undecided

Can someone explain what the bank is doing here? I've read a lot about short sales but the ex-spouse's duty has not been discussed. The house we are trying to buy was awarded to the husband by the divorce court and the ex-wife's name was taken off the title. Husband could not refinance so her name is still on the mortgage. He put it up for sale & accepted our offer -- then it became a short sale -- now the bank says OK to our offer but the bank needs financials from the ex-wife -- is this to prove she cannot make the payments?

If I had noticed your thread back when you posted it, I would have said BofA is fine, never had any problems with them in 5+ years. BUT: they have formed a new mortgage servicing subsidiary which now services BofA-originated mortgages as well as the old Countrywide mortgages. I used the new servicer's website to schedule a payment, saw confirmation in the "transaction history" that it was posted, but then discovered through the transaction history that the payment had been reversed. At this point I would suggest monitoring your account closely and often. If you have a BofA checking and/or savings account, use the BofA website to schedule your payments (not the servicer's site). Not sure what you can do if you're mailing a check with a coupon, other than photocopying before mailing and get proof of delivery (which you can track online) from the post office. I hope that the servicer will correct this problem soon; they just started servicing in mid-November.

But keep monitoring your mortgage payment -- you should be able to see your "transaction history" -- make sure that there's no change after the payment is posted . I used the website of BofA's new mortgage servicing subsidiary to set up my 12/1 payment to be made on 11/27. I got an Alert that payment had posted, my transaction history showed the posting, and my mortgage balance was lowered by the principal amount paid. Because my savings account had not been debited for the payment by today and my mortgage balance was no longer decreased by the 11/27 payment, I checked the transaction history again and discovered that the payment was reversed on December 1st. Moral of the story - if you are paying your mortgage online from a BofA account, use the BofA website to set it up, not the website of its new servicer. And always check and check again to make sure the payment is made -- and stays that way.

Thanks, all.

Just read today (LA Times) that the IRS will be asking for copies of the HUD-1 when you submit your request for the $6,500 credit. While I understand and agree with fraud prevention, I'm wondering how this affects people like me who have made an all-cash offer. Can the escrow agent provide a HUD-1? Or must it be provided by a (non-existent) lender? (see also my initial post: http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=415791 )

When is a contract not a contract? If they've made an offer which the seller has accepted and it's "merely" waiting confirmation/ acceptance by the banks ... can they now back out because the market has dropped? (or for any other reason, or none at all?

At what point in a short sale should the buyer order the inspection? Can offers be written so that the inspection contingency lasts until after the bank has approved the offer? I ask for the sake of others, as our purchase (or potential purchase) turned into a short sale after I had ordered and paid for the inspections. Had I known it would be a short sale I would have waited.

After we had a signed contract with the seller and had obtained the inspections, it suddenly became a short sale so the October 30th closing date has been ignored. Our real estate agent has been great, but he's never done a short sale before. The listing agent has been superceded by the short-sale expert agent who is acting for the bank holding the mortgage. This is an all-cash offer, so I don't have a loan officer or broker to guide me. My questions: 1) I'm told that it could be 4 months before the bank gives the OK (assuming they do). When should I contact a homeowners insurance company? I can't use my current company because the new house (which will be my primary residence) is in another state where my insurance company is not licensed. Should I just contact the company which presently insures the house? 2) No lender, so no appraisal. How does the insurance company figure out how much to insure the house for? The sales price? The assessed value? Do they come out and inspect it and figure out how much it would cost to rebuild? (That's another reason I'm thinking of keeping the same company.) 3) The signed sales contract has been submitted to the bank, and they've asked for (and been sent) proof that I have the cash available. Lousy timing -- the next day the money market account dropped its interest rate considerably so ordinarily I'd be moving my money around to get higher interest. Will the bank ask again before closing for proof that the money is still available? Will they freak out if it has moved around in the interim? 4) We already have a preliminary title report from the in-town title company/escrow agent chosen by the seller (or his listing agent). Escrow is being transferred to the bank's preferred escrow agent in a big city about 50 miles away and in a different county. If it takes another 4 months to close, would the new title company/escrow agent run another title search? Or would they just go with the old one as they are so far away and the old company is an affiliate? Thanks for any help you can give.

I refi'd with them 5-1/2 years ago and have had no problems. I was mailing in a check with my coupons, then I changed to paying online by transferring the payment from my savings account to my mortgage. Either way, the payment was always posted on time. However, they are changing mortgage servicers from "Bank of America" to a new subsidiary "BAC Home Loans" probably as a result of the Countrywide acquisition. They say the transition will be seamless, but I intend to watch very carefully to make sure my payments continue to post on time. The change is scheduled to happen as of November 16th.

Am I correct in assuming you are in California? Then here's a good place to start: California Financial Services Division and this might be helpful: http://www.corp.ca.gov/FSD/SAFE/default.asp Note: IANAL and this is not supposed to be legal advice

My Social Security/pension payments alone will not get a high enough mortgage to get the sort of house I want; neither will my interest/dividend income. Do lenders take Social Security payments into account? If so, in full or only the portion that shows on the 1040 as taxable income? Thanks.

I have a one-year-old card that is not reporting to TU, although it reports to EQ & EX. I'm trying to figure out if I should try to get it to report, and if so, how to do it. My other cards that TU knows about were opened in 2006, 1993 and 1987 (this last one I closed -- my mistake -- but it still shows on the report). They also have info about a mortgage from 1998 which was re-fi'd with a different lender in 2004. They show the average age as 11+ years. So does it make sense to throw a 1 year old card into the mix? If so, do I call the card issuer and ask them to report to TU?

Two ads in the local paper (LA Times) - note I have no experience with either: zetabid.com advertises foreclosed home auctions (they had a huge spread on Phoenix foreclosures recently, so it's not just SoCal) ForeclosureDestination.com supposedly gathers info from MLS for free public access, but I note there's a reference to "contact an agent" so I don't know what the deal is.

I think this is the first time I've seen a Notary fee higher than the Title Insurance fee.

According to an article in yesterday's online ABA Journal, life isn't all bad for people with mortgages serviced by IndyMac: Bad news at the failed IndyMac bank is apparently good news for at least some of its struggling mortgage borrowers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which has taken over IndyMac's operations and opened the bank under federal oversight today, is temporarily halting the foreclosure proceedings on past-due loans within its $200 million mortgage servicing portfolio, reports Reuters. The FDIC apparently intends to seek workout arrangements with delinquent borrowers, if possible, according to FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair. "Modified loans will be worth more than foreclosed loans," she told the CNBC television network, according to the news agency. linky