Lies, Lies, Lies

(Can you hear the Thompson Twins singing in the background? Cue it up on your MP3 player of choice - c'mon, admit it. It's on there.)

This morning I wasted spent a little over an hour in a conference call with the bank and the loss mitigator, during which two very disturbing lies told by the bank in the past year were uncovered.

Lie: Fannie Mae approved the short-sale back in May.
Truth: Fannie Mae has not approved the short sale, and is unlikely to due to the large amount by which we're underwater on the loan.

Lie: The file was sent to Fannie Mae for review back in March.
Truth: To date, the file has never been sent to Fannie Mae for review.

So where does this leave us? With several sobering truths:

Truth: The buyer's extension on their offer expires today.

Truth: When asked earlier this week, prior to the information above coming to light, they said they'd sign a two-week extension to wait a bit longer for the supposedly forthcoming approval letter.

Truth: The bank is now demanding a minimum of a 30-day extension from them to show that they're a serious buyer (as if the past seven months of putting up with this s*!@ hasn't proven that...).

Truth: Even if the buyers agree to the 30 days, Fannie Mae will still have to review and decide if they'll take the offer or move ahead on the foreclosure.

Truth: The bank will not submit the file to Fannie Mae without the 30 day extension from the buyers.

Truth: Once (if) received, it will take Fannie Mae several weeks to review and notify the bank of their decision. We would then have wait any more additional time for the bank to notify us, in writing of the denial or acceptance, and any terms of the acceptance.

Truth: The current BPO (Broker's Price Opinion, which helps the bank and Fannie Mae determine fair market value) expires August 8th.  If the approval is not received and the deal isn't closed by then, a new BPO would have to be ordered, taking another two weeks or so to work through the inept system.

Truth: The bank says they will not request a new BPO unless the buyers sign a 30-day extension AND they believe that Fannie Mae is close to issuing an approval AND they believe we will successfully close but after the August 8th expiration.

Truth: Today is July 21st.

Truth: The foreclosure date is set for September 9th.

Truth: It generally takes 30-45 days to close a sale on all the approvals, etc are settled; faster closings are possible but hard to pull off in this market of scrutiny (ironic, huh?).

Truth: The buyers are unlikely to sign a 30-day extension because they can count the dwindling days still available to make this happen, and they can read the writing on the wall.

Truth: This deal, and our attempt at avoiding a foreclosure, is all but dead and we're SOL.

Truth: I am angry, frustrated, and harboring some other serious negative emotions towards the bank right now.

Truth: GOD HAS COMPLETE CONTROL, and this - as I say in the About Me section to the right - is just a blip in the radar screen of my life. It's not life or death.  My family is healthy and together with a roof over our heads, and food in our bellies. I'm blessed to be listening as I type to one child making a sandwich down the hall, another tapping her feet on the bed as she devours another book, and the third - the game changer that took us over the ledge onto this course once and for all -  babbling away over the baby-monitor, fighting her afternoon nap.

The sky is not falling, the world is still turning, and in the grand scheme of things this whole ordeal has been a blessing. It's not officially over, of course, but for me it pretty much is.  We're on a collision course with foreclosure, but it doesn't really matter.  We'll walk away from the impact with some battle scars and a longer period of financial rehabilitation than we hoped, but we'll be okay.

(Especially after you tubing Lies here.  I challenge you not to smile and dance a bit while watching the video. If only the bank's lies were so entertaining to experience.)