Countrywide Short Sales & Communication with Lender Tips

As the servicer of more than half of the mortgages in the United States, Countrywide is definitely one of the lenders that you need to be familar with if you are working in the short-sale business. Recently, Countrywide has streamlined their process a bit and is working on making the process even easier. Their recent merger with Bank of America has become official, but it is not clear how much of two companies short-sale systems and guidelines will overlap.

As a matter of fact, I am on the phone with Bank of America (15 business day turn around time) right now and they just recently created a distinct short-sale department (phone number 1-866-413-3757). Sitting on hold for more than 10 minutes reminds me to let you know that you should try to get your calls to lenders done as early in the morning as possible. Write down the loss mitigation/short-sale departments phone numbers, fax numbers, and business hours to ensure that you are prepared everyday to call your lenders.

Back to Countrywide (short sale department phone number 1-866-880-1232 fax 1-888-491-4947) the very first thing you want to do is to fax your authorization to the short-sale department and expect 3-5 business days for the document to be uploaded.

The next important step will be to update Countrywide with your client's financial information. They can take this information over the phone. You will need to have a list of all of the income and monthly expense information before speaking to the representative.

The representative will tell you to send in:

1. Authorization

2. Purchase Contract (signed by all parties)

3. Buyer's Pre-qualification Letter

4. Listing Agreement

5. HUD-1 (prepared by your escrow officer, more on techniques for preparation later).

6. Two months of bank statements.

7. Two previous years of Federal Tax Returns (Just send form 1040, signed)

8. Two recent pay stubs (If self-employed, last quarter's profit/loss statement & later years Schedule C (Profit/Loss Statement for year).

You will send that complete package with loan numbers on top of each page to 1-888-491-4947. Do not exclude any of these items. It will delay the assignment of a negotiator.

The negotiations process is divided into three phases. The phase one negotiator has 15 days to review the file and is responsible for reviewing the file make sure that it has all of the documentation and to ask for any clarification on the file. The phase two negotiator will order a BPO (broker price opinion) to determine the current market value of the property. If it appears that the BPO and the current purchase price are within 10 to 15% of fair market value, the phase two negotiator will move the file to phase three. The phase three negotiator is responsible for putting the final touches on the file and submitting it to management for review and approval.

Now you must be aware if your file has MI (mortgage insurance) or if Countrywide has the final say on the file. If it does have MI, then the MI company has to approve the file before Countrywide's management can approve it.