Everybody has read about the mortgage industry’s woes and foreclosures. Countrywide Mortgage is showing why it’s in the mess it’s in. I just experienced, in the last couple of months, a failed short sale with them and an almost failed new loan.

Last week we closed a transaction that Countrywide was the originating broker. The file was submitted over 2 weeks prior to closing and they didn’t formally approve the loan until 4 hours after the closing was scheduled to happen. The buyers were a retired colonel and a medical technician. Today they are both well employed and had 700+ credit scores. They were buying a home $300,000 below what they were qualified for. The 1st hitch was that they wanted 1% down payment. They were already putting down 14%. Second they wanted the title company to change an appraiser name. This typo caused a 2hr delay. Then thirdly they held up funding because they wanted the title company closing letter to be in bigger font. Countywide penalized a good buyer for all their past mistakes.

Then, when you talk about mistakes, we negotiated a short sale with Countrywide accepting a deficiency. The contract was within their appraised value and the buyer was well qualified. After verbally verifying all figures were in line and after waiting 8 weeks they countered the buyer. They wanted $5,000 more. They buyer said no and terminated the transaction. Now understand this was a $475,000 house the $2,500 month payments. Well it’s been 5 months since that counter and he home is still not sold and it’s vacant.

How many dollars does it cost now? Lenders, including Countrywide, have to be willing to take losses like the rest of us. They all need to adopt and accept the reality that some money is better than none. Then, when they get a good buyer, they mess that up to. I hope some common sense comes soon or this foreclosure mess will last much longer than it should.

Thanks,
Brian