I just sold this condo in San Jose that was a short sale. For this transaction, all I can say is…Wow, what a draining experience for all parties involved. All parties are just so glad this deal has closed. This client is just the sweetest, young first time buyer and in this price range, the competition is fierce with a lot of investors making all cash offers and lots of multiple offer situations. This entire transaction, I just felt his pain and felt so bad that he had to go through such an experience with this short sale transaction.
We made a number of offers on condos competing with lots of all cash buyers and finally locked in this condo that was supposedly an approved short sale transaction. It was already negotiated with the lenders for the price and supposedly, this was supposed to be a smooth deal and close in 30 days. Well, psyche…that SO didn’t happen! We wrote the offer on March 17th and we just closed this transaction on May 27th, so over 2 months to close with this so-called ‘approved short sale’.
It was just one thing after another from the get go. Since the listing agent thought the transaction would close in 30 days and time was running out for her clients because they were very close to foreclosure, she insisted that we put the deposit in escrow and get our loan process moving forward and be ready to close in 30 days. Well, she just had one problem after another with BofA and their completely whacky Equator system that is like working with the devil! Equator is like one of those sci-fi movies where the computers and robots take over the world and people just have no power and are like the slaves.
This condo had both a first and second mortgage, so the listing agent had to balance the two the entire transaction to get them to sync up with dates and such. The first mortgage approval was about to expire and I believe during our transaction she had to get 2 extensions. For the second, which was BofA, it was just one thing after another with BofA screwing up and making mistakes just over and over and over again.
The worst part is that some of the items were so small and simple to work out, but due to the Equator system, a human can’t simply go into the computer and make a correction, it’s just this whole process of Equator and their ‘tasks’ that are assigned and have to be completed before the next step can be done or before an actual human can go in and make a change or correction. It’s just insane, truly!
The buyer had a trip planned for going out of the country and right before he left, he signed all his papers at the title company, took in his down payment, and the loan funded. He was headed out of town thinking the deal was closing and then I get this frantic call from the listing agent as the buyer was heading out of the country that “We have a problem”. I thought it was a joke! Apparently, the Equator system and humans that work it never updated the file to this new buyer. There had been another transaction that fell through and my buyer came in as the new buyer. Even though the listing agent updated Equator and told the negotiators every time she called that there is a new buyer, somehow, it got missed. So, what would take a human 5 minutes to update a new name, etc, took about 2 weeks to resolve due to Equator.
So, my poor client was over in Taiwan, had no idea when/if this deal would ever close, and was already out of the place he was renting because it was being renovated. It was just all bad. The good news is that the seller moved out of the condo so that he could move in upon his return from Taiwan until we could get it all resolved. And, to top it off, the first loan approval time limit was about to expire once again. And, if that were to happen, it would start the process all over again for an extension and such, and just be that much harder to close the deal ASAP.
At the 11th hour, BofA finally got their act together, got us the updated approval letter, and we were able to close the transaction with a HUGE sigh of relief. This story actually goes on in regard to the inconvenience the buyer faced due to BofA and Equator, but this is the overall jist of the story. It was just all the unknowns throughout the transaction, jumping through hoops, and complications that put stress on both the buyer and sellers. I did everything I had control over to make the transaction as smooth as possible for the buyer, like getting permission for him to move into the condo at no cost until we could resolve the issues and all the other things of this transaction, but with BofA, I just had no control. I was able to get a name of a manager who did get involved and helped us to speed up the process as fast as possible, considering Equator.
At least the story has a happy ending and the buyer did get to move in when he expected to move in (although he didn’t unpack until he knew we were closing the deal for sure), he lived there for free for about 2 weeks and now is happily living in his new home that he now owns. And, to top it off, he is yet another of the few lucky buyers who not only qualify for the $8,000 Federal Tax Credit, but also qualifies for the $10,000 State Tax Credit. So, a total of $18,000 in tax credits! Yay!
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