Short Sales - Bank of America

By now many of you have experienced the pains of a short sale with Bank of America. As much as they have tried over the last year, they continue to fall short on their promises to improve their process and procedures.

As realtors, we have a huge influence on where we send our clients for new financing. Bank of America's performance on short sales have left such a sour taste in our mouths, that we cringe at the mere mention of a new loan with Bank of America.

We recently attended a round table event with a Bank of America negotiator. He was very honest with us and was not in the least surprised at the negative comments slung at him from fellow realtors. While he truely understands the frustrations we are feeling, he was also quick to agree that we as realtors, are the future referrals for Bank of America.

This gentleman went on to explain his purpose....to obtain information to send back to the higher up's so that the short sale process could be improved. Lots of notes were taken, and as a courtesy he has even reached out to help those realtors in need.

The new Equator (old REOTRANS which was adopted from the bank owned tracking system) is to be the new method for tracking and escalating short sales. Unfortunely from our experience this has not helped the cause. In fact, some of our short sales were within days of investor approval and were moved to Equator only to sit for another 30+ days.

While the news continues to report that the next wave of foreclosures are still coming, Short selling a home is still the best option for most homeowners.

As we move into 2010, I'm hopefully that Short Sales will no longer have such a bad reputation in the industry and banks such as B of A get their act together.