How Bank of America is Helping Short Sales
Those of you who regularly read my blogs, or follow me on Twitter, know that I have been impressed lately with Bank of America when it comes to assisting with short sales. With a bad reputation in the past for not dealing with these sales in either a timely or attentive manner, B of A has truly come out of the darkness (where many other lenders are unfortunately still stuck) and is trying to get short sales sold.
Now there is another reason to be happy if you are a homeowner with a B of A loan who needs to short sale your property: B of A is making it easier for you to get your home sold.
Bank of America has agreed to allow real estate agents to submit back up offers in sales where the buyer decides to walk away from the purchase, or doesn’t qualify. Once a backup offer is submitted, the lender will not require that the entire process start from scratch. In other words, the back up buyer will slide right in and the process will pick up from that point. This could save LOTS of time.
Bank of America was the first lender to institute a system where offers and all pertinent documents could be submitted online, and where access is available to the listing agent and homeowner 24 hours a day. This system, called Equator, virtually eliminated having to fax and email documents to the lender multiple times – gone are the “we never received that” days (even though the agent faxed it twice, emailed, it, AND mailed it via certified mail).
Bank of America has also established a help handle on social media sites, like Twitter (BofA_Help), which is attended to during business hours and gets results (I cannot tell you how much it has helped me).
This newest weapon in B of A’s arsenal will allow agents to continue to market a property and take back up offers, which could be a lifesaver if buyer number one cannot proceed with the purchase.
So kudos go to Bank of America, for really trying to find ways to speed up short sales. All we can hope is that they will continue to find more ways to help, and that other lenders will follow suit. I would love to hear what you have to say on this subject – please feel free to submit a comment by clicking on the title of this blog and then scrolling to the end.
It’s great to hear someone speak well of BofA and their dealings with short sales. I get a lot of chatter on both sides of the fence these days but what it seems to boil down to are these 3 key factors. (1) Is the Agent persistent in their efforts. This is important because BofA holds the majority of work-out loans through their acquisition of Countrywide. (2) Is the Agent at least polite in their communication with short sale negotiators. This is important because BofA is actually a company made up of people. People who have the job of listening to tragic stories all day long, day after day. It’s hard. Be nice to the people and I’m sure they’ll respond nicely back. And (3) Does your Agent know what they’re doing. It makes everyones job much easier if the paperwork is submitted properly the first time.
Great article Rachel. Thank you for the positive note.