WHAT DOES "BOMK" MEAN? - A REAL ESTATE ACRONYMN

What does “BOMK” mean? We have lots of acronyms in our business.

We have a status in our multiple listing service called “Back On The Market” or BOMK. It indicates that a property was in “Pending” status but no longer is. In other words, the sale transaction to the previous buyer is no longer viable for some reason and the property is back on the market. Sometimes the reason is mentioned in the mls but not always.

Why would a property be “BOMK”? We often see a notation in the mls that a property is Bank On The Market through no fault of the property. The suggestion is that the failure of the transaction is the fault of the buyer. The listing agent would like other prospective buyers to know that the buyer failed and the property is still a worthy property.

Maybe the buyer could not get a loan. Perhaps there was an appraisal problem. Perhaps the buyer failed to meet the lender’s approval criteria after all of the buyer’s financial documents had been examined. Perhaps the buyer made the unfortunate mistake of deciding to buy a new washer and dryer for their new house and charged the purchases – thus changing their debt ratio and/or credit score to numbers that the lender found unacceptable. Perhaps the buyer lost their job – no income, no loan approval!

Perhaps the buyer tried to renegotiate the purchase price and the seller would not agree. If the appraisal amount fell short of the contract price the buyer may refuse to pay the original price. Depending on the contract language, that can also be a deal killer.

The property inspections, roof inspections, pest inspections, pool inspections, and/or other inspections can turn up information about the property that is unacceptable to the buyer. Some property problems can be cured but a buyer might expect the seller to provide the cure. Such issues are negotiable but negotiations do not always end satisfactorily. Property condition is sometimes a deal killer. If a buyer is insistent that certain repairs need to be made before he/she completes the purchase and the seller refuses to make the repairs, the buyer can cancel the purchase.

A natural hazard disclosure report, a disclosure by the seller or other material information disclosed to the buyer might also cause the transaction to fail.

In the case of a purchase in a community which has a homeowners association, a purchase can fail because of information about the HOA. For instance, many lenders will refuse to lend on a property in a HOA community in which the HOA itself is in financial difficulty. No loan, no purchase and the property will be BOMK.