Countrywide Home Loans called me today. I actually picked up when I recognized the number on the Caller ID. I asked the girl that was on the other end of the line if she had good news for me, and she said "I hope so", obviously having no idea what I was talking about.
When I asked more specifically if my deed-in-lieu request had been approved, she looked in my records and said that it shows "cancelled" status. After about twenty minutes of being on hold and being updated about what she was doing and who she was talking to (and who she couldn't talk to because they were in India), I found out that I'm at the mercy of the system. She was very nice, and very apologetic, but it's not her fault. The company she works for is just too big.
It doesn't matter that I had expressed to them my concerns last Ocotber that I would not be able to continue paying past the end of 2007. When I called then, I got no help because I was current on my payments, so they couldn't do anything to "help" me because there was no "problem". I put the house on the market in November. I stopped paying Countrywide after December (because I needed the money for petty little things like food and gas). We had a buyer lined up for the house in January. We moved out in February. Countrywide approved the sale of the house in April - too late for the buyer. The house went back on the market in April. In June I got the notice of foreclosure. The house is being auctioned next Tuesday. It takes over two months for them to make decisions that would be helpful for me, but they waste no time deciding it's time to sell the house for me.
I had asked about "deed-in-lieu" early this year, and in June I told the bank, and faxed in to Countrywide my intentions to turn over the deed, along with all other financial statements, letters, etc. that are required for Countrywide to make a decision. The fax system there is something else - they don't tell you this, but you should call the next day to verify they recieved all of the pages that you faxed. Apparently, the fax system is 100% automated, taking the documents and electronically assigning them to what it thinks is the appropriate department. They don't always get there, and no one seems to know where they really went.
I asked why the request was cancelled, and after making a few unsucessful phone calls, she came back and read me what was on my file. A deed-in-lieu request cannot be considered if it is within 60 days of a sale date. Nice. It doesn't matter that I requested consideration for deed-in-lieu outside of thet 60-day window. They didn't "open" the file until 8/4, and it was cancelled on 8/5 because it was too close to the sale date.
Because someone didn't open my file until too late, I have no option but foreclosure.
So here's a tip: If you are looking for financing, go with a small bank. Big banks may be more willing to approve you, but if you ever need any actual customer service, you're not going to get it in a company that has it's various departments spread out country-wide.
