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.

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!

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.