October 22nd, 2010 4:42 PM by Cookie Hooper
Today’s Headline: “Bank of America and GMAC to Resume Foreclosures”
It seems that after their internal investigations, these banks have found no significant problems with their foreclosure cases and are once again proceeding with foreclosures. No significant problems? Really?
I sold a lovely home last December through a bank approved short-sale. It only took 8 months and 6 days from contract to closing. Well, I guess 8 months waiting to close is not so significant to Bank of America or GMAC. It was to my Seller and the Buyer who were waiting, waiting, waiting, and signing extension after extension while the bank delayed. It was also significant to me as the Seller’s Agent, contacting the Short-Sale department, Foreclosure department, customer service, and/or negotiator at least weekly for 8 months, often on hold for 30 minutes at a time, often being transferred from department to department in order to speak to anyone who was competent to answer a question, then getting a completely opposite answer the next time I called. Nope, not a significant problem. But we did get it closed.
Flash forward to September of this year, 9 months after our closing. The Buyer’s Agent alerts me to the fact that the Buyers are now getting foreclosure notices on their front door and people taking photos of the house, “for the bank”. Foreclosure notices that are not in their name, but in the name of the Sellers. Well, I just can’t imagine why that would be significant to the current Owners, especially when they are seeing news reports of people who are not in default having their belongings removed and locks changed by the banks as they foreclose a home that is not in foreclosure. Nope, no significant problems there, either.
I guess it’s also not significant that the bank is also sending letters and billing statements to my Seller, even threatening to foreclose on the home that they are now renting in another state. No problem there!
As a busy Realtor, 9 months after closing, I have spent the last 2 months still attempting to straighten out this situation. Again getting the run-around; again holding, being transferred, and waiting, waiting, waiting. Because I care, because I want the bank to get it right and figure out their mistake and correct it. But I am not being compensated for my time, and these large banks see no significant problem there, either.
Apparently, the time of a Realtor, the heartache and worry of a Buyer or Seller, constant frustration to Title Companies and Lenders, dealing with incompetent negotiators, losing Buyers due to the length of the process, and the other pitfalls of short sales are not a significant problem. So, why did they even bother to create a moratorium on foreclosures to perform internal audits when they won’t take their blinders off? Isn’t that in itself a significant problem?