I tried to call the bank again today to sort things out, but the flu has left me with a VERY nasty case of laryngitis and my effort to talk on the phone ended with me apologizing to the person I had called and saying that I would try to call again tomorrow. My voice is totally shot.
Yesterday I called the bank. I wanted to talk to someone before I take the next step on my end, just to double check that this is the last thing that they need and if it was really was going to be enough to let me move forward with my plans to get the mortgage flipped from a reverse to a forward so that I can, finally, start to buy back my house.
I have been getting them what they need and then being told something different so many times so far, that I am tired of the back and forth. This went to the full year of allowed time with my doing exactly what they told me to, and now I have been sent back to the start point with no time left to do it all over again and the bank having made it so that I can no longer short-sale to myself. I am not amused, and I wanted to be sure that they are confident enough in their “this is last thing we need” to put it in writing for me this time.
Long story short; no, they were not confident enough to put it in writing for me this time.
I called the bank reverse mortgage section to find out if they could give me the number for the forward mortgage department or transfer me to whoever I needed to talk to. In talking to the person in the reverse mortgage department I am told that the person who last time I talked to them had told me that there would be no move toward Foreclosure until November was giving me bad information and the house has been referred to foreclosure now, so I have those fees added on top of the other fees. What the hell? What happened to the “nationwide hold on new foreclosures until November”?
Just one more in a long series of bad advice I have got from the people that work for that bank in trying to sort this all out.
I was transferred to the loan department and waited… and waited… and at 19 minutes and 25 seconds the computer hung up on me. Argh!
I called back. The computer made it as far as saying “This call may be recorded…” and the computer hung up on me again. ::pounds head on desk::: I called back.
So started the game of phone tag with computers. I finally got to talk to a loan person who told me that I needed to talk to a different department, the home retention department. They transferred me and I went into a computer tag game with the computer telling me to please hold. It keep that up for 12 minutes and 72 seconds before it hung up on me.
I called back and got into the automated “please select one of the following options…” situations trying to talk to someone in the home retention department. That lead me around and around and around on various “if you would like to” options until the computer got so confused that it said it had to get someone to help us (me and the computer).
That person send me off toward the foreclosure department and I ended up in another Catch 22 game with selecting options. Once again I confused the computer system in my efforts to sort out what I was looking for and the computer said it had to get me a person to talk to. That person pointed me a new direction and I went back to the Home Retention Department and the computer took over again… until it gave up and said “Hmmm…. I cannot find that account, let me transfer you to someone that can help.”
Finally, another person to whom I explained the situation. The only problem was that she was in the department for reporting lost or stolen checkbooks and neither of us had any idea how I ended up talking to her.
She was a trooper, however, and listened to my explanation for what I was looking for and said she would transfer me to the reverse mortgage department. I cut in quick and explained that I had started there last year (literally) and did not need them, I need to talk to someone in the traditional forward mortgage department please.
She sent me back into the system in the direction she thought I was intended to go. I was back in the computer once again and had a computer telling me “Please wait…” it repeated that six times… then said “Sorry, that action cannot be completed, please hang up and dial again.” and hung up on me.
Not to be deterred when I thought I might be on the right track I dove back into the system and called the number back once again. A few minutes of phone tag later and I had a person once again. And once again they said they needed to transfer me to someone else. This person did say they would stay on the line with me while they made sure they had me to the right person I needed to talk to, so that was a plus, and I settled in to wait on hold while they sorted out who I had to talk to.
The person came back a little while later (I’m not sure how much later) and told me they were talking to someone in the foreclosures department that could not find the property, the person in foreclosures was talking to their supervisor and the person that had me on hold was waiting to see what was advised – please hold.
My phone said this current call was now at 30 minutes and 13 seconds.
I was transferred to a new person at thirty two minutes in on the current call and at about 45 minutes on the call was sent onward to another department that they felt was where I needed to be.
I was places on hold. I was on hold from about 45 minutes in on the call, at about 71 minutes in on the current call there was a sound almost like the call was put through and that was followed by silence. At first I thought I was hung up on again, but the beepbeepbeep never showed up, so I waited. I’ve had that silence before when operators are explaining to one another what is going on, but this time the person had already been briefed when I was transferred, so I had no idea why I was listening to silence. But I waited for a while.
At 80 minutes and 28 seconds on the call, after 9 minutes of silence and 35 minutes of waiting on hold before the silence, I informed the silence “I will call back when I am done doing other things, doubt you want to go into the bathroom with me.” and hung up the phone. (In all the times the calls were ended, that was the first time I hung up rather than a computer hanging up on me.)
My phone batteries had to be wearing down to nothing, so rather than make another call that my phone’s batteries might not hold out through, I put the phone on the charger and went to town to get some things done.
I never did get things sorted out with the bank yesterday, and have to call back still to figure out if I am going to be told “One more thing before we can let you buy it-” again this time.
I have not been updating this site for a while, because back on September 8th events were brought to my attention that went on to consume most of my focus since.
A member of my family was sued for something that they had written, and the person who filed the lawsuit then set up a blog for what seems to be the sole intent of destroying the reputations of the defendants in the lawsuit.
My attention was drawn to the situation on September 8th when the person made a post that called into question the way in which my mother raised me, insinuating that my mother was neglectful in how I was raised. At that point I finally turned my attention to what was being said about my family and was sickened by the things that the woman suing my family member was putting online in what looked, to me, like a malicious effort to destroy and bully the two defendants in the lawsuit the woman had started.
I will not go into full details on everything that was written, but by the time the person stopped posting what seemed to be nothing but hate posts, she had, in addition to everything else, made a clear effort to destroy the good name and reputation of my father, a 21 year veteran of the United States Army.The situation is currently in settlement discussions, but it has done unimaginable harm to my family. The woman has taken down the post that she made about my father, but the Internet never forgets and the harm that she did is still out there on the silicon landscape and in the minds of anyone that did not know him personally who read her site and might have believed what she claimed. I find it sickening that someone can slander the name of a WWII veteran so maliciously, and yet that is what I witnessed someone do. It breaks my heart.
As I said, things are winding down now. I leave my family member and their legal counsel to finalize the issue and turn my own attention back to the issue of attempting to save the house where I and my parents lived for so long. I will update more on both situations when I have more details. Right now I am still in a bit of a limbo position on the house as well. The paperwork that I have been collecting for the bank since October 2010 is no longer enough to allow me to buy the house. They need me to start over. To go back to the beginning once again and go through the entire process once more. It is confusing, and I hope to add more details here as I sort it out.
Category: family, My Life
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I faxed the document that I was told was needed off to the bank’s legal department, then called and confirmed that it was received. They received the cover page, the single page letter that I sent with the document and the document. The lady who I called to confirm it arrived told me it takes five to ten business days to be reviewed, and advised I call back mid next week to see what the legal department had to say on it.
I also got the fax number and address that I need so I can attempt, as the person yesterday advised me to, to request one more 3 month extension from HUD to get this stuff sorted out. Apparently I ship my request letter to the default department in the bank’s reverse mortgage department, then they send it to HUD and after HUD takes a look at it then HUD will decide if I am allowed more time or not.
Time to get started writing my letter so I can fax it in this evening.
I called back the Reverse Mortgage Department. Got in touch with a gentleman, gave him the account number and he asked for my name and after I gave it to him he said that it shows I am cleared to discuss the loan, how could he help me. I was flooded with relief right there. He had the information right there on his computer that I needed, now I just had to have him call the other fellow in the traditional forward mortgage department and tell him it and everything would be sorted out.
Then began a long round of discussion that boiled down to what seems to be that one of the documents I had faxed to them before needs to be re-faxed to them, no one can find it. So I get to send them faxes, again. This time directly to the legal department, then I am to call the Reverse Mortgage Department, who can tell me 5 minutes after the fax is sent if they received it.
The guy in the Reverse Mortgage Department was highly confused as to what the people in the traditional forward mortgage department needed from them, since the guy said it has nothing at all to do with one another on the two departments. At that point I asked if he could call the fellow in the forward mortgage department if I gave him the guy’s phone number and extension. He said no, that he is just a call center and can not make outgoing phone calls. So I asked if I could get his last name and or operator number so I could get back to him when I called back, he said nope. That he can not give out his last name and they do not have operator numbers or anything, it is just the first person to answer the phone is who the person gets.
I commented that I am running out of time to sort this out and he said that I was able to file another extension, that it might be considered but no guarantees I would be granted more time, since I have already needed to ask for two extensions on this. From there he started talking about how it was a shame my name is on the deed, because if my name was not on the property then I could short sale it to myself for the appraised value rather than the full loan value. Wait.. it was someone at that bank that had told me that my best move was to get my name on the title and now this guy is saying that it is going to cost me an additional $20,0000 for repurchasing my parents’ house? ARGH! He went on to explain it had once been the case that family could not purchase a HECM insured home via Short Sale, but now they can and that would have been my best bet. I could still sell it via Short Sale to someone else, such as one of my siblings, but since it is over 160 days past the appraisal I would have to pay for a new appraisal myself in order to Short Sale it to someone else. If I had been told about the Short Sale before I could have Short Saled to myself for the appraised value while that appraisal was still a valid appraisal.
Right now I need to resend the legal department that missing document so they can confirm that I can pay off the house, then they (or someone) sends that to the fellow I am working with at the forward mortgage part of the bank, and hopefully I can FINALLY start talking to someone about getting stuff moving toward me repurchasing my parent’s house from the bank’s reverse mortgage.
Why is it so difficult to give a bank money?
The fellow called me back… He can not get ahold of the right person in the reverse mortgage department, and said that they said they need more stuff from me. What??? Wait, I asked three different people now if I was all finished and they had everything they needed from me, now they need more again? He says that the only thing he needs is someone in their department to tell him that he can talk to me, then he can sort out the house with me.
I’m calling them back to sort out what is going on and what they need. Their lawyers had left a note in the files that I am cleared by them to discuss the house and loan. I think someone might have erased that. :::weeps::: — back to the phones for me…
I feel that passage from Shakespeare’s Henry V is befitting of how I feel at the moment. Like Henry at the siege of Harfleur, I am uncertain about what the outcome of my battle will be. It has come to be such a regular thing for me to have to reexplain things, but I had actually harbored hope that I was past the hurdles of proving I am able to discuss the property with the bank.
Let me back up and explain.
I called the number that I had got for the mortgage department from the lady in the reverse mortgage department. After a few minutes of punch the number being played with a computer I got a fellow who rattled off his name and asked for mine then asked how he could help me. I said, “I am trying to convert a reverse mortgage into a traditional forward mortgage-” and before I could try to explain he said to please hold and he would transfer me over to the reverse mortgage department. I stammered to try to stop him and explain that I was already through everything I needed to do in the reverse mortgage department, but he had already sent me to the same number I had called earlier to get HIS number. I know, I waited just to confirm it was the same place that he sent me back to, then I hung up rather than waste their time.
I called back the number I needed to talk to. Played punch the number again, somehow I ended up in the automated customer service area for bank members to check their accounts and report lost bank cards… what the??? Hang up, redial, rinse and repeat.
Okay, I FINALLY got a friendly sounding lady who asked how she could help me and I explained to her that I need to transfer a reverse mortgage into a traditional forward mortgage but every time I say reverse mortgage to someone they transfer me over to the reverse mortgage department and I don’t need to be sent there. She asked me to hold please while she got a loan officer that could help me on the line for me and made sure they could help me.
After just shy of 8 minutes she had someone to transfer me over to that asked if I was Virginia. That was a new one on me and I told her, no, I’m Sandra. And she asked if she could speak to Billy or Virginia and I explained they are both deceased. I was placed on hold ofr a moment, then she was back to ask me my name. I told her my name again, and commented on how I was surprised to hear my mom’s name since me and my dad had removed her form the account back in 2008. Th lady confirmed my address and had someone else helping her with her computer as she sorted things out.
I heard her make some kind of comment, presumably to me based on the change from background to clearer speech, that she was determined to learn their system by Christmas. That amused me and I commented on how I am currently trying to learn two different systems, and I think as I get older it gets harder to learn new systems. We shared a laugh at that, then I noted how it probably did not help her that every once in a while someone like me calls in with a really odd request. I commented to her on how it seems like every time I speak to someone I have to reexplain what I am trying to do and I suppose that many people just do not try to save homes from reverse mortgages when they come due.
She was really busy with something and I caught something to her companion about taking their names off and putting my name on, the said to me she was going to be transferring me to a loan officer that could help me in just a moment. The girl in the background said, in a confirming tone, “You put her name on it.” Like she was instructing the woman helping me on what to do. I tried not to feel hope at this point.
A few moments later the lady helping me said that she was going to transfer me now, to please hold. I waited through the hold for a while then heard her come back and say something about someone being there, then back onto hold. Then a few minutes later she was back apologizing that she had “lost you in the cloud!” So apparently I had accidentally got lost in hold limbo and they had been trying to find me. LOL
She made sure that I was on with the gentleman with the loan department then she hung up and I was speaking to a new person once again. He gave me his name and what I think he identified as being his Nationwide number deal and greeted me as Virginia. I corrected him that I was Sandra and had to once again explain the situation.
He finally asked me or last 4 of my Social Security number and I had to pause and ask “Uhh, who’s? Mine… or my mom’s or my dad’s?” I gave him the one I was sure would be associated with the account on his files and that was probably the one he wanted. Then I confirmed the property’s physical location (both the street address and the subdivision information), and the mailing address. He put me on hold so he could sort something out.
He came back after only a moment and explained that privacy issues prevented him from talking to me about the mortgage. I was mentally tripped at that point. Hadn’t I just spent the past near year sorting that out? I explained to him that I had been cleared by the reverse Mortgage Department and their lawyers to discuss anything about the property and to request payoff amounts and the appraisal they had done and repurchase the home by turning around the mortgage to a forward mortgage. And that should be noted in the file on his end. He explained that he did not see anything saying he could talk to me, and I confirmed the loan number was right for the one that I had been giving the reverse mortgage department in dealing with this loan. He put me on hold as he spoke to the customer service people to see if he could talk to me since his computer did not say he could. I’m not sure he has the right information even since he has MOM on it, and Mom was taken off the account in 2008.
He checked once that I was still on hold, then came back and said that customer service has no notes about me in their stuff. I explained that the reverse mortgage department has the information. He asked what I had sent them and who I spoke to. I explained a LOT of stuff explaining what I was up to and a copy of the quitclaim putting property in my name for repurchase of it. He said he dosen’t want to make me send that all back in, and I hunted through my date book to August 4th and gave him name of who I had spoke to then that had told me he saw a note that I was cleared to discuss the loan. He’s going to call them up and talk to them and said he would call me back sometime this afternoon.
I am feeling a bit sickly at being back to step one on the forward mortgage side in proving I can discuss the property after it took me a year to get the reverse mortgage side to let me talk about the property. Right now all I can do is wait until he calls me back and lets me know if he can talk to me or not. If not, I’ll need to find out what I need to do to get THIS resolved so that the forward mortgage department will let me start making payments on the house.
I called the Reverse Mortgage department of the bank I am working with to see if they could provide me with the phone number for the forward mortgage department. The lady I spoke with said that she did not have that information, then started questioning me on if I had everything that I needed from the Reverse Mortgage department. That made me uncertain, so I gave her the mortgage loan number to look up and confirm that I did not have to do anything else on that end of things.
After the standard prove myself to be who I says I am questions, she started questioning me about my right to repurchase the house. I explained that I had gone over it all with their legal department and got cleared for proceeding. She seemed to be trying to sort something out on the computer on her end and asked me to please hold because she had crashed her computer. I was thinking that is never a good sign.
Still, she seemed to have found whatever she was looking for and gave me two numbers I could call to get directed over to the forward mortgage department. And no, I was not going to question that she had at the start of the call said that she could not give me any help on how to try to contact the forward mortgage department.
I find it a little disheartening that even though each one of the people I speak to says they have made notes about what we spoke about, the next one I speak to always has to have me explain what I am doing. It is not that complicated, I am trying to repurchase the house that my parents had to take out a reverse mortgage on. I suppose they just do not get very many people calling asking to save a house, most people probably just wipe their hands of it all and walk away.
I spent the past few weeks in a very low depression, the kind of low where I was thinking that there is no use in even getting out of bed. I did manage to make myself get up – mostly because of visitors rather than an actual desire to be up and functioning. I finally realized that I had to figure out kicking the depression one way or another, or at least hold it at bay long enough to get far enough past my anxiety to take the next step in saving the house.
I don’t know why, exactly, but I was completely stressed over two simple letters that asked for a final payoff amount on the place and a copy of the appraisal that had been done on the house. I suppose that I have just taken so long to get to the point I can ask for those that my anxiety just exploded to debilitating levels at the thought of actually asking for them.
So… I have sent off my letters, one for each request, to ask for a final payoff amount and a copy of the appraisal that the bank had done on the property. Now I am holding my breath waiting to see what they say when I get them.
Opening the mail today, I found myself creating a stack of four new credit card offers. Included in the pile is one from the bank I am working with on the reverse mortgage. I am hopeful that this is a good sign, they seem to think I am worthy of sending a pre-selected credit card offer to, so hopefully my effort to buy back my parents’ house will work out?
Category: My Life
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