On February 12, I posted to the Ocwen Discussion Board (http://bit.ly/9n6vhM) about a seeming impasse we had encountered.  Ocwen, in second lien position, was demaning (per the loan's Investor) no less than $18,000.  Litton Loans, the first mortgage holder, had approved the short sale with Ocwen receiving $3,000.  Repeated calls to Ocwen were met with the same frustrating refrain:  "I'm sorry, we can not submit this for approval until the HUD reflects Ocwen netting $18,000."

The post to the Ocwen Discussion Board netted quick and extremely helpful responses.  Jeff Payne provided a list of Ocwen execs, their email addresses and phone numbers.  I immediately created an email Distribution List comprised of those executives and sent to them the scenario and a plea for assistance.  We also called the numbers provided.  The general Ocwen line was not very helpful.  After entering extensions our calls were disconnected.  However, we were able to leave a message with David Gunter, Executive VP and CFO.

The next day we received a call from a very helpful Josh from Ocwen's corporate office.  It was not clear who prompted Josh's call, but he was willing to discuss the scenario and pledged to resubmit the offer to the Investor Relations Group for review.  For future reference, Josh's direct line is (866) 779-8080.

We also received the following email from Ocwen's corporate ombudsman:

Your email below was passed to me for review and response. As you may or may know, Ocwen is not the owner of this account, but does service it per the Pooling & Servicing Agreement for this Trust. The owner/trustee requires an approval from them on any short sale / discount payoff request. This is not the case with all loans serviced by Ocwen, where Ocwen can make the decision on the amount necessary to satisfy a lien.

Nonetheless, Ocwen did present the figures for the short sale to the investor and were advised the $3,000 was denied and countered with an $18,000 approval. This is non negotiable. We are seeing more and more investors requiring greater dollar amounts to satisfy their 2nd liens. At this point, if the $18,000 is unattainable, Ocwen will not be able to offer the short sale agreement.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss further.

Regards,

Rob Kaltenbach
Sr. Manager
Consumer Ombudsman
Office of the Ombudsman & Loan Surveillance
Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC
407-737-6205 direct
866-771-5152 fax
[email protected]

Needless to say, Mr. Kaltenbach's email did not breed any confidence in the approvability of this short sale.  In the meantime, we revisited the offer with Litton Loans and asked if there was any room above the previously approved $3,000 they had allotted for Ocwen.  Miraculously, they agreed to pay Ocwen 10% of their outstanding loan balance, or $5,000 on a balance of approximately $50K.

In the meantime, we left daily messages for Josh and replied to Mr. Kaltenbach that we hoped that indeed it was not "not negotiable."  Yesterday, Josh called with good news.  Apparently, there was some negotiability and Josh confirmed that we should be receiving an approval letter for the $5,000 either today or tomorrow.

We wanted to post this success story as a testament to the power of this site and to the power of not giving up on these short sales even when they seem impossible.  As Jeff said, "keep pushing".  Thanks to all involved with the maintenance of this site and especially to Jeff Payne for his assistance.  We will look forward to contributing in meaningful ways in the future.  Closing on or before March 18!

All the Best,

Chris Black, Attorney

8695 College Parkway, Suite 1041

Fort Myers, Florida  33919

P:  (239) 985-4142

F:  (239) 425-3518

W:  www.wingedfoottitle.com

W:  www.shortsaletitlesolutions.com

Twitter:  www.twitter.com/wingedfoottitle