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Bank of America is Pro Short Sale
Bank of America has a message for underwater homeowners in Sacramento, it appears. That message is: Bank of America wants to do your short sale. People have heard all of the horror stories about the many, many months it takes to do a Bank of America short sale, and that is not always the case. In fact, it’s rarely the case. This Sacramento short sale agent can initiate and close a Bank of America short sale, from start to finish, in about 45 days. Even without a hardship. Yup, Bank of America is granting strategic short sales and all kinds of other short sales just to get rid of those loans, for whatever reasons.
For example, you might ask when is a HAFA short sale not a HAFA short sale? Because sometimes homeowners don’t qualify for the HAFA. There is a new law that says the banks must explain what constitutes qualification for a HAFA because that’s been left up to each bank to decide, and often that method is a complete mystery. Well, far as I can see, it still is a mystery. We can do our best-guess-scenarios here in Sacramento, and I have few theories myself, but nothing in concrete as to the exact criteria used. So, in that regard, nobody can really figure out if the bank is handing out crap or what because the bank still writes its own rules.
In any case, a HAFA short sale is not a HAFA short sale when Bank of America says it has switched to a Cooperative Short Sale. We started out with a HAFA application for a home in Natomas, a neighborhood in Sacramento in which almost every home is a potential short sale if it hasn’t recently sold. Somewhere in the middle, Bank of America switched the short sale to a Cooperative. If you ask the bank, it will tell you that you need to initiate the Cooperative short sale before you have an offer, not after an offer has been presented to the bank. It will also tell you it doesn’t do Cooperatives in which there is a second loan. But they make exceptions. This home had a second loan. I have, in fact, done other Cooperative Short Sales in which there was more than one loan, and that second loan was not held by Bank of America.
There are exceptions to everything. The banks decide what they will except and which variances they will not grant. That’s the thing about short sales. They use the rules when it’s to their favor, and they ignore the rules when it’s to their favor.
So, if you think you know exactly which end is up and what you are doing, then you are most likely not a Sacramento short sale agent working on a Bank of America short sale.
This Bank of America short sale closed yesterday as a Cooperative Short Sale, paying the seller $2,500 and releasing both the first and second mortgages without liability.
Auditing a Bank of America FHA Short Sale
If you think a Bank of America FHA short sale is a nightmarish experience, consider auditing the file. Bank of America negotiators who work with FHA loans slated for short sale routinely audit those HUD files before submitting the file to Quality Assurance. This is where the file gets held up or set aside to rot in a pile of forgotten paperwork. Because I am betting that 9 times out of 10 those files are incomplete or wrong. This is not necessarily the fault of the negotiator at Bank of America as much as it is the fault of the Sacramento short sale agent.
I know you didn’t think I would say that. But I see the offers that come in on my Sacramento short sales, so I know the mistakes that are made. Logic has it that if there are that many mistakes in a purchase offer, imagine some of those negotiations. Agents are not known, to be kind about it, for their paperwork skills.
You might say but wait, Elizabeth Weintraub, you are a Sacramento short sale agent. Are YOU known for your paperwork skills? Actually, I am. Because once upon a time in a faraway land I was a Certified Escrow Officer. Those skills are very helpful to me in processing and negotiating Sacramento short sales.
So, this morning, I audited a file on behalf of Bank of America. I am not waiting for the negotiator to tell me what is missing. I have closed so many FHA short sales that I know what’s required and could probably recite it in my sleep. There are clauses that must be contained in the purchase contract. The address must be spelled out on every single document and complete. All parties need to be in contract with no expirations regarding terms or conditions. Those are just the simple things. There are also more complicated things.
I am presently working on a file in which the deceased mother of the seller was once noted by mistake on a promissory note. No doubt caused by a loan processor somewhere and not caught by an escrow officer. The mother was not on the mortgage. She was never on the title. She had no interest in this property, but a paperwork nightmare was created when her name showed up typed on a promissory note. The problem that is caused is the bank can’t issue approval without the execution of documents by a person who is no longer on the face of this earth. Bank of America wants the deceased’s name on the documents and the deceased to sign off. Unfortunately, the HUD cannot reflect a person’s name who is not on title. See the dilemma?
But this why you can rely on a Sacramento short sale agent who was once an escrow officer. I drew an addendum to fix the mistakes made by the negotiator from Bank of America and submitted the addendum for signature this morning. I’m not waiting for the negotiator to discover his own mistakes. And that’s what makes the difference between a Sacramento short sale that closes and a short sale that falls into the abyss.
When the Short Sale Buyer Walks Away
I don’t know why they call it walking away in a short sale. When a short sale cancels, the buyer doesn’t always walk. Sometimes, the buyer is kicked out of the short sale, booted to the curb. Sometimes the buyer runs away because the buyer is frightened. Sometimes a buyer just can’t get financing together so the buyer can’t close. But buyers rarely walk. They don’t take a leisurely stroll. They don’t wait patiently with you for a green light like some little old lady who needs help hobbling across the street. They bolt. Like cotton.
A few days ago a buyer’s agent sent this Sacramento short sale agent an email to say her buyers were canceling. Those weren’t the words she used — because she did not understand that her buyers were canceling — but that’s exactly what was happening. She just didn’t seem to know it, for whatever reason.
You can tell a buyer she is purchasing a short sale in “as is” condition but that information often falls on deaf ears. People think they are special and their situations are special, but the truth is they are not. When a buyer signs an “as is” addendum, which all buyers do for a Bank of America short sale, this means regardless of what a buyer finds in a home inspection, there are no renegotiations. None. No price reductions. No discounts. Not only is that because of the “as is” addendum, but the market dictates it as well. That’s because another buyer will buy the home in its “as is” condition. In a heart beat. The bank knows it. I know it.
The only person who doesn’t seem to know it is the buyer. Oh, and the buyer’s agent.
But the really good thing about Equator and a Bank of America short sale is a new buyer can be slipped into the old buyer’s position. It’s called a soft decline. Providing that the negotiator at Bank of America doesn’t press the wrong button and close out the file by mistake, which has been known to happen, the new buyer approval doesn’t take very long. Within 30 days, the new buyer should receive short sale approval.
So, if your short sale buyer walks away, don’t despair. It’s not a huge deal in the overall scheme of things and your Sacramento short sale. In fact, walking away is a fairly common occurrence.
The Search for Intelligent Life in a Green Tree Short Sale
Talking to a Green Tree short sale bank negotiator can be like that cartoon about what dogs hear. You know what I’m referring to, right? The human is speaking to the dog, giving a lecture about not jumping on the furniture or perhaps not tracking dirt on its paws into the house, and the caption balloon over the dog’s head is an interpretation of what the dog hears, which is “blah, blah, blah.” This is what it feels like when I talk to a short sale bank negotiator. Words are coming out of the mouth of this Sacramento short sale agent, but they are ignored and must sound like incomprehensible gibberish to the negotiator.
This is so common place in short sales that my Sacramento short sales are ripe with illustrations. Let’s look at a Green Tree short sale, for example. Green Tree is famous for trying to extort extract payments from sellers during the short sale, and why not? Green Tree is a collection agency. If PNC or Bank of America transferred the servicing of your loan to Green Tree, you’re stuck with Green Tree and, by extension, so am I. But that’s OK, I don’t mind dealing with Green Tree as it’s typically good fodder for illustrations of ineptness.
The latest problem is a Green Tree short sale in which there are four individuals who have signed the mortgage. All four people have signed the promissory note and the deed of trust. Since Green Tree picked up this loan by assignment, it was not involved in the notarized signatures on the prom note and deed of trust. In fact, Green Tree might not even know how to recognize a promissory note and deed of trust nor understand the instruments even though these pieces of paper are the basis for its business. Because Green Tree has decided there are only 2 individuals noted on the note and deed of trust — because that’s what Green Tree’s incorrect records tell Green Tree.
Never mind that I sent Green Tree a copy of the deed of trust showing that all four individuals have signed it. The evidence is in front of their faces. Nope, Green Tree has demanded a new package, new hardship letter and all new documents signed by only 2 people. You might be asking what’s the harm in that? Well, the harm is Green Tree is not the lender. Green Tree is the servicer of this loan. The lender is Fannie Mae, making this a Fannie Mae short sale. And when Fannie Mae sees there are only 2 people who have signed everything, Fannie Mae will kick out this short sale package and reject it. Green Tree has refused to send the file to Fannie Mae unless we submit it with only 2 individuals. Do you see the problem?
We have talked to the negotiator and the negotiator’s supervisor. They both have demanded that we submit a package that will be rejected by Fannie Mae for being incomplete. Makes one want to grab Green Tree employees by their shoulders and shake these people.
I’m just a Sacramento short sale agent. Why am I having to explain to Green Tree who their borrowers are? Why doesn’t Green Tree employ people who can reason and think? The only way to remove a borrower from a mortgage, apart from death — which, believe it or not doesn’t do it either — is to refinance that mortgage or pay it off, neither of which has happened.
Today we will contact Fannie Mae and report this problem at Green Tree, in addition to contacting the supervisor’s supervisor at Green Tree. Somewhere, there is intelligent life in this universe.
Get Your Short Sale Package Upon Initiation
Did you miss the earthquake drill yesterday? We were sitting in the doctor’s office waiting room when 10:18 had come and gone. Darn it. But then, until my husband told me about the earthquake drill, I had not heard about it. That’s because I don’t hang out on social websites during the day. Nope, this little hamster on the hamster wheel is busy wheeling and dealing in short sales and Sacramento real estate. Nose to the grindstone and all of that.
Still, I managed to miss observing the drill. Because if I had known about it, I would have wanted to observe. Certainly, nobody in the doctor’s office was doing a duck-and-cover. You’ve got to ask yourself, though, did anybody really believe that diving under your desk with your hands over your head would protect you against a bomb? A nuclear bomb? No, in the 1950s, you just did what you were told and you didn’t question it. It’s life experiences like this, the duck-and-cover, that has prepared me for my career-turn to a Sacramento short sale agent. It takes a special kind of person, I’m convinced.
Take a short sale package, for example. Way back in the early years of short sales, like 2007, I used to hand out short sale packages in advance to my clients. Sometimes, I would email the packages. Mostly these were financial P&Ls like a 710. Today, we have a ton of options at our disposal, but I don’t routinely send out a short sale package before we open the short sale file. The reason I don’t is because I don’t want my sellers to do any more work than they have to do. I want to limit the pain.
Not only do the requirements change from day to day, but the forms change, too. There is a short sale in Lincoln that I’ve sold 4 times now. The first 3 packages did not include this particular financial, but the present sale does. You may wonder why did Wells Fargo not require this and now it does? Legal crap. Sometimes, it’s one word in a document that changes.
It’s not just a Wells Fargo short sale in which the required forms and documents can morph. Bank of America has changed its third party authorization more times than I can count. I’ve run out of fingers and toes. So, when I don’t give you a short sale package in advance to complete, it’s not because I’m failing to be proactive or shirking my duty. It’s because I don’t want you to have to fill out one package and then be told you need to complete a different package. Especially those arm’s length affidavits that require a notary. I’m trying to save you time and agony. Because heaven knows there is enough agony in a short sale as it is.
