Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Carmine R Biello Jr on July 16, 2012 at 12:40pm

They are worse and if anyone says anything different, they are lying!!!! ;-)

I feel your pain. Try twitter they have been responsive and also the dreaded "file escalation" which now takes another 72 hours to a week! Arrrggguuhhhh!!!!  

Good Luck!

Carmine

Permalink Reply by Uilani De Motta on July 16, 2012 at 12:41pm

Those days are long gone....they have become one of the longest lenders for short sales. The excuses of "internal tasks" is over used and nothing is done. Not to add to the venting session...but yes it's aggravating...

Permalink Reply by joe beauchamp on July 16, 2012 at 1:12pm

It is hard to believe that BofA is not trying to antagonize agents to finally give up on short sales altogether. You used to put in an authorization and wait for someone to OK it. Now you practically have to submit everything including the final closing papers in order to submit simply the authorization. This is better/more efficient how? Nope, more hoops. They are now demanding proof of funds for the difference between the pre-approvals and the sales prices.  I have buyers walking because they wanted to buy and BofA dragged things on forever. What a joke - are they trying to prove that the buyer really wants to buy? How about approving and letting them close?

Permalink Reply by Jeff Payne on July 17, 2012 at 1:47am

Joe, you are on to something... As the market improves in alot of areas, I believe we will see BofA and Wells, just to name a few, think they can "time the market" and think that they can wait it out and they can sell them as REO or deny the short sales because of improving market conditions.   At least they "think" market conditions are improving.... because we as agents constantly tout how great the market is getting when in reality it is not improving in most areas.

Permalink Reply by Wendy Rulnick on July 16, 2012 at 1:29pm

A "timely" reminder, Wendy. Yes, Bank of America did say they were speeding up short sale approval times. We have noted no improvement, in fact, it is taking longer.

Permalink Reply by Jim McCormack on July 26, 2012 at 4:33pm

I am seeing the same thing.  My Bank of America files (conventional and FHA) are taking longer now.  Between the new "waterfall" process and documents being mysteriously rejected in Equator, it is frustrating to say the least.  I think BofA has changed their Third Party Authorization Form 3 times in the last 3 months.  My clients filled out the one 60 days ago and now BofA is demanding the newest form.  They have rejected the IRS Form 4506-T form even though it is the exact same form that they are telling me I need to use (I checked the link on the BofA Agent Resource Center and the document I have - they are identical).  They also keep telling me that my documents are blank!?  No they are not.  I can read them and print them just fine.  Anybody having these same problems?

Permalink Reply by joe beauchamp on July 31, 2012 at 4:26pm

I have not had a "blank form" problem - and it's the BofA waterboard process, not waterfall... And, yes, to all the other issues including the authorization stupidity. I've had one negotiator reject the 4506-T form that another negotiator gave me (it had MORE on the address line than Bank of America). You need all boxes on the right checked, put in form 1040 and ONLY 2 years listed (although, with FHA, maybe they should make that a decade?  BofA's new pickiness, flipfloping policies and 45 second deadlines must leave hardened DMV people lusting for BofA "specialist" positions..

Just think how boring it would be if BofA actually treated short sales as a business - or wanted to save the investor money and get the homeowner out of a mess. Yep, real boring.... ;-)

Permalink Reply by Debra Enos on July 16, 2012 at 2:01pm

Hi Wendy:

First, that is 10 Business Days.  So you need to exclude weekends and holidays.  You said that this is an FHA? FHA is a different animal and guidelines....And do take longer because of that.  You can initiate FHA with the initial Required BofA documents...but not all FHA/Shorts stay in Equator.  Sometimes I think it is quicker to call them first when you have an FHA file, then go to Equator if directed.

 

Try calling: BofA at 866-880-1232.... or better yet, Twitter is real fast...... http://twitter.com/#!/bofa_help ...Thier response time has been 15 minutes or so on more distressed issues (can be 24 hours) and have been very helpful.  If you are new to using Bank of America's Twitter for help then just state FHA - been xxx days on Equator, 3 esculations, no negotiator...whatever you can bullet point in 140 characters...don't put in the address, loan number, or names.

 

I had a Seller Agent/Negotiator upload an FHA/SS (my buyer) and after 10 weeks without a BPO/Appraisal, no HAFA response - approval - literally nothing... and no updates from the seller side when requested  -  I Tweeted...And in short the Twitter crew member said that that file shouldn't have been on Equator and she esculated and took it from there. Ugh...Between lack of communications and this my client lost confidence in the sellers agents negotiator my buyer withdrew the offer...double Ugh!  We are closing on another in the next couple of days...for sure!

 

It seems that most blame is put on the buyer agents and the buyers...when it is the lack of communication and/or unwillingness to ask for help from anyone..it is the sellers side that is the true reason that the buyers "walk". We all have a different level of experience, contact info,  etc...Even the very experienced short sale agent gets in a bind from time to time....I appauld you for reaching out...good job!

If you go to Bank of America Bank Resource Center you will find that they are having a Webinar on the 24th of July on FHA short sales - this is a copy of the announcement - you can long here by clicking on:

 

Announced 7/9/2012: Register today! FHA Pre-Foreclosure Sale Webinar

Join us July 24 to learn more about the FHA Pre-Foreclosure Sale Program, which allows homeowners with a hardship to list their property for sale at fair market value.

 

If you think about it....if the banks weren't  having so many problems with listing agents (not all), they wouldn't be having these Webinars..

Best Wishes.............

Permalink Reply by Tori Lee on July 17, 2012 at 6:24am

I feel your pain.  I waited 3 months for an approval where they were the 2nd (HAFA).  It took them so long the 1st closed out my file and once I finally got the approval from the B of A I submitted everything all over to the first and now my 2nd approval is expiring and I have sent messages through equator asking for an exention with no response.

 

With this file I uploaded it FOUR TIMES in equator and they kept "losing" it.  I asked them how it kept disappearing in equator and the response was always the same, "It is an internal issue with equator that they are working on." 

 

B of A is HORRIBLE to work with.  Sadly most of my short sales are with them.

Permalink Reply by Patrick Smith on July 23, 2012 at 10:02am

My misery loves your collective company.

I feel like I am coaxing BoA files along a centimeter at a time.  I gave them the benefit of the doubt in April when the 'streamlined' and published target timeframes for each task.  What I have found is that the negotiators are leaving me stranded at 'Offer Anlaysis' even when we're working on items that truly are 'approvals' items.  Case in point:  I am waiting on QA of a file right now which is the only item (so the floor supervisor says) that prevents me from moving from 'Offer Analysis' to 'Approvals'.  The QA task opened on 7/12/12 and was supposed to be completed in 48 hours.  Sigh.  And now that I've hopefully hounded them into completing the QA task, it might still be 9 days to actually get me the approval letter.  

Permalink Reply by Evelyn Santiago on July 24, 2012 at 10:29am

I just finished blogging about this on Active Rain - great minds thing alike - Blog title - Is BOA trying to make Realtors go Insane? My rant is on FHA short sales and their "new" improved process. This whole process is a sad joke and FHA should be pulling all their servicing from BOA! I can't get the HUD center involved because has on site HUD personnel at BOA according to the National Servicing Center but someone forgot to tell HUD that they are for loan modifications and not short sales!

Insanity is that no matter how much we blog, tweet and scream we have no pull. Where is NAR on this???