It could be possible that things are starting to change for the better in short sales and modifications for distressed homeonwers. Yesterday I received a couple of phone calls that indicated promise on the horizon for borrowers from Bank of America.
The first call was from a past client that lives in California and has an investment property in Ocala, FLorida. He had his home on the market as a short sale, but Bank of America just offered him a modification that cut his payment in half. PERMANTLY. His rental home in Ocala now positve cash flows and it is one less property listed in an oversupplied market. His credit doesn't get dinged and the tenant doesn't have to worry about having to move.
The second call was from a representative from Bank of America stating that they will now be using REOtrans for their short sale processing. They have been familiar to me as a third party company for bank owned properties and now they are going to handle Bank of America short sales. I was not clear if this was all the short sales through Bank of AMerica or just some of them.
It has been tough, if not impossible with Bank of America since they absorbed all the Countrywide loans on getting short sales approved, so maybe this will be the solution we've all been waiting for. They already seem to be more efficient with the strategy that we communicate by email and we can check the progress along with the seller at any tiime by logging in.
As a Short sale Specialist in Ocala, having dealt with Bank Of America before and after the Countrywide absorption, it must have been like a tsunami for the mitigators at that bank. If Reotrans can solve this problem, it's really going to make a huge dent in the real estate market in Ocala, and probably around the country.
Some short sale specialists had already stopped representing sellers that had Bank of America or former Countrywide borrowers because of the lack of response. My suggestion today is if a borrower has been turned down for a modification, reapply today. You may get a diffierent answer from your lender because of improvements in their system.
If you or your Realtor gave up on a short sale, try again. Be sure and use a Realtor with a proven track record on getting short sales approved and closed. Here in Ocala, we still have many misconceptions out floating around. You wouldn't believe the stories I hear from other agents and sellers that were given bad information.
One cliche' that sticks with me in the short sale specialist industry. "The only thing constant is change." ( I hope I said that right.)
Hava a great day and Happy Short Selling!!
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