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Bank of America is absolutely the worst consumer friendly company!

I do a lot of short sales. And yes, most companies have their challenges. But none like Bank of America. Here's the situation. Bank of America (B of A) holds the second on a property that we are selling (short pay). WaMu holds the first. Both have had the short sale package since July 14th. Over 2 months! First Bank of America approved this as a "settlement" by mistake. We weren't looking for a 320,000 settlement , we were looking for a short sale approval.

So they file their notice of trustee sale. Yes, they are the second. Holding a loan for about 360,000, BEHIND A FIRST that is over 3 million dollars! Yes, B of A is going to foreclose on a second with a 3 million + dollar first. Is there a reason for this? The house is worth right now about 2 million. Huge losses all the way around. So why does B of A want to hold the bag?

The B of A reps in North Carolina's processing center are rude, and plain unhelpful. I was told by a rep one day they'd delay the sale date as they have everything they need for the short sale package. Then the next day, no way will we hold the sale date unless we're done with the short sale. If the short sale review doesn't beat the date, its foreclosed. Period.

Further, they wouldn't transfer me to a manager or a supervisor.

I know Bank of America wants to be the big guy out there, but have they forgotten they're dealing with people? People in great distress and losing all they have? Bank of America is WRONG in their handling of these files.

In another file they approved the short sale... B of A held both the first and second. When we got the letter they said that by the seller proceeding with the short sale, they were now turning any outstanding funds into a collectable debt. Why would anyone do that? My client is working with an attorney on this one as with California's consumer protection and single action rules, its not clear whether they can really conclude a short sale AND then sue for the difference. But who wants to be the test case ?

BANK OF AMERICA - you should be ashamed of yourselves! Its not only your consumer damaging guidelines and procedures - but the manner in which your processing personnel are dealing with people. Its wrong. You're wrong Bank of America and I hope that I will receive that call back on Monday I was promised.

Posted by Catherine Myers, Walnut Creek, CA Real Estate on 09/21/2008 02:51 PM

Comments (26)

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26 Comments on Bank of America is absolutely the worst consumer friendly company!

SEP

2008

Catherine - I believe that every case is different. But as for Bank of America, I can't stand them. I have had more problems banking with them, broken promises that they have given my clients, etc, etc. I think because they are so big that you lose quality. And hidden fees they don't tell you about.

I am with you all the way on this one

PS, I have lost more deals because of Bank of America's incompetence.

I guess you have not had the misfortune to deal with Countrywide. What a joke. 3 months and STILL waiting for a file to be assigned.

Ellie, in fact, I've had great luck with Countrywide.. The last 3 countrywide's I've closed have all closed from start to finish in just over 60 days. I have one now I submitted less than 30 days ago and it was sent for management approval on Friday. Strange what difference experiences people have. I've had great luck with them so far.

Robert, I am probably not going to take any more bank of america short sales which is sad for the consumers... but it seems they have no interest in doing them at all.

Don't feel bad ...we are all going through the same thing...I have 3 with Countrywide and they are terrible...the people working there aren't even qualified to pick up the phone.

Neal, well I only feel bad because so far this is the worst company I've dealt with. Seemingly no rhyme or reason, no regard for the people behind the loans and plain incompetence. I used to think WaMu is the worst, and they still are second worst :) but Bank of America takes the award for all time #1 worst.

Countrywide is good.. I've closed 3 with countrywide this month... several in all . And only 1 or 2 had some delays whereas I had to get their "short sale triage" team involved... other than that they seem to actually want to adhere to their internal timing guidelines.

Wells and WaMu are just slooow as molasses.

Right now I'm pretty confident that MOST short sales close.. but not with B of A.

I had a terrible experience with Countrywide. Full loan approval, when to closing, papers signed. It took them 8 days to fund.

I haven't had to deal with BoA on a short sale or foreclosure. But I had an experience on trying to get a loan for a buyer and it was a miserable experience. After 4 months trying to get a $20,000 for buyers with good credit, we continued to play, is the property a home site or AG property game. The buyers and sellers finally had enough so the seller provided seller financing -- once that was decided we were closed in 7 days. Unbelievable! ~ Evelyn

Brenda, are you talking about a short sale with Countrywide ? Why would you be waiting for Countrywide to fund? Unless you mean your buyer got a loan with them? I've had a good experience with my local Countrywide rep too.. maybe its a regional thing :)

Catherine... I honestly believe that Bank of America is starting to get to big for their own good. I have come to dislike them

SEP

2008

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OCT

2008

Catherine, right behind Wells Fargo!

OCT

2008

I do wonder if it is regional... So far, dealing with BOA has been good for me. Course we haven't gotten down to an offer or anything yet. But my contacts so far have been more pleasant than most of my own personal banking experiences! I'll post on this one as we go!

Meegan, its not how the processing people and negotiators deal with you.. its what B of A is willing to do for people. Unless they've changed their tune in the last 2-3 weeks, if you have a second with them, you better ask what they will do. Most of the time they will only accept 10% of the value or they will reserve their right to sue (depending upon your state and other factors.) Plus read carefully the "approval" letter you get from them. So it sounds like you're not to the nitty gritty yet.. that's when they're awful. The people are nice, the company and their guidelines are NOT.

Catherine, sorry to hear about your excperience. I personally just finished a short sale with BoA and cannot say a bad word about any of it. My LM was a dream, Tim Ball, and I recommend him to anyone! Part of the hold up you are experiencing might be the investors. Is this a Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae product? Call them and let them know what is going on. Trust me, I did just that and it worked!!! One week later the short sale was approved.

NOV

2008

Evelyn,

Did the approval letter say anything about "Our recovery department will in contact with you to make arrangements on this balance" ?

DEC

2008

After waiting patiently for months, I finally received the approval letter today! Exciting, right?! No not really? The letter reads that they will be charging off the deficiency as a "collectable amount". And that our recovery department will be contacting you ... What?!?!?

It seems crazy to close on my house before knowing what the agreement really is. And, what's more crazy is the deficiency is more than the sales price of my house.

Is this what everyone is getting from BofA?

BTW, I am a desperate homeowner in Sacramento, CA.

Molly, yes, this is what B of A does to most all I've dealt with. Is this your second loan? or your first? I will tell you though what I tell all my clients. Please , please see an attorney. I've had some clients (with B of A first loan) decide to foreclose rather than face a huge collection later -but that is only because in California homeowners can be protected from further collection if a bank forecloses in a trustee sale. Therefore... clients had to decide . . . Foreclose and the bank can't come back after them. Or do a short sale and face a possible years long collection process and slow painful pay off of a large debt. See an attorney. This should be be construed as any advice as I am not an attorney.

FEB

I had a short sale with B of A holding the first mortgage and the approval letter clearly stated that B of A reserves the right to pursue a deficiency judgment against my client!!! We FREAKED! I finally told me client to seek the advice of an attorney. I've done plenty of short sales over the course of the past year and I've NEVER encountered this with any other mortgage lender.

FEB

Vanessa, yes , its why I won't even do short sales with B of A except with people fully aware of the danger of them coming back after them. In California in a trustee sale (foreclosure) they'd be completely protected from recourse, so why would anyone agree to the language in their letter. Its ridiculous... so they send people to foreclosure everyday that could otherwise do a short sale.

FEB

Catherine, my seller just received the same letter from Bank of America and are flipping out. I started reading this to find a glimmer of hope for them but am now thoroughly disguested. Is there any sense in trying to negotiate further with them? After all of this anxiety and hard work and with buyers who are ready to close, I can't believe we're here!!! Do you know if the actually do go after the sellers for the uncollected debt? What is the point of the short sale???? I know that people are making money off of these but the time and aggravation is incredible nevermind the stress for the poor homeowners.

JUN

Here is our BofA story: We took out a mortgage with Bank of America in 2006. Believing that we would be able to refinance the loan in the near future, we signed for an interest-only, 3/1 tied to the LIBOR. We also took a HELOC with the same bank. This was necessary to cover the cost of the entire home. I lost my job in the interim and, therefore, we could not refinance. Then, of course, the economy began to tank. I did find work and we have been making the payments on time for nearly three years. We did look ahead, and last October, sought the help of a mortgage broker to refinance the loan. US Bank offered us a 30-year, fixed loan that we could afford. Bank of America, however, denied the subordination of the HELOC. We are stuck with this terrible loan. This loan is due to adjust in October of this year--and we are upside down. To make matters worse, because the broker was positive the US Bank deal would go through, we used the mortgage payment money to buy Christmas presents and to do some much needed maintenance on our cars. We are now one payment behind with Bank of America. In December '08, we mailed Bank of America a letter, with our financial information asking them to please consider helping us with a modification before the loan went to an adjustable rate. Since then, we have called uncountable times to try to speak to someone about the modification, but each time we were met with someone who was powerless to help us. Several times these Customer Service Reps "escalated" our calls to supervisors, who either refused to help us, or could not help us. Two weeks ago, a couple drove up to our home and handed me a note that said to call BofA. I called, but the girl had no idea why I was given the note. Yesterday, I received a letter saying that our financials were out of date and that they needed updated information. The same day, I received a phone call from their collections department asking when I was going to make my payment. I had been referred to collections! I am so infuriated and confused. We want to keep the home even though we are upside down, and we want to work with the bank, but they seem unwilling to work with honest people. We even spoke to one woman there who said that they would only listen to us if we were behind more than one payment! We are at a loss as to what to do. Do you have any advice? Is there anyone you know who can help us? We are in Rescue, California near El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park (95672). We can't afford a lawyer unless we use our mortgage money to pay for their services. We just want to live our lives in peace. Thank you for any help you can offer.

JUN

Anyone have any suggestions for this one in progress? We're on the 4th negotiator. This is the latest email the listing agent sent to the new negotiator.

Hi Vickie, I just wanted to introduce myself. I will be the primary contact for this file. I would like to know what your time frame is for review. The buyers and sellers are getting restless and I need to give them an update. I understand that this file was just assigned to you on 6/13/09, but I was hoping that you could push this one to the top of your stack so we can get a quick response.

Below is a timeline of the life of this file. We had originally been told your short sale process was 45 to 90 days. We are now somewhere around day 140 with no end in sight. Please help.

I faxed the short sale packet to Country Wide on Jan 27th and again on Feb 3rd. I was told that it was uploaded into your system on Feb 1st and that the Short Sale process took any where from 45 to 90 days. On Feb 4th the file was opened and I was told it would take 7 to 10 business days to assign. After several requests for assignment to a negotiator the file was finally assigned on March 6th to a Mark Lewis. I was told he had 15 days to review. On March 13th the file was then re-assigned to a Celia Medrano, and I was also told she had 15 days to review the file. When I called in for a status update on 4/15/09 I was told that they needed updated pay stubs and bank statements. I faxed the requested documents in on 4/20/09. On May 4th I received an email from Celia asking for updated pay stubs and bank statements because the ones I had sent in at the end of Jan were out of date and for the sellers to fill out and sign a Form 1126. I emailed Celia the requested documents on May 6th. On May 12th (2 months after Celia was assigned the file) our file was assigned to Stacey Johnson a second phase negotiator, I was told she would have 30 days to review the file. I called in today June 15th to get an update on the file and was told that Stacey's work load was to much and she had passed the file to you for review.

JUL

My home is in a short sale situation & I had a buyer @ the appraised value of the home. The B of A guy we were dealing with said the negotiators requested that "I" provide $12,000 at close of escrow or a $24,000 promisory note for the next 10 or 15 years; depending upon which option I chose. I have to now rent & have been saving every penny I can to move into a place for my son & I. I am a widow and thought I was doing the right thing by purchasing this home for us with an Option ARM. That was a big MISTAKE!!!

Has anyone been in this situation before? Should I leave the house on the market & continue with another short sale offer, if possible? Any advise would be greatful. Do I have any options? Thanks.

JUL

Rose you should see an attorney. If you are in a non-recourse state (California is one), and this is your original loan when you bought the home with, then you may have some protections in a foreclosure. If you foreclosed you'd have no note, no collections, no future liability. BUT ONLY IF certain conditions are met and so you need to talk to an attorney to review your situation. I can tell you right now that most of my clients with purchase money bank of america loans walk away and foreclose to protect themselves against future collections and unreasonable promissory notes.

AUG

Anyone has actually going after from BOA recovery department? I closed my short sale last month and I have 250K on the deficiency. Will they actually contact me for the collection? Thanks. Kai

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