I read a really interesting article today in the Washington Post. It has some very interesting stats on short sales.
I'll just sit here (on hold with Bank of America) and hold my breath.
Here's a link to the article, it's a good read!
I am working on a short sale with Bank of America also. What a joke! It's going on six frustrating months now and the potential buyers are still hanging on. The offer is for $90,000 and the last BPO came back at $85,000. This house has been vacant for a very long time and is deteriorating rapidly. The roof is leaking and the house smells moldy. There's a huge dead pine tree hanging over the asbestos roof on this two story house, and with the storms and winds we have this time of year the tree could very possibly crash through the roof. Nobody at BOA seems to care.
An elusive Pierre Morris has been assigned as negotiator. He did respond to one email with a counter of $115K. I sent in another offer two weeks ago and have heard nothing back from him other than an automated response. The phone number I was given for Pierre is no good. I get the same old automated response to every email I send him. My seller has been told by some BOA customer service rep that the account has been closed. I am the listing agent and I have been told nothing. Needless to say, this is my first and last short sale experience.
One local bank in OUR area of Myrtle Beach, SC is able to give a 24-48 hour turnaround time in finding out whether or not they will accept, counter-offer, or reject an offer. Yeah for the "HOME-TOWN" BANKS !! Just this week I was told by a B of A representative that he had 14 people in his office handling 5000 FILES for the homeowner remodification plans. I wish the TERM: "SHORT SALE" had never been invented because so many purchasers get this confused with thinking they can purchase something QUICK.
What can we do about the misinformation and downright lies that the folks at BOA tell us when we call to get a status update?
I have been told a different tale each time I call, and I use the same script each time to ensure I tell the same information. I make detailed notes, names of contact and what I am told and what I am told to do.
I had a negotiator, she quit; I was told a new one would be assigned within a few days, it has been 7 weeks. Each call I make gets me more and more frustrated and angry. My anger is that the people on the phone have no decision making powers, they answer questions with scripted replies, they have no part in the process.
Today I was told I have to call back in 10 business days to get the answer I was promised 6 weeks ago. I have submitted the contract twice and financial statements twice. Now BOA is blaming Fannie Mae stating that they are backlogged.
Time is running out for the buyers who are hoping to get the $8k tax credit. At the rate this is moving and with all the lies at BOA I fully expect the buyers to walk and find something else.
So back to my question; What can we do? If the problem is Fannie Mae, who can we contact there to find out what we need to do to help the process? If the problem is just BOA being so big now they have CW, WAMU and who knows who else's portfolio, that they are bogged down and are overwhelmed, what can we do?
If BOA doesn't do something there will be no point in attempting a short sale with them since the time frame for completeing one will be longer than the time to foreclose or even the redemption period, as in MN.
Mike. C.
Unfortunately, we have too many short sales going with Bank of America... They are THE WORST!!
After submitting 3-5 offers they say, they need to net a certain dollar amount (which by the way if totally unrealistic, since the home not new and competing with the developer), highest offer was $222,500 and they would not take it. Our clients were told home was going to Sale on Oct 15th, 2009 we verified with the Title Co and that is verified. Our client wrote a letter of compassion seeking more time due to the special circumstances, her husband a Sgt was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq and is now Permantely Disabled at 28 years old, his wife was laid off from her job, they have two children ages, 2 and 7. When she called B of A asking for more time due to the circumstances the rude lady said, you should have planned better, you have to be out by the 15th or the Marshall will get you out! So, she panicked and thinks she has to be out in 2 days...not so; the house goes to sale then they have to post the proper notices, she has possibly 60-90 days.
Another file, we have an offer on...that is going to sale on Oct 20th even though we had an acceptable offer. What is going on with B of A? We've had better luck with Indy Mac, Wells Fargo, B of A has Not streamlined, we still get put off every week. We are making calls to the news media in the hopes of a story to report how much money is being wasted (Our Bail Out $$) by banks like B of A... they should count their blessings when they get a reasonable short sale offer! They in part created the problem, and continue to be the problem, the Obama plan has not helped matters, just made it worse as far as our pesonal experience, loan mods are not getting approved, yet banks are reaping the benefit of $1000 per loan that they attempt to modify (we are under the understanding for each loan they attempt to modify they get $1000 from the Obama plan!) who thought of that... now we are paying $$, chasing more bad $$ is Not Helping!!
Gracie, another Fed Up Realtor!!
Bank of America short sales can definitely be challenging. The banks can't be bribed to complete short sales more quickly, but having a long-standing REO relationship with them certainly doesn't hurt. It provides agents with an escalation path and has certainly helped our clients with short sales.
I saw another blog that talked about all of B of A's short sales being handled out of New York. Not true and it's important because the negotiators may be in your own back yard.
It would be wonderful for B of A (along with Chase) to go to a pre-approved, stream-lined short sale program.
In many cases it's not B of A that doesn't want to cooperate on the short sales. Most of their loans have been sold to investors and it's actually the investors that can't or don't want to cooperate....
Sure like seeing the number to that short sale dept for Bank of America. We summited an offer 5 weeks ago and they have yet to acknowledge it. We tried again today to call. Spent over an hour on the phone to the number we have. Got transfered and then transfered again each time only to have them hang up on us.
If 60% of approved SS don't close, it must be that 30% are because it took so long the buyer walked and the rest because the "other" half of BOFA was going to foreclosure sale.
In people, we call it split personality. In banking, we can just call it government assisted/inspired stupidity.
This is just GREAT. I have a seller who is in need of a short sale and its with B of A. I would think they would be a bit organized or have established a system by now, but apparently not. Well I'm just going to cross my fingers and submit via equator.com. Wish me luck I will be entering the battle field...
Andy,
if you check my blog, it could happen 1 from a million, I could get my approbal within 30 days , but you can read what happened, so this inept bank is not doing its work !
To all those that wrote in, those just stopping by to read and to the original poster.
I want to start off by saying that everything I am going to say comes from the fact that I process hundreds of short sales and used to work for one of the largest loan servicers in the world prior to the mortgage collapse. All these posts about it being law that short sales are going to be processing in 7 days is just nonsense. To clarify one of the previous posts, HAFA, the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives starts next month on 4-5-10. Starting next month we are going to be able to get our clients $1500 for moving incidental costs while the lender's themselves earn money for processing the short sale.
Now, for the guy above, Andy, you should really check your spelling before submitting. Short sales in 30 days is rarely possible (w/ Bank of America that is-- other lender time frames varies greatly), We process short sales with Bank of America at such a volume that we have an assigned bulk liaison. Even with the best connections at Bank of America (and I used to work at Countrywide which is a major part of the current infrastructure left and operating BAC Home Loan Servicing) and I still cannot guarantee specific time frames. So for Andy posting that within 30 days he'll have you an approval is fairly unreal.
I too can say that I have received approvals in less than 24 hours (with a file that had Mortgage Insurance) but that doesn't mean I can sell it like it happens in every case. We have gotten good enough at solving short sales complications that we have opened up a division to specifically work with agents that have not gotten anywhere after fighting for months with their lenders and sometimes turn around months of not getting anywhere in a couple of days to week or two we get many agent's files turned around. Pushing the right buttons makes all the difference in the world.
If I can be of assistance or you have any additional questions please let me know.
Short sales with Bank of America are like pulling teeth. I'll believe seven days when I see it!! Unfortunately they have one of the longest approval times in the industry, and the new Equator system has only helped SOME! We have a great group to discuss short sales with BOA:
I am sorry to everyone who has reached out to me for not responding sooner but I don't sign on frequently enough (I will try to more so in the future). I have received several contacts from different people privately so I will look to add some notes to this post.
@Cotton - Bank of America would prefer to not go through with the foreclosure process if they can avoid it. The issue is as the old saying goes its not done till its done. Basically until the deal is closed they are going to continue to allow the process to run its course. They don't know if you are stalling or not and that is why they proceed as they normally would until you close. We often negotiate for our clients to get more time in order to allow the deal to go through. Also it is not about how much of the mortgage balance you are paying but based off of the actual properties value. If the property's value is above the offer you made then you have to re-review the situation. If you have been waiting for 3 months you have been waiting far too long. We clear up problems like this regularly as we have a liaison with Bank of America who will directly sign into our files and send out approvals. We just partnered with an Agent in Florida who had been working on their deal for 4 months!! We got authorized and our liaison signed in and sent out an approval. They got our e-mail in the morning. Approval in the afternoon. This happened earlier this week. I don't want to tell you that every deal is like that but our contact directly signs in and takes over if necessary.
@Lindsay The lenders let many of our clients who are gainfully employed and have not missed payment complete short sales. There are many reasons why. It is all about how you present your case to the mortgage lender if they will come after you for a deficiency, have you make a cash contribution, take a secured or unsecured note or if the lender just lets you walk away. That's why anyone can try to do a short sale but few are great at short sales.
@JacksonvilleFL It sounds like something fishy is going on there but in some cases there could be a discrepancies with the BPO or maybe it didn't suffice and they needed an appraisal and not a BPO. Also, certain investors require two BPOs to be completed for their review as they average out the values. I actually did a blog post about this back in October (http://www.mlreport.com/2009/10/11/countrywidebac-freddie-mac-and-fannie-mae-short-sales-requesting-2-bpos/). See if that post helps clear things up for you.
@Sarah The review should really take about 45-60 days at the longest (investors vary greatly so it depends on who is the investor). If it takes longer than that generally someone is not doing what they are supposed to. Most likely they will be using Equator because almost all loans will for through that system except for a few government type investors (Gennie Mae, VA, etc.) but all will eventually be added into the system. I had one of the manager of implementation call me because of a blog post that we did where he let me know that there were a total of 11 other major servicers signed on to use the system as well.
@Trying to have hope (great name :) ) On my blog I have a link to the form that you or your accountant will have to file for the First Time Home Buyers and Repayment of the Credit. I have to give the disclaimer that you have to speak to an accounting service or CPA for tax advice but if you file 5405 and you had been under contract prior to 4-30 and as long as you close before June 30th you should be fine. If you are having trouble that is what we specialize in clearing up short sale problems and in many cases can receive our compensation several different methods only paid upon a successful completion that normally comes from the banks net proceeds from whatever offer you make.
@Short Sale Specialist Network Ning is a great create-your-own social network. I hear they are going to charge for the service now starting in the near future. As having a network on there do you expect to see any problems/changes. Short sales in 7 days is definitely out there which caught my eye in the first place as well.
@Angela O. I would suggest after waiting all this time it's still worth a shot. Since we specifically resolve issues like this I would contact us at info@acgnow.com. You should request to get a specialist involved because things have taken much longer than they should have. If you'd like we can speak and I feel that we can salvage your deal. Most important part is that it could be done very easily. We have worked with hundreds of situations like this and when I used to work for Countrywide I used to deal with 600 cases or more a month.
Everyone, due to my infrequent visits to this site please contact me directly if you have any questions to avoid your questions going unanswered.
Best of luck to everyone.
Regards,
Jonathan Katz | Account Manager | Absolute Consultant Group
@Andrew Einsmann
We have a bulk short sale processor directly inside at Bank of America. We can help expedite your file sometimes in as little as 24 hours. I don't know what is going on with your file but no file should take more than 45-90 days at the most.
Feel free to reach out to me and we'll see how we can work together to get your file resolved. You may also check out our blog at http://www.MLReport.com to stay up on the Bank of America guidelines as we frequently update the changes that come up in this business on the regular.
Let's hope this lender doesn't follow the path of Wells Fargo: No more extensions on approval letters - close by the approval date - or don't close at all!
I have been shocked by some of the execution from Bank of America lately. I am really happy with them and I NEVER thought I would say that!
On the other hand, I am working wiht US Bank right now on a short sale and they are way difficult and the reputation for them is awful!
Stefan,
I am glad to hear that everything is going well for you. We actually work in such a large volume with them that they have assigned a special team, a "concierge", because of the fact that they so often have problems with negotiators not doing what they are supposed to. count your luck stars that things are going through smoothly because I get more than 150+ calls a day telling me otherwise!
All the best.
Regards,
Jonathan Katz
P.S. If anyone ever has any issues with Bank of America or BAC Home Loan Servicing, LLP and they just don't seem to be getting anywhere let us know and we can always step in with our management team and get things resolved as much as possible. info@acgnow.com
Also, in case you work in this business frequently you might benefit from lender guidelines website that we update regularly @MLreport or www.mlreport.com.
Well sometimes i dont know what to think of short sales. They are getting better and then they are not!
Jim,
I am glad to see your enthusiasm. I feel like much in life there is no black or white, good or bad, right or wrong... It's all relative. In this case many homeowner's took loans they knew they couldn't repay, shady loan officers gave out loans to homeowners whom they personally helped forge financial documents such as tax returns, and all around government sat by and let it happen.
I think one of the best examples is how the process became so complicated that when they took one of the loan products to the heads of the mortgage servicing companies they weren't able to decifer their own loan products...
Either way, the most important thing to know is that banks are definitely accepting our short sales, they are definitely working with homeowners and we definitely get postponements consistantly.
I can say that we have so many short sales with Bank of America that we have our own escalation staff assigned to our company and that staff is amazing as they go as far as making themselves the negotiator if the situation so requires.
You too must be finding at least some success, right? If not 250 short sales is a long road to travel without a sip of accomplishment.
If you, or anyone for that matter, is having troubels with Bank of America of all banks (which most do) and you are having something threatening one of your deals feel free to reach out to me at info@acgnow.com and we can see how we can get involved and turn that dead deal into a deal that is putting money in your pocket. DON'T LOSE ANY MORE OF YOUR BANK OF AMERICA DEALS!!!
Take care and best of luck with everything!
--
Jonathan Katz | Account Manager | Absolute Consultant Group
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