My wife and I have had an accepted offer from the seller since January 23rd, 2013. BofA came back to us multiple times in the first few months of the transaction and asked for additional signatures, modifications to the contract, etc. and on March 13th, the negotiator asked us to raise our offer approximately 700 dollars for the numbers on the HUD (based on a closing date of April 15th) to match. We figured why not, it was easily worth 700 bucks and we were psyched that this seemed to be moving along swimmingly. Fast forward to today, communication with the negotiator has completely broken down. We raised our offer for apparently no reason because we did not close or hear anything from BofA and therefore the HUD will obviously need to be re-issued. We had heard earlier this month (May 6th) we were "close" and would have an answer by the end of that week, only to have the negotiator completely stop responding to emails, phone calls, etc. I have tried escalating through twitter, which got the listing agent a response from the negotiator of simply "it's in progress".
Our contract with the seller expired yesterday but we are currently planning to extend a week at a time until we find something else or this sale goes through, but this is quite the frustrating process. My agent is working with the listing agent/seller to obtain 3rd party authorization with HUD so that he can contact them for escalation purposes.
I realize these sales can take awhile, many as long as 6 months, but is this normal and has anyone had an experience where the buyer's agent is granted authorization through HUD? Any other suggestions of things I can do or am I simply at the mercy of the BofA black hole?
Thanks in advance, and I apologize for the wall of text, just not a lot of good places to vent :-).
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Just did an FHA Short Sale and I was told (when it took 6 months to close) that FHA now requires that the borrower apply for and be denied a modification before they can apply for a Short Sale. And that it has to be an actual denial, not just cancelled for lack of documentation.
FHA has had the requirement for quite some time that the Homeowner has to be reviewed for retention options (if the property is owner occupied) prior to disposition options. It's just that some Servicer's have not been following this.
I was a buyer too. It seems youre keeping yourself in the dark as far as information. The first place to start to give you some sense of well being is to know the financial story about the house. How much is owed and to who? There may be peripheral players (mortgages) you don't know about. Extending a week at a time is a waste of time. I started higher and worked down. The message is clear. Do you know where you stand in the foreclosure process? I have dealt with BOA and one of the reasons youre not having contact is they may be getting ready to sell the note. They do that in bunches. All of a sudden your sale wont be approved and the house will be sold and then youll have to start again with the new servicer as the note was sold. Has the BPO been done? Theyre only good for so long that's a clue its moving but not a guarantee because they expire. HUD will tell you its on them but if youre good on the phone you may get a HUD push back IF the financials are simple. I bought a SS that was set to go to auction. No foreclosure was done and a lender still dragged their feet. So if youre just starting the foreclosure its best to know where you are there too. If they asked for so little it could be a good sign. What did your agent tell you about the offer and area comps? Youd best have some comps ready close to your offer if you need them. Comps essentially mean very little. One house in a different neighborhood ie sitting on water or a golf course is obviously worth more. Understand your potential arguments for your position. Defects in the house, repairs, neighborhood, negatives in the area. Does your SS contract exclude back ups and marketing? If not it should. Whos side is the sellers agent on? Are they cooperating with your agent and pushing the sale? That's a plus and should happen. If you want to you can talk to BOA. It just depends how good you are on the phone and if you get to the right person. You are not entitled to financial info but you can discuss your concerns. They can use we cant acknowledge the loan and youre stuck. Call back and speak to someone else. When you have a better understanding youll do better. If the BPO was done 45 days ago that's the way to go. Its been 45 days whats up with the BPO and when can we expect a decision? Not when? If you don't give them a reason to look they probably wont. You can ask for the file to be escalated. Ask for an update. Wait x days and then get back and say weve waited x long isn't it time to escalate this IF you know all the financials. Has the deal been sent to the investors? Another clue for you.
Thanks all!
We do know a decent amount about the seller's financial situation. Our agent has been very diligent in acquiring as much as he possibly can, so that has been reassuring. There is only one mortgage with BofA, so no second to be worried about. The original BPO was done on January 27th, so it was set to expire last week. We finally got an update from the negotiator telling us that they were waiting on approval to extend the BPO and that they did finally get approval to extend, so in her words she is "putting the file together for audit review". Not sure what "audit review" is, but that doesn't sound like investor review, more like another step in the BofA process. Hopefully that means we have some movement here.
The house appraised out at $205,000 and we have an accepted offer of $196,700. Comps are good, and I think we have a strong offer, so I can't imagine the financials are what is holding this thing up. Additionally, the selling agent and seller are not marketing the house to additional buyers and there are no back up offers, so they are pushing hard for this to go through. House was on the market for over a year before they received our offer (including prior to the SS).
Additionally, we did decide to just go ahead and extend our offer for an additional month instead of weekly, and the seller signed the TPA to allow our buyer's agent to talk to BofA so he will be calling them tomorrow morning to get as much information for us as possible and to push this along.
Keeping all fingers and toes crossed this goes somewhere fast!
Youre in better shape than you thought. Feel better?
BofA FHA short sale department is exactly that - a black hole. I easily have BofA FHA's take 6 months. I have two right now going on that. I have noticed that HUD generally just sides with the servicer anyway, but repeated calls and emails to BofA and HUD if necessary may speed up the process a bit.
If the seller gives you authorization, perhaps HUD or BofA would talk to you, however I doubt the seller would grant this. Hopefully the sellers agent is continuously following up. Be patient.