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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Hello….I’m from miami and i’ve been trying to buy a short sale with cw for the past 4+ months. We submitted our offer late June to the sellers and had everything turned in by July 10th. I have no idea how many negotiators have seen our file. I started to worry when the timeline that I was given and the sequence was off. To make a LONG story short, the seller’s agent went through 4 assistants in 3 months and CW lost our BPO….luckily the newest assistant gave my realtor the title company contact and she’s been great and truly helpful. After waiting for almost 2 months and no updates, we were assigned to a supervisor and it seems to be moving. We had asked for 5% towards closing costs and they said they would only do 3%, we agreed and now I was told our file was sent to the Mortgage Insurance Company. Does anyone know how long it takes to get a response from them and what the next steps are? I was told that we should get a response in a week or so and then get ready to close which doesn’t make much sense to me.
HI,
We put an offer on a house at the end of August. We got confirmation back that they recieved all the paperwork 2 weeks later…(it was delayed a little because the listing agent needed to resend the HUD-1) and was even assigned to a level 1 negotiator in early to mid Sept. Now it is the beginning of Nov and they still have not ordered a BPO or an appraisal. I read the BOA site and it stated that it will only be ordered if they think a short sale can actually occur. Now we really love love love this house. We have looked at a ton of others and nothing really compares. We have tried to call the listing agent to put pressure on her and she keeps saying that she is calling a leaving messages, but never has a response. and then goes on to say how bad it is over there ect….Any suggestions? We have already asked to be added to list that can call but they have said no. We offered above the lisitng price, so it is not like it is a low-ball offer. Does anyone have any suggestions or does it look like this house won’t go through because they haven’t even ordered the BPO?
We got a decent offer on our house and have a 2 month rent back. I just don’t know if we should sell if this house will take more than 3 or 4 months……(the pain of moving into a rental until we figure out if we will even get this house) AGHHHHHHH!
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.
Hi, Moose its been with Freddie Mac for 6 weeks. The sellers mortgage insurance approved the sale so now its all up to Freddie mac. The sellers already moved out of the house this last weekend. Im just tired just like everyone here. Its just tiring when you here the same thing from you realtor over and over and over again.
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?
Any info?
the negotiator at chase bank told us she has 45 business days to submit to investors for approval or deny it.
Just want a update from freakin BofA
Advice – have your realtor try calling the negotiator / short sale dept on Friday at the beggining or end of the end… you may have better luck getting through. Do NOT call every day bugging them and annoying them or they won’t want to cooperate. Just call once a week if you’re trying to get an update and that’s all. You have to go into a short sale process EXPECTING it to take 3 months or longer.
After 6 long months, we got a written appoval on the 11/23. I surprised my wife by having her meet me at the short sale house. We were serious about looking at yet another house in the same neighborhood. I said “well just meet me at ‘the house’ then we’ll go together from there.” She walked in, amidst all the garbage I had a little bag and inside were the front door keys tied in a bow. She looked in the bag, looked at me, she cried, it was perfect.
Pending the inspection on tuesday, 14 days later, (yes extrememly short closing) we’ll be home owners again!
I Learned something… Hang in there. If you do your due dilligence you’ll get your house, just takes time. Knowing that makes a whole lot of difference!
Blessings!
@Hanginthere Congratulations! We are definitely hanging in there for the house. There was no activity for 30 days so we had called to have it escalated and they were going to move it to another negotiator, but then the first negotiator called back and said that the file was complete and was moving it up to the phase II negiotiator and that we would be assigned one within the next two weeks. You’ve just given me some hope that we might actually get the house if we wait for it….we are going to end up renting, but our biggest fear is that we are waiting for the house and we might not actually get it.
That fear is something we lived with, and somewhat still do until I get that key!
Try to make sure you are the only buyers. I asked time and again (and made sure) that we were the only offer and would remain the only offer. A friend of mine bought a SS with a higher offer at the last minute, kicking 4 other offers off the table who waited 4+ months.
If you have a lot of cash from the sale of your other house, that puts you in a very good postion. Make sure the seller agent knows you are committed with a big down payment. I learned early on, cash is king!
Blessings!
@hanginthere Thanks for the advice. We are definitely the only ones with offers in. We made sure of that in the beginning. We’ve told the sellers agent that we have a huge down payment ready, but she said we are still int eh same boat since they assumed we had it when we put the offer in.
I think you are right about the fear being there until we get the keys. The good news is that they finally ordered a BPO..after 3 months! The listing agent told our agent that it went well, so I guess we just wait until the next step! How long did it take you after your BPO to get the approval? Thanks!
My husband and I signed a contract on a short sale home on august 11th we were assigned to a negotiator within 30 days and the appraisal was ordered. Then 2 weeks later they got the appraisal back then it was sent to phase 2 negotiator. On oct 23rd the negotiator emailed my realtor and said she had sent it to investor for approval today is nov 28th and we still haven’t heard anything the negotiator will not return my realtors emails. We are using the sellers realtor she’s been great but I don’t know how long the investor process takes can anyone help me its been 5 wks now!
To: Lacy for me its been 5 months and I still havent heard anything so unfornately to say you have a long time for an approval, but I think if you really like the house its well worth the wait.
To: Dreamer, thank you for your reaponse we do love the house very much! Has your total short sale process taken 5 mths or the investor review taken 5 mths? Most people tell me the investor and motgage insurance stage can take 4 to 6 weeks!
To: Dreamer, I probably didn’t explain my first comment well my short sale has taken a total of 3+ mths but the phase 2 negotiator states its been with investors since oct 23rd which makes it 5 wks now with investors! Do you know what stage yours is in? Did I mention I hate BOA lol!
Update: my realtor told me she got an email today from our phase 2 negotiator that says our file is back from investors and is being sent to another negotiator for final approval of hud and hardship! Now I’m really confused I thought once it was back from investors than we would know whether they approved our offer or denied it I am really getting aggravated I hate short sales!
hmm sounds a bit weird… there should have been an estimated HUD with the initial submittal and review. the final HUD approval is done right before closing. The approval of hardship should have been done during the initial review I would think. Usually once its back from the investor it’s either approved or rejected… not sure what still has to be reviewed. But I am no expert..
Thought everyone might find this article interesting. Its been just over 3 months now with the short sale and it just went into Phase II negotiation, but has still not been signed a negtiator. We closed on our house today as well and have a 60 day rent back. Hopefully these guidelines will help speed things up!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091130/bs_nm/us_treasury_shortsales
To: moose, my realtor says what she thinks is that the investors gave the bottom dollar amount they would except and now BOA has to send it to a final negotiator but she is also confused as to why they are asking about HUD and hardship! I think the negotiator never sent it to investors but my realtor has all the emails saying it was with investors but she says when she calls the main line to check the status it says no new updates since nov 2nd but she has plenty of emails from the negotiator since then! I’m ready to fly to BOA myself and demand an answer lol! Oh well it is what it is but I told my realtor it was time to escalate or talk to a supervisor no more nice guy bshit!
Does anyone know what phase you’re in when your short sale goes from a negotiator to an underwriter?
Well typically the only underwriter is the person approving YOUR loan to buy the house on YOUR end of things (whever you are getting your mortgage from). The BOA guys should just be negotiators who are reviewing and hopefully approving the offer, not doing any underwriting. So it sounds like there’s some missing information there.
Thanks for your response Moose! Typically what happens after it leaves the negotitor who examines the BPO and other paper work?
To:M&M, in my situation the phase 2 negotiator examined my appraisal and made sure it was in line with the net proceeds the bank or investors have to receive and then supposively was sending it to investors but I’m not so sure if she did that because now she’s changing her story!
Thanks Lacy! I’m just confused on why we were told our case is with an underwriter. I’ve done alot of research on countrywide short sales and I haven’t seen anything about there being a underwriter in the process. I wonder if the underwriter is actually the investor?
To: M&M, You are probably right by thinking the underwriter is the investors because I researched it to and an underwriter is the final approval on like a loan application! These banks don’t have a clue what there talking about they said mine was back from the investors but they had to review the hud and hardship again that was suppose to be done @ the beginning of the process! I’m fed up with all these games but were in a position where we do have time to wait december 11th will be 120 days of this mess! I’m praying for everyone on this blog I really hope all of our dreams come true good luck everyone and GOD BLESS!
Thanks for the response and prayers Lacy!
Update: My realtor called me today really excited and said that our negotiators supervisor actually called her back. My realtor explained to her that even though we have been getting emails from our negotiator that she has not put any updates in the computer since nov 2nd! The supervisor explained how many files they have and said she would look at our file and call my realtor back tomorrow. The last email we received from our negotiator said our file was going to a final negotiator and it was back from investors. I am so tired of the run a rounds they give us so to tell you the truth my hopes aren’t really that high of her calling us back tomorrow but my realtor can’t believe she called back so maybe its a good sign. Good luck to everyone else!
Well no call from the negotiators supervisor like I’m really surprised! Oh well I didn’t get my hopes up my poor realtor did though I got to where I really don’t care anymore december 11th will be four mths since we signed contract. When we first started this thing I stayed positive even after all the negative blogs I would read now I realize that its ok to be positive but you have to think realisticly and be patient because it is a very very long process! I think I went insane the first 3 mths and I just now made it to patient!
@Lacy I am right there with you about learning patience from this whole experiance. I was constatly second guessing myself as to what was going on and where I was in the process depending on which blog site I read. There was more than one time where the real estate agent told me that maybe this wasn’t the house for me if I was going to stress out as much as I did.
That being said, does anyone have any idea how long it takes after a BPO is done? This is the first one and it with the phase II negotiator. We put the offer in almost 3 and 1/2 months ago. The agent said the BPO agent was very nice and thinks it went well but I was just wondering how much longer from here…Any guess?
@ stressed out: My husband makes fun of me and calls me a short sale addict cause I’m addicted to reading blogs on ss! There is no timeline after your bpo I’m sorry it just depends every ss is different I always thought by reading these blogs I would get some sort of time estimate but unfortunately you start to realize there isn’t one! The banks are so swamped right now that there gonna lie to you just to make it through another day. I think my bpo was done in september and we still haven’t heard any reply I wish you the best of luck I hope you get your house!
Lacy is spot on. There is no great estimate or timeline. I read of short sales here taking over 6 months. Ours went fairly smoothly and took about 3 months. It just depends on what kind of negotiator you get and how quickly they move the file along. I think it’s pretty much luck. You have to expect it to take at LEAST 3 months, and up to 6. It’s a good sign if – there is just one loan on the property, and if the sellers agent seems like they are responsible and on top of things. Other than that, all you can do is hope and monitor from a distance. Definitely keep your options open and look for other places in the meantime. But if you have the patience and you are able to wait it out, then don’t give up hope too early.
Hi, everyone today makes 5 1/2 months and still nothing waiting for Freddie Mac. I dont understand whats taking so long. At the 2 1/2 month mark the mortgage insurance approved the sale. Therefore, they will pay the difference so whats the hold up. Im tired of hearing the same story over and over again. Give me some good news already ughhhh!!
So I am hoping this is good news, but my agent says that the listing agent says that she received an approval letter but is unable to open it since the file is in a bank format. We just had the BPO done on Tuesday. Can they really move that fast? Is there an inital approval and then it gets sent to the investor? Somehow I feel like a lot of steps were missed. I think it is a miracle and want to be really happy (I know the seller can stil have issues with the terms in the approval), but I want to know if I think I see the end in sight and then it goes to the investor and they reject it….
In our case, I didn’t hear any talk of it ever going to the investor. I didn’t even hear about a BPO being done for sure… after it was sent to the 2nd negotiator the next thing we heard was a verbal or unofficial email approval. Then about 1.5 weeks later we got the official approval letter (also sent by email but was in an official attachment form). So in our case, the last few steps actually did move fairly quickly. So it could be possible, but do NOT get excited until you see that final letter.
Thanks Moose,
You are making me feel a little more confident. I knew the BPO was done because the listing agent had to meet with the BPO officer. It was just sent to the Phase II negotiator a few days before thanksgiving and were told that it would not be assigned until at least Nov. 30. We closed on our house on Dec.1 and then found out this past Monday that a BPO was being done on tuesday the 8th. I guess I had been following Jag’s timeline from this blog and everything had been almost right on so when the listing agent said she had recieved an approval letter via email I thought that there is no way it would happen this early. The sellers agent did say that she reiceved an approval letter but in a format that she can’t open and did warn us that it could hae terms that are unacceptable to either us or the sellers.
If it was a counter, then they would have done it verbally right, and not through an approval letter? Man, this waiting until monday is going to kill me!
@stressedout, we had two bpo’s. one in the beginning and one about where you are. the reason was b/c it had been 3 mts and the market in FLA is shifting quickly. plus the first one was a drive-by, the 2nd was a little more detailed. then we had 2 more mts before our verbal, and 1.5 mts till our written, then 14 days to close! (see below for update)
But it sounds like you are on the right track still! so hang in there, I pray you can change your name to ‘not so stressed out’ one day!
Lacy, sounds like you’re on the slow track too but at least you’re on the dance floor. the blogs are addicting but I think they help, this one especially.
BOA/CW is absolutely swamped with ss’s. in the beginning or our trip, in may 09, I was told there were 100K houses in their hopper so it takes time.
my update is a closing on Monday 12/14 (God willing)! I am so psyched about it. we absolutely love this house even though it’s a major fixer-upper! we’re on a canal, I bought a kayak today for a great deal, we bought all new appliances on BLK Friday, saved about 2K, I am wheeling & dealing with roofers, floor refinishers, kitchen ppl, bath ppl, pool ppl, you name it! but I love it! We are so blessed to be able to (OK not yet) call this house our home! Well worth the wait!
Hanginthere: I’m so happy for yall it was really sweet how you surprised your wife! I hope we get our house soon I’m guessing ours is gonna be around the 6mth spot to, that’s the way it looks maybe if we plan on 6mths it will be easier. My biggest fear is getting this far and then being told NO that would be heart breaking!
@hanginthere – I hope your closing went well today! Hopefully everything went smoothly!
Lacy, that is exactly the same way I feel. To have waited this whole time only to get a no for an answer. Apparently, we do have an approval letter but they are still unable to open it to see if the terms are acceptable to the seller. They have not been able to contact the closer or anyone in BOA who can resend the file! Isn’t that crazy?!?! Another day of waiting to see where we stand…its almost worse because I had written off knowing for another two months.
@ stressed out: I’m so sorry they can’t get in touch with anyone @ boa how aganizing to know there’s an email and can’t read it! Let us know what happens hopefully its good news I’m sure it is! I haven’t called my realtor since she told me about the supervisor @ boa calling her last week well of course the super never called back and I feel like I’ve been herassing my realtor I don’t know how often I’m suppose to call my realtor but I was texting her on mondays and fridays but I promised myself I would not call her again if she hears something she will call me. I feel like she was getting frustrated not being able to give me any updates I might call her after christmas maybe! Hanginthere let us know how your closing went! Good luck still praying for everyone merry christmas!
Thanks for asking. Yes we did close today, we have our house! But not without a hitch. we were on our way from closing and got a call from the lender saying they had my wife’s name spelled wrong and could not wire the funds. So we u-turned back to title and long story short (oh bad pun) we got a call three hours later saying we own the house! WOW I can’t believe it. So I went to the house, hacked at bushes and vines, scraped some popcorn from ceilings, and met a neighbor. it is weird to be a neighbor again.
Yes the fears, the frustrations, they are real and everyone goes through it.
Afterthefact, our title agent said she’s done w/BOA, she turns down ppl who are mean in any way, my realtor absolutely hates ss’s. It’s not their fault, it’s a faulty system that is broken. it’s a serious problem, not just for buyers but everyone involved. so be nice, firm but nice.
I chose ‘hang in there’ b/c i had to tell myself to do just that. in the meantime I looked at over 2000 houses on line and found 3 I would be sort of happy with, so for me it was easy to hang in there knowing that this house was absolutely the best one for us and if we didn’t get it, there was no time wasted or feeling like we missed out on another one. and here’s the good part, prices are still droppping so I felt like we would eventually get something and it would be even cheaper! so time was for once on our side. but even with all that I was still frustrated every day.
anyway That’s my story, I really hope my comments help, others who write here have really helped me, so… hang in there!
@ hanginthere: congrats,congrats,congrats!!! You sure do give all of us hope thanks enjoy your new home!!
UPDATE: Well today I decided to go look @ another house in a really nice neighborhood that wasn’t a short sale it was a beautiful home but didn’t have enough property the short sale we like has 2 acres. I was mad @ my realtor for not giving me updates when she got them so I told her about the other house we found that we liked and amazingly she tells me she received an email this morning and that we are finally in stage 3 and that we were assigned to a woman that prepares the documents for the closer has anyone ever heard of this and if so can I start getting excited now? And if they have not countered by now do you think we will get it for what we offered?
Well the lady that prepares the documents for the closer actually emailed my realtor back first thing this morning wow that was fast considering our realtor just found out her name and emailed her yesterday afternoon! She said she just needed to make sure the seller was still unemployeed and she said on the appraisal it said the house was vacant and she needed to know why. She said as soon as she received that info it was going to the closer for approval! Well the house is vacant cause the seller moved out of state because he could not find work here he had lost his job. Then my realtor dropped the BOMB he got a job as a manager of a car lot after we signed contract and because of cash for clunkers he has made $26,000 since august OMG what do we do now? I’m happy he’s no longer in really bad financial distress but that looks really bad since he’s claiming hardship doesn’t it? I need help any suggestions please my realtor has never had this happen she’s dumbfounded!
hi everyone, its now been 5 months and 3 weeks and I still havent heard a damn thing. The sellers realtor said they need an extension till January 15, 2010. We been waiting for Freddie Mac to approve this sale and its driving me crazy. I dont know what to do anymore does anyone have a suggestion on what I can do. How much longer do I have to wait???
is the seller’s agent experienced with short sales? are they checking the status once a week by phone? if the answers are no, your chances aren’t great. is your agent experienced w/ short sales? how often do they check in w/ the seller’s agent? have you got clear notification from BoA when your short sale moved to a phase II negotiator and if it was approved by them and sent to the investor for approval? If so, when did that happen?
@ Hanginthere , Congratulations on the house! What a great holiday gift!
I know what you mean about looking at a lot of houses and this is teh one that we want too.
Lacy, I dont know if it changes too much. The guy who is selling our house is employed. This was an investment property for him. Like I said we got an approval, but we still can’t open the file. So the seller doesn’t want to say anything since he is not sure he is going to accept what they tell him…i.e. that he is going to ahve to pay or be liable for the difference.
I think something shady is going on. Maybe I am just reading too far into it, but to not get a response on resending a file and the listing agent not doing EVERYTHING she can to get it in a format that she can read. I think that maybe the seller didn’t get what he wanted and is now stalling for time. I think that is why I chose ’stressed out’ because I read too far into things and ’stress myself out’!
Update.
Well, we were finally able to open the approval letter 10 days after getting it, and it is exactly what we thought would happen. Apparently there is a paragraph in there that is holding our seller liable for the difference. So, he is not signing the approval letter and is trying to negotiate with BOA. Kindof figured this would happen since it was an investment property, but hopefully they will see that they would be liable for even more if they went to foreclosure that after they negotiate they will sign the approval.
Has anyone gone through this? Do they only have until the deadline in the approval letter to negotiate or can they keep negotiating after that?
Everybody stay positive!!! Here’s some of my story and some tips that I have learned along the way of this dreadful process…
I put my short sale contract in in late July. In late September it was given an account number and assigned to a workout specialist. In late October, it was given to a negotiator – i guess phase 1?? About two weeks ago they did the BPO’s but are still saying they are not in their system yet. The only good thing is that a friend of mine has a contact at the bank of america loss mitigation department and she is trying to help push things along. So thats where I’m at and I have no idea what is going on….but I did check Fannie Mae’s website and the loan is through Fannie Mae which means it has to go to them, the investor, for final approval. Awesome – I bet that won’t take long.
CALL/EMAIL the CEO of Bank of America. They called me back about two weeks after I emailed them and they escalated the file.
Stressed Out: To me, I find it suprising that the seller didn’t know he would be liable unless the bank offered him a forgiveness of the debt. I think under most circumstances the seller has 15 years to pay off the remaining amount owed without interest. However, I could be wrong – I usually am.
@long sale I think the seller knew that they were going to be held responsible for the debt but maybe hoped that they wouldn’t. THey ahve a few investment properties that they put up for short sale. I think (i.e. hope) that they will try to negotitate as much as they can and then in the end say ok, its better to have it approved and sell it with less debt than if it went to foreclosure. Plus they know that we need to move soon and that if they decide that they want to keep negotiating that we can and will walk. We’ve rented back our house until the end of Jan. so we are hoping to close by then!
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