How to Get Short Sale Lenders’ Attention (It Really Works!)

I read a story today about a short sale listing agent, beyond frustrated with the bank’s lack of response to her sale, who was able to get the bank’s attention in a simple way: by tweeting about her dissatisfaction. I loved this story because it shows that while banks may think they have the power in these situations to ignore files until they are ready to deal with them, they do not like bad press. I personally know another agent for whom this same tactic worked with a different lender – one tweet and she was contacted by the bank.

I have to admit that Bank of America has been pretty responsive – not in the traditional way (I am waiting on them to approve 2 short sales right now, and it has been several months), but if you contact them via other means. About a month ago I was a bit fed up with some sales that involved B of A. I was able to obtain the emails for people very high up on the chain of command (thanks to a trusted colleague), and sent them a letter. In it I talked of my dissatisfaction with the way they have been handling short sales, of the need to find REO agents who were honest. In short, people are unhappy, I wrote. I was contacted within a few days by the assistant to one of the big wigs at B of A, who was extremely pleasant and helpful, and truly wanted to make sure I had a better experience with Bank of America.

Just this morning I sent a message on Twitter to Bank of America, as I have a few contracts that have been awaiting their approval since June. Within minutes I received a Tweet back, asking me to send a message with my contact information and the best time to reach me…voila! The moral of the story is banks do not like bad press, even though they must know the majority of real estate agents and people in general in this country are not happy with them. There are ways to get their attention, but sometimes you just have to think out of the box. Social media does have power, for all those doubters. Big industries and corporations monitor their social media reputations, and we can all gain from that.