My Short Sale Experience with WaMu/Ocwen
Hi all,
I am in the process of a short sale on my home here in CA. I started keeping a log of what has happened so far and thought it might benefit others if I share what happens. So I googled for a short sale/foreclosure forum and this was one of the first that appeared. Hopefully this will be informative and depending on the final outcome help others negotiate through this process.
My wife and I have lived in CA since birth, both 30 now with 2 daughters. I work for Bank of America in IT and have been offered the chance to relocate, on my dime though, to Charlotte, NC keeping the same job and salary level. We love that area and had been talking about moving out of state anyways so we are going for it. Here is what has happened so far, I'll update this as things progress. If anyone has any tips or questions please post away.
House purchased for $ 563,250 in August of 2005. First and second originally with Wells Fargo at $450,816 and $56,352 with a down payment of $56,352. Total debt $507,168.
Refinanced in 2006 – big mistake, bad broker, bad choice by me, didn’t read fine print, etc. – negam loan with 25k in prepayments on 1st and 2nd, first with WaMu, second with Ocwen. Balance on first now 508k, and 55k on second. Total debt $563k. House was worth 650k at the peak right after we bought it.
We will move to Charlotte, NC in June once the kids are out of school for the summer. Talked with real estate agent who is also one of my best friends, decided that we would attempt a short sale. Our initial thought was to keep the house and rent it, but the most we could get for rent is 2,000 and our minimum payment is 3,200 and at that we are adding 1500/mo to the principal. Based on that the short sale sounds like the best option for us.
Both our credit scores are just below 800 so we know that we won't be too bad off once it hits our credit report and should still be above average. I am pre-approved for a new loan in NC with my employer, contigent on this house selling. If we can close here and on the new house within 90 days they will not pull my credit again.
We listed the house at $349,900 based on comps and active listings in area. Most houses in area staying on market for 2 months, had a solid offer 1 week after listing. Offer is for full asking price and they are willing to wait out the short sale process :D .
Completed short sale package for both lenders and faxed in less than 1 week after getting the offer. Called both lenders 2 days later, both say fax never received. Three attempts later and they both say they have it now.
WaMu:
They absolutly will not proceed until they know Ocwen will accept $1,000 or less. Called multiple times, got the same response from multiple people, on to Ocwen…
Ocwen:
Faxed short sale package (108) pages on 2/26, entered into their computer system on 2/29. Called on the 29th and confirmed they received package. Was told it could take 10 to 15 days before we hear back from them.
Phone number for Loan Resolution Department 888.779.2857 (hours 8am to 7pm ET)
March 4th called and spoke with Alex, asked if there were any updates to the status. He said that the SS package was being reviewed and that the process could take as much as 45 days due to how busy they have been. Was able to tell me that the package was complete and we gave them everything they needed.
March 7th called and spoke with Leena, she said I had reached the wrong area and she would transfer me to the correct area, gave me the same number I had called. The line was silent for 30 seconds, then a fast busy and disconnected. By the way this is the 10th time since we started that the exact thing has happened.
March 7th called back after being disconnected spoke with Aksakshit (no it's not a typo). He asked what we owed WaMu and what they were getting as a net offer. I told him my agent had included that in the short sale packet. He put me on hold for about 10 minutes while he reviewed the information. He came back on the line and asked if I knew what the commission would be and what our current payoff was with WaMu. I told him 4% on the commission and that we owed 508k. He said that the numbers all looked good to him and based on what he was seeing he could approve the offer. He put me on hold for another 5 minutes then came back on and said that the commission was listed at 6% in the paperwork and they could not accept it, he also said that they also could not accept 1,000 and wanted at least 35,000 to close the loan. I told him that WaMu’s policy was to only allow the 2nd to get 1,000 if they were taking a loss on the first. He said he was aware of that but unless we could change their minds Ocwen would not accept our offer. I told him we have no other choice other than to foreclose and he said they would rather foreclose than take the short sale at 1,000. I told him thanks but I’ll call back and talk to someone else.
Spoke with my agent, he is willing to adjust to 4% commission. He already commited to the buyers agent at 3% so he will be taking just 1%. As mentioned above though he is a very good friend and more than willing to do this for us.
I called Ocwen back, spoke with Elrigea. Told him that I had called earlier and was told my offer could be accepted but that we had the commissions too high at 6% and they would approve if we lowered to 4%, I did not mention the 35,000 Aksakshit said they wanted. He spent a few minutes looking at the paperwork and said they would need a new Net Sheet or HUD1 showing the 4%. He gave me his email address and said he would work directly with us on getting it approved.
Called my agent back and gave him the good news, he faxed me the updated documents, we signed them and I emailed them to Elrigea at 3:30pm. Waiting on his reply now, my hopes are up, hopefully we'll hear from him Monday.
Jake