Now, while I don’t remember what kind of documentation I had to provide when I applied for my mortgage, I know it wasn’t quite as extensive as what banks require for a short sale, loan modification, or any other hardship assistance package. I knew this, so as soon as the condo was listed I began collecting documents in preparation of this. Here’s what the bank asked for:
-Hardship assistance package, which basically consists of a listing of income vs. debts and expenses
-Hardship statement describing why I was facing a financial hardship
-For a short sale, a letter stating that I’d only accept a short sale
-An authorization to let the bank pull my previous 2 years worth of tax returns
-An authorization to let the bank talk to my realtor and/or attorney
-A certification stating that I hadn’t committed any kind of fraud, felony, theft or tax evasion
-Two years of tax returns
-Two most recent pay stubs
-Two months of bank statements
-Profit & Loss statement for the current year through the most recent quarter (since I get 1099s for singing and claim it as income on my taxes)
-A copy of my homeowners insurance policy
-A copy of the contract for sale of the condo
-Another piece of paperwork that my realtor needed to send in
-A copy of my divorce settlement
-A copy of the quit claim deed my ex signed, which essentially signs the condo over to me in terms of the title
The last two items are significant in that, according to the first person I spoke with, since the divorce settlement awarded the condo to me, it meant that I didn’t have to worry about getting financial information from my ex, nor did I need to have him sign everything. Great! I thought, That’ll make this process so much easier! Fortunately I was smart enough to have him start signing paperwork and sending me financial information anyway.
So, I collected all of my documentation, and actually had it all sent to the bank by right around July 10h. While some of the documents I went ahead and emailed right away, I mailed most of them – the packet was so thick I didn’t trust the fax machine to get it all over in one piece. I was so proud of myself for having been so organized as to include cover sheets to separate different pieces of documentation, and sent it all off Priority Mail, Return Receipt Requested. The bank should have had it by the 12th. Go me!
Here’s how things went down from there (and I apologize if I switch tenses a lot – I just can’t sit and read through all of this anymore!):
-July 18th: I called to confirm my paperwork had all been received. It had, only the person I spoke with asked me why there were no financials for my ex-husband, and told me he also needed to sign a bunch of documents. I emailed them over immediately.
-July 21st : I receive a call (voicemail) from Heather, introducing herself as my Homeowner Support Specialist. She told me she’d begin working on my case and left her phone number, including her extension.
-July 23rd: Since it’s now a weekday, I call the bank back. I dial Heather’s extension, but ended up talking to someone else, who told me they had all of the documents needed to complete a Broker Price Opinion (BPO). This was similar to an appraisal, and was the next step in the process. I was told that it should be completed in about 4-5 business days. I called my realtor as a head’s up, as he’d need to give the appraiser the lock box code. He told me that this was the fastest he’d ever seen a BPO ordered.
-July 30th: I call to confirm the BPO had been completed, again dialing Heather’s extension but not getting to speak with her. I learn the BPO was finished, but there was another internal document Heather needed to order – an RVM, which has something to do with the real market value. The RVM was expected to take 3-5 business days.
-August 6th: I call to confirm that the RVM had been completed. I again dial Heather’s extension and was sent to someone else. Rather than give me any information, this person set up call between Heather and myself for the following day.
-August 7th: the time for the call came and went. After two hours I decided to call her. I ended up talking to someone else, who seemed annoyed that I’d called. I asked about the RVM and was told that Heather had ordered it on August 6 at 7:14pm. Hmm. Looks like she’d forgotten until my call prompted a reminder.
-August 13th: I call to confirm that the RVM had been completed. I’m told that it was completed on August 9th. The person I speak with (again, not Heather, though I’d dialed her extension) told me that I now had everything I needed in order for things to be sent to the negotiating team, and that I should give it around a week or so for my realtor to hear from them. I’m also told that once things go to negotiating, I’d be looking at 30-45 days until approval/denial.
-August 23rd: I call since no one had heard from the negotiator, and am scheduled for a call from Heather later in the afternoon. Heather actually calls me back, and is telling me that I’m missing some of the financials when we get disconnected. I call back immediately, but don’t get to speak with her. Instead I speak with one of the few competent people I’ve dealt with during the process. However, the call does not start out well, since I’m told things were kicked back from the negotiating team because I’m missing [insert laundry list of documents I sent on July 10th]. I start to freak out, but this nice young lady spends the next hour and a half on the phone with me, looking at and relabeling every single document attached to my account. It seams that the intake person at bank had mislabeled EVERYTHING. She did tell me about a couple of documents I was missing that I was not told were needed initially (I sent them in the next morning). She also confirmed that I didn’t need my ex-husband’s documents because the bank had the divorce settlement. Whatever.
At this point, I feel like things are back on track. When I give my realtor my weekly update he asks me if I’m sure I’ve never done this before since I’m better than most people in the business. I start to think that maybe I’m in the wrong line of work, but then again, I don’t think I could take this kind of thing on a daily basis.
-August 30th: I call to follow up, since at this point I’m really not sure what’s going on. I’m told I’m missing a couple more of the documents I’d sent in July. I resend them while I’m on the phone with the bank, and before finishing the call scheduling another call with Heather the following week.
-September 4th: Heather calls. She tells me that the documents I’d sent on August 30th needed to be signed – no one can tell me why, as this type of document is not normally signed. So I sign mine, have my ex sign his and email it back to me, and the bank has it within two hours. Heather says that she’ll send things back to negotiating without the signed copies (as long as they were going to be attached by the time a negotiator looks at it in another few days, I’d be good), and from there it would be about two weeks until a decision. I’m again happy about this.
-September 10th: I call the bank, since no one’s heard from a negotiating team. I’m told I’m missing an “internal appraisal.” I ask how such an appraisal differs from the BPO that was done in July, and am told that sometimes BPOs are only done of the exterior of the property. I remark that that sounded funny, since my realtor gave the person doing the BPO the code for my lock box so he/she could enter my unit. I’m place on hold and when the customer service rep returns she confirms that the BPO was interior. Great! She then tells me that the Real Market Value needs to be ordered. I ask, “Oh, is that the RVM? Check your notes – it was completed on August 9.” She places me on hold and when she comes back tells me that it, too, was finished.
(more 9/10) At this point, the rep tells me that she needs to determine whether or not I qualify for a HAFA incentive (I still have to look up what this is), and places me on hold. She comes back and tells me that it looks like I qualify, which means that things would be sent back to Underwriting and would take approximately 7-10 days, and then it would go back to negotiating. This was the WRONG answer. Rather than yell at her, I ask for a manager and ask her what exactly is going on. She tells me that things still hadn’t been sent to a negotiating team, but the documents I’d been missing were received and uploaded on September 5, so I should check back in a few days (again, I'm guessing that Heather forgot to do her job, and my call was serving as a reminder). She also confirmed that the HAFA thing happens independently of whatever is going on with negotiating.
So, this brings me up to today – I plan on calling the bank again on Friday if my realtor hasn’t heard from negotiating. If someone tells me that I’m missing anything else I’m really going to freak out on them. My aunt’s theory is that the bank needs to create work for themselves and that’s why they continually lose or mislabel documents. I don’t understand how these people have jobs – if I had an error rate that high I’d be fired.
In any case, when I put it all into perspective I am in pretty good shape. I was told at the beginning that a short sale takes a minimum of 3 months from start to finish, and it’s only been a little over two. I could see how this could take significantly longer, though, and I’m giving myself all of the credit for the speed at which this is moving – hooray for me and my excellent follow up skills! I also hope that within another couple of weeks I’ve got some good news. St. Joseph is still buried, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
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