Make sure if you are doing short sales, you are aware of everything available to help get the process moving! One of my co-workers attended a short sale seminar at BofA in Charlotte, NC yesterday and here are the
cliff notes:
Short sales:
•· REOs and short sales are 6 times higher than they were a couple of years ago
•· BofA has 3000 employees in their short sale department now (although it's hard to tell that!)
•· Unless BofA owns AND services the loan, they have to go back to the investor(s) to negotiate terms on a short sale - due to CDOs, the investors could be pension funds, government entities, etc...not easy to do.
•· Wells Fargo actually holds more of its own loans than BofA does, so Wells is able to negotiate short sale terms easier and faster since they are the investor in most cases.
•· Low ball Offers to Purchase only clog the system
•· BofA tries to mitigate the losses to its investors (over 500 of them)
•· Suggestion to everyone doing a short sale - PULL TITLE UP FRONT because the seller may not be aware of all of the liens on the property
•· "Equator" is the task-driven "negotiator" system most everyone uses (it is based on the property address) - if required items aren't submitted to Equator in the allotted time frame (usually 14 days) it knocks the file out of the system and pushes it back to "start". The listing agent and the seller can access Equator for updates. The buyer's agent can only access if they have 3rd party authorization from the seller.
•· BofA requires 90 days MINIMUM on a short sale!!!! (Again, Wells is faster since most of their loans are portfolio).
•· H-UD-1 is required 72 hours prior to closing and NO CHANGES ARE ALLOWED!!!!
•· No relative or close friend can purchase a short sale!!
•· They are finally changing the order of things from needing an Offer to Purchase to start the ball rolling to having the distressed homeowner call upfront to start the ball rolling - 866-880-1232 for borrowers with Realtors to call:
•o BofA must first try HAMP (modification) - but most of these have/will fail due to unemployment
•o Then they must try HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) - but only a small percentage of loans are eligible for this (no jumbos, no FNMA or Freddie, etc)
•o Then they can put them in their BofA short sale program that takes all types of loans - BofA has delegated authority from their investors upfront to negotiate on these loans
•· The go-to man for any issues on BofA short sales is John Ciresi - e-mail ONLY at john.ciresi@bankofamerica.com
Hope this helps you and your clients get through some of the tougher short sales with BofA!
KW
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