That one time Wells Fargo sold us a home Wells Fargo didn't own.

Before leaving for Alabama, Matt and I were in California for a couple weeks so he could start his job and so we could house hunt. The town closest to our base is a commuter town for LA and has one of the highest foreclosure markets in the country. Homes that previously sold for 350K-500K+ are now selling in the 150-200K range. Needless to say, the only homes on the market are either foreclosures or short sales... and since we didn't have 6 months to wait for a "short" sale, that left us looking at foreclosures.

Since it was summer, banks were flooding the market with new foreclosures for sale every day. We sorted through them, walked through them, debated over them... and just couldn't find one that screamed "buy me!" Then, the day before we left for Alabama, two new prospects came up in the exact neighborhood we wanted to buy. One was a home next-door to a friend of ours that we'd been patiently waiting for, and the other was this lovely little home:

All along, we'd planned on buying the other home but when it came down to it, this one was a little bit smaller and seemed to fit our needs just a little bit better. 3 bed, 2 bath, covered patio, in good condition (rare for a foreclosure), in a great neighborhood, and close to the freeway/shopping/work. Matt and I had all of our ducks in a row with excellent credit, a good income and all of our funding in place. So we put in an offer and a few days later, received the great news that the seller, Wells Fargo, had chosen us over 8 other buyers!

We were ecstatic and immediately began planning how we'd use our $8K tax rebate to make the house our home. Imagine our shock over a month later, when just a couple weeks before our closing date (which was supposed to be today), we were informed that escrow had been canceled... because Wells Fargo was not the legal owner of the home!?!?

(A picture of the "Cancellation of Contract." How crazy is that reason?)

After some research, we discovered that Wells Fargo was NEVER the legal owner of the home. Confusion came surrounding who the title belonged to, since the home was deeded to a short sale company, foreclosed on and sent to auction in three separate actions within about a week. Interestingly enough, Wells Fargo wasn't involved in ANY of the three actions and never had any sort of claim on the title. For all we know, they walked down a street, saw an empty home and said, "Hey, let's sell this one!"

So here comes the fun part for us; it's a big mess, as I'm sure you can imagine. Not only are we still homeless but are also out a large chunk of money due to their fraudulent sale. It's a no-brainer that Wells Fargo should reiumburse us that money and yet they're dragging their feet (surprise, surprise). Which is AWESOME for two newlyweds who will now have to pay $1500/month rent as opposed to $850/month mortgage. Needless to say, I don't think we'll be banking with Wells Fargo... ever.

Here's hoping our next first home buying experience goes a little better!