We decided to buy a house

[Kimbear 53]

The selling of mortgages is fairly common. We used a lender who sold our mortgage almost immediately after closing, and it has since been sold again. It doesn't change anything aside from who you make the payments to. I wouldn't let that bother you too much... but the undated documents thing would not be ok with me either, or the general incompetence and lack of clarity on the interest rate.

I agree with the walk through thing. That's the best thing you can do. We have found several issues with our house that were never disclosed at the time of purchase. We were naive and assumed our home inspector actually knew what they were doing, and as young first time buyers, we didn't really know what we were looking at.

Keep your chin up Kimbear! This will be over before you know it, and you will have a great new home to live in

Luckily I've owned a home before so i know what to look for. this one has no basement just a slab foundation, and i know how to check the doors and windows etc. for install dates. same with the furnace water tank etc. also sense of smell is a key factor in any home i go to see. if it doesn't smell good or the bathroom smells funny there are issues at hand.

maybe its common for mortgages to be sold left right and center..but i just don't like it...gives the possibility of missing a payment to the right person cuz you made it to the wrong person.

[Kimbear 53]

One wants to feel comfortable with the people ur doing business with--its ur $$$$! They won't loose any sleep over it, if the deals goes haywire!! Best of luck

ya at first i felt bad, as this guy was nice and gave us tons of explanations at the beginning, but now that its time for paperwork he is all business and i don't feel as comfortable with him. especially since it seems hes only a third party 4 path or however many ppl are involved in this loan. he does paperwork, someone else does underwriting someone else actually services the loan and then there are others involved too?? i mean..NO TY...that's why so many fees..they all gotta get paid i guess.!!

[Kimbear 53]

No, the assumption is that the home owner is underwater and cannot pay mortgage, thus the owner doesn't have the money to make anything but minimal repairs, if that. The trick is to go to the lender - which I guess may not necessarily be the bank? - and see if they're willing to do repairs, but most will not. You can ask the seller to dock some money off the price but if it's already a low price (and, at least in my area, short sale homes go onto the market at nearly the -20% price cut off to sell fast) you run the risk of the bank not approving the deal.

The owner has no money period and the lender wants to make as much as possible, that's why they are making the realtors and lawyers all take commission hits. the reason people try and go for a short sale is that it is less of a credit hit to them as opposed to a foreclosure. and in 2 years they can get a mortgage again if they go the way of short sale. With a foreclosure forget about it..your ruined.

Lenders with short sales will not negotiate anything, they wont even pay for a home warranty now adays. thats why short sales are "as is", and they all have short sale addendum dictating that they wont even pay for real estate transfer stamps which the sellers normally would pay for. The only way nowadays that you see lenders paying this is if its a foreclosure and alot of times a Fannie Mae one etc. they use it as a sale tactic but up the interest rate etc to go with their loan.

typically short sales are cheaper for banks then going through foreclosure , auction etc. that incurs alot more costs for the lender meaning in the end they would get even less money out of a sale after foreclosure.

Luckily i know a bit about all of this as my Uncle was a real estate agent all his life, and my other uncles has bounced back and forth between living in usa and Canada. and of course i've done my own research through all the HUD sites etc.

In the end the house is well worth it. its not that old, and the price is great. and i love the area.

[Krikit 1,163]

No, the assumption is that the home owner is underwater and cannot pay mortgage, thus the owner doesn't have the money to make anything but minimal repairs, if that. The trick is to go to the lender - which I guess may not necessarily be the bank? - and see if they're willing to do repairs, but most will not. You can ask the seller to dock some money off the price but if it's already a low price (and, at least in my area, short sale homes go onto the market at nearly the -20% price cut off to sell fast) you run the risk of the bank not approving the deal.

Interesting. Your experience is different than mine. We went to the homeowner with the deficiencies and they agreed to them. (short sale) When the home was foreclosed upon, we requested a couple of other items from the bank, which they agreed to.

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Luckily I've owned a home before so i know what to look for. this one has no basement just a slab foundation, and i know how to check the doors and windows etc. for install dates. same with the furnace water tank etc. also sense of smell is a key factor in any home i go to see. if it doesn't smell good or the bathroom smells funny there are issues at hand.

maybe its common for mortgages to be sold left right and center..but i just don't like it...gives the possibility of missing a payment to the right person cuz you made it to the wrong person.

Then you're definitely at an advantage. Unfortunately we didn't have any idea what we were looking for, and we didn't really have involved parents that helped us along the way. I'm still happy with our decision to buy this house, but I didn't expect having to absorb all the money into it we've had to, and there is still more to do.

The mortgage payment problem actually did happen to us the last time our mortgage was sold. The new mortgage company sent notification to our prior address for some reason, so we didn't get it. The next month we sent payment to our old servicing company, and they returned it to us saying they no longer held the mortgage. Eventually the original mortgage transfer notice made it's way to us. My husband called them and flipped out, so they waived the late fee and apologized. It was a mild inconvenience, but not a big problem. Working with home insurance policies, I see mortgages being sold every day. Sometimes mortgage companies sell entire books of business at one time. Unfortunately it seems the customer has absolutely no control over this. There may be mortgage companies out there who promise not to sell your mortgage... That would be nice.

[Moosker 7]

Ugh. Sorry to hear all that, Kimbear. On the bright side, all this will soon be a distant memory.

You won't even remember the bad days! We had had it with our rental house after our business equipment was stolen, and the last straw was the dog abuse. Our dog love love loves to be outside, and people didn't like him coming up to the fence when they walked (hello walkers, there is a sidewalk on the OTHER side too) anyways, f-bombs to my dog, sticks being thrown and poked at him, and a lot more things I don't care to remember set us over the top and we said, time to buy a house! Luckily it was super quick. We were just talking the other day that we don't even THINK about the other house. You'll never look back once you're in your house Distant memory is right!

Keep us posted as always!

[HannahP 119]

this is a short sale.. all short sales are sold as is. the only addendum you get are lead radon and the standard real estate 5.0 disclosure. you can't even get any copies of ccr's (covenants, conditions, and restrictions) until lender approval of the price. You might be thinking of a foreclosure that has to have a minimum escrow for repairs or a 203h rehabilitation loan.

And yeah we walked through the house already and do plan a 2nd one at closing with a home inspector.

Huh, it all seems a bit different from area to area. We'd done the paperwork on a short-sale and were just waiting for everything to go through. An actual short sale, I know this because we almost bought the house. We got the seller's disclosure, along with the notice about all the liens she had (seller had married and divorced four different men in the five years that she had the house, plus another man that we assumed she had killed and buried in the back yard) -- nothing was writ-in-stone "as is" (which all foreclosures here are) but the assumption on a short sale is that everything will be sold as-is.

Like Kritkit mentioned, you can *ask* the seller for things to be fixed but it usually doesn't happen, at least in my area of the country.

[Moosker 7]

Any updates kimbear?

[Kimbear 53]

Almost 3 months of waiting here, and the only thing we have been told is that the "Seller's agent just received an email from the short sale attorney. The file is in underwriting with the negotiator"

whatever that means. still waiting for my realtor and lawyer to get back to me.

Sellers attorney is really dragging out the attorney review period..been over a month since we heard jack from him.

And i have to move in 22 days, Back in with the In-laws. but this time its different..most of our stuff will be in storage, and i know its just a matter of time til we get our house. also we get to save like 2k a month this way.

[Kimbear 53]

so Finally some good news!!

My Realtor just told me that the lienholder on the house did the appraisal last week!!! But i asked her to verify whether it was a real appraisall or just one of those BPO things..which they usually do a few of..and i dunno of both the liens have to do that and if so if the 2nd one did it yet.

Oh how i hope we could find out soon. I already know my FHA loan is gonna take another 30 days after we get an ok so we are moving in with the inlaws for at least 2 months ... but at least i have a house to look forward to eh?

[Kimbear 53]

Ahhh FFS!!! left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing it seems..

My lawer just told me the appraisal has not been done that they have only requested more documents from the sellers.. I just asked both my realtor and the lawyer ####### is going on and to get the story straight..3 months and i still have no idea what is going on..youl would thing i'd have some sort of information from the freakign bank that has the mortgage..come on..as much as i'm sorry for these people that have to loose their house, they have been living in it scott free for over a bloody year now. Why the house has not been forclosed on or auctioned off i dont know..and i wont know anything unless i can do my inspection appraisal yadda yadda yadda.

Grrrr i was prepared 3 months to wait yes..but not with ZERO information. God this is frustrating..i mean am i suposed to be looking at more houses just in case? sigh i really liked this one too. UGh i hate America's stupid mortgage crisis...

And to make matters worse the rental company is trying to say we never paid our rent or water bill and charged us late fees and they did it to a whole bunch of people. Way to piss me off today.

Edited June 17, 2011 by Kimbear

[Flames9_RN 358]

Was an article on CNN last week or so about people that have been living in their house, for close to 5 yrs and not paying their mortgages. I forget what the average time was for the process, but it can be a very long one!! Hope your still looking at other places

[Kimbear 53]

I am never buying a house in the USA ever again!!! next time i want a house i'm going back to Canada!!!!

There was an appraisal done. apprently by someone claiming to be our lender. And yet my real estate contract specifically says this will not be done before the short sale has been approved. And i have a feeling it was the mortgage company we fired...and i fired him IN WRITING AND HE REPLIED!!

So i just sent my lawer an email saying ####### now i'm out 500$ for something i did not authorize, but someone i dont know, that went against the real estate contract addemdum that my own lawery put in????????????????

this day just keeps getting worse.. i swear to god i'm going back to canada if this ####### keeps up.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Wow - that's horrible. Every short sale has it's own situation I suppose. We bought a short sale - it had been vacant for probably a year but was in excellent shape (19 yr old town house). Appliances were all about 2-3 yrs old and fortunately the ex owners had both loans with the same lender (which I think is rare)so the bank/lender was able to agree more quickly. Took about 2 months from offer to close. It actually didn't seem any different then a normal sale other then the fact that we were the only people at the table at closing. We had an inspection, asked for something to be fixed and their bank also paid for closing costs. it's been a good experience for us.

Can you not pull that $500 back? Revoke the check or whatever....I haven't read everything in this thread - but is there an option to just walk away?

[Kimbear 53]

Wow - that's horrible. Every short sale has it's own situation I suppose. We bought a short sale - it had been vacant for probably a year but was in excellent shape (19 yr old town house). Appliances were all about 2-3 yrs old and fortunately the ex owners had both loans with the same lender (which I think is rare)so the bank/lender was able to agree more quickly. Took about 2 months from offer to close. It actually didn't seem any different then a normal sale other then the fact that we were the only people at the table at closing. We had an inspection, asked for something to be fixed and their bank also paid for closing costs. it's been a good experience for us.

Can you not pull that $500 back? Revoke the check or whatever....I haven't read everything in this thread - but is there an option to just walk away?

I haven't paid anyone for anything yet. And everyone i know is saying they did not do the appraisal so unless the sellers agent is mixing up the properties i'm very confused right now. And yes our contract states that after the orgiinal closing date of May 19th, we will extend the contract by 30 days until we get approval and closes or we can just walk away and get our escrow money back.

I spoke with my realtor and she thinks the other agent myst be mistaking the properties. apprently she contacted the old lender and he didn't do it either and neither did our current lender. So someone is mixing up their information.

But now it seems any progress i thought we had on the short sale is gone and we have no progress, after 3 months

I have been looking at other houses but it seems the amount going on the market is slowing down, and there are none in thea areas we'd like to live in for a price we can afford. And trying to find a hosue that is not a short sale or forclosure is almost impossible. Chicago has the highest rate in the country i think from waht i read on redfin and other boards. I really like this house, its just these people are not doing any upkeep let alone cleaning it and wh en we do get it i have no idea what shape it will be in either

But yes i have plenty of opt outs on the contract if we really decide not to keep going. its just the communication thing and delays that are annoying me. Everyone has to have their hand in the pot, whereas up in canada i'm used to like 3 ppl at most...no such thing as title companies etc when i bought and sold my house in Ontario. and it was way cheaper on fees etc.