BOA Short sale woes
I am in process of purchasing a short sale property in Washington County, OR.
The listing price was for $279k. We first offered $270k for the house. The bank countered it asking for $290k. After a series of negotiation all parties were happy at the original asking price of $279k and the seller would pay $4k in promissory note
Series of events:
12/15/2010 – Offer delivered to the seller $270k
12/21/2010 – Seller signed offer delivered to the bank
12/28/2010 – Communication from Equator asking for details like DOB, first 5 of SSN, phone#
1/11/2011 – Communication from the bank saying first valuation was complete and process can move forward
1/12/2011 – BOA countered the offer asking for $290k
1/15/2011 – We offered $273k for the house
1/24/2011 – Counter from bank asking us to increase our offer by $8k and $10k from seller – we offered the asking price of $279k
2/8/2011 – third party approval on the transaction. Initial closing on 2/24/2011 which we got postponed to 3/28/2011
3/15/2011 – BofA extended the closing to 4/30/2011
Since we had third party approvals, our agent suggested that we move forward with inspections and appraisals of the property. We also removed our offers from other short sales on which we had put offer on. We have our escrow account open with earnest money deposited.
Now on March 3rd the listing agent contacted us asking to put everything on hold. The bank was asking for more money from the seller. As per the sellers agent they are also very frustrated with bank coming up asking for money over and over again. They are also willing to let the home foreclosed. There is no further communication from the negotiator or the bank so far. We were notified by the negotiator on 3/15 that the bank has extended the closing to 4/30/2011. The listing agent says the status on Equator website is “File under Review”.
Is it typical to expect such kind of a behavior from the bank in case of a short sale? Our agent is trying to convince the listing agent to get a written approval from BOA. Is there something I can do to expedite the process?
Best Regards,
Nevil
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dianne Slutsky on
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Who are the third party approvers? I always caution buyers not to proceed with any inspections or appraisals until you have in hand written approval copies for any ad all lien holders. If you did not receive a copy of the seller's BofA short sale lender letter, then the file was not really approved. Your agent needs to read that letter closely and should request a copy of the final offer & breakdown from the seller's agent. Once the seller has that letter, they will not suddenly state that the seller has to bring in money or sign promissory notes. The seller and seller's agent can escalate the file but not you or your agent.
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Permalink Reply by Nevil Shah on
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I do not have information about who the third party approvers are. I only know that BOA is the bank.
I realized that I should have proceeded with the inspections and appraisal only after I had a document from the bank, but both the listing anent and my agent thought that a verbal approval was good enough for me to proceed.
So currently Equator is going back and fourth again with the seller to come up with terms on which everyone can agree upon.
As per the quick reference put forward by BOA the investor decisions should take 1-3 weeks. It has clearly taken them longer than that.
I will have it communicated to the sellers agent to escalate the process.
Would I know in advance if the bank decides to move forward with foreclosing the property and is there a chance that the bank would do that at this stage?
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Permalink Reply by Tracey Martin on
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Hind sight is 20/20, however it is really important to have the approval in writing before proceeding with inspections and the appraisal.
I would suggest that you have your agent ask the listing agent to have his/her clients go to their Congressman's office and request assistance. I have found my local Congressman's office to be very effective when I have tried everything I could to get B of A to act reasonably, and just couldn't get them to listen. The Congressman's aide assigned to help will need an authorization to release information from the sellers and a detailed letter describing what has happened so far, much like you've written above.
Good Luck
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Tracy has give you good advice and maybe your Congressman's office can help. As to the possible foreclosure question, yes the bank could foreclose in the middle of the short sale transaction. You need to know if a Notice of Default and/or Notice of Trustee sale has been filed on the property. Your agent should be able to obtain that information. If those things have happened, this property could slip through and the investor could allow the foreclosure which will quickly end your ability to purchase it as a short sale. Lately, the banks have not been as willing to delay foreclosures so you need to know where the seller stands in that process. Good luck!
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Thank You for your feedback Dianne and Tracey. I will communicate this to my agent and see what we can do about it.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Payne on
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I believe that you had an accepted offer in equator but when it got to the investor, they are making different demands. When the offer is accepted in Equator, it still has to be approved by the investor.
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Jeff,
I am quite certain that is what is going on. They have negotiations going for almost 3 weeks now. Hopefully they come to terms soon.
I tried to get the above suggestions communicated to the listing agent, but he is kind of old school (Principle Broker)and refuses to read any content from the internet and also does not appreciate any inputs from my agent either.He was not even willing to escalate the process in Equator.
We are kind of stuck with the listing agent and there is not a lot we can do about it.Thanks for your inputs everyone.
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Permalink Reply by Bryant Tutas on
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Nevil. Jeff is correct. An "approval" through equator means nothing. It just means they are preparing the file to submit to the investor and/or mortgage insurance company. The final approval will be in writing. Until yo have this the file is still being considered and price, terms and conditions can still be countered. This is all quite normal. All parties should have been told about this process from the beginning. I truly hope it all works out for you.
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Permalink Reply by Abraham Walker on
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Is it common practice to release the approval letter to the buyer/buyer's agent? I haven't yet but I did run into a case where the buyer's agent didn't believe that I was telling the truth about the approval letter. I did not want to release any documents with my clients account information.
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My contracts and most that I submit indicate that we must furnish written short sale approval to the Buyer to begin an active escrow situation. My sellers all agree to release the written short sale approval that is received from the bank and they also have to provide it usually to the Buyer's lender and the escrow/title company.
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How can one find out if Notices of Default or Notice of Trustee sale has been filed? Can one look online?
Dianne Slutsky said:
Tracy has give you good advice and maybe your Congressman's office can help. As to the possible foreclosure question, yes the bank could foreclose in the middle of the short sale transaction. You need to know if a Notice of Default and/or Notice of Trustee sale has been filed on the property. Your agent should be able to obtain that information. If those things have happened, this property could slip through and the investor could allow the foreclosure which will quickly end your ability to purchase it as a short sale. Lately, the banks have not been as willing to delay foreclosures so you need to know where the seller stands in that process. Good luck!
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John. NOD are public records. Just log on to the Public records section of your counties website. It will all be there. Or go to the court house and ask for the records department.
john said:
How can one find out if Notices of Default or Notice of Trustee sale has been filed? Can one look online?
Dianne Slutsky said:
Tracy has give you good advice and maybe your Congressman's office can help. As to the possible foreclosure question, yes the bank could foreclose in the middle of the short sale transaction. You need to know if a Notice of Default and/or Notice of Trustee sale has been filed on the property. Your agent should be able to obtain that information. If those things have happened, this property could slip through and the investor could allow the foreclosure which will quickly end your ability to purchase it as a short sale. Lately, the banks have not been as willing to delay foreclosures so you need to know where the seller stands in that process. Good luck!
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