night and ask wtf is going on, and the guy he spoke to in modification told him that it would take ANOTHER 10 days to get it out of modification and back into short sale, where of course we will have to go through the whole waiting to get a negotiator thing again. Just typing these words is making my blood boil again!!! I just cant believe that these people can get away with running a business like this!!! I don't know how Vegas Jenn has done this for 5 months!! I just started, and I feel like going crazy! More later...I need to go take a blood pressure pill!!

UNBELIEVABLE...

You know, we were scared to death to rent our home out and move to a short term rental. We have heard the horror stories and have had friends and acquaintances that have fallen victims to renting homes that have gone into foreclosure.

I have watched the recorders website like a hawk to make sure that we wouldn't come home to a notice taped up on the door. I was surfing around tonight (because that is my habit- even though we have three contracts out and at least two accepted I simply cannot stop looking for alternate plans) and low and behold guess what I came across?

Yes, somehow in my daily search of the recorders office I was using their pre-set formula for searching foreclosure documents. Unfortunately that pre-set list of doc types did not include the one where the NOD was filed on the property we are renting.

We signed the lease on August 13th. The NOD was filed on August 17th.

I cried.

I cannot believe this. We have been so careful- have worked so hard to make sure we watched for this. We felt like we could trust our landlord. Now we are scared to death we aren't going to get our $2500 security deposit back because there is a good chance it could already be spent or that he never intended to give it back. And we are also worried sick that we won't finalize something with our housing situation soon and will indeed come home to find that notice on our door.

Fortunately the laws have changed to improve the rights of tenants living in foreclosed homes. I am going to have to spend some time brushing up on them soon, just in case.

At this point we are:
1) hoping we get the contract on the FNMA owned home and can close within 45 days.
2) considering if we do not get that contract asking the seller of short sale #2 (Suntrust) if they will sign a two year lease to us and let us proceed with moving into the home. Knowing full well we will definitely end up paying rent that will not be paid to the bank and also knowing full well that if the short sale does not go through and the home does foreclose we will have to move yet again.
3) considering skipping any further thoughts of trying to get into the resale market here and instead going straight to another new construction home.

What would you do?

Bank Owned instead of Short Sale?

I realized that last night I posted about the bank owned home we put an offer in on and forgot to tell you that we had even done that!

We viewed a home that is owned by FNMA on Monday, wrote the offer while we were at the house but asked our realtor to hold it while we discussed the pro's and cons. It wasn't exactly the original home we had in mind, but it does have a basement and it does have much potential. I just don't want my husband to feel he is "settling" for a home he doesn't really want. So I wanted to talk with him in private about that instead of putting him on the spot in front of our realtor.

As we drove back to work together we talked. We decided there were lots of pro's- and in the end we flipped a coin to see if we were really going to proceed with the offer. Tails won and we we had our realtor submit the offer Monday afternoon.

So many people post or comment that bank owned is the only way to go. Let me tell you why I don't necessarily agree. First of all- IF you get your contract accepted on a bank owned home, then indeed you will at least know that you will be closing. (someday) But in our market, in our city, you might have to look at fifty bank owned homes, write contracts on ten, and if you are lucky- you might get one of them.

Then when it comes to closing the loan? Well, remember, I am in the business. It is probably 50/50 right now when it comes to value coming in at what the contract was written at. When the review appraisal comes in there is at least a half chance that the value is going to be cut. Back to the bank you go to renegotiate the sales price. Do you think this occurs quickly? No.

Even buying a bank owned home does not guarantee a speedy close. I have seen some bank owned transactions drag on for four months while all parties continue to disagree about things. I suppose that is why the banks right now are in favor of cash over financing- so there will be no appraisal contingencies.

How do we feel at this point? I mean, we are almost five months into a short sale and still have no information that indicates any end is in sight or that we are any closer to the finish line than we were five months ago. The market is moving and we aren't certain if we are going to be priced out now. We have a rate lock (not highly recommended for anyone out there that might be considering locking a loan without bank approval of a short sale) and we just had to renegotiate and relock it yesterday. It was going to expire in two weeks. Now we get sixty more days but there isn't a snowball's chance that the loan is going to close in sixty days so we might lose our up-front lock fee. We have been viewing homes and making offers to no avail. Banks won't touch us because we have financing (albeit we had rock solid loan approval and only needed a contract and an appraisal). We took the conservative approach because we were retaining our other home and didn't want it to sit empty once we closed on the new home. We found renters, we moved into a rental ourselves and have been living in hell.

They do say hindsight is 20/20.

Weekly Update on our Bank of America Short Sale Purchase

Today was our scheduled update day. I look forward to it like a prisoner looks forward to their fifteen minutes of sunshine once a week. I obsess about it. I try not to think about it but I do count down the days (hours, minutes) between each update.

Today our update was something to the effect that the file had been reassigned to another negotiator on September 24th. The short sale processing company obtained that negotiator's e-mail address, sent an e-mail to ask for status, and noted that the next follow up date would be October 7th.

Good thing I wasn't holding my breath for that BPO that was supposed to be back on September 22nd, huh? I was bitter like a prisoner whose fifteen minutes of sunshine were rained out.

On top of that, the Suntrust short sale that we are also working on pursuing has been nothing but a joke. Originally I was very optimistic that the listing realtor being the direct point of contact for the short sale negotiation would net much better communication and faster results than using a short sale processing company. Now? Not so much.

So we wrote the offer on the 10th of September. Today is the 30th of September. The listing agent has been unable to meet with his clients to obtain their signatures on all of the addendums that we had going. So do we really have anything?

The listing agent said he submitted a partial package to Suntrust so they would note the file that a short sale was in process and would postpone their foreclosure proceedings. Yes, because short sale lenders love it when you piece meal things to them. They will take a partial package and fully process it just waiting on you to complete the items they needed from the get-go. NOT!

Today's updates on both of the short sales we have going were just a joke. The girls at work were teasing me that I am just a glutton for punishment. I told them that if I let go of our contracts on these short sales then I wouldn't have anything to complain about every day. I can't let you folks down now can I? I mean, you come here for my daily super-dose of sarcasm and pessimism, right? And I can't very well write something that I just don't feel or understand. So I guess in essence I am really doing this to myself in the name of research. For my blog. For you all to benefit from my torture and not make the same mistakes yourself.

Did I tell you about my friend in New Mexico that is short saling her home? Her first lienholder is Bank of America. She told me it took them seven months to approve the short sale. The approval came one day after her buyers cancelled escrow. She was fortunate and found new buyers- I will have to check in with her to see how that is going. I will update you.

And I guess since I blog so much and have so many irons in the fire right now I should mention that the bank owned home that we wrote a contract on yesterday is still up in the air. My realtor did confirm that there are no other offers on it as of right now and that our offer was submitted to the seller (FNMA) but that it would take 3-5 days to hear back and that if any other offers do come in the interim they will also be submitted to the bank.

We are trying not to get our hopes up about it and all, but like one of the girls at work was teasing me- I obtained a copy of the original builder floorplan and have been using colored pencils to sketch in where our furniture will be placed. I'm not hopeful about it or anything.

C'mon back now. More updates as I get them.

Welcome Jenn the Seller!

I just wanted to take a minute to thank Jenn the Seller for agreeing to bare her soul to us with regards to the short sale process with Bank of America.

What Jenn has described in her post is so very common. I am a mortgage professional and I cannot tell you how many times I have seen a loan officer trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. Likely because they will get "three points back". (Wondering what "three points back" means?) Three points back means that the loan officer will receive a yield spread premium from the investor on your loan in addition to the up front fees that they are charging you. Rebate. Consider it a referral fee for them bringing you to the investor.

In my market I used to have loan officers ask me what the rates that day were. When I asked them which rate they wanted to know about they would say "whatever gets me three points back." I also think there is a high profile sports car roaming around our city with the license plate to that effect. 3PTSBCK . Maybe I am wrong. Maybe his car has since been repossessed. I can only hope.

What Jenn the Seller has described about a loan officer trying to place them in an option arm is a very real part of our mortgage crisis and in fact does continue to happen even right now. How is that, you wonder? How can that continue to happen when the mortgage industry has been purged of these "exotic" loan products?

The truth is- there are still a number of loan officers out there that feel that every single borrower is entitled to a home loan. That means that right now there are still loan officers that are more about the almighty dollar than doing the right thing. Sometimes instead of telling a borrower they can get a loan right this minute what they should be telling their borrowers to do is to pay down some of their debt. Then save some money for a rainy day. Write a budget. Take a homebuying class. Come back in twelve months and let's see how far you've come.

That is NOT what is happening, folks. Right now there are still people in the mortgage industry that have refused to embrace that not EVERYONE is entitled to a home loan. So they are trying hard to pound those square pegs into round holes. They are taking borrowers who have no money in the bank (as in, they live paycheck to paycheck with nothing left over), borrowers who need gift funds just to close their loan, borrowers who need to add family members just to qualify for the loan- and they are trying to tell us that these borrowers are completely ready to own homes.

Just a few questions. Will the brother from out of state really pay the payment every single month if the borrower can't do it all by themself? What if the borrower's car breaks down and they need to spend $2500 on a transmission? Where will that money come from? Great Uncle Sal that "gifted" them the money for the down payment with no expectation for repayment? Is it just me or are my relatives all misers? I don't have one single relative that I could go to right now and say, hey, I need five grand for my down payment on my house. Think you can just give it to me? I'll never be able to give it back.

The truth is- you have to know when gift funds are involved that there is some sort of unspoken agreement that the funds will eventually be repaid to the donor. (Even though all parties sign this gift letter saying the funds are not expected to be repaid). The other thing is- even on paper when a borrower seems to make enough money to make the payment (hey, Desktop Underwriter said it was approve/eligible!) do they REALLY have the ability to make that payment?

I am not a mortgage underwriter but I am a mortgage professional. If you look at every file with pessimism you will no doubt see how every borrower could potentially default. That's not what I am saying we should do. But what I am saying we should do is have a few more tough conversations with people. What good does it do to get a homeowner into their dream home if they won't be able to stay there?

You see, what happened to Jenn the Seller could have been completely prevented. If they were able to stick around that $160k mark for their dream home that they originally planned they might have been able to stay in it. Instead they believed in their mortgage professional telling them they qualified. Qualifying and actually being able to make the ends meet really are two different things.

It has been a real eye opener to us to have to go through the homebuying experience in this market. You see, almost five years ago when we bought our home we were told we had to go stated income. He told us that even though we made enough money full doc that their full doc program limited them to a 45% debt ratio. We were 46%. Instead, we could state our income and go up to a 50% debt ratio.

What? I argued and argued and argued with him. I disagreed wholeheartedly that on a full doc loan we would not be able to obtain an exception for a 1% debt ratio variance. I lost. He was persistent enough to tell me that if I did not agree with the stated income loan we would have NO loan. We wanted the home bad enough, so we did the loan stated income. For the record, we did not lie about our income. We stated exactly what we made on our full doc income- but the difference was that because a stated income loan allowed us to go to 50% we were fine with our 46% ratio.

So are you wondering what difference this makes? It meant that our interest rate was higher. Not only that, but instead of qualifying for a fixed rate 2nd mortgage we had to obtain a heloc. Within our first three payments on the house our heloc payment went from $300 a month to over $1000 a month. This was for our second mortgage only! Now get this- those payments that increased by over $700 a month did not even cover our minimum payment. If we paid only that amount we were actually adding on to our principal each month. We had to pay $1200 a month just to stay at our principal balance.

Are you sitting there in shock? Yeah. We were too. Already for us our payment had tripled from our starter home. Ever hear of something called "payment shock"? Well, we had it. Payment shock is where you take on a payment that is substantially higher than anything you have ever paid before in your life. They call it payment shock for a reason. We were pretty blessed and were able to afford our home even with the payment shock and the heloc increase. But we were also mortgage professionals and knew that we couldn't sustain that forever. We put in a swimming pool, had our home appraised, and refinanced out of those loans just twelve months after we got into them.

And we thank our lucky stars every single day for it- because just two months later the decline began. We never would have had the equity to refinance our home and would be coming up on our first arm adjustment next month. Fortunately for us we are in a fixed rate thirty year loan now. No surprises. We can budget and know exactly how much our payment will be. This year, and the year after that, and the year after that.

But can you imagine if we weren't so fortunate? Can you see how this has all happened? And how even though those exotic loans really aren't out there anymore that the problem has not gone away? Does this not disturb anyone? Or how about this, does this not disturb anyone enough to take responsibility for themselves? I was at a presentation but on by one of the mortgage insurance companies a few weeks ago and the comment was made- if we each take care of only one person this problem will resolve itself.

How true is that? I can only take care of my own integrity. I can only take care of my own honesty. I try hard to be the moral barometer of my company- and by doing so I know that I am doing the best that I can to help turn the tide of the mortgage industry. But this is also more widespread than just expecting mortgage professionals to be the only ones that are responsible for changing this. Who is going to teach the borrowers that although they may hear one thing from their mortgage lender they should still question whether that one thing is the right thing for them?

I am heartbroken for Jenn the Seller. She has been through so much in her life and having been blessed with her beautiful twins is likely bittersweet as they will have to uproot their children and move them. True, home is wherever you make it. I have no doubt that Jenn will make a beautiful home even if it is not their custom built home. But I am saddened that when they built that home it was within their reach and unfortunately they did not know enough to question their lender about how they were qualified. I am sad that they have to go through this experience at all. I know there are many more out there just like them and I wish I could do more to reach them all. I wish I could help educate more people. Answer more questions. Tell them what they are getting into. Be the realist that they need- as buying a home is such an emotional experience and quickly becomes irrational as well (I know this firsthand!).

The best I can do is blog. Tell all about my experience. Talk about what I think, what I know, what I suspect, and what I hope. Drop a line. Comment. Come back often. If I can reach but one more person through my blog then that is at least one more I can make a difference to.

And thank you East Side Jenn for helping show how this could happen to anyone.

Love, West Coast Jenn.

And we wonder why the housing market continues to decline (Jenn in Vegas- aka the buyer)

So... I am so ripped off I don't even know where to start.

In addition to playing the waiting game on the Bank of America short sale that we have been in contract for since May we have decided to pursue our other options. Our realtor (the patient saint that she is) has showed us home after home. We have written several offers on bank owned homes, some of which I have blogged about. (I think?)

Did I tell you about the bank owned home that we offered 35k above list price and didn't even get a chance to offer our highest and best? Today we found out that it closed yesterday. Any guesses on what the final sales price was? Are you thinking it must have been 40, 50k above list price? Would you believe that it was a mere four thousand dollars above list?

Our offer, at thirty five thousand dollars above list (THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND ABOVE LIST) was rejected for an offer that was four thousand dollars above list. Which means the bank LOST thirty one thousand dollars on that home. Because they wanted a cash buyer. Keep in mind, the value of our offer was fairly well supported by the comps in the neighborhood.

In turn, this means that the price per square foot in that neighborhood has further decreased from the all time low of eighty dollars per square foot to seventy six dollars per square foot. I'll bet the neighbors just LOVE this. I can now see at least three more people contemplating walking away from their homes that are upside down in that neighborhood.

Asset managers, if you are reading this- you are only perpetuating the problem. This is UNBELIEVABLE. We are highly qualified buyers with full loan approval. We even have a flippin' rate lock. The only conditions on our loan are acceptable appraisal and fully executed contract. You passed us over in greed. Or short sight. Either way, you have unfortunately further contributed to the decline of the housing market by taking a cash buyer (who will fill the home with tenants no doubt). In addition- to all those asset managers out there choosing cash buyers (investors, LLC's, property flippers) all you are doing is creating another false housing market. What will happen when the prices cautiously rise and people begin to get optimistic that the housing market has taken a turn for the better and these investors begin flooding the market to unload their booty?

What stinks about this whole situation is that we would have loved to buy that house. Matter of fact, even without cash in our hand we probably could have closed our loan this week too. Sadly they didn't even give us a second thought. And here we sit, in our short term rental, watching the market pass us by. It's like when you get to one of the highest levels of Frogger. The cars are racing by too fast for you to hop out and get across. So you are stuck sitting on the side until either your timer runs out or you hop in front of a car and end up staring at the "game over" screen.

It's Jenn #2...aka the seller!!

Hi everybody...I'm the "other" Jenn! I will be dropping by once in a while to share my experience with a Bank of America short sale---as a seller. I want to thank Jenn (#1) for letting me do this...I want to let people know what they are getting into with a short sale, and sometimes I just may need to vent!! Let me give you a little bit of history so you can see how we got to this point. We never thought that we would need to resort to a short sale! About a year and a half after my husband and I married, we decided we were ready to build a house. We went to a custom home builder where we lived, and had them design our dream home. Their original estimate on what it would cost to build the house was $184,000. After the super-slick salesman finished with us, the total of the house was $269,000. We were 22 and 23 years old, and had no conception of how much money that really was! We also weren’t thinking about things like taxes and insurance that would be added into our payment. To make matters worse, the Countrywide loan officer that worked in conjunction with the builder was as slick as the house salesman. She tried her best to talk us into one of their new “pay-option ARM” loans. These are the very type of loans that helped contribute to the housing crash. Fortunately, we opted out of the ARM loan, and decided to go with a plain-vanilla 30 year fixed loan. We found out later that loan officers get more commission when they close those types of loans. I’m so glad we didn’t do it!
The house was complete in June of 2006 and we moved in. The payments on the house started in July. Our loan payment was supposed to be $1600 per month, but once we added in taxes and insurance, plus PMI, the payment was bumped up to $1900. It was tight but we were fine…my husband and I both worked, and it took every penny to pay the bills. The crazy thing is…the Countrywide loan officer I was telling you about?? She “worked” the numbers and had our loan based on my husband’s income alone! He made $32,500 per year at the time. So Countrywide approved a $269,000 loan on an income of $32,500, and they wonder why they went bankrupt??? We were barely making it on TWO salaries, but we WERE making it. We took our obligations very seriously. Over the next several years, our payment increased to $2111, over $200 per month higher than when we started.
In July of last year, we found out we were pregnant with twins, and decided it would be best if I quit my job and stayed home. At that time, we were going to replace my income with my husband’s performance bonuses. His construction-based job pays very large bonuses based on the profitability of the jobs he works on. The bonuses he received were more than enough to replace what I made. That was all fine and good…until January of this year, when his company put a freeze on all bonuses and raises due to the economy. All of a sudden, we were faced with a problem. We contacted Bank of America many times, asking for the mortgage help that they were supposed to be offering, according to the terms of the government bailout. They were completely unwilling to help; they told us they couldn’t do anything until we were at least three months late on our payments!! We didn’t want to stop our mortgage payment….we had great credit and wanted to keep it that way. Finally, after trying again and again to get help from them, we decided that if they were so insistent that we had to miss payments in order to get help, then that’s what we would do. We put the house on the market, and stopped making payments. Gosh, its hard to even type that sentence. It goes against everything we have ever been taught. We started saving every penny from that mortgage money, and using it to pay other debt, trying to do everything we could to help my husband’s credit. The bank was still unwilling to help; they basically just kept saying they would foreclose before they would offer any loan modification.
That brings us to August. We finally received an offer on the house. The buyers knew that we were trying to do a short sale. Our asking price was $230,000 (we owed $259,000). They offered $205,000. We weren’t crazy about sending such a low offer to the bank, but that was the only offer coming in…the market in South Carolina isn’t as hopping as the Vegas market!! We sent the offer, plus every other thing they asked for on August 24th. They said it would take 10 days to get a Phase 1 negotiator assigned. When I called back, they said they still didn’t have our paperwork. Come to find out, it took from August 24th to September 9th for them to get our fax off of the machine and get it into their system. Then they said it would be 10 days from that date (Sept 9) to get the negotiator assigned. I called 9 days later, and they said to give them a few more days. When I called back several days later, they said that our loan had been transferred to the loan modification department!! No one could tell me why it had been send over there. I asked them why they were willing to modify our loan now, when we had been asking for help months before. No one could answer that question either. The lady I spoke to said that we would have to call the modification department and ask to have the file transferred back over to short sale. We did that last week, and they said that would take 3 or 4 days to get done. Here is the real kicker: once the loan finally makes it back to the short sale department, our file will go to the back of the line, and we will have to wait another 10 days for a negotiator, and we all know that it won’t happen in 10 days. I am supposed to call the bank tomorrow to see if they have the file yet. I am NOT optimistic. I will say one thing I AM impressed with is the ability that BoA employees have for bull$#!#. I think they must make all short sale employees take extensive classes on how to give people the runaround. I can’t believe I started this process thinking that maybe we would be the exception instead of the rule. I guess there is a fool born every day, huh?? I apologize for this post being so long!! I promise they won’t all be this way…I just wanted to give you a little history so you knew our story! I’ll post this afternoon or tomorrow after I call the bank!!

A Tale of Two Jenn's

Remember me mentioning that I might be able to get a guest author to blog about the Bank of America short sale process for a seller?

We are in luck!! I am so excited about this. See, everything I have researched about Bank of America short sales is only from a buyer's perspective, such as mine. Don't you ever wonder what the seller has to go through?

Not to confuse you all, but we are both named Jenn. We will try hard to identify our blog posts with something like "from the buyer (seller)" so you will know which side it is coming from. Likely you will hear a recurring theme from either side (complaints!) but at least you will have some insight as to what we are both going through.

Note- we are not involved in the same transaction. This is completely based upon our personal experiences, and we are not saying that all buyers or sellers will go through the exact same experience. We encourage you to ask questions, leave comments, or share your thoughts as well.

My heartfelt welcome to Jenn the seller- thank you for joining me!

Update to the Countrywide/Bank of America Short Sale

If you read my blog a few days ago you will know that the BPO was expected to be in on Tuesday or Wednesday. Today is now Friday.

Would you be surprised to hear that the BPO was not in on Tuesday or Wednesday? It didn't surprise me in the least. As a matter of fact, although they told us the value should be coming in this week and they would be reviewing the numbers I actually added 30 days to that as a buffer.

Let the clock begin ticking. We are now 2-3 days past their original estimate. The next follow up date is not until Tuesday. Which would put us at 6-7 days past their original estimate. See how quickly I will be able to eat up that 30 day cushion without anything actually happening?

I hate that the carrot dangles in front of us- like we are almost getting somewhere- and then it moves on. We have been in process for four months. Four.Months. fourmonths. We tend to go 30-45 day stretches where there is no news, nothing to indicate that our file is even still in process. Then they throw us one tiny morsel of an update and we get all excited and think we are moving somewhere.

Ha! Where is the candid camera? We aren't getting anywhere! It's just a figment of our imagination.

On a side note- stay tuned! Bookmark this blog and come back often. Possibly coming soon: a co-author that will give their perspective on a Bank of America short sale from a seller's point of view! The rare, elusive, seller's experience with a short sale. Are you excited? I know I am!

Suntrust Short Sale

In case you were wondering, our offer did get accepted on the Suntrust short sale as well. Actually, we really haven't wrapped all that up yet. The timelines on that property haven't been up to my standards either. Seriously, what is it with people dragging their feet? Apparently no one is in any great hurry to close real estate transactions. I would think we were back in 2004 when everyone had so much business it was like the all day buffet. They would load up their plates, leave half uneaten and throw away the remainder. I feel like the tossed out stuff.



Anyway- so we viewed the home on I think September 10th. We wrote an offer immediately (standing in the driveway) and were hopeful we would hear something definitive and quickly at that. The following day we were told the realtor had received our offer but would be waiting to meet with the homeowners until the weekend. No problem- we figured we could hold out for another day or two.



The sellers realtor came back on Monday and asked us for our highest and best offer. Huh? We offered almost 26k above your asking price? So we decided to go aggressive. We wrote that our highest and best would be $1000 above any other highest and best offer- including our own original offer. Apparently there was someone that just threw a ridiculously high number out there hoping that the sellers would take the bait- knowing that if the appraised value did not come in it would be renegotiated downward later anyway.



Lucky for us- the seller's realtor wasn't a total ego. He did tell them that he didn't feel the higher offer was realistic and that ours had clearly been the most serious one from the beginning. Plus I think it helped that we had toured the home while the seller was there. They have two small children that are almost the exact same ages as our kids.



But after hearing on Wednesday night that our offer was accepted we really haven't seen much movement. That was Wednesday the 16th. Today is Wednesday the 23rd. We just barely received the seller's signed counter offer two days ago and we still have not yet received all the seller disclosures that we were supposed to receive as part of the contract.



So in essence, we have lost nearly two weeks already just going back and forth on the original offer! I am definitely hoping that the seller's realtor (who incidentally is negotiating the short sale for them and NOT utilizing a 3rd party processing company) really is on his game and this is not indicative of the timelines we will see on this property.



Actually, I think it has been somewhat good that they have been dragging their feet on the property that goes to the Suntrust short sale. We actually had told our realtor when writing the second contract that we would not tie up the first home if we did not intend to follow through on it. We were prepared to notify the seller of the Countrywide/BofA short sale that we were cancelling escrow. It just so happened that the day after we were just about to withdraw our offer on that home we got the update that indicated the BPO might be coming in soon so we figured if we were this close we would hold out.



Right now we aren't thinking we have much hope on the original property that started this whole short sale blog. We feel that BofA is going to either deny our offer because it will be too low compared to their BPO or we will counter back to our highest and best and it still will not be high enough. I say- it's been nice to dream about that home. But I'm not going to put myself under water to take on a second mortgage - especially when we already own a home in the area that is upside down. Instead- if they do not accept our offer, or even our highest and best- then we are going to pass and know that we gave it our all. We are going to make the conservative choice and proceed with the 2nd contract we have out there- as the home is less expensive, needs less work done to make it our own, and will cost less for us to maintain in the long run. It's a tough call though- both homes have features we absolutely love. If we had the cash we would buy them both. I don't know what we would do with them, but we would buy them.

Well, if we could get a flippin' short sale approval from their banks that is.

CWY Holdings is getting their act together!!

After four months (four long, frustrating months) we finally got an update yesterday that makes sense. The update was that the negotiator had contacted Complete Short Sale Processors and let them know that the BPO was expected to be back on Tuesday or Wednesday, that all of the seller's information is in hand and that the negotiator will be going over the numbers soon.

ALL RIGHT!! Now we are talking!

We started off working with a standard short sale processor at CWY. While he was nice enough I just didn't feel that he completely understood what he was doing. Twice we received notes that the sale date was set- and yet there hasn't even been an NOD filed on this property yet.

Sometimes we were lucky enough to speak to the Grand Wizard of Oz- one of the owners of CWY Holdings. Again, always nice (placated me as necessary) but yet we didn't really feel as if we were getting anywhere. Apparently he assigned one of their account executives to act as a liaison for us. We were happy to have someone new to share our sob story with. She always returned my realtor's calls and they had good conversation but she wasn't entirely sure why she was being asked to help with our file.

Finally a few weeks ago we were put in touch with our account manager. This person had been listed on the auto-update e-mails all along and I wasn't really sure why we hadn't heard from him sooner but let me say- I just wish that we had. Of all the people we have dealt with over there I have felt his e-mails have been the most forthcoming. It seems he has the most realistic handle on what is going on (whether it makes me happy or not) and honestly, I am a realist. Don't sugarcoat things for me. Don't tell me what you think I want to hear. Shoot straight, even if it is not the popular answer and at least I will respect that.

Sometime in the last four or five days they have also involved their Director of Loss Mitigation for Complete Short Sale Processors. I don't know who this lady is but where has she been for four months? Maybe it is just that the file is at the tipping point and things are going to happen regardless of how much involvement the short sale processing company has but hey, in just four days all of a sudden the job is getting done over there.

Are we happy? YOU BET... Now, we are just hoping this whole story has a happy ending. Of course, that could still be three to four months away but we will see. Hopefully, maybe, possibly we will have some sort of information this week if our offer price is what Countrywide/Bank of America will consider "fair market value". I mean, it was when we made the offer, but it has been four months. And if it had decreased in value you bet we wouldn't be complaining- but if it has increased we just can't go any higher. So anyway, stay tuned.

Today's update from CWY Holdings?

Nothing. Not a thing.

Yesterday they informed us that if the sellers updated financials were not received by Bank of America within 48 hours the file would be closed. They noted that the next follow up date would be today. We received no notification via their QuickBase system that any follow up was done.

Now, one would assume that means they did not follow up. Likely tomorrow they will reply to my realtor's e-mail with some explanation that they really did follow up but forgot to update the notes.

By all rights tomorrow is D-day. Tomorrow is 48 hours and if Bank of America does not reflect that the seller's updated financials have been received then technically tomorrow the file will be closed.

My husband didn't seem fazed by this. He said "Fine, let them give us our earnest money back then so at least we can move on our merry way."

I say, if they close the file after we have been in escrow for four months, after we have moved out of our home into a rental because we have found tenants, after we have waited, and waited and waited I will be ripped off. RIPPED OFF.

Not because we aren't already pursuing other possible options (none have come through at this point so honestly we still have all our eggs in this basket) but more because I was so innocently optimistic about this file from the get-go. I naively wanted to believe that all those horror stories that I read on those chat boards were just vindictive people who were probably ill-informed about how the process was going to work.

Now who's the pot calling the kettle black?

Four months ago I believed that we might be able to close this short sale within five months. I hoped that we would be living in the new house by Halloween- my all time favorite holiday. Now we will not be living anywhere but our rental for Halloween - and possibly Thanksgiving and Christmas too. All of our holiday decorations are packed up in a POD and it isn't even as if I have anywhere available to decorate in our rental as we have every corner crammed with stuff that was too valuable to risk packing in a storage POD.

Not to sound jaded or anything, but we don't even think that this Bank of America short sale will ever go through. We feel we could wait out three or four more months and possibly still not get short sale approval. It isn't for the fact that it is a short sale- I mean, in our line of work we are seeing short sales approved and get to the finish line all the time. It's just that for every ten I see close maybe only one of them is a BofA. And for that one BofA approval I can also see a contract that took at least seven months to get to the finish line. If only I had known this when we wrote the contract!! At that time I had no reason to have tracked any sort of short sale information for loans that we were closing. I mean, I saw short sales come in the door, and I saw them close.

Again, I was naive. I was optimistic. I am over all that. I just want to move on- I just want to find some permanent closure to this terrible, terrible home-buying experience. We are hoping to hear tomorrow night on the other short sale that we wrote an offer on- and insanely we are hoping that they will accept our offer.

As if we haven't had our fill of short sale nightmares.

Countrywide Short Sale Update

We were notified back at the first part of August (the 6th or 7th I think) that Countrywide/Bank of America needed updated financials from the seller in order to move the file on. (Move it ON? Don't you mean, move it at all?) So specifically the notes we received from CWY Holdings was that nothing would be done on the file until the seller financials were received. No BPO would be ordered. Nothing.

Then we got some information about a week later that the seller did indeed comply and sent all items to the bank, they were just waiting for them to show in the system.

Every single week since then I have asked "Why aren't the seller's financials showing up in the system yet? When are they going to re-send them? How long should they take to show up?" The responses I have received have varied but mostly are generic and something to the effect of "the bank has them, they are just backlogged with imaging them."

Today we got this update from the short sale processing company:

"I received a call today from the negotiator today asking for bank statements and paystubs for June and July. She said that she must have them in 48 hours or would close the file. I told her that I had sent those previously. I re-sent them and asked her to let me know if they are sufficient or if she needs more.

While I am waiting to hear from her, I recommend that you send any bank statements dated later than July 21 and paystubs after July 24 so that we can keep the file as up to date as possible."

........................Clearly they haven't been following up on exactly WHEN that information should have been located in the bank's imaging system. All of a sudden today they are telling us that the information never made it to imaging and the file will be closed within 48 hours.

Keep in mind, we are not the sellers. We are the poor innocent bystanders just trying to purchase this home from the bank before it becomes a vacant, vandalized liability. If I could be the processor on this file myself I most certainly would. See, what the banks fail to care about is that right now not only the financial well being of their borrower is at stake- so is the financial security of my family. So short saling is not only about one family, it is about two.

I promptly e-mailed my realtor back and told her I was sure glad we weren't leaving all our eggs in this basket and that I was also glad we were already pursuing other options. Can you even believe we have waited four months, moved out of our home and rented it to tenants, and turned our lives upside down to be told that the file could potentially be closed within 48 hours for incompleteness?

And what I want to know is, if the negotiator could pick up the flippin' phone to call and tell the short sale processing company that they never received the information and were closing the file, why the hell can't they get the file reviewed and moved on before everything had expired? I mean, thanks for the courtesy call and all, but maybe, just maybe, if you all had reviewed the file when it was first submitted BACK IN MAY you could have just gave us a simple "yes" or "no".

That's all. A "yes" or "no" would make all of us real happy right now. Instead we get the run around. We get no response. We were once told a staggering statistic about the INS (yes, Immigration and Naturalization Service). We were told directly by an INS Border Agent that the INS actually loses one in three documents it receives.

Loses them. Gone. Poof!

He suggested that we only send our correspondence to the INS via certified return receipt mail. It was sound advice. Apparently Bank of America/Countrywide operates along the same principals. Maybe they even share a PO Box! Now there's a thought.

Seriously, I have heard all about this new streamlining process. Supposedly the government has tried to offer incentives and rewards for big banks to get the job done quickly. Bank of America has over 450,000 short sales in process and is receiving 10,000 new requests a day. Each case manager is managing hundreds of files. They are overworked, underpaid, and poorly trained. They have no authority to really do anything so they pacify you by telling you that your file will be escalated, which is code for -nothing.

Four months ago I was an optimist. I believed that the short sale process would take us about five months or so and we would then be closing on our beautiful new home. We thought we were so lucky that the sellers chose us above all others to go into contract on their home. We made plans, we executed those plans, and now here we are sitting in limbo.

For any mortgage underwriters out there wondering why someone would really do this let me just say- it is all for my children. I want so badly to provide a safe place for my kids to play outdoors that I have given up everything they have ever known and have put my family through the wringer. Yes, our golf course home was beautiful. Maybe we could have raised our children there without incident. But maybe we couldn't. Maybe another ball would come smashing through a window despite our golf screens that we invested in after the last crash. Maybe a ricochet ball would hit one of the kids as they were playing innocently outside.

I hope that one day I can look back on all of this and laugh but as of right now all I can do is type furiously and hope that our experience might reach another buyer out there. I want to tell any other buyers the same thing I read but did not believe- a short sale with Bank of America (Countrywide) will be anything but short. It will be anything but easy. Good luck getting it closed as I am not even sure at this point that this one will ever close. (do as we are doing- and start looking for plan B!)

The next update on the Countrywide short sale is tomorrow. I am certain I will be blogging about it so check back soon!

The Queen of Short Sales

We have not yet found out for sure if we are going into contract on the 2nd short sale (the one we put an offer in last Thursday). Today we got notification from the listing agent that they wanted to know our highest and best offer.

What do you mean our highest and best? We gave it to you? We offered almost 27k above list price. What more would you like? Not to mention today you sent us this lovely addendum detailing out a few things that will be removed from the home before we purchase it. Namely, all lighting fixtures and ceiling fans, all stainless steel appliances (dishwasher, microwave, cooktop, double oven, fridge, and hood vent), the wrought iron courtyard gate, and all shutters.

You want our highest and best? Subtract fifteen thousand from our offer. That's our highest and best.

I only wish I was gutsy enough to tell them to do that. Instead we wrote an offer that our highest and best would be to top every other highest and best offer by $1000 (including our own original offer!). Can you tell we kinda want this house? We just really want to be done with this homebuying experience.

I blogged about three months ago about how it all seemed to fall right into place and therefore that must have meant that it was all meant to be. Now I wonder. It has all fallen into place- if we want to live in a rental home for the next two years while our tenants enjoy ours. Or if we want to drag our children from viewing to viewing trying to get in and see homes before they have been on the market for more than 48 hours.

As of right now we are on hold to find out if we are going into contract on the Suntrust short sale until at least Wednesday. The listing agent wanted to give all parties an appropriate amount of time to revise their offers before submitting them to the sellers.

What I really want to know is, why on earth would they be worried about getting highest and best on a short sale? We were led to believe that our offer was heads above the other offers they received. The seller stands to gain absolutely nothing over starting this little bidding war. If they garner an extra five grand out of the deal it all goes to the bank. A short sale is a short sale. It is my understanding that they are several hundred thousand dollars upside down on this house- is five or ten thousand going to make or break the bank?

Instead they are wasting precious time dickering back and forth with the offers they have received. They had a notice of default filed at the end of July- which means that they will likely be going to trustee sale sometime late November or December. I certainly hope that we get this contract and that we can get through the short sale process before their sale date comes up! We have been told that the sale date would just be postponed if their short sale negotiator did not have time to complete the file yet but we really don't want to drag this on either. We would really like to be in our home before Christmas. After all- Santa really wants to bring the girls a swing set- and he just can't leave it at our rental. (no room to even store the boxes!!)

Stay tuned. We will hopefully know by Wednesday night if we were the lucky lottery winners or if we are back to ground zero.

What are they waiting for?

We wrote an offer on another short sale Thursday night. We kept our fingers crossed that they would choose our offer. I wrote another nice letter to go along with our offer. Our realtor was told by the sellers realtor that he would be meeting with them on Saturday to go over the offers they had received already but that things were looking good for us because of the three offers received neither of the other ones were even at list price.

We went to the lake yesterday and were out of cell phone range- which for a change was nice. As we drove back in last night we saw that there still was no update.

Today my realtor e-mailed to tell me that she spoke with the seller's realtor and he still has not been able to catch up with the homeowners to go through their offers. In the mean time, more offers have come in. And now they may not even meet with him until Tuesday to go over them.

I just want to know- what exactly are they waiting for? We were told they already had a notice of default filed on them. That means that they don't exactly have the luxury of sitting around. Apparently though they are very busy people. I do think their divorce sounds messy and they don't want to even be in the same room with each other.

But for my sake, for my family's sake- can they please just look at their offers and decide yes or no to ours so we can move on?

Fingers Crossed

As if we haven't been punished enough with the short sale process we wrote another offer last night. On a short sale. You would think by now we would have completely given up on those- and yet I find myself honestly hoping they accept our offer and we have the chance to move forward on it.

Almost like this terrible need to self inflict more stress and drama on our lives I guess. Maybe it's because I am so intent on doing short sale research that I want to know what it is like to experience a short sale for a different bank other than Countrywide/Bank of America?

So here's the low down on this one: the home is a single story home on half an acre. The lot is absolutely unbelievable. My husband was amazed when he walked out back and stunned when he peered around the side of the house and saw that the yard just went on and on.

We could put five swing-sets back there and still have room for grass. It has a swimming pool and spa- although I think the pool might only be three feet deep across the entire thing. It looked to us like maybe it was intended to be a volleyball pool. And that's ok too- usually we just like to float around in it and drink beer. The kids won't mind (at least for a few more years) that there will be no jumping into the pool.

The home? The home was beautiful. Decorator touches everywhere- from crown moulding to built in's galore. The entire house is done in tile (not something I probably would have done- but in this home not something that I mind). The colors even happened to match our color scheme!

Apparently the homeowners are getting a divorce- which is never a good thing. They have two children both aged within a few months of each of our children, which makes me sad for their kids because I know just how hard it was for Hayley to adjust the first night we spent in this strange new house. And while I am sad for their situation, well, I am also excited at the thought of possibly owning this home.

We wrote the offer last night and we went in aggressive. You might recall, being aggressive doesn't always get you the contract. The last contract we wrote at over 50k above list price didn't even garner a second look. We didn't go crazy with our offer this time but we did offer almost 27k above list price. In this case- that might be just the right amount. Our realtor has already spoken with the listing agent and so far of the three offers received the other two did not even come in at list price. We are hoping with all hope that our offer is the one they choose.

And yet, even with hope, we are also dreading starting this process all over again. This time the seller's two mortgages are with Suntrust. I have read some fairly positive stuff with regards to Suntrust's short sale timeline so I am going to hope it is accurate. I am almost certain that the process will be much faster than the other short sale we are still waiting on with Countrywide/BofA but we will see.

As of right now we just have our fingers crossed. The listing agent is meeting with the homeowners this weekend to present the offers to them and we are hopeful that ours will be the most attractive. Do we feel bad about writing another offer when we are currently under contract for one? Not one bit. If they hadn't jerked us around so much on the first contract we wouldn't have had any reason to doubt the transaction would go through- but with all the misinformation we have been given we honestly can't say that we think it will go through at the price we offered and we don't want to be left, eight months down the road, in the prophetic dirt.

Will post more info as we receive it on this latest short sale offer. Stay tuned!

Dear Homeowners,

Dear Homeowners,

We thank you for your consideration in reviewing our offer. You have an absolutely beautiful home and we would be so blessed to have the opportunity to own it. We have no doubt that you will have numerous offers to choose from and we sincerely hope that ours is among the most competitive but our offer goes beyond just a dollar figure.

We have two small children, ages almost three and one year old. We currently own a golf course home just up the street but have found that our location on the golf course was not safe for our small children to play outside. We spend much time as a family outdoors and wanted to put up a swing-set but could not do so without compromising the safety of our children and placing it open to the golf course.

We began searching for a safer location and to make a long story short went into escrow for another home four months ago. We moved out of our home a few weeks ago and rented it to tenants because we believed we would be closing escrow soon. Unfortunately that is not the case and we are now looking to find a permanent home to settle our children. We are currently living in a short term rental and have found it harder than we ever imagined to get an offer accepted. It is a great disappointment each time we hear back that our offer was passed over.

We both work in the mortgage industry and are familiar with the process of short sales. It is an emotional process for all involved and we are hoping that at least if you choose our offer it will put your mind at ease that your home will be loved as much as you love it. Our children are similiar in ages to yours and you have the perfect floorplan with a playroom attached to the children's rooms.

We are fairly negotiable. We know that the fixtures will not remain with the home and are not deterred by that. We are also willing to do everything possible to help expedite this closing- we are looking for permanent closure to our situation soon too. We have full credit underwriting approval with the only outstanding conditions being fully executed sales contract (with bank short sale approval) and acceptable appraisal.

Your home will be well loved and well maintained. Your color scheme complements our colors and decor completely and we even have no intention of repainting. Our children will be so happy to be able to have a swing-set put up in your yard and we will take great care of your yard and swimming pool. We miss our swimming pool and the girls love the water so it has been hard on them.

In closing I just want to say thank you again for showing us your home. We truly appreciated you accommodating our appointment and are hoping that you find our offer competitive enough to accept. If you have any questions whatsoever please have your realtor contact ours and we will be happy to reply quickly.

Warmest Regards,
Future Homeowners

Update?

So that offer we put in on that bank owned home on Saturday? Went nowhere. Can you even believe that we offered 51k above list price with no seller concessions requested and we were not even in the running?

How does that happen? Why does that happen? It honestly is NOT a buyers market. We have said we wouldn't be interested in seeing any more short sales- we only want to deal with bank owned properties but it isn't as if we are having any luck on bank owned homes right now either.

I am still scratching my head wondering how we could offer 50k above list and not even get a chance to give our "highest and best" offer. If you want to bet me anything I will bet you that this house might have gone to someone who bid less than we did but probably is offering cash.

I hate cash.

A Woman Obsessed

I am completely obsessed now with seriously finding the right home to raise our children in. Buying a home has been such an eye opener for us.

We got married in August of 2000. Sometime in November that year we got this crazy itch and started looking to buy a house. Because that's what you do, right? Get married, buy a house, fill it with stuff, add some kids, the American Dream.

We found the cutest house- and lucky for us we even had a rare choice opportunity to choose the specific lot it was being built on. We got a lot that backed the community park- with a great sized backyard. We loved that home- we put in a swimming pool, fruit trees, and roses galore. We entertained almost every single weekend in that home- sometimes Friday, Saturday and Sunday all in one weekend.

The problem was, well, I have "the wants". Our home was beautiful but it seemed very small (I laugh now how 1800 square feet was small). We wanted a guest room on the ground floor so that my husband's parents might consider staying longer when they visit. So one Sunday afternoon I asked my husband if he wanted to go look at houses. Of course he didn't! So off I went by myself to scout out new homes.

I walked through the models at a golf course nearby and I absolutely fell in love. They were a bit out of our price range so I told the sales agent if they had any that fell out of contract to give me a call (thinking I could possibly convince the builder to sell us the home at a discount instead of let it sit once completed). I know I looked like a real ragamuffin that day and the agent really didn't take me seriously. I called back a few days later to reiterate my interest and suddenly she "remembered" one that they might have available. (Funny- because at that point every single home on that street was actually a spec home).

Anyway- we drove out, took a look at it, and I convinced my husband we could swing it. We made a conscious investment choice- knowing that we intended to live in the home but also that there might come a day when we would need to sell the home and if so we wanted to make sure that it wouldn't be a cookie-cutter house just like every other. Fortunately for us the home was on the golf course- with beautiful upgrades and a fantastic lot. We added a swimming pool with spa and real rock waterfall. We added fruit trees, palm trees, and roses galore. We entertained every weekend there. We knew we were going to have a family and it seemed like it would be just the right home to last us forever. (Or at least until the kids grew up and moved away).

I must say- it is a beautiful home. It is perfect for entertaining. And if our children were older (say ten or twelve years old) it would likely be the perfect home for us. The problem however is that with being on the golf course comes the hazard of stray balls. We have taken our share- and while most are harmless it is the one or two that have done extensive damage and have been too close for our comfort. We wanted to put a swingset up in the backyard- and while our yard was certainly large enough to do so we unfortunately didn't feel comfortable with the location of where it would need to be placed. It would be right out in the open and exposed to any balls that could come through.

One Sunday afternoon I was just perusing Realtor.com and I came across a home with a basement in a neighborhood we had originally looked at when we were dreaming in 2002 or 2003. All of a sudden the ball set in motion. That particular home was so badly vandalized (why do people do that anyway? What class is there in trashing a home because you couldn't afford it?) so it really wasn't an option for us. But I did have our Realtor set us up for notifications any time anything in that neighborhood got listed.

Four days later we got the notification on the house we went into contract on and the rest is history in the making. We loved the house the minute we drove up to it. We loved everything about it. The previous owners clearly cared for their home and with the exception of carpet and paint the home was pretty much move-in condition. Actually, I didn't even really notice that the carpet and paint needed to be re-done until the second time we got to look at it and we spent an hour going through the whole thing writing our notes about what we needed to get to right away and what could wait.

I wrote a heartfelt letter to attach to our contract and lucky for us- the homeowners accepted ours above all others. We were so appreciative.

The problem now is that I just don't think we can continue going through this process with the continuous misinformation we are being given. Today we are in Phase one but sixty days ago we were in Phase two. Today no BPO has been ordered but we were told one was ordered on August 4th.

So as we are weighing out our options it has been quite funny how things have changed. Originally there were a few major reasons for us wanting to buy the house we are in contract for. One- the lot size is awesome- we can put our swingset, a garden, entertain, everything. Two- it has a room that we could designate as a playroom (something that as I listen to my children fight over the small living space and the toys we have brought I am wishing we had here). Three- it has a basement. In the desert. Need I say more?

But as I have been looking at other neighborhoods trying to figure out what is important to us it has really put things in perspective. Yes, a home that is spacious is most definitely a luxury we would like to afford. But the real kicker for us right now is the yard. Now that we have seen what we could possibly do with a third of an acre we are really wanting something between the .3 and .5 acre mark. See, for us it has always been a family affair to get outside and do stuff. The fact that our rental home has a very tiny backyard that is nicely landscaped but covered in rock does nothing for us. The children have cabin fever every single day because we can't take them outside and let them work off their energy on the lawn.

So as of right this minute my frantic need to find a home is mainly focused on a home with a large yard. It doesn't have to be landscaped. It just has to have potential. And it has to be something that we can outbid any of those stupid cash investors on. Oh yeah, and one more thing- it has to be ready for a reasonable close of escrow date. I don't think I have the heart to even consider looking at a short sale- even if they say that it already has bank approval.

I guess you could just call me a woman obsessed.

Thoughts from a short-sale-aholic

It is like every hour of every day right now I am consumed with thinking about our living situation. The only real reprieve I get is when I am working- because I am too busy to think about anything else. But the moment I get in the car to head off and pick up the kids the thoughts creep back in.

I think, what if we get the short sale? What if we don't? What if while we are waiting we pass up numerous other awesome opportunities and then we still don't get this house? What if we give up too early? What if the market turns before we have the chance to get into this home and what was fair market value when we wrote the contract is now highly under value? What if the point of this short sale situation was not that we would buy the short sale- but that we would buy something else altogether?

I am obsessed over our housing situation. I hate that we have a short term rental and unfortunately I know it is short term. I hate that it took me all of eight days to get cabin fever in our rental house and start freaking out about finding our permanent place. I hate that I expect so much of people that are working on our behalf- and that when they fall short I can't seem to forgive them. I hate that I am so passionate about this because I feel it is draining me of energy for other things that I need to be passionate about.

Today we put another offer in on a bank owned property. Like the first one we made an offer on there is a high probability it will either go to a higher bidder or a cash buyer. It is hard not to get excited about it though- it is a former model home and although it has clearly been lived in it is still beautiful. The game room is all ready to go- just insert pool table. It even has a built in bar and fridge! The layout is perfect. The backyard is huge (albeit a little bizarre with the style of decor around the swimming pool and the pool itself). It has two two car garages (four cars!). So we can each park in our own garage. The pantry is amazing. There is a built in wine shelf in the dining room (for all the wine I buy but never really drink). The master bedroom has real hardwood and not just the Pergo floating floor thing. There is an infinity bathtub in the master bath. Hayley walked in and said "whoa- cool tub Mommy!". It really is a beautiful home- and as I type I am getting more and more hopeful that we will get it- which is a bad thing. A very bad thing. With hope comes despair. With despair comes stress. You know the drill.

I absolutely adore our Realtor. ADORE HER. If you are reading this- I adore you! Your commission will never be enough for me to show you how much I appreciate you! I do have to say though- while we were waiting for her to get there another realtor showed up with his clients. First of all- he pulled up behind us and waited a full five minutes before getting out of his car and walking toward ours to see if we were his clients. I can tell you- if we were- he would be fired. Second- he never once went into the home before his clients got there. How else would he have known if there were dead birds in the swimming pool to contend with? I love that my Realtor is totally on top of every property before we are.

So his clients showed up about fifteen minutes later and they all went inside. They were in there for about ten minutes before my Realtor showed up and I guess Realtor etiquitte tells you to wait outside while someone else views the property. We didn't mind so much- except we did happen to have the kids with us, so you can imagine that entertaining a three year old and a one year old that isn't walking yet outside in some dead shrubbery can be quite difficult. We waited. And waited. Come to find out they were testing the frickin' appliances while they were inside!! What? Why don't you wait and see if your offer is accepted before you check if the gas is on and the oven works, wouldja? It's only 103 outside and we are standing out there. With a baby and a toddler...

Patiently we did wait though. And finally they left- about 25 minutes later. We let ourselves in and again, I love my Realtor. She brought the key in with us and locked the door behind us. Now we get our 25 minutes of peace. The doorbell rang about four minutes after we got inside. I tell you- this is a beautiful property and no doubt there will be at least 20 offers once all is said and done. It was a veritable revolving door there. My Realtor politely told them we would be a few minutes as we just got in and could they please wait outside? They did the same thing we originally did- they headed straight for the backyard where they could wait in shade.

I just want to know- why must they leave the A/C set at 95 degrees? Why? Because if they set it at, oh, say, 85 degrees they might pay an extra eight bucks in electricity? We had sweat pouring off our noses before we even finished the first floor. We hit upstairs, ran through it, and headed back downstairs to sign the contract. I would very much have liked to have spent a little more time checking out things like closet space and storage. All I remember about this house was that it had enough bedrooms for each of us and that it seemed we would have adequate space to fit the current furniture that we own. I guess that is all that you need to know until you have an accepted contract, right?

Anyway- back to my Realtor story. We love our Realtor. Even my husband loves her- and he is a tough critic. Even my sister in law loves her- and my sister in law is one tough nut to crack. Today I learned to appreciate her even more. She came to our showing today (as she has every showing she has ever done for us) with printouts of the listing agent notes as well as current comp data. Matter of fact- she knew then that the casita would not be unlocked until Tuesday. (Something the first agent stupidly did not know- he was trying to figure out how to get into the casita until she told him.)

So the first realtor was a dolt. I don't even give him a capital "R"for realtor. He wasn't a Realtor. He was a realtor. His car wouldn't even start when he was ready to leave. Actually that part makes me a little sad. I don't feel sad for him that he didn't do his homework, or even let himself into the home to check it out before his clients arrived.

The second realtor after ours? Hmmm. How do I say this? We think she might have been called away from her other job. One that might include tips. And a pole. Shhh. Did I just say that? The clients that she was showing the home to? hmmmm. How do I describe? There is only one way. Covered in tatoos. Now, there is nothing wrong with tattoos. At one point in my life I wanted my own (thank you roomies and friends for talking me out of them). But honestly, these clients as well as this realtor, well, I don't know if they really fit this neighborhood. Not because I think any less of tattoo'd people. And before you get ready to leave me a nasty comment may I please let you know that we were about to rent our home out to a very nicely tattoo'd couple before we found our current renters- but you kind of have an idea for the kind of people that will mow the lawns and trim the shrubs as needed. Do I think these were the people for that? Not so much. I mean, this backyard is so flippin' big if we got this home we would be buying a ride-on lawnmower (if that tells you anything!).

She was a very nice realtor and all. Even wished my Realtor luck. (As in, break a leg? Like, best wishes, this is a contest?) But honestly, we drove away realizing just how blessed we are to have a true professional working for us. So out of three realtors today ours was by far the most professional. She knew her stuff. She showed up with the notes. She brought comp info. She knew how to get into the home. All of those things speak volumes for me-not to mention that we called her out on a Saturday over Labor Day Weekend to boot. My husband said he was surprised she even answered my call- and if I were her by now I would probably be avoiding me too. I will find a way once all this is said and done to show her my appreciation.

I guess if anything at this point I am learning that if you are making an offer just go in aggressive from the start. My sister and her partner went through this about nine or ten months ago- they looked at over 50 homes (same Realtor as me!). They wrote offers on at least six of them. I did not understand then why on the one they currently live in that they offered more than list price and did not ask for seller concessions. That seemed absolutely ludicrous to me.

Today we offered more than 50k over list price. No seller concessions. I will bet you anything that we do NOT get this home. Someone will be offering more than we are. Or they will be offering cash. If you think that this is a buyers market I would suggest to you that you think again. It is truly only a buyers market if you have cash. Can I please hit the lottery? Thank you.