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after BPO agent goes to property,how long do I need to wait for shortsale approval

Hello all. I was wondering what success you were having with the bank/lender approving the negotiation fees for a third party company? How many of you have started another company/corporation to handle your short sale negotiations? Your feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!

Ryan Smith

714-612-3963j

ryan@yourrealtorryan.com

Started one on Equator first part of December. Seemed plausible. Then went to HELD status.

Called in several times in regards to HELD status.....Customer service reps kept saying all looks good, yes we have everything, negotiator is working on it....

NOD had been filed unknown to me when I took the listing. Nothing showed up in Foreclosure Radar. Title company did not see anything. (Seller forgot to tell me the letter came in after I put on MLS) OOPS!

In either case, multiple phone calls to negotiator as well as emails and to his manager and no response. Every time I called Equator everything was peachy keen.

Then a week ago monday I found out about the Trustee sale, called the title company again, who for some reason did not see it right away but eventually found it and emailed foreclosure radar as to status since they did not show anything---they finally found it, and updated their system....told me there was nothing else I could have done has they had to have their plant do a thorough research before they even found it........sigh.......Title company had to research it several times........I do know there is a backlog due to layoffs and hours cut back at the county .....perhaps part of the mayhem.......

So since the negotiator was over 6 weeks late in completing task with two escalations I emailed the office of the president. They responded promptly assigned a new negotiator this week BUT the investor will not call her back but she did look at notes and the investor will not accept anything below a certain amount.........fine except the comps do not justify that amount. Negotiator tells me on thursday the 12th ,wants buyer to raise offer to price investor indicated in notes (I think these notes are from the prior offer!) Which tells me that the first negotiator DID NOT properly send in my new information.

The 2nd negotiator kept asking me you are not the original agent ? NO, I am not.

Buyer says no to increase in purchase offer, cancels.(WILL stay in if the offer is accepted at price originally provided)

Backup offers will not go that high.......comps do not justify.

Oh , did I mention the trustee sale is this coming tuesday the 16th?

Background of this condo, seller had listed with another agent approx year ago who had offer rejected by BofA.

Again, appraisals were not based upon the current market value of several of the units sold in this particular complex but compared to luxury condos elsewhere.

Seller, starts communication with bank and tries to work something out and calls me in November to relist as short sale again.

BofA was given all of this info upfront and that I was a different agent and agency.

Instead of just letting us know up front and/or giving us the amount they would accept they allowed 3 months to go by and wasted everyones time and efforts. (The homeowner by the way, has kept up their HOA fees )

So to BofA I say this-You wonder why agents think poorly of you? Go back and read above.....simple communication at the onset could have avoided the lengthy wait.......Playing games and instructing your customer reps to mispresent the facts is inexcusable.

The majority of realtors and agents try to operate in fair play and expect the same back.

I do not think Equator is a bad thing...I even took the ReoTrans Gold Certification...it does have some bugs and if you get lost up front in the system it is hard to rebound. In fact, the recent conversations I have had with the powers to be suggested the same thing. I know of several agents who have closed transactions. That is a good thing.

When you call in and ask specific questions and are led to believe that all is peaches and creme I really take exception to such......It has nothing to do with the thousands of short sales you state you have......Regular short sale dept would not talk to you as it was loaded in equator.

It has everything to do with proper training, communication and honesty and letting the investor know up front an offer that came in and not wait til the very end to let the investor know about an offer ... particularly after NOD was filed.

Plain and simple......let the listing agent know the facts up front and not dump on them at the very end.

Please know I have closed several BofA transactions....the longest took up to 9 months.

Now someone tell me about all of the negotiators that are buddy buddies with various investor groups who hs a special relationship with various investor groups to come in waaayyyy below market value and close the short sale? I understand some of these negotiators make bonuses working these various investors......

Short Sale, Bank of America and the Squeaky Wheel

When I was a child I always heard "The squeaky wheel gets the grease" and today..I was the Squeaky Wheel. I have been working on a Short sale since November 16th. The sellers paid top dollar for the house $425,000 in 2005 and put $40,000 down.

In June my sellers had a 40% reduction in pay and the other was laid off. No question about the situation, it was a hardship. They needed to sell short and move on. The property had 2 Liens. Indymac was the first and Bank of America the second.

I listed the home for $350,000 no showings, 2 weeks later dropped to $325,000 4 showing, 2 weeks later Magic Number $299,950. The property had 8 showings and 2 offers in 2 days. Accepted the first one ($305,000) Sent my short sale package to both banks.

What I send to make a short sale go as smooth as one can. (I say this with humor because I do a bunch of Short sales and I have had only a few without some issues.)

□ Sellers Hardship Letter (written by Seller )
□ Authorization from Borrower/Seller
□ Financial Information Form
□ Copy of Mortgage Coupon
□ Copy HOA Coupon for each HOA (if any)
□ Copy of Paid or Delinquent Property Tax Statement
□ Copy of last 2 months Pay Stubs or Profit and Loss Statement, if you are self employed
□ Copy of last 2 months Bank Account Statements (checking, savings and stocks)
□ Copy of two years Tax Returns
□ Agent Cover Letter (the current market, the property, the sellers situation)
□ Copy of Listing Agreement
□ Copy of MLS Print Out
□ Copy of Offer
□ CMA supporting the price
□ Copy any supporting documentation for value (newspaper articles, graphs, pictures etc)
□ Copy of HUD1 prepared at offer price.
□ Any other information that will help the case.

Jan 16- IndyMac approval in 60 days...one catch, Bank of America would recieve $4,000 on the second. Not awful, but the balance was around $60,000.

Jan 16 -Bank of America...not so good...(Keep in Mind) I call every 3 Business days...No assigned negotiator, ordered a BPO (lost it), they also unable to find my authorization letter, that was sent in multiple times. Quick tip...Ask them to look in the account rolodex..and magically your name may be in there (mine was a few times.)

Sorry this is such a long story, but I want to explain why after four months of this....I made a formal complaint to the OCC and the BBB. (Squeaky Wheel)

Jan 20- Bank of America still working on it.

Feb 1- Bank of America ordered a new BPO unable to locate the first. I send an updated CMA and met the new BPO agent at the property. She did not work in the area, had no access MLS or Lock box...Really? WTH...I was nice. I emailed her all the comps, room measurements, the CMA I sent to B of A, purchase contract, etc.. everything to make her job easy! Okay, so I am not really nice but wanted her to be able to do her job and NOT hold this up!

Feb 23-Email from Bank of America...We are now sending you to Equator! OMG!! We are this close and now a New system. I complain, get NO WHERE... I upload all the 124 pages into the Equator system.....(keep in mind I faxed and snail mailed the same documents in November)

Feb 26- Bank of America more request for random stuff..they do not need...purchasers Birthday? and first 5 of SS#..I don't have this information, I represent the seller & the purchasers may not want to give this information to you, Bank of America. I get the info..put it into the system.

March- 2 Indymac sets a foreclosure date...March 17th..(they do not trust Bank of America)

March 3...Get the official Negotiator at Bank of America! Woo Hoo! I am getting somewhere...until I read her first message...I just ordered the BPO! ummm NO you have 2!

Side note...One thing I do like about Equator...you can copy the VP, SVP, Team lead, neg..a bunch at one time...I immediately remind ANYONE who reads this "You have 2 BPO's check your system, do NOT order another one" I get a note back thanking me (from negotiators boss)...Yes they do have one. That agent i sent all the stuff too...she did not use it! $348,000...WHAT, HOW, NO WAY...Not even close. I asked if they would look at an actual appraisal the purchasers had done the same day! It came in at $312,000.

March 4- Sent Bank of America the appraisal and still no where...no answers..buyers have sold their home and are going to be homeless March 15th. The purchasers are discussing a release.

March 5-10 send daily emails stating the facts to everyone in the equator system..and then I wait...call...wait...call..wait...get transferred to no one...

SQUEAKY WHEEL

MARCH 11- went to the OCC website and filed a complaint, then the BBB. Then I sent this to Bank of America!

Bank of America,

I am appalled you have made no attempt to work out this short sale. I have made a formal complaint to the OCC and BBB. The decision to DO NOTHING is NOT in the best interest of your shareholders. Bank of America had an opportunity to receive a partial payment and opted to do NOTHING and now will receive nothing. The sellers of the property have made every effort to get you the documents you requested on time. I have done everything to market the home and secure a purchaser who is willing, ready and able to buy the property. Indy Mac, the first Lien holder, accepted the purchase contract in less than 60 days and have postponed the sale date and extended deadlines. Bank of Americahas dropped the ball again. Bank of America, I will continue to fight this battle and will share my story with the media and anyone who will listen until things change. Someone must defend the distressed families going through your short sale process. They have lost too much already.

Jennifer James

It felt great to hit send! I copied all 14 people I had in my contacts with Bank of America email addresses. If nothing else I did what I needed to for my sellers and the rest of the people who Bank of America ignored. Someone needed to let Bank of America know what they were doing was WRONG!

3 minutes later - I had 3 calls from Bank of America."What happened, why are you so upset, your tone has changed?" Bank of America is almost ready to approve this you entered one field wrong. 20 minutes later I had an approval.

"The Squeaky Wheel, get's the grease" I love a challenge but this was unnecessary. Thank goodness it will be a sucessful short sale and Bank of America decided to approve the short sale.

I have 2 more B of A short sales in the process and I plan to squeak early...Thanks for reading..I am new at Blogging so let me know how I am doing...

I saw the title of the Equator group....."muddling through the process" is certainly accurate. I have an offer long overdue to get approval or a response from B of A and as always seems to be the case with B of A, they seem to want to do everything to sabotage the deal. I thought Equator was supposed to solve their internal confusion and all it seems to do is make it worse. B of A is the 2nd on this one and we have now had approval from the 1st for over a month and it's due to expire soon. I have now uploaded the payoff demand into Equator 4 times and was told by the negotiator just this week that the reason for the delay was that she still needed the payoff demand. After explaining that I've now sent it 4 times (1 directly to her email address) that "another department" uploads that file so she doesn't have access to it. How is it that I have access to it through Equator but she doesn't? Seriously?

Is there someplace on Short Sale Superstars that might give me someone to get in touch with at B of A that can actually make a decision.

This is the second go around on this same deal and it fell apart last November as my negotiator was on vacation and nobody could offer a 7 day extension in his absence. Unbelievable.....no I take that back....when dealing with Bank of America it's perfectly believable.

Hi folks. If you deal with short sales on a regular basis then you probably know by now that most of the major lenders are now requiring the transaction to be
processed through the Equator
system.

Have you had the opportunity to use Equator yet? If so what was your experience? Did it help? Was it frustrating?

Supposedly the system is designed to "reward" due diligence. In theory, agents that are on the ball and perform their tasks not only on time but completely will be "rewarded"
by having their short sale file move through the Equator system faster.

If the system truly work this way then personally I see it as a good thing as I am a very organized person. But I guess time will tell.

Anyway......here's a question for you. If you were able to ask the CEO of Equator a question what would it be?

Ask your questions in the comment section of this post and maybe.... just maybe....we'll get them answered for you.

And check out the Equator Group over at www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com

Working wonders with short sales, Janet and I have a short sale where the second lean holder wants a $25,000.00 promissory note; which the seller can’t come up with. The second has PMI which adds to the challenge. Normally a seller who elects to sell short doesn’t have the capital to make the payment and is trying to do the right thing by using the short sale option and not foreclosures. The challenge where’s the money coming from; in some cases the agents will use some of their commission to close the deal. (On a side note that 6% commission is not what it seems to be, on at $100,000 short sale, some banks reduce the commission to 5% then with the splits with the selling side and buyer side that becomes 2.5%. Don’t forget the split with the Broker now we are at 1.25% that’s $1,500 gross. Added costs EO insurance and some fees typically $350.00 total in my office and we are $1,150 and with short sale taking 60 days to close (and that a fast one) the agent doesn’t have much to contribute.) We did the unthinkable, we went to the buyer. The home is just what the buyer wants in the right location and resale in a few years could be substantial.

The buyer ponyed up and we've pulled the deal out of the morgue and are looking to close in a few days… Having an expert in you corner with the experience in short sale transactions is a must, don’t let the deal die, there is always a way to make it work.

Richard & Janet - Certified Short Sale Professional
661-733-0507 OR 733-0508
Keller Williams Realty AV Serving Palmdale, Lancaster in California
www.HomesByJR.com
www.ShortSaleByJR.com