Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Gregory J Bermes on May 17, 2013 at 3:31pm

I am (was) a "lowly buyer", but my guess would be that the initials were due to a discrepancy with other document(s). (i.e. hardship letter etc.). In "my little nightmare" (which finally closed on April 30), which was also a "pre-approved" short sale - sold via auction.com on Jan 12, my buyer's agent (also the listing agent) was not "observant" enough to make sure HER commission was on the preliminary HUD1!. She then decided she would put in a flat fee amount, equal to 19% of the Purchase price (vice the 6% allowed - or 3 times more than what she agreed to take!). God only knows what discrepancies were input for/with the "pre-approval" package!

From my perspective, BOA, or any Lender for that matter, has EVERY right to question these homeowners, and make sure what they are saying is actually true. The sellers of my "nightmare" STILL own the parcel immediately behind the one I purchased (listed as "vacant" at/on the county property appraiser's office, but has 2 mobile homes on it!!), and they received nearly 38% of the proceeds from the sale of the home/property in the form of short sale ("incentive(s) )" - while still owing nearly 30K on the original loan - cash money they received!!. NO BANK/LENDERS can "routinely" do this, and stay afloat!! I do not know if a promissory note was required, but if not, it should have been! (We/us "lowly buyer(s) are not privy to things like approval letter(s) ).

Dot all your "I"s and make sure all your "T"s are crossed!! Double check EVERYTHING you have against what the Seller(s) (and Buyer(s) have provided to you, (and to the Bank/Lender). Also check your local property appraiser's office information. I think this will help ALL of you have smoother Short Sale transaction(s).

 

Permalink Reply by toni blount on May 17, 2013 at 4:39pm

Gregory,

I know your reply is probably well intentioned but the "revisions" have nothing to do with discrepancies on other documents, it has to do with STALLING on BOA's part. They constantly have us resend documents and I think it is done routinely to get around the timelines they have to respond to a file. Why would they request 3 revisions on 1 page of a document, one at a time over a 3 week period? Each revision buys them more time. Why not ask for everything you want all at once if you are really trying to move the file to closing?? 

We are talking about apples & oranges here. 

I'm just not seeing the value of a pre-approved short sale.

Permalink Reply by joe beauchamp on May 17, 2013 at 6:19pm

Thanks for dropping the CAPs, toni - I'm surprised at how it slows down my trying to read the text. ;-)

Keep in mind that banks have no interest in completing short sales - they are paid every month to "maintain" the file and when the SS goes through, no more revenue for just sending out monthly letters. Frustration of agents goes a long way toward this corporate goal, so don't let it get to you.

There are a number of factors. 1: BofA is bureaucracy uber alles. 2: Over the last 3 years, they have pushed down processing of SS papers to lower and lower level people with little bits of process and lots of rules. 3: Then you have the incompetent "specialists" who might go back to McD's for more responsibility in a while. It is an inefficient mess, but what does the bank care? Luckily, unlike Freddie and Fannie, HUD has some teeth and has forced BofA to take back screwed up files in the past. Unfortunately, a call to HUD will get you transferred to "special" people at BofA who will tell you that they don't work with short sales. It's funny, unless you are in the middle of it. However, a followup call to HUD can get action.

Just keep in mind that what you see is the "normal" workings for us at BofA and WF. They vary, but you should expect insane things like getting a complaint about 1 sentence followed by a complaint about the next sentence after you fixed the one - a week later (if you are lucky), etc. Oh, and since they moved FHA junk to Florida, there have been plenty of complaints to go around.

I say most of this so you don't go crazy with trying to make BofA "normal" or customer oriented - not going to happen, just keep pounding on the door and often you make it through.

Permalink Reply by ElizabethWeintraub00697006LyonRE on May 18, 2013 at 6:50am

You need to get a supervisor involved. I feel your pain. I've gone down that path, and I had to chuckle a little bit (sorry) when I read what happened to you. My worst short sale at Bank of America involved 25 HUDs. I am a former escrow officer, and I completely understand HUDs. Yeah, 25 HUDs to get B of A approval. There aren't even 25 categories on a HUD to mess up. I think these guys pick up the file, look for something that they can request, and then they can put the file back down and turn back to HULU TV to continue watching All My Children.

Escalate this to a supervisor. You'll be amazed at how fast you'll get the approval. You don't need any more gray hairs.

Permalink Reply by TOP END Properties on May 21, 2013 at 4:26pm

Same story here.

 

Submitted the ATP with offer on/around 12/13/2012.  Its now past 6 months.  After 3 months (of escalations) the negotiator (Karol Thomas) tells me she had email problems and she's sorry for the delay.  Then 2 months later she says that she needs an updated HUD1 with a closing in 2 weeks.  I told her that's rediculas but she insisted.  Two weeks pass and she said the closing date was too soon to the ATP expiration and so she needed an extension and then a new HUD1.  Then after she gets the extension she tells me that the original negotiator in December put the wrong list price and so we need to resubmit the ATP.    Its now been 3 weeks since the new ATP and I'm told it went to Phase 2 negotiator (Matthew Schaeffer) who has not yet looked at the file.   Escalation to FHA and Management has had little to no effect.