Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Bank of America Improving Short Sales

Just this past week as I was teaching in San Jose, I had an agent come up to ask a question. He started out by saying "Fortunately, this isn't a BofA short sale ...." I hear this A LOT, and it has everything to do with the fact that BofA used to be THE WORST lender to do short sales with. But a year and a half ago, they really started making an effort to change that. Under the guidance of Matt Vernon (and now Kimberly Dawson), BofA has gone from the worst to being among the best. Starting with transition to Equator (which was not initially well received by the real estate community), moving to simplified process, one by one, BofA appears to really try and do better. The fact remains that BofA left a very bad taste in a lot of people's mouth, and they know that. 

Below you will see a press release from today that aims to solve a well known problem of Buyer cancellation forcing a restart of the process and a delay in closing. BofA is now allowing for a backup offer to be submitted, and so long as it matches the previous offer, the process will not be delayed. This is great news for thinly stretched agents and distressed borrowers! 

Keep up the great work, BofA!



Bank of America(R)
Now You Can Substitute a New Buyer for One Who Walked Without Restart
As an example of our commitment to improving the short sale process, Bank of America now allows real estate agents to submit a backup offer on a transaction if the original buyer has walked away from the sale.  This means you will no longer have to initiate a new short sale; instead, you can continue with the original transaction in Equator and still work with your same short sale specialist.  This change will save you time by not having to repeat a number of process steps.

When a Backup Offer Is Ready
You should send a message to your short sale specialist via Equator when the original buyer is no longer interested in the property.  Your short sale specialist will then respond to you within two business days and ask if you have a backup offer ready to submit.  If you have another buyer prepared to make an offer, the short sale can proceed without having to repeat the short sale initiation steps.  The short sale status in Equator will change to "Marketing," and you will be directed to complete the following tasks within 14 business days:
 
·         Complete the "Listing Data" task.
·         Provide the marketing description.
·         Review the marketing plan.
·         Upload the offer.  (To do this in Equator, locate "My Properties," then "Offers" and select "Place New Offer.")
If the "Listing Data" task is not completed and the new offer is not uploaded within 14 business days, the file will be closed.
When No Backup Offer Is Ready
This new process applies only if there's an available backup offer when a buyer walks.  If you do not have a backup offer ready to be submitted, the short sale will be declined.  In that case, you should return to marketing the property and initiate a new short sale in Equator once you receive another offer.
A new educational guide, How and When to Submit a Short Sale Backup Offer, is available to explain the backup offer process.  If you have any questions, please contact your short sale specialist via Equator or call Customer Care at 1.866.880.1232.
Visit the Real Estate Agent Resource Center at bankofamerica.com/realestateagent for additional educational guides, news and resources to help you complete short sales at Bank of America. 

1 comment:

sabrina said...

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