Seller runs into hard times. Lender instructs them to fill out paperwork to substantiate hardship. Over 38 pages of reports and documents submitted. Three months later Citi Financial sells the loan to Citi Mortgage. Now we have to start the process over. Seven months later here is a synopsis of where we stand:
We had an offer that was supposedly approved and then voila! the bank (citi financial) supposedly sold the loan to Citi Mortgage, who told me they could not transfer files or information back and forth because they were two separate entities.
So we had to resubmit all the short sale application information. Start the BPO (bank appraisal) all over again. Relist the house, etc. etc.
So now, 7 months later and about 6 different contact names later, I have three offers that have been sitting around waiting to hear something. Citi Financial switches my representative several times. I wait several days to get replies sometimes. Well, they tell me they sold it to Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae and all is good to go. I call the buyers, sellers, agents, . . . A few days later I get a call saying they just found out the seller's loan was not insured and now FM is kicking it back to Citi who never has and never will take a $60,000 loss on a $450,000 loan. GET THIS - I call my legal dept at our real estate office to see how to handle notifying everyone of the umpteenth change. I ask for advice in protecting our interest as well as the seller's. I prepare myself to ONCE again tell several people another story told to me by Citi, when I get a call from Citi Mortgage Short Sale Dept. telling me guess what I talked to my manager and we are going to get it through after all. Well that was two weeks ago. Meantime I got the Managers phone number after begging, threatening and pleading. I call her and she RUDELY says Hello. I said who is this and she said who is this. I give her my name and tell her why I am calling and she says - WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME, that's Elsa's job! I tell her Elsa send me an email tell me to call her, Stacey. She launches off into this tyrade telling me that I give out incorrect information stating that my sellers had a loan with them, when they HAVE NEVER had any connection. That it was always a Freddie Mac loan and that they never owned the loan. Well, I say, I have acct#'s, case #'s, I have sent offers, and talked to several people there, as well as sent a 38 page document to get qualified for a short sale for 7 months, so I think they own the loan or at least have been working on it. Then she rudely blurts out "WHAT'S YOUR NAME? What's your number? And I never hear back from her again!
I send information to her counter part, Elsa, telling her my seller says he is sure he was paying for mortgage insurance. She emails me, "ask him what the name of the insurance company was. Are you sure he is not confusing this with homeowners insurance. The seller doesn't know what the name of the company is. He had it escrowed. He paid for it in his house payment. Furthermore his loan documents are packed away in a storage room out of state. WHY DOESN'T the MORTGAGE CO. KNOW THIS INFORMATION?
Next I receive an email, by "mistake", from a title company of one of the SIX offers I have had to turn away THAT THOUGHT THEY WERE GETTING THIS HOUSE. And in it it lists some of the various mortgage companies - Starts with Wells Fargo, goes to Ameriquest and NEVER states Citi Financial or Citi Mortgage ANYWHERE!
Meanwhile I have spent thousands of hours and dollars marketing the property and trying to keep up the property and the pool. Talking to potential buyers and agents, showing the house, processing offers. Buyers and agents with offers submitted to Citi are HOUNDING ME DAY AND NIGHT!
The seller's were good people who fell on hard times. They tried relentlessly with me, to make this right. Almost EIGHT MONTHS OF THIS STuff. The sellers were told to VACATE the house back in March and that they could do a Deed in Lieu and move on with their lives. They move out, then the loan gets transfered. Suddenly they can not do a Deed in Lieu. They have received foreclosure notices, then the foreclosure is postponed. Then they are going to accept these offers I sent them WITH Preliminary Hud's drawn up by title companies of people who think they are going to buy this house.
Something has to be done about this. How can they string us along for so long. Changing who we speak to. Changing their minds about accepting offers. Changing the Price! Oh Yeah I received a call a couple months ago telling me to lower the price of the house and get them some new offers. I do and now they tell me we cannot do this their was no insurance on the loan.
Now I get an email, just now, tell the seller to send us the name of the insurance company he was paying on his loan. WHHHAAAAAAAAT!
The seller is sick of dealing with it and would rather have a foreclosure on their records then go ONE MORE DAY dealing with this insanity. ME - I have had the listing for almost two years, I finally have a list of several interested parties with written offers, but by now I have told several realtors and prospective buyers a long string of unbelieveable garbage because I believed what the people at Citi told me and passed the information along only to find out all of it would change over and over and over and over again.
I have sent them account information, contact names and numbers from their previous loan holder. I have sent them title research. And still I call the manager and she says who are you, we never owned this loan! After several months of dealing with several people in their company. Best of all they REFUSE to put ANYTHING in writing. I have a few breif emails. One in which they said to lower the list price, which now they have decided they will not honor! It appears these lenders have no rules or regulations when it comes to short sales. Apparently they can change the rules of the game at any point in time as many times as they want. I was going to cancel the listing and move on with my life, esp. since the sellers would like to move on with their lives even if it means foreclosure, but I will not let this rest. I think it will become my new hobby. At least until Citi gives me some concrete determination that they put in writing and even if they end up foreclosing I will still hound them till I get some answers. I have been told by some real estate legal eagles that this case may very well be used as a case study while trying to enforce some regulations on the mortgage industry. I deal with this fiasco almost daily in one way or another. It has basically consumed my life for the last eight months. Should I give up now and move on puting my time to better use. Would I be doing the seller's a favor so they can try to put this behind them? Or should I fight the battle till the bitter end? And what of all these people who put offers on the house. Their lives are on hold waiting and wondering what will Citi say next week!
In a Short Sale Vacuum
Plano, Texas
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on citifinancial