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!