Countrywide is the largest mortgage company in the US…think they are dealing with a short sale problem at the moment? You betcha. (not to mention short sales of their stock! Wish I had shorted them at $40!) They have now been taking over by Bank of America Mortgage.
Countrywide’s Full Spectrum Lending division was the King of awful sub prime mortgages the past few years, and now those loans are going bad. If you have a countrywide loan and are facing foreclosure, a short sale of your home might be your best option.
I did a short sale of my home (and I had a first and second mortgage on the property) earlier this year. It can be done, but it requires patience and a plan and a little help. There are a zillion schmucks out there who will offer to “help” you when your down. Some are legit, most are not.
What I Did In My Short Sale
What I did (hiring a real estate agent with short sale experience) worked for my situation. It may not for your short sale, but I found it the best option. Working with a real estate agent you at least can get a background on the person, and if they work for a larger brokerage you know they have resources to help you. Think short sales are hard for you? They are equally as hard on the real estate agent! Getting a short sale deal done (especially right now with the overwhelmed lenders like Countrywide) takes alot of work. I do think its the best option vs. foreclosure though. You can also read my 7 steps to a successful short sale guide.
You Need An Experienced Short Sale Agent!
From my blog here I’ve developed an extensive network of real estate agents that have short sale experience. If you’d like a referral, fill out the form below and I’ll have someone available in your area to help with your short sale ASAP.
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ok< we have a huge mess on our hands.
We recived phase 3 approval o Oct 23rd. We got a closing date of nov 13th. We where told by the sellers agent that the tennants would vacate by nov 8th. we put in our 30 day notice on our current apartment and schedualed apprasials and home inspections.
On tues nov 3rd we arrived at the house for the appraisal, the tennants had no idea we where comming nor had they recived any eviction notice. The owner of the house had come by early to collect rent on monday and collected a full months rent and never informed the tennants of what was happening. now we have till the 29th to vacate our apartment and the tennants still have not recived notice. We have already had inspections and apprasial done and have paid $800 for them. We have also been told by our agent that there is a back up offer on the house from the tennants. To top it all off we locked in our intrest rate and have 30days to close or we are penelized 1.5 points on our loan.
My question is, do we have any legal recourse to get our money back for the inspection and appraisal and who is legally responsible for notifiying the tennants to move. I know the tennants have renters rights and have up to 60 days to move. What are our rights as buyers and who is legally responsible for giving us false information?
I haven’t heard of this yet on the blogs. Long story short, our offer was approved and the second lender also approved a payoff. Now we are at the stage of inspection, co, and closing. The inspection went really bad, the house flooded from the last time I saw it. The house has been empty for almost a year. Now we have flood damage, lots of mold, old electrical wiring that needs to be replaced, and the list goes on and on. So now we go back to the bank to take money off. The repairs are very costly and the price is not worth it anymore. Anyone else experience this? Are you supposed to get an inspection before an offer is accepted. Could I be the only one with this kind of luck?
Typically you’d want to wait until your offer is accepted before you spend any money on an inspection, etc. This is b/c if your offer is rejected, you don’t want to have wasted money on that stuff already. Whether it was a short sale or a regular sale, it sounds like you just ran into bad luck w/ a house that has too many problems. It sounds like it’s probably bad enough to forget about that house and move on, unfortunately.
having said that, some people do go ahead and do an inspection first so that they can find any problems and incorporate that into their offer price along w the inspection report…. but I’d say that’s the minority of cases.
I’ve been reading the comments on here and thought I would add my 2 cents. We submitted an offer for a short sale on Sept 11, 09. Sellers accepted Sept 13 and it was sent to C/W on Sept 14. We didn’t expect to hear anything for awhile, but my agent notified me that we had been assigned to someone around Oct. 12 and she said the BPO would be ordered soon. I heard from her again today and she forwarded an email to me, originally sent from the Title Company to the Seller’s agent. It said that our file had still not been assigned, but they confirmed that they had all the paperwork in order for them to assign it, and they have 30 days to complete this. Does this mean that it’s finally going to a phase 2 negotiator? It has only been 8 weeks. My agent also said that part of the hold up is that although there is one mortgage on the property, the seller’s have an FHA loan. What difference does that make?
Hi, everyone! Does anyone know how long it takes for freddie mac to approve a short sale. Its been 4 1/2 months and my file is in freddie mac’s hands, Im frustrated and I want to be in my house for the holidays. Can anyone help?
Has it been in the hands of the bank for 4.5 months or in the hands of the investor (freddie mac)? The entire process may take 4+ months, but the investor SHOULD be able to approve/deny the deal within 30 days. If they haven’t said anything, ask the bank negotiator why it’s being held up.
I also have a short sale that just got approved by Bank of America but now the file is being sent to Freddie Mac, the investor, for their approval. Does anyone know how long investor approval takes? The bank told the agent only a few days, but I’m not sure. Does anyone have experience with this?
I have been reading through this blog for the past week or so…I submitted my offer on a short sale in late July. The seller has two mortgages out on it – the 2nd with the dreaded CW/BOA. The first bank approved the short sale real quick! I heard nothing from CW/BOA until Sept. 25th where they said that the file was given an account #. I didn’t hear anything again until the file was passed to a negotiator in late Oct….and now i’m waiting again.
My question – Is it worth emailing Ken Lewis? Any comments would be appreciated.
Also, while dealing with Countrywide – My file went to a ‘Work Out Specialist’ and then three weeks later was with a Negotiator. Is the work out specialist the 1st negotiator? Does this mean I am with the 2nd negotiator now or am I being too hopeful?
I am not dealing with Countrywide but have a question I hope someone here can answer. I made a short sale offer in mid September. 2 1/2 weeks ago it got Freddie Mac approval and then they sent it to the MI company. The MI company said they needed 3 weeks. That time has come and gone (it’s 4 weeks now). The lender won’t even tell us who the MI company is. Have any of you been through this? What are the chances of them approving it? I’ve heard some horror stories about them killing short sales.
I hate b of A and CW
If sending a email to the CEO of BOA – what information should I include about the property I am trying to buy?
We got a approval 2 1/2 weeks ago… this is after a long 5 1/2 month epic, and were told we would have a letter within 48 to 72 hours. uh, maybe they meant days. still hopeful though! anyone have this experience? a friend of mine has been waiting 2 months for his letter (:
@ stressed out; we did the same thing… sold our house, the same week we put an offer on the house above, stayed in our sold house for 2 months, guess what? we’re renting a 2/1 w/family of 4 now, on our 3rd month. but as for us we love the house we put an offer on and are willing to take the pain and chance. I think that is something you have to weigh out. BTW we also looked at others, probably over 1000 on line, and nothing compares to the one we have the offer on. so… we wait. and wait. as for putting pressure on. in certain instances I think it’s appriate others it’s like you’re in the airport waiting for the plane, pressure all you want, it will get there when it gets there!
hanginthere!
Don’t do one unless you have extreme patience and no need to move out of your current place.
Closed this morning! Entire process took aboutttt 3 months. And to those who asked recently, it took about 1.5 weeks to get the written approval letter after the initial email/verbal approval. They said it would take 3-5 days… so took a bit longer than that. They were almost late approving the final HUD too… that happened literally 5 minutes before closing started… even though we sent it to them 5 days early.
Update.
So far it has been about three months since we made our offer on our short sale house. We spoke to our realtor two weeks ago and he said the BPO had been done and all paper work was in the hands of the negotiator. When the listing agent spoke to the negotiator he told her he had about 100 cases he had to go over on his desk. Does anyone know how long it should take from this point and also once they do a BPO don’t they have to respond within a certain amount of days before it expires?
Just want a update from freakin BofA
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