Countrywide Short Sales – What You Need To Know

by debt kid on September 20, 2007

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.


  1. (required)

  2. (valid email required)

  3. (required)

  4. (required)

  5. (required)

  6. (required)


 

cforms contact form by delicious:days

{ 3 trackbacks }

Countrywide To Speed Up Short Sale Approval Process. It’s About Time
July 23, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Cheapest generic levitra.
August 19, 2008 at 9:05 am
Lose your home without losing your mind
November 3, 2008 at 8:17 pm

{ 705 comments… read them below or add one }

LoganT May 29, 2009 at 2:12 pm

That is great news BWAT

Keep us posted and I hope you hear soon.

I wish we had locked in the 4.5 rate. We have been told we need an accepted offer before locking.

Reply

CaliShan May 29, 2009 at 4:22 pm

We put an offer on a short sale property 7 months ago and still have not received a written approval from Countrywide! The short sale process is so frustrating! I would never recommend buying a short sale!

BWAT- I hate to burst your bubble and I hope you have better luck than we have had, but, our BPO was done at least 3 months ago and our offer has been with the “Final Negotiator” for about 2 months. This is a never ending mess and I feel like we are getting the run around.

Reply

Century21 Souzan May 29, 2009 at 6:11 pm

Hello
I am a Short Sale Listing agent
I have been on the listing side of shortsale with most lenders including Bank of America (FKA Counrtywide) many times.
If the process if taking more than 90 days then something is not right. Maybe a few weeks long if there is mortgage insurance. IF the lender is delegated on the loan it can take less than 90 days. I have never had a short sale with any lender take 7 months from the time and offer and complete package is delivered . Even on the deals with 2 or even 3 lenders (YES 3!!!) it did not take 7 months!
Of all the lenders Bank of America does have the longest time frame . . phase 1 phase 2 and phase 3 . . . almost feels never ending

Reply

Century21 Souzan May 29, 2009 at 6:17 pm

@ BECCA
a threat to withdraw the offer will not get things moving from Bank of Americas stand point but if the listing agent takes that to Bank of America they will close down the file which will really slow things down.

The question is . . IS the listing agent following up at least weekly?

Reply

phyl May 30, 2009 at 1:19 am

Woh,

This blog have been really enlightening. I made an offer on a cuntrywide ohome on the 1st of may and did not even realise what a short sale was. Its may 30th, no word heard, seller have signed but from countrywide its complete silence. I was not expecting 4-7months wait like I have been reading here. Please somebody advise me, should I quit right now and go look for a different property that is not a shortsale?

Reply

phyl May 30, 2009 at 1:26 am

Also please I am a novice in realestate purchase is anybody kind enough to list the process of buying ass from cw for me? Below is where I am right now.

Found house May 1
Made offer May 1
seller signed May 6
Approval certificate form B of A may 22
titlework completed may 29th.

I am told to wait for phone to ring or go look for something else. Pls do u know the steps till I can move to theis dream house?

Reply

AJC May 30, 2009 at 8:36 am

3/1/09 made offer
3/1/09 seller accepted offer
3/13/09 bpo was ordered
4/12/09 assigned to negotiator (easter sunday)?????
5/17/09 in the neighborhood visiting friends and stopped by to talk to seller. This is where it gets interesting. Seller says she having a very difficult time with CW. Every time her agent calls in they seem to have lost files or pages and then everything has to get resent. Also when she calls in herself the people handling her file continually ask her about us the potential buyers. Not sure why any of that info would be relevant. Our first and last name, our current address etc…. kinda weird. If this house wasn’t something we both loved we would have walked already. Feeling like this whole proccess is very wrong in so many ways. Sellers who want out can’t really get out, and buyers who want in our strung along for months on end. I know CW gets alot of of SS or foreclosures daily but c’mon already. Sellers agent deals with SS all day, he is doing his job according to the seller and our agent. Calling at least twice a week etc…

This website has been a great source of info, and I hope we all eventually get we want in the end. Thanks to everyone for sharing. Just don’t hold your breathe anymore.

5/30/09 still have heard nothing from the bank.

Reply

WETSU June 1, 2009 at 11:01 am

Hi All,

My wife and I put in an offer on a SS last week. The listing agent said there were already two offers in and the negotiator was being assigned today… My questions is: will CW negotiator look at all offers in hand at once or do they go down the line until they find one they like?

Also, what does anyone know about sellers assit on a short sale? Will CW do a seller assist? The list price is 188900. We offered 191000 with 6% sellers assit.

Thanks in advace,

Reply

WETSU June 1, 2009 at 11:26 am

Also, does the way CW works differ market to market… sounds like a lot of these post are from folks on the west coast… I’m looking into one in Pennsylvania… does this make a difference?

Reply

LoganT June 1, 2009 at 6:38 pm

From what I understand CW will only take one offer at a time. They do not want multiple offers being submitted. If a negotiator is being assigned it would be to one offer. Not all banks work this way but I’m almost positive CW does. The selling agent will try to get many offers and the higher the better for his commission. It’s the sellers agent who submits the offer. If you read my post above of what the steps are for CW you will see an offer is not assigned to a negotiator until 2+weeks after the offer has been submitted.

Also I have learned that with any short sale they will not always take the highest offer but they look for the strongest. Sometimes if the house appraises lower than your offer they might not accept it or require you to change it. Strange but this is what is going on out there.

I’m not sure if the location of the property matters or what area of the country it is in. Do all offers go to the same office? I know there is one in Simi Valley, CA and one in Texas. That might be worth researching.

After months of looking and researching homes I am using a method that works best for us. Going directly to the listing agent to put our offer in. I found the house we wanted and called the listing agent to put the offer in for us. This way he has more reason to put our offer in right away and not wait for others offers to come in as he will get the sellers and buyers commission from us. I also let him know we will be using other agents if this does not go through. I have never met him and he has only submitted our offer. We had a contact at CW and had the short sale moved along so I do not feel obligated to stay with this realtor. The market is crazy right now with more buyers than homes for sale in our area.

Reply

BWAT June 2, 2009 at 6:57 am

Update;

Well that was quick, I wrote last Thursday that a “Final Negotiator” was assigned, and we received our counter offer yesterday (Monday) only 4 days later.

Listing price = $429k
Our offer = $365k (accepted by seller on 2/11/09)
CW counter = $395k (6/01/09)

Now the bad news, we decided to have the VA appraisal done for our bank to speed up the closing once we heard back from CW. Well that came back yesterday too, with a price of $370k. Why this is bad is because with a VA loan the VA won’t finance over their appraised value, which in this case is $370k.

Our next step is to use this as leverage with CW, and see what they say.

What do any of you think CW will come back with?

I’ll continue to update.

Thanks!

Reply

LoganT June 2, 2009 at 3:51 pm

Congrats BWAT

I would counter at $665 and see what they say.

We also heard last Thursday that our offer was with the 2nd Negotiator or in phase 2. I just got a call that they came back with a counter offer and we have 72 hours to respond.

I’m really irritated with the listing agent. They listed the house at $629. Our offer was $630 and we cannot go higher, this house has Mello Roos and HOA which adds up to almost $500 a month in extra payments and it has to be paid monthly.

List price $629
Our offer $630 (was put in mid April)
CW counter offer $700

We also just found out the lowest a home has sold for in the past three months in this neighborhood is $725 and the house we want has a big lot with a view. It’s so frustrating that the house was listed this low and we went through all of this only to find out it was listed $70k less than it should have been.

Good luck everyone.

Reply

AJC June 2, 2009 at 5:50 pm

Update;

Found out today that our SS with CW is going to have a 2nd appraisal done. LOL you would think they only needed one. Anyway we expect to hear something soon or so the listing agent says. We are keeping our fingers crossed. News of the GM bankruptcy has housing falling even further or so I’m hearing. Can any real estate pro confirm this?

Reply

HT June 3, 2009 at 6:37 am

My wife and I are in the process of trying to buy our first home in the SF Bay Area and lucky us it is a Countrywide SS. Our offer went in over a month ago and they had the BPO done last Thursday. Does that mean that a Negotiator has been assigned and hopefully the situation is progressing? Our offer is exactly what we were told CW wanted and matches fair market value according to the comps.

Our Agent has been trying to call daily but they never return her messages. They do sometimes return the sellers messages but it is always the same “tell the buyers to be patient, it takes time.” Citibank is the 2nd and they will foreclose if CW doesn’t accept by the end of the month or we pay them (which we had to do last week). Based on others experience, what is the likelihood of having an accepted offer before the end of the month? Any suggestions for trying to speed up the process? I hope this doesn’t take six months like some people here have experienced here and thanks for everyone’s comments/suggestions. It feels a little more like we’re not in this alone. Good luck to everyone else.

Reply

Steve June 3, 2009 at 10:44 am

LoganT, what does TAT stand for?

Reply

Steve June 3, 2009 at 11:45 am

Nevermind, I just found Turn Around Time elsewhere on the web.

Reply

Jag June 4, 2009 at 12:36 pm

This message is in reply to HT – dated 06/03/09 at 6:37 p.m.

Be 100% assured you will NOT and I repeat NOT get an answer from Countrywide by July 30, 2009. Be assured junior -Citibank – will foreclose on the property if they have already indicated by the end of the month. I have been waiting on a short-sale approval from Countrywide since March 2009 and let me tell you the long sale is not short sale. Lucky for us the junior was Bank of America and they signed off on the short-sale while the assholes in Countrywide are sitting in Hawaii.

Rest assured that you HT will not get the property unless you buy after foreclosure.

Reply

Becca June 5, 2009 at 7:24 am

Update:

We received word at the end of may that our file had been sent to the “Investor” and we would have our next update today. I can only hope we are nearing the end of this rollercoaster from hell. We are not about to threaten a walk as we have already invested months of waiting and are scared to death of stalling our offer. We are still the only offer on this home, and hope this will be leaverage for negotiation.

I also was curious about market differences and how CW does business… I am in Georgia and my experience appears to be very similar to you guys in SF area.

Reply

BWAT June 8, 2009 at 3:39 pm

Update:

PATIENCE FINALLY PAYS OFF!!!!!!

After almost 4 months after our offer, we got the house. At last I reported that CW had come back at $395k, which was $30k over our offer. However our VA appraisal came back at $370k, so we sent that back to them, and they came back last Friday at $375k, and we took it.

That’s an incredible $175k below what the house was originally listed at before the housing market fell. We couldn’t be more happy and satisfied, we got a great deal and that 4.5% interest rate that I locked into last month was perfect timing.

I hope all of you have a happy ending too, this process was long, but for us it was worth the wait. We close on June 17th, the last hurdle is the home inspection this Thursday.

I’ll report back with a final update after closing. All of you hang in there, not all these stories end up bad.

Reply

Becca June 10, 2009 at 11:50 am

@ BWAT

I am so glad it worked out for you! It is quite refreshing to see it work out when we are going through the same process!

Update:
Received word today our file has been with the investor for one week and he has until the 25th of june to send a counter-offer or approve our offer as it is. I can only hope we are nearing an end and it works out! If so, it will be worth the wait.

Reply

Becca June 10, 2009 at 11:52 am

@ BWAT
One more question… How long did it take throughout the counter-offer negotiation process? We are almost sure we too will receive a counter-offer and just want to get a time frame of how long this process takes.

Thanks!

Reply

LoganT June 10, 2009 at 1:01 pm

Becca,

I know you asked BWAT but I will tell you what we have experienced.

Once we heard our offer was with the second negotiator (same day as BWAT) we had a counter offer within less than a week. We countered that last Thursday and we are still waiting to hear.

Our offer $630
CW counter $700
Our counter $675

Reply

BWAT June 10, 2009 at 1:58 pm

@ Becca

We received their original counter on June 1, and their 2nd counter back 4 days later, Friday June 5th.

Good Luck!

Reply

AJC June 10, 2009 at 3:26 pm

@ BWAT

Congrats!!! Hopefully our SS has a happy ending also. Going on 3 and a half months now, looking forward to a end here real soon.

Reply

Jag June 11, 2009 at 12:28 pm

Need advice – Short Sale:

Submitted Offer – March 14, 2009.
The junior lender signed off – Bank of America – May 19, 2009
Senior lender – Countrywide has yet to sign off on the short sale and it is now June 11, 2009. Was told (a) all documents have been submitted by the seller for the hardship including our purchase agreement and (b) the short sale is sitting with investors. Our agent keeps calling and each time his told by the negotiator of Countrywide it is with the investor.

However, in meantime the 30 year rate just went up. Do we wait or lock a rate for 30 days and hope the investors sign off within the 30 days??????? OR will it be sometime in July or August when we hear from the investor? Advice … !

Reply

Becca June 11, 2009 at 5:48 pm

Thanks BWAT & LoganT~ Sounds like I can be expecting a call any minute now with the counter offer. I am deeply encouraged by all of the happy endings!

Reply

CaliShan June 12, 2009 at 7:35 am

@JAG
We are in the exact same boat! Except we submitted our offer November 3, 2008. We have been told our offer was with the investors for the past 2+ months. Now they say it is with the final approval person but that also has been going on way too long. Our agent and our negotiator have both said numerous times “we should hear something within the next week” only to hear nothing! We got our verbal approval 3 months ago but we can’t do anything with that! This is our first attempt at buying a house and it has really turned me off to the whole process. We have looked at other houses and made other offers but this is our favorite house by far. That’s the only reason we are hanging in this long.

Reply

Jag June 12, 2009 at 9:16 am

Hi CaliShan:

WOW… since November 2008 … ! And you wonder why the real estate is losing value. Banks are just sitting on the offers. Well CaliShan … I am in the same boat in the sense my wife and I love the house. As stated before it has gone through all three stages of Countrywide process and is sitting with the investors for 3 months. I have even threaten to walk away but investors don’t care. Walk and they’ll find some other sucker. But the problem is that I already spend money in the appraisal, pet inspection and the escrow is already opened. And that means absolutely nothing to them.

But I don’t blame Countrywide because they are only the intermediary between the investor and collecting mortgage payments. They do not have the ultimate say on the loan. The final investors are i.e., Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Bank of America, Chase … etc. The problems lies with the investors not Countrywide.

I wish there was some legislation which imposed all investors on a short-sale to respond within 2 months of receiving the short-sale. The problem with unrestricted time to respond on the short-sale has negative consequence such as: (a) the property remains empty potential for being broken in, items stolen, drug spot to shoot up, .. etc and (b) the surrounding homes also lose value because the grass is growing, unwanted bugs have moved in and made it there home .. etc.

But the realistic of it is that we have to wait. Anyways recently I have heard that in June of 2009 Countrywide started an online case management system whereby agents can follow the process of the short-sale online. Do you know if this is true and what is the link for it? Thanks.

Reply

confuzed June 13, 2009 at 7:25 am

I am confused as to what role my realtor (I am the buyer) should be playing in the shortsale that we are trying to buy. She is not the listing agent for the property. Countrywide recently ordered a BPO, I asked her what the property appraised at, and she said that she didn’t know. Is that reasonable? Should she be able to find out? I don’t want to get aggrevated at her because I am frustrated with the looonnngg process of a shortsale.
Thanks for any advice.

Reply

AJC June 14, 2009 at 7:26 am

@ confuzed

In most cases the listing agent doesn’t even know what the BPO comes in at. We had our own appraisal done we are the buyers (hopefully). That’s the only way we were going to find out the actual value. You can’t get upset with your realtor, she really plays a very small role in this whole thing. The listing realtor needs to be on his/her game though. Our realtor is family so I don’t feel bad calling her 2x a week to bug the listing realtor for updates.

I am very disgusted with this waiting game….rates are climbing and it’s going to cost us more in the end. If there ever is a end, we were supposed to hear something last week then this week……ARGHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wife and I are so jaded right now.

Reply

Becca June 14, 2009 at 5:15 pm

@ Confuzed

I completely understand your frustration, and it makes me fume to read comment after comment of the endless countrywide waiting game. We were told by CW that our “investor” had until the 25th of June to make a decision on our offer- we have been waiting since March. We love the home, and have stuck it out- We have had an appraisal and two BPOS and have never been told what the home appraised for, and its almost like being kept in the dark. It is true that your realtor has a very little role, if any, in this process. The listing agent is the one that has to go to the banks for updates and information, which is EXTREMELY frustrating for the buyers. We hope that we were told the truth, and will have some sort of news by the 25th. There has been some happy endings, so sticking with it, at some point, has to pay off.

Reply

confuzed June 15, 2009 at 3:25 am

Thanks for the info. It is definitely a long and frustrating process. Do you think it is a smart idea for us to just go ahead and have our own appraisal done? The housing market in our area (southwest Ohio) has taken a hit, although nothing like the rest of the country.

Reply

Bob Picheny, Realtor June 15, 2009 at 1:50 pm

Working with Short Sales is difficult to start with and as a Real Estate Professional let me tell you that not only are the people involved with the mortgage company inexperienced or lacking in caring, but many real estate agents without any experience believe that it is quick money for them (as they did selling Buyers homes that they could not afford in the first place) and they take on short sales believing that they are “quick and easy money”. Since the listing agent has the job to convince the mortgage company that the short sale is their best way out of the mortgage you really need to choose one with experience and who is not lazy. There is a lot of work to be done in order to get the sale closed. — Bob Central Florida

Reply

confuzed June 15, 2009 at 1:58 pm

Thanks Bob, I agree there is a lot of work to be done! I don’t know that my realtor is not doing the work required, its just that after we decided to put an offer in on this house, she has not been the most pleasant person (she did not want us to put an offer in the house). She is very curt and doesn’t offer any more info than I ask for, and I just don’t know if I am asking the right questions.

I have seen advice about calling CountryWide and sending letters to upper mangement there. Is this stuff that I can do?

Reply

Jag June 15, 2009 at 2:51 pm

@ confused and Bob Picheny, Realtor

I think (confused) you are asking the wrong question and Bob Picheny, Realtor is addressing another question. I am in the similar situation as you are confused. I am the buyer similar to you and have been waiting since March 2009. Mr. Picheny is talking about sellers point of view.

A buyer has his own agent and a seller has his own agent. A house is placed on the market as a short-sale by the sellers agent NOT BUYER’S AGENT. Confused you are the buyer not the seller. All the leg work in fighting the bank is done by the SELLERS AGENT and not the buyer’s agent. As a buyer you could have an agent who has done 1 zillion short-sale and he has been successful 100%. But it means nothing. All the fighting needs to be done by the Seller’s agent. Mr. Picheny is addressing the point that you need a good agent who has done short-sale before. As a buyer dealing with a short-sale you DO NOT SELECT THE SELLER’S AGENT. The agent is already selected by the seller. As a buyer you pray and pray the agent the seller selected has done some short sales. Mr. Picheny comments focuses on the sellers point of view and not buyers point of view.

As a buyer your listing agent only gets the news when the sellers agent receives the news from countrywide. 9.999999/10 usually there is no news and there is nothing for the buyers agent to report to the buyer.

Reply

confuzed June 15, 2009 at 5:42 pm

Thanks Jag. We put in our offer in the middle of April. Countrywide countered three days later, we responded that day. A week later we heard that Countrywide ordered a BPO. The BPO was completed about two weeks ago, but we have not heard anything yet. So we sit and wait. Well, not completely, we jump every time the phone rings hoping it is them.
How is your short sale going?

Reply

No Way Out June 15, 2009 at 6:58 pm

I have been working with some various loan folks and with HUD/Hope who were all in agreement that a modification would be the way to go. I currently have a 1st and 2nd (received from the beginning) both through CW. Was told through HUD that they faxed over their documents and had me do the same.

Finally got a person at CW who said nope, nothing on file and then the stuff mysteriously appeared. CW had all the info HUD and I sent wrong so I had them correct it and them am told there is no programs for me and to just short sale it.

I am in for a shade under $335,00 and comps are $165-184. Just seems odd that CW would just up and say short sale when a modification, if such a thing even exists, of say the HELOC would get me in range of being able to afford the mortgage. I lost my job and found another only at 38% less income.

Reply

Jag June 16, 2009 at 10:41 am

@ confused

Wow confused you actually had a response so quick from Countrywide after putting an offer in April. I placed my offer on March 14, 2009 and the junior lien holder – Bank of America – signed off on the loan in May 2009 but the senior lender – also Bank of America – is yet to sign off on the loan. We have been assigned a negotiator/BPO has already been ordered/it has gone through all 7 million stages of Countrywide and they have signed off on it and forward to the investor to sign off. Unfortunately the investor – Bank of America – is sitting in Hawaii drinking mai mai and could careless how the housing industry is doing. The senior investor received the short-sale on May 10, 2009 and is just sitting on it.

How about you Confused?

Reply

confuzed June 16, 2009 at 3:21 pm

Wow Jag, I am so jealous that you know so much what is happening with your short sale. I have told you all I know. Actually, I don’t even know if there is a junior lien holder, or if there has been a negotiator assigned to the case. Nothing. Our realtor is not the friendliest kid in the playground. Everytime I call her to ask her how its going (and I only call once a week) she gets snippy and says that SHE will call ME if she finds out anything. I probably am being annoying, but I am just excited. We love the house and would really like this short sale to go through.
How did you manage to find out all your info?

Reply

confuzed June 16, 2009 at 3:22 pm

No Way Out – does HUD/Hope offer any help with mediating between you and your lender?

Reply

Jag June 16, 2009 at 4:35 pm

@ confused

In a week I email my agent about 15 times and I call sellers agent twice a week. I really could careless who the sellers agent is working for. The end result is the sellers wants to get the house sold so he does not have a foreclosure on his credit history and both the sellers agent and my agents wants to get paid. MONEY MONEY MONEY. And lucky for you Confused you control the dice. Ask this question to yourself – What if you walked away from the sale. The dice falls.

Built your self esteem and ask questions from your agent. Learn to harass your agent – minimum 600 calls in a day. He/she could careless if you get a house or not. That’s how I got to know information about my short-sale. HARASSING REAL ESTATE AGENTS IS SOCIALLY AND LEGALLY ACCEPTABLE SO LONG AS IT GETS THE JOB DONE.

And for god shake Confused get the sellers agents email, phone number where he lives so you get to talk to that person yourself. 99.99999% of real estate agents are short of few brain cells. If you want things done do it yourself. Now having said that let me give you few questions to ask both the listing agent and your agent.

1. The seller has how many loans?
2. When was the BPO ordered?
3. What was the BPO price?
4. When was the file submitted to the investor?
5. If a junior lender exists, has the junior lender signed off on the loan?
6. If the junior lender exists, has the junior lender indicated whether they will foreclose?
7. If the loan is with Countrywide has a negotiator been assigned?
8. If the negotiator been assigned of the three stages which stage is your file at?
8. Ask what is the name of the negotiator?

Once you ask these questions from your agent he/she will be shocked that you have been doing some work and the agent will get his/her ass of the chair and actually do some work.

Reply

No Way Out June 16, 2009 at 7:48 pm

@ confuzed

They did assist us with a hardship package for CW which CW 1st said they didn’t have and then said they did have but said the information was incorrect even though I was looking at the exact copy HUD sent them. I had the agent with CW I spoke with update my file with the correct information and then was told that short sale was it, no other options.

What do I look for in a short sale agent? How do I know who is experienced, etc…

Reply

JM June 17, 2009 at 6:46 pm

I am new to real estate and am a first time home buyer with a good, steady income. I have prequalified for an FHA loan with an experienced broker who has worked with my Realtor many times in the past. I have put a couple of offers on 2 different foreclosures in the S.F. Bay area, but my offers were blown out of the water by other cash and conforming loan offers with large down payments. My Agent mentioned he was experienced in short sales, but we had not come across any listings that were worth while, either because the selling agent wasn’t experienced or I just wasn’t interested. I have found a property that I fell in love with and it happens to be a SS with a CW. I have been researching and stumbled across this feed and have mixed feelings about the deal. I made my offer on Tuesday of last week 6/9/09 of 396k (property listed @ 395k, lowered from 425) asking for 3% back to pay for closing costs. It was accepted by the seller and submitted to the bank. I am not sure how much is owed on the loan, but fair market value is at about 400k. The house is scheduled to foreclose this Friday. My Agent said he would be in touch with me to let me know the status, am I too late?? Should my realtor have told me?? What can I do now to be more proactive?? Any advice??
JM

Reply

Becca June 17, 2009 at 7:21 pm

Just a quick update…. our short sale offer is going nowhere, we stumbled upon another comperable home in a great location/upscale neighborhood and have put in an offer. THank god the second home is no where near countrywide, and we hope to move much faster as this home is not a short sale. Good luck to the rest of you who are sticking it out, unfortunately, we don’t have anymore time to waste.

Reply

Jag June 18, 2009 at 9:23 am

@ JM

Rest assured JM you will not get the house. 101% it will be foreclosed this friday. Please re-read the strings of comments above about Countrywide. Short-sales takes 8 to 9 months with Countrywide.

Reply

confuzed June 18, 2009 at 11:04 am

Hey Jag, well I sent your suggested questions to my realtor. Now I guess I’ll just wait to see if she responds before CountryWide ;)
Thanks for your help, I’ll let you know what she says.

JM- Can you go to the sheriff’s sale? You might get a better deal than CountryWide would ever be able to work out with you, and you will definetly get a better deal on closing costs. My brother tried for months to work out his shortsale, it did not go through. So he went to the sheriff’s sale and purchases the house for 30,ooo less than what the Bank had agreed to before the deal fell through.

Reply

CaliShan June 18, 2009 at 3:43 pm

So we still haven’t heard back from CountryWide yet (and it’s only been 7 1/2 months) but we put an offer on a bank owned house Saturday and our offer was accepted today! Goodbye CountryWide short sale! That was a complete waste of time! We will be just as happy in this new house and won’t have to deal with CW again! :)

Reply

LoganT June 18, 2009 at 4:21 pm

More FRUSTRATION!

We got the ball rolling by having a contact at CW May 8th with a $630. We were countered a few weeks ago at $700. We countered that offer 2 weeks ago with $675.

We just today found out that CW or the negotiator accepted our offer last Friday!?! WTF?? Our agent who is the listing and selling agent did not tell us. We found out from our contact.

We called to figure out just why we are not being informed about this and the answer was they can not get ahold of the owners of the house. They need to sign off on this and they are not answering their phone? This sounds so fishy and we requested all the information to be emailed to us. The offer, counter offer and accpeted offer from CW. Right on the offer is the address of the owners of this home. I am going to knock on their door on Saturday and ask them if they are going to sign off on this.

Just another twist in this whole frustrating short sale process! I’m very confused as to why the realtor would not let us know that this was accepted.

Reply

WETSU June 18, 2009 at 5:05 pm

@ LoganT

LoganT, you mention that “you found out from our contact.” How did you go about making a contact? Is there a number to call? and if I reach someone, what information do I need to try for some answers?

Reply

LoganT June 18, 2009 at 11:37 pm

@Wetsu

We are very fortunate to have a friend who is very high up in the company. We lived near one of the main offices of CW for many years. I wish I had a number or name to pass along but this person reached out for us as a personal favor.

Reply

Leave a Comment