We are 83 years old and with failing health, we suddenly had to move into assisted living in Feb 2012. Our mortgage principal exceeds the current market value, and we can not pay both the mortgage AND the assisted living rent. We were current on our mortgage through Feb 2012 when this life change happened after I ended up in the hospital in January. We called Bank Of America the first week of February to find out how to initiate a short sale. They explained the process and told us what documents to fax to them, and said they could open the file in 5-7 days after receiving all our faxed documents and then another 7 days to assign a negotiator to get an appraisal started, etc for the short sale approval process. We faxed all the documents on February 10, 2012. BoA acknowledged that they had all the documents uploaded into their computer as of Feb 20, 2012 and said they thought they would have the file open by Feb 22. We have called back every couple of days to see if the file has been opened, but each time BoA tells us that it will take another few days and then another few days and then another few days before they can open the file. Each time, BoA acknowledges that ALL the documents have been received and they have been complete since Feb 20 and tghat they do not know why the file has not been opened yet. WHEN does this illusive 5-7 days end? It has been 25 days since we faxed the complete file of documents, and 15 days since BoA acknowledged that they had received all of them uploaded into their computer. Yet, there is not even an open file yet. If we can not even get a file open, then how can we sell this place? We could not pay our March 1, 2012 payment, so this is our first month of default, although we are still in the grace period. However, we have an offer and we would like to proceed with the proper approvals. Is there someone we can ask for help if BoA persists in not even getting the file open?