Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Terrie Leighton on July 13, 2010 at 10:26am

I am working one with BofA right now. They did follow the time line initially. The buyers countered the counter and I am still waiting for the negotiator to reply. It has taken over 10 days and I am worried. Good luck with your short sale transactions.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Estella Drake, CDPE on July 22, 2011 at 4:53am

Is this a HAFA RASS short sale - they gave you the price and you listed afterwards or you listed first and later submitted the offer (if it does not get farmed out to a 3rd party you might be ok)? Just asking, because I am in the process of writing a what to do and not to do instruction Manual on my experience with Bank of America/AMS HAFA RASS so I don't ever hear a fellow Realotr goes through the torture I am having to experience with AMS. The SS I'm dealing with is HAFA RASS where you get the seller approval first and list the property and sell within 90 days of approval.  I secured an offer within 48 hours of B of A giving me the listing price and I am now at over 70 phone calls and 8/16/11 will be 90 days....the crazy thing is that I think they should hire me as a trainer now because I have figured out all the holes in their system. I call and the reps say, "Hi, Estella - I've talked to you before."  I now get transferred to my negotiator and they are even personally going to her desk to let her know I'm on the line.  It might also be that I have been emailing Elena Celestine the regional trainer for B of A for help! I haven't heard back from her, but she might be tired of hearing from me and made some calls for me! Who knows, but all I can say is that AMS management is to blame and I hear they hired a new training manager.  I will work on my memoirs of my 70+ phone calls and what I learned and they don't tell you!!! Good luck and what ever you do remember everything they don't tell you is wrong or needs to be changed will take 48-72 hours of delays!!!!!  It could me you forgot to dot your i...I'm not kidding!!!!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Cody Lampariello on July 22, 2011 at 5:22am

I wouldn't expect any bank to follow the actual HAFA timeline. We close quite a few HAFA deals with the big 4. (BoA, Wells, Chase, Citi)

 

Bank of America does not have the best system in place becuase they outsource it to UTLS or LRC and a few others. They do get done but you just have to press them. Find out what company it has been outsourced to and follow up with them. Once they approve it and you get your ARASS it will be sent back to BoA where they will do normal value activities. (BPO, counter, etc..) Just hang in there and keep pressing them it will get done.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kathleen Couch on July 22, 2011 at 5:31am

Yes I have.  Be sure that your short sale is actually in their HAFA area.  The problem I faced was the short sale being in the regular short sale area, but a servicer for BOA HAFA short sales kept asking me to upload the info into Equator.  When I did, it was in their regular short sale, instead of HAFA.  Each dept. claimed they had to wait and could not do anything about it.  I got it done, but had to get it closed down and started over.

I have also had successful HAFA's with other lenders. Best benefits of HAFA are 1. No deficiency judgment for 1st or 2nd.

2. $3,000 to homeowner.  Difficulties are 1. Sometimes (some states) they do not pay HOA liens. 2. You cannot show the homeowner paying for anything, even out of the $3,000.

There are ways around this though when liens need to be paid.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kathleen Couch on July 22, 2011 at 5:50am

Estella,

Your memoirs will not be complete without working an FHA short sale with BOA's servicer for that.  They don't use Equator.  Initially I thought it might be better.  First in qualification of the seller, then in approval of a cash buyer at the price they set.  So many checks and re checks, lost items, needing more clarification, extra letters, etc.  I actually have blocked out some of the details of that transaction.  But because I copy in paper form everything, besides having it on my computer, after the qualification process my file was already 3" thick.  Then the approval was the same story.  But, what "beat all" was when the pre-closing HUD was turned into him, he would not approve it because the bank was getting $200 more than expected. Through a savvy paralegal and attorney we got it closed.  Then the 3% commission on the listing side had to be split 3 ways.  You probably don't have many FHA short sales in CA., so you are lucky.

Estella Drake, CDPE said:

Is this a HAFA RASS short sale - they gave you the price and you listed afterwards or you listed first and later submitted the offer (if it does not get farmed out to a 3rd party you might be ok)? Just asking, because I am in the process of writing a what to do and not to do instruction Manual on my experience with Bank of America/AMS HAFA RASS so I don't ever hear a fellow Realotr goes through the torture I am having to experience with AMS. The SS I'm dealing with is HAFA RASS where you get the seller approval first and list the property and sell within 90 days of approval.  I secured an offer within 48 hours of B of A giving me the listing price and I am now at over 70 phone calls and 8/16/11 will be 90 days....the crazy thing is that I think they should hire me as a trainer now because I have figured out all the holes in their system. I call and the reps say, "Hi, Estella - I've talked to you before."  I now get transferred to my negotiator and they are even personally going to her desk to let her know I'm on the line.  It might also be that I have been emailing Elena Celestine the regional trainer for B of A for help! I haven't heard back from her, but she might be tired of hearing from me and made some calls for me! Who knows, but all I can say is that AMS management is to blame and I hear they hired a new training manager.  I will work on my memoirs of my 70+ phone calls and what I learned and they don't tell you!!! Good luck and what ever you do remember everything they don't tell you is wrong or needs to be changed will take 48-72 hours of delays!!!!!  It could me you forgot to dot your i...I'm not kidding!!!!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Juliana Oprea on August 9, 2011 at 8:26am

I can subscribe that HAFA with BofA/REDC in my case it's a nightmare. I just closed a HAFA deal with Aurora 2 weeks ago with no problems but REDC are one of the worst vendors working with BofA. I just got the HAFA approval letter uploaded in Equator and I sent a message to the negotiator as I want to make sure they don't require any partial payments from my seller. The terms are not specified (no dates for the first payment or any amount) but because the standard paragraph it's in the agreement I want something back in writing through the system from them. I know they can ask up to 31% of gross income but I need to have all the terms clear from the beginning. 

Anyway...the bad part (like there is a good one also...) working a HAFA file with BofA is that you work with a 3rd party vendor. After almost 4 months and numerous escalations we finally got the letter. The negotiators never answer their extension! I had to ask customer service to go at their desk and make sure they take my calls not just transfer me to their voicemail. One more thing: they NEVER return your calls!!!

 

Talking about HAFA deadlines?! This is like a joke! No respect for deadlines. They just don't care and BofA seems unwilling to push these vendors that work for them to do their job! In my opinion, BofA is as guilty as the 3rd party vendors hired by them to work these HAFA short sale. Seems like they really don't like these files!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Linda S. Cefalu on January 19, 2015 at 8:46am

Just received an urgent call from someone who found me online that is facing auction Feb 3, 2015 after 20 months of the run around from BOA.  According to the customer, the bank states in CCAP that they had a change of address on file, but she claims she never moved and do not understand where they got that info from.  She has been calling and calling and they say they will get back to her.  At one point, after being told by BOA, that she needed to miss a few payments to qualify for a certain program, they stopped corresponding even though she did what they asked.  She has been in her home for 15 years and she is beside herself.  Does anyone have any suggestions or name of a Wisconsin attorney that might be willing to take this on at such a late hour?  

Any response would be appreciated.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Short Sale Superstars LLC on January 19, 2015 at 8:58am

Linda,

      I can likely assist you and your client. We have some great contacts at BOA who can let us know exactly what is going on and what the homeowners options are. Feel free to contact me.

888-559-5956

[email protected]

www.ishortsalenow.com

• ▶ Reply