In the last several months, I have submitted four short sale offers to Citibank and Countrywide. Despite having fax receipts, the banks claim they never received the documents, several times. And on another occasion, Countrywide, having waited several months to review the documents, decided the documents were too old and needed to be re-created, including the offer itself. Huh?
Citibank, for its part, completely ignored a short sale offer for nearly five months, at which time the buyers walked. Two more short sale offers submitted to Citibank have not been responded to by the bank. One of those buyers is about to walk away.
Countrywide has been sitting on an offer for nearly six months. When I called the buyer's agent the other day to check in, the agent told me that the buyer was walking becuase the buyer beleived that the home's value had dropped below his offer price.
On one of the many calls I placed to Citibank, where the documents, though sent three times, "had not been received," I asked if the documents could be emailed in. The response was that documents could only be faxed. When asked if I could communicate directly with the person in charge of that particular property, I was told no. And on that same call, when asked what was the current status of the short sale, the phone representative said she "could not interpret the notes." I asked the same representative just how I was supposed to get information if I couldn't speak to the person in charge of the account, and the representative couldn't interpret the notes. She didn't know.
Early last year I had an opportunity to sell a few dozen builder properties for $.85 on the dollar. The banks, not Citi or Countrywide in this case, would not go for the deal. They later sold the same properties for much less.
Working with Citibank and Countrywide has been a nightmare. Neither bank appears interested in working with their mortgagees to keep their homes, and neither is willing to sell the properties to a buyer. Yet the federal government has dumped billions into these banks.
It seems to me that if the economic downturn started in the housing market, then that's where the government should focus its attention. President Bush was right when he said last fall that the feds have the patience to buy up properties, as it did with the Resolution Trust Corporation back in the '80s, and wait for the market to improve. To date, I haven't seen the government doing that, despite the enormous success of the RTC program in terms of profit for taxpayes.
It don't know the exact solution, but it seems apparent that banks are working neither in thier own best interests, nor that of the taxpayers or homeowners. The feds, for their part, seem to be focusing on sysmptooms of the housing mess, and not on the problem itself.
In the meantime, lives are being destroyed.
We are experiencing the same problem with Citi Bank.
We have had a solid offer in since Jan. They keep asking for the same documents. I am surprised our buyer has stayed in. Now Citi bank is asking for $25,000 cash be brought by the seller at closing. If the seller $25,000.00 cash they would not be short selling the property.
Posted by: unknown | 11 July 2009 at 01:08 PM
We use to have similar problems, now we fax 3 times a day for 3 days. After a while, they will call you to ask you to stop sending in the documents.
Not the most efficient way to do business but it gets the job done. ;)
Carey
Jacksonville Short Sale Experts
Posted by: Carey of Jacksonvile Short Sale Experts | 17 September 2009 at 07:16 PM