Oh That Sneaky Bank Of America....At It Again

The B of A "cooperative short sale" sounds to me like PR which is designed to get the homeowner and possibly and agent or two feeling warm and fuzzy about the bank.  "Cooperative" in this case means YOU (whether agent, seller, or buyer) cooperating with THEM (as in, it's a one-way street). Notice how B of A tells YOU how they want YOU to cooperate--with their price, their timetable, etc.

Short sales typically sell for 20% below "market value," and everyone on this thread understands why.  Sure, there are some exceptions, but B of A's insistence on handing the agent a "market value" price at which to list the home is the first red flag here that this is not in the interests of sellers and agents.  Sellers don't care if the bank gets market value, and neither should agents. 

I have clients with an FHA loan with BofA, and I have been struggling with BofA for 5 months now just to get to the point of having a pre-approved price. My clients moved out months ago, and we were told (repeatedly) to not put the house on the market until a negotiator was assigned and an appraisal done and price set. We finally have a negotiator, but no more communication than before, and I have buyers ready to write an offer (acquaintences of my clients). I hardly know whether to submit it or not, since the house has not been on the market yet.

I appreciate the warning of one more thing to watch out for with them. I've quickly learned not to trust anything anyone says there.

I'm going through one of these BOA Cooperative Short Sales now.  The Sellers signed the opt-in paperwork and now we have NOTHING.  The negotiator is not telling us what they want us to do.  Silly me, I listed the home and have two offers.  Can't GIVE them to anyone on the BOA side.  They are running the sales through DNS who can't seem to find their rear ends with both hands.  UGH!

Bank of America is interesting at best. A home I had under contract a year and a half ago for $190,000. just came back on the market for $190,000. The seller did a deed in Lieu of Foreclosure. B of A has paid taxes, insurance and upkeep since then. That makes no sense. Sign of the times with Banks.

It's always easier to deal with a smaller, local banking institution. 

Sounds like they may have covered themselves enough to avoid an FTC complaint on false advertising! I haven't seen anything on this program, but I also try to stay away from short sales.  I wonder how BofA cutting 40,000 employees soon will effect their short sales and foreclosure operations?

Dear Karen,

With all banks, I wonder, if they just want to collect on the mortgage insurance in full and then sell the home at foreclosure for half price. This would mean 150% for them and the shaft to the consumer trying to preserve their credit to some degree in a hardship situation. Maybe we should ask our fearless leaders to allow mortgage insurance companies to pay out only the difference between what the home sold for and what is owed. Banks would get their money faster for allowing a short sale in this case and many future homebuyers would only have to wait two years to get back on their feet and not seven. This would also help the banks, who are cutting off their future customers at the knees for a short term higher profit.

From these comments it looks as if success with B of A depends entirely on the luck of the draw - who you happen to be working with on their end.

Meanwile, the cooperative plan sounds like: "I dictate, you cooperate."

Oh, I wish I had known about twitter  and @BofA_Help a week ago!     We just lost a buyer because our negotiator was too slow in getting back to us!    I will remember this from now on..

Just starting to get into my first deal with a B of A short sales.  This info will be helpful.  Thanks for sahring.

THere is always a catch.  They should stop trying to screw people and get to work helping them.

The realtity of any pre-approved, or cooperative short sale is that the bank or mortgage company is agreeing to take a loss up front and agree to a pre-determined time period to market the property or home.  Under those circumstances, the bank or mortgage company is almost always going to overvalue the property or home.  Think of it as a negotiation where a buyer makes the seller an offer.  Rarely will the seller accept the first offer price.  This is the same type of situation only in reverse.

The "pre-approved" short sale is heavily advertised in our MLS listings.  If buyers and their buyers' agents only understood that this is not a "pre-approval" of anything except that the bank has

SHORTENED THE LEASH ON THE SELLER
GIVEN THEMSELVES AN "EASY OUT" TO KILL THE TRANSACTION AT ANY TIME AFTER THE WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY.

My experience with speaking with knowledgeable listings agents is that this is meaningless.

Banks, and I bellieve B of A was one who attened our conference here in MD this past week espousing these very things.  Yeah, right. :)

All of these programs are designed to help the bank, not the homeowner.  This right up there with the "temporary modifications" where they try to get 3-4 more payments from owners before telling them they "don't qualify" for a permanant mod, and will still be foreclosed on.  An absolute racket!