Was just going to Foreclose, but CW offered me a chance for Deed in Lieu?

**DaPad** · 04-01-2009, 02:25 PM

I had talked to a real estate lawyer a few months back and had decided to go ahead and walk away from my property. I'm going on the 2nd month of not making the payment so I finally talked to someone from Country Wide to let them my situation and when I did talk to the guy, he told me that they would then set me up for a Deed in Lieu.

He went on to say that I would have to list and try to sell my house for 90 days, then if it doesn't sell, I do the Deed in Lieu.

Has anyone on here had or is doing this with Country Wide? Because more then likely, I would just do the Deed in Lieu process before the foreclosure, but I do not want to have to go through the process of listing my house, having people come through to look at it etc. I haven't contacted CW back yet, but I was just wondering if anyone on here knows if CW will let you just do the Deed in Lieu initially and not have to go through the whole process of selling. Thanks in advance if anyone can answer this.

**maxx233** · 04-01-2009, 02:59 PM

My understanding of the shortsale market/process is that it's super easy to list (I just did it the other day.. stack of papers to scan for keywords and sign/initial quickly-depending on how well you trust your RE agent- and as big a list as you can think of to disclose anything wrong with the property in order to remove yourself from a position of liability after the sale), and it'll probably be 3 months before the price is incremented low enough for anyone to even start looking in the first place. You have to list it at a relatively-high price ("market value") to start in order to show the bank that you really tried to get them as much as possible. Then when no one bites because there's a bazillion other shortsales/foreclosures for cheaper you increment the price lower each week or so. So you might as well list, in my opinion, to show due diligence when you offer/accept deed in lieu. I'm not putting that much effort towards selling it, at least not for about 2 months when the price might start maybe being in line with what someone might even bother looking at - I'll keep it clean as normal, but I'm not really adjusting my lifestyle. It's an unexpected perk over foreclosure if it sells, and I hope it does. But I doubt it. It's mostly to jump through hoops and show the bank effort and that I'm not just trying my hardest to screw them over or something.

You might want to ask them before you bother if they would accept a shortsale as fully satisfying the loan. If not it may not really be worth it. But, then again, they may not admit they would accept it until it's too late to do it.

**DaPad** · 04-02-2009, 02:03 PM

Was wondering if anyone else has had this problem. I had talked to one guy at CW telling him I am going to go through with the foreclosure, which everything to that point had been fine. He said he was going to take off my work # so they will never call there. All the calls were coming to my personal phone so it wasn't a bother. Now one came through to my work phone and I told them I had already spoke with someone who said they wouldn't call me at work. This guy flat out lied and said the only number they have is my work number and thats why they are calling. I pointed out how then have you guys been calling my personal # for 3 weeks now if you only have my work one. He didn't say anything but like the first guy said he would take it of my file and they won't call.

2 minutes later they call back! And my boss answers the phone and they keep hanging up on him. I really will get in trouble if this continues. I know if you write them a letter to stop calling, they have to. Does anyone know who I address this to, because it makes me look rather bad at my job if they keep calling and hanging up on my boss. Thanks

**teenut** · 04-02-2009, 02:22 PM

what you need to do is send a certified letter to CW asking for a ceast and desist on your work phone number. Even though they should take it out with a verbal request, but by law they dont have to. But once you send this letter and they call you at that number again, it will be a violation of the FDCPA (fair dept collection practice act). Remember to send it certified so that you have a reciept that it was accepted, if not they will say they didnt get it. To get the process started you can also try faxing it and let them know you are sending a certified one as well.

**KT in CA** · 04-02-2009, 02:42 PM

I did this with my lender (AmTrust Savings Bank). They called once at my work. I didn't take the call and then that night I went home and put together a letter. In it I quoted the FDCPA section and requested they no longer contact us via phone at either work or home, only email or mail correspondence would be accepted. I faxed it that night, the next morning, and then sent it certified mail the next day. It worked suprisingly well. We haven't heard a word from them since. Plenty of mail, but no phone calls.

KT

**dogatemy** · 04-02-2009, 04:40 PM

I called the bank a few months back asking about a principal reduction but they refused saying they could not help because I was current on my payments. I will be late on my payments beginning on the 10th.

After hearing some of the horror stories it sounds like a good idea to send a letter barring phone contact. I wonder if they would be willing to negotiate via email or snail mail?