Hello fellow short salers! 
As most of you doing short sales know by now, some lenders are extremely professional, cooperative and very easy to work with. And why shouldn’t they be? We are actually doing them a great service by eliminating pre-foreclosures from their books before they become REO’s. As you know some loss mitigators/lenders aren’t quite as nice to work with. In my experience, Countrywide has been one of the not so easy ones.
Maybe this will help…
We just got a foreclosure sale postponed an additional 30 days so that we could have enough time to work the short sale. Why was this such a huge feat you ask? Well, the foreclosure sale date was set for tomorrow. After a little arm twisting, Countrywide was willing to postpone the foreclosure sale right at the last minute. Why you ask?
Arm twisting was a little bit of it, but the bottom line is… We knew the right people to get in touch with.
I’ve put together some of the most important contacts you could ever know at Countrywide, so if you’re not getting answers, you may try the following.
Have the homeowner put together a QWR (Qualified Written Request) letter to their lender, in this case, Countrywide. In that letter, have the homeowner demand the following:
- The Life of Loan History
- Copy of Note
- Copy of the Deed of Trust
- Riders
- All Assignments of the Deed of Trust
- Right of Rescission (if refi)
- Lender Final HUD-1 from closing
- Copy of Initial Loan Application and Final Lender Loan Application
- All Disclosures and all Loan Documents from their file
- Copy of Appraisal
Have the homeowner send this request certified mail and request “return receipt required” to at least 3 addresses below. If you didn’t get a response from the loss mitigation department before, you certainly will get a response now!
Mailing address: (Send all your certified complaint letters, etc. here.)
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
ATTN: ADRIENNE ELY
400 COUNTRYWIDE WAY
MS SV-314
SIMI VALLEY, CA 93065
1-800-601-2522 ext. 8026
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
RAQUEL ROBINSON
1-800-669-2443 x 4115
SUPERVISOR OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
LINDA TURNER
1-800-405-0078 x 5104
400 Countrywide Way SV-314
Simi Valley, CA 93065-3500
Other Addresses you can mail to:
Countrywide Mortgage
400 Countrywide Way SV-HRD
Simi Valley, CA 93065
450 American St
Simi Valley, CA 93065
7105 Corporate Dr.
Plano, TX 75024
P.O. Box 10211
Van Nuys, CA 91499
P.O. Box 5170
Simi Valley, CA 93062-5170
21 E. Victoria Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
35 North Lake Avenue, 35-72B
Pasadena, CA 91101
Here’s another excellent little resource for you:
Countrywide Legal Dept Direct Line
Mary Archer-paralegal
972-526-3610
Direct number to Workout Dept. in Lancaster, CA:
661-951-5100
(not toll free but gets you right in)
Countrywide Primary Phone:
(800) 669-6093
Other Phone Numbers:
(818) 874-8779
(818) 225-3000
(972) 526-6330
(805) 650-6566
(805) 520-5100
(800) 686-0145
Primary Fax:
(800) 658-9364
Other Fax Numbers:
(805) 520-5019
Primary Contact:
Daniel Whitehead
Executive Relations Coordinator
Other Contacts:
Joe Riggio, Senior Vice President
Angela De Aro, Vice President
Melissa Guerra, 1st Vice President
Patricia Mckenzie
Rina Jariwala, VP, Operations
Also have the homeowner email a hardship letter to each of these email addresses:
pressroom@countrywide.com
david_bigelow@countrywide.com
angelo_mozilo@countrywide.com
chris_oltmann@countrywide.com
OCIP@do.treas.gov
customer_service@countrywide.com
service@naca.com
Also send to these email versions too using the dot instead of underscore:
david.bigelow@countrywide.com
angelo.mozilo@countrywide.com
chris.oltmann@countrywide.com
customer.service@countrywide.com
Why am I sharing all of this with you? Do I have some kind of hidden agenda?
Actually, yes I do…
I’m trying to find out from each of you how valuable you think it would be to have information like this at your fingertips in a private area of our website that gets updated literally every day. How you ask? I’m considering building a private back office of the www.shortsalewealth.com website (which by the way, the website is ALL NEW ~ if you haven’t checked it out yet, take a minute and do that right now…)
One of the challenges of the short sale business is keeping up with the changes. It seems like sometimes, just as we find out the exact criteria of what one particular lender will accept for a short sale, they change their guidelines.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we had an online community where experienced short sale investors from all around the country could go and literally “report” what the latest and greatest information is with each lender based on their own personal experience? Wouldn’t it also be great if this community of investors from all over the country could log into one place and see a list of contact information like this from every lender in the United States? Not only that, but each of us could present our own comments for each lender regarding “what’s working now” with each of them accordingly…
Of course this would require that all of us would need to continue to update the information as it becomes available. But this means that anyone could update this information in a “master lender area” as often as needed! I believe that a resource like this could make a huge difference in the amount of deals that each of us are closing on a regular basis!
What are your thoughts? Please share your ideas, comments and suggestions regarding this with me by clicking here. I really want to know your input!! There will be a considerable expense to put something like this together, but I’m willing to consider building it and making it available for FREE if there’s enough response.
This means, I WON’T KNOW IF YOU WANT IT UNLESS YOU TELL ME!!! So please take a minute right now and tell me what you think, as well as share any other ideas that you may have to make this EVEN BETTER!
Just another idea to help us all Give First… By giving first to each other, we all win! 
14 responses so far ↓
1 Mo (3 comments) // Sep 18, 2008 at 11:58 am
I wish this was left to paying members and not circulated to everyone. I would imagine that when this info gets out to everyone it will be abused and this contact info will be null and void. I really like your superseding idea though. “Moo ha ha ha” is what I hear in my head.
2 Dave (1 comments) // Sep 18, 2008 at 1:33 pm
That’s a Great idea! Although, while I do like FREE, I agree with Mo that unfiltered access would likely result in watered-down results.
3 AJ (1 comments) // Sep 18, 2008 at 4:18 pm
That does sound like a great idea. Maybe free to everyone to view, but a small monthly charge to have update access.
4 Daniel (1 comments) // Sep 18, 2008 at 5:11 pm
that is a great idea. i would love to have something like this at my fingertips. This would be great to offer to all the SSI students.
5 CindyMcReynolds (1 comments) // Sep 18, 2008 at 6:24 pm
I think this could be extremely helpful to past SSI students also ! THanks
6 Annamaria (1 comments) // Sep 19, 2008 at 1:50 am
YES! I think sharing our experiences could be a great advantage. I also have to agree with the people commenting on the free access. Unfortunately, people do not value free information. You can charge for this access a VERY SMALL amount — but if somebody is not willing to pay like $10 a month, then they are not serious in this business.
7 Colleen (2 comments) // Sep 19, 2008 at 4:27 am
Hey Shaun !!
Great idea — you know I’m in and if there is anything that I can do to help with any of this let me know. Jersey is in!
Colleen
8 Hollywood (1 comments) // Sep 19, 2008 at 8:14 am
I have found this inforamtion to be critical when dealing with company’s like Countrywide & Gmac both are very lathargic unless you can get through to management. All you will do is tread water and get nowhere fast!
Hollywood
9 Kathy (3 comments) // Sep 19, 2008 at 9:11 am
Hey Shaun, I think it is a great idea. It underscores your “Give first” mantra…too bad some don’t see the value of what you give away comes back 10 fold! I am sure you have received valuable input from people who don’t necessarily have paid access to your site but are in this game we call real estate investing and are good at it! It would be a shame to give the impression that you did not want their input unless they pay you to give it!
10 David J. Berry (3 comments) // Sep 19, 2008 at 11:29 am
The concept is great. We could all benifit from this, but I think the content should be somwhat restricted. As with most things, crap in = crap out. It would need some serious thinking. But do it. By the way, do you need any help.
11 Tony (1 comments) // Oct 2, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I think the updates would be wonderful. I don’t believe anyone who is not interested in short sales would be here visiting this site anyway to water down any vital information. I am excited about the free or a fee. Its important to keep up to date.
12 Jeremy (1 comments) // Oct 3, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Shaun,
Thanks for the information on Countrywide. They are the worst lender we have ever worked with. In fact, they will be receiving letters from us.
We have tried 6-8 deals with Countrywide with tons of work and no approvals. And, through October 3rd, we have closed 49 deals for the year, so we do close deals!
A central website with contact information would be great. Thanks.
13 KIMBERLY W (1 comments) // Dec 5, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I SURELY APPRIEATE ALL YOUR TRYING TO DO FOR US AND EVERY EFFORT IS ALWAYS HELPFUL. I DO AGREE HOWEVER THAT OVER TIME EVERYONE USING THIS DATABASE WILL OVERWHELM THE ALREADY UNINTHUSIASTIC COUNTRYWIDE AND EVENTUALLY THEY WILL FIND ANOTHER WAY TO AVOID OR DELAY HELPING. I AM WORKING HARD TRYING TO HELP A CLIENT NOW AND IT SEEMS THEY ARE NOT EAGER TO DO ANYTHING AT ALL, NO MATTER WHAT I DO FOR THEIR BENEFIT AND MANY OTHER OF MY CLIENTS HAVE HAD ALOT OF DIFFICULTY GETTING COUNTRYWIDE TO EVEN TRY TO HELP THEM AT ALL. THEY ARE TELLING CURRENT HOMEOWNERS TO FIND ROOMATES OR CALL WHEN THEY ARE IN DEFAULT…….. WELL, I WILL KEEP U POSTED AND LET YOU KNOW THE OUTCOME OF MY CURRENT CLIENTS BUYER/SELLER AND HOW HELPFUL/COOPERTIVE COUNTRYWIDE IS OR IF THEY LET IT FORCLOSE WHEN THEY HAD PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO SELL……..
14 Susan (1 comments) // Jan 2, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I’m seeing your blog for the first time, and all I can say is — WOW! What an awesome idea! Thank you in advance for providing such great information.
Working with Countrywide does take a lot of persistence. I just got an approval from them on Monday (12/29/08) for a short sale I started with them at the beginning of June. I lowered the offer twice because they were taking too bloody long, and they approved the third one even after accepting the first (highest) one.
Thanks again! Happy New Year to you and all your readers.
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