NEW Bank of America Authorization
NEW BOFA Letter of Authorization... only licensed agents or attorneys can be authorized on accounts now? That rules out an assistant being authorized to follow up on even mundane "Did you get the fax?" calls... escalating with BOFA
See link: http://realestateagent.bankofamerica.com/content/documents/tpa.pdf
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Wendy Rulnick on
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Yes, of course Equator is "anonymous", but to "never" use the telephone in communications with them is unlikely. I do. My assistant does, too, for non-negotiating type questions. Sometimes the negotiators call and leave a detailed message, too. Thus, for only ME to be able to speak with them is a major problem. I'll be addressing this further with Bank of America through a detailed letter on Monday.
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Permalink Reply by Johanna Devon on
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I think this new form is a result of agents farming out their short sale listings to "third party negotiators or other people" . Banks/short sales are under the microscope right now. In Va we have to list our license # on the sales contract, so I'm not sure why people are so upset over this. Unfortunately, there is a lot of fraud going on in our field, mostly in our own back yards. Everyday someone tells me or I experience it myself. I am appalled at the lack of professionalism and integrity in our field. I have 30 years in this business and the last 10 have been a challenge. The challenge has been to not want to wring the necks of the agents coming into this business who lack the skills, knowledge and ability to do a good job. When I list a short sale, my clients know..their file is NOT going anywhere else but on my desk. I am not farming it out to anyone...and I mean anyone...to process. Sellers hire US to do a job. Problem is most agents don't know what that means anymore. Everyone forgets..the banks DON"T HAVE TO AGREE TO A SHORT SALE. They can simply foreclose. If the banks want 16 new pages of junk..I will give it to them. Because in the end, if I save one homeowner from foreclosure, it was worth the extra paperwork. Work for your clients...not your commission.
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Permalink Reply by Thom Colby CA Brkr 888-391-5245 on
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Johanna,
Well said .......
In their most recent training sessions BofA is very clear about not considering these "Real Estate Transactions", they very specifically refer to them as "Debt Settlement transactions".
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Permalink Reply by Satar Naghshineh on
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I believe it is an attempt to get rid of the low balling investors who are negotiating on their own behalf and to hold the seller's negotiators liable for any future issues.
And exactly, at their training in Irvine last Friday, they stated the obvious, that they see this as a "debt settlement" and not as a real estate transaction. This is exactly what I have been saying all along!
I was also disappointed that they frowned down on 3rd party negotiators!
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You are probably right. I do my own short sales, but I have an assistant for admin. To say an agent will ALWAYS however, be the only one, to answer every call, etc., or NEVER have to go to the hospital, on vacation etc., is absurd, and one other person should be able to be authorized on the account.
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I agree with you - On my own short sale listings, I make sure another agent is authorized. On 3rd Party where I am negotiating for another agent or broker I have the Listing Agent authorized as well - for exactly the scenario you point out - vacations, illness, etc. Then if needed our admin folks can conference with the authorized person and BofA.
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I already pay an admin, I am not going to find another "agent" and pay them as an admin, too. Short sales already have a ridiculously slim profit margin.
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Can your admin get their license ? That might help in a bunch of ways.....
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Permalink Reply by Deb Orth on
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Wow, quite a lively discussion. Like Wendy and Bryant, I have been negotiating my own short sales after a lousy experience with a local 3rd party negotiator. Over the years, I have negotiated at least 90% of my own files. Every so often when I was feeling overwhelmed, I'd give a 3rd party company the business.
After the recent Short Sale Outlook webinar and discussions with Dean Poole, I had decided to give a 3rd party another chance. I'll ask him about this on Monday. If BOA is the only entity with these restrictions, then I guess I can still run some files through Wingspan.
I agree with Wendy and others, though, that it is unnecessarily restrictive to not be allowed to have an assistant handle some of the more mundane tasks and duties.
Maybe there will be more clarity on the April 2nd BOA webinar???
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Permalink Reply by Joseph Alfe on
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BOA has nothing against third party negotiators, if they did, I wouldn't have been invited as an Equator "Beta Tester" from before the program was rolled out, we would not be a "preferred partner" and we would not have Sr. VP's tell us "Gee, I wish every short sale submission was a complete as yours.."
Maybe it's the whole "forest through the trees" thing, but I really think most of you are missing the point with this attempt. The real reason why they are trying to certify that the designated agent is a licensee is simple: They know most licensees are incompetent to their duties and unaware of the laws and rules of real estate. They know that it is easiest to fool licensees into shifting Fiduciary Duty to BOA and away from the seller, where is rightly belongs. I hear it all the time, that agents feel the need to "give the best and highest to the bank." This site has advanced agents and most are competent, but those of you who also frequent other short sale sites can attest to the absolutely stupid, basic, and just plain wrong things that agents think and say about short sales. What this industry needs is for agents to define and codify short sale best practices, and have these definitions adopted by state and federal lawmakers under a licensing law that sets minimum standards. If this doesn't happen, the lenders will take action, and little by little they will come to decide the who, what, where, why, when and how of how you do your business.
I once had a BOA Sr. VP tell me, in front of hundreds of agents at a Chicago Symposium that "70% of the short sales in BOA's pipeline will never close due to agent error"
No my friends, this has little to do with who can call the bank, and everything to do with BOA attempting to shift duty of the agent from seller to BOA. Every short sale activist in the country, from Ron Ballard to Jeff Watson are working to challenge this right now. If some of you remember, Wells Fargo tried something similar two years ago and were forced to retract it a month later.
We shall see
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Joseph - I agree, it's a questionable line in the authorization: Designated rep:
" shall not knowingly misrepresent or omit to state, any material fact in order to induce the
Borrower(s), BANA, the lender, the investor or the insurer to agree to the terms of a Short Sale that the Borrower(s),BANA, the lender the investor or the insurer would not have agreed to had all material facts been known"What is a material fact that might have been known and not disclosed, for example? The seller has a job lined up, an inheritance coming, etc. etc. Does it also imply that mean that the Designated rep must INVESTIGATE on behalf of BANA? I would like an attorney opinion of this...
I've asked attorney Richard Zaretsky to comment....
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Permalink Reply by ElizabethWeintraub00697006LyonRE on
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I don't see a higher offer as a material fact disclosure, either. The first thing I did was populate the form and the buyer's disclosure document as well. I use Acrobat and did not have any problem. But today is a day that I am very very happy that my assistant is licensed. I feel like that woman who came out of her x-ray appointment praising Jesus the other day, who apparently wasn't there just for a mammogram.
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