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?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
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
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
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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?
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?
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
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 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!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, October 2, 2009
^#&@&$*@^@*#^#(@& (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!!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
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?
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
