Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Pacita C Dimacali on May 28, 2010 at 5:24pm

Linda

Guess the expectations weren't set for you regarding short sales, particularly when the bank is Bank of America.

1. You said you submitted an offer. Did the seller accept your offer, and was your offer the one sent to the Bank? Or were there other offers?

2. It will take months. 4 months to wait for an answer from the bank on whether to accept/counter/reject the offer.

3. Some banks specify looking at only the best and highest offer....whereas some banks may advise everyone to give their best and final offer. If you did not receive a counteroffer, then yours may not have been in the running to be considered

4, When the banks commission the broker's price opinion, this is not something they share with anyone -- not even with the listing agent. That information is proprietary to the lender and is what they base their approvals on. Naturally, the bank would like to recoup as much as much as possible,

5. You as the buyer cannot call the bank directly. Unless you are personally authorized by the seller, you cannot get through to anyone to ask about the progress of that short sale.

6.. You should address your inquiries to your buyer's agent. If you are not happy with your current agent, then find someone who is experienced and knowledgeable about the short sale process and who can guide you accordingly

7. There are no guarantees to short sales. So regardless of how long ago you've written an offer, there is absolutely no certainty that your offer will be accepted or that the short sale will be approved.

8. Don't pin all your hopes on one short sale. You may be disappointed.

9. If your first offer was not considered, and if you really want this house, and provided that the propetry is still available, why not submit a new offer? Knowing that your offer was too low, then you can amend your offer accordingly. Get more comps in the area to help guide you.

10. Just because it's a short sale doesn't mean the bank is going to give it away. This means your offer must be close to, or at market value.

In short sales, patience and persistence must come in bushels and over a long period of time....not unless the short sale bank is Wachovia. But Bank of America? Ouch!

Permalink Reply by Terry L. Osburn on May 28, 2010 at 6:18pm

Pacita has stated it well in re: to BofA and short sales......

As a listing agent and as a buyers agent we resubmitted same offers to BofA that was accepted the 2nd time around on both.

If your offer can be substantiated with comps, re submit and/or offer more if you really want the house.
Unfortunately many buyers and agents have the idea that because it is a short sale that the banks will automatically take the low ball offers and as Pacita pointed is not true...Remember the banks have a net amount that must be met based upon their BPO's and appraisals as well as investor guidelines.

Good Luck!

Permalink Reply by linda crystal bedolla on May 29, 2010 at 1:42am

thank you for your responses ladies. Terry I'd like to ask you if you waited the same amount of time to get the offer approved the second time around? My LA has told me about the comps and said my number fit right in the ballpark. He says BofA does not refer to those comps because " hey don't have appraisals on those comps to compare it to" That's why he is thrown off by this whole thing.


Terry L. Osburn said:

Pacita has stated it well in re: to BofA and short sales......

As a listing agent and as a buyers agent we resubmitted same offers to BofA that was accepted the 2nd time around on both.

If your offer can be substantiated with comps, re submit and/or offer more if you really want the house.
Unfortunately many buyers and agents have the idea that because it is a short sale that the banks will automatically take the low ball offers and as Pacita pointed is not true...Remember the banks have a net amount that must be met based upon their BPO's and appraisals as well as investor guidelines.

Good Luck!

Permalink Reply by Susan Neal on May 29, 2010 at 7:30am

In addition to the great advice you have already received, you should know that B of A owns only about 4% of the loans it services. For the rest, they are only collecting monthly payments for investors. If they do not own the loan(s) it services on your transaction, any approval will have to come from the investors. B of A has its own set of requirements and protocols which the deal must meet, but the investors have their own set, so your deal must meet both. And if there is MI on the loan, there may be another whole set of criteria and approvals.

The B of A negotiator has to not only negotiate with your listing agent, but must negotiate with the investors and MI folks, and a rejection from any of them will necessitate that your offer be rejected. All of this takes a lot of time. And each negotiator has a lot of offers they are negotiating at the same time as yours.

And to top it all off, even if it is not receiving monthly payments from the borrower, B of A is required to keep making monthly payments to the investors, so they may have little incentive to rush. They are still getting their income, so they are not losing much by delaying. Of course B of A will be allowed to reimburse itself from the investor's proceeds when the deal settles, but meanwhile, the investor says "Why hurry?" B of A may actually be anxious to close, but can't without the other approvals.

It may also be something as simple as a contingency in your offer that kills the contract if approval isn't received within a certain amount of time. In that event, the bank may consider that your offer is dead and you might have moved on to another deal. Always check that date, and make sure that when you have an offer in, if the date is nearing expiration, submit an addendum that extends the date.

With these facts in mind, along with the other good advice from others here, see if you can find out what would give your offer a better chance. It might be that you are asking for concessions (like closing costs) that they are unwilling to pay, and if you clean those up and resubmit with comps your offer might fly. And/or you might want to sweeten the price a little too. Analyze your offer closely because the cleaner it is the better chance you'll have.

Good luck!

Permalink Reply by linda crystal bedolla on June 1, 2010 at 6:27am

Pacita,
Thank you for your comments. I would like to answer some of your questions: The seller did accept my offer and submit it to the bank. I was the only offer on the short sale property. I have another question for you. Does re submitting a new offer take the same amount of time as getting it processed the first time around? I would love to get the opportunity to re submit, but I don't want to wait another 5 months.

Pacita C Dimacali said:

Linda

Guess the expectations weren't set for you regarding short sales, particularly when the bank is Bank of America.

1. You said you submitted an offer. Did the seller accept your offer, and was your offer the one sent to the Bank? Or were there other offers?

2. It will take months. 4 months to wait for an answer from the bank on whether to accept/counter/reject the offer.

3. Some banks specify looking at only the best and highest offer....whereas some banks may advise everyone to give their best and final offer. If you did not receive a counteroffer, then yours may not have been in the running to be considered

4, When the banks commission the broker's price opinion, this is not something they share with anyone -- not even with the listing agent. That information is proprietary to the lender and is what they base their approvals on. Naturally, the bank would like to recoup as much as much as possible,

5. You as the buyer cannot call the bank directly. Unless you are personally authorized by the seller, you cannot get through to anyone to ask about the progress of that short sale.

6.. You should address your inquiries to your buyer's agent. If you are not happy with your current agent, then find someone who is experienced and knowledgeable about the short sale process and who can guide you accordingly

7. There are no guarantees to short sales. So regardless of how long ago you've written an offer, there is absolutely no certainty that your offer will be accepted or that the short sale will be approved.

8. Don't pin all your hopes on one short sale. You may be disappointed.

9. If your first offer was not considered, and if you really want this house, and provided that the propetry is still available, why not submit a new offer? Knowing that your offer was too low, then you can amend your offer accordingly. Get more comps in the area to help guide you.

10. Just because it's a short sale doesn't mean the bank is going to give it away. This means your offer must be close to, or at market value.

In short sales, patience and persistence must come in bushels and over a long period of time....not unless the short sale bank is Wachovia. But Bank of America? Ouch!