Bank of America Putting the 'Short' in Short Sales?

<i>BofA is "pre-approving" short sales before they are even listed on the MLS. This is much different from the "normal" short sale where we list the home, get a contract, gather all the paperwork, submit to the lender, and then WAIT. BofA is calling this a 'Cooperative Short Sale.'"<.i>

They believe that this process will allow them to close 10,000 short sales a month. To be even more bold, they declared they will be able to approve a short sale in 2 WEEKS?!

I've had a few good experiences with BOA, but on average, they're pretty terrible.

Anyone have any good B of A stories they'd like to share?

Bryan Hancock

Real Estate Investor · Austin, Texas

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Jan 22 '11, 11:18 PM

"Cooperative short sale" sounds like an oxymoron to me!

Bryan Hancock, Bullseye Capital Real Property Opportunity Fund
E-Mail: b.hancock@bullseyecap.com
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Paul B.

Real Estate Investor · Alpharetta, Georgia

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Jan 23 '11, 12:56 AM

That is interesting and encouraging. I wonder, however, does that mean that BofA has a "bottom line" price that they will take without further negotiation once the property is listed? And is the listing price going to be higher than that?

Also, I don't know if anyone has already posted this PDF, but I thought it was interesting:

Bank of America: Mastering the Short Sale Processsing System

Maryann L.

Real Estate Investor · Methuen, Massachusetts

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Jan 23 '11, 01:47 AM

Phill,

In April last year HAFA was started and I believe part of the process is the listing price was set by the participating lenders. If an offer came in at list price, it was an "approved" short sale.

What is different now? BOA participated in this in April and so far, my reviews of HAFA show it to be a dismal failure.

It would be nice if they did this on "traditional" short sales as well, but from what I have been seeing is no one is offering list price on short sales unless that short sale is discounted in some way. Most agents however list short sales at "fair market value" instead of a discounted value.

Anyways, I don't see how this is going to assist things as it certainly isn't a big success through the HAFA program.

JMO

Stan Jackson

Residential Real Estate Broker · Fort Pierce, Florida

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Jan 23 '11, 04:10 AM

Paul,

I was set to read, or glance, through the entire 58 pages until I read the fineprint
"HFA and VA files cannot be procesed in this system at this time".

My first question is, what was the typo "HFA" should have been, HAFA or FHA?

Why didn't BOA designed a system to include FHA and VA, I can't remember getting a loan approved through them that did not have the security of FHA or VA?

Just curious!

Thanks,
Stan

Jay Feldman

Real Estate Investor · East Lyme, Connecticut

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Feb 07 '11, 01:35 PM

I cannot imagine BoA doing anything quickly or being anything other than a total PIA to work with. Yes there have been people who have had good experiences with BoA (myself included) but the seems to be a rare occasion. Personally I think BoA needs to be taken apart and sold off as smaller companies. The (and a number of other banks) are to big to succeed.