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Let’s Talk Like a Pirate About Sacramento Short Sales
What do you say to a biker whose motorcycle is blocking your car? Probably the same thing you’d say to a short sale negotiator, but then I’m not Myrl Jeffcoat. And Myrl Jeffcoat would most likely not be talking to a short sale negotiator regardless of how great of a Sacramento REALTOR Mryl might be because Myrl doesn’t particularly want to do short sales. Myrl is not a Sacramento short sale agent like insane REALTOR Elizabeth Weintraub, but that doesn’t mean she can’t appreciate the horror stories.
Since it was International Talk Like a Pirate Day yesterday, Myrl and I went to lunch in Land Park to celebrate. We parked in front of The Golden1 over on Broadway. The security guard made me re-park my car more efficiently because it was his job to stand in front of The Golden1 to ensure that there are at least 3 parking spaces at all times in front of The Golden1. I suppose he’s also there to shoot the little old ladies from Target who might try to rob the credit union. I hear that bank robberies by women are on the rise, and I’ve got to say you’ve come a long way, baby. Or, maybe men just want things done more efficiently. Hard to say. I’m not gonna argue with a security guard who gives me a free parking spot in front of The Golden1. I deal with short sale negotiators day in and day out, and you just give them what they want. You don’t argue.
Although, yesterday, a negotiator at AMS called; she was a bit flustered. AMS is a third-party vendor for Bank of America, which is my favorite, favorite, short sale bank. Oh, say what you will about B of A, maybe it’s simply the devil I know, but I love doing Bank of America short sales. This negotiator had asked previously for the seller agency. It had not been uploaded to Equator because there was no task for it. She had opened tasks for 2 other things but not the seller agency.
I thought this for a minute, and it dawned on me that this negotiator most likely had no idea what a seller agency was, so why did she want it? I asked her. She wanted it because the buyer’s agent had sent an extra copy with the offer, and the extra copy was not signed. Her job is to get signatures. I took the time to explain agency disclosures. How they work. Why we sign them. And asked if the seller had signed agency disclosure on a document with the buyer and the buyer’s agent. Yup, they had. So we were good, and she did not need another document. Once the negotiator understood this, she withdrew her request. This short sale was submitted for approval.
On the other hand, after lunch at The China Buffet, Myrl and I started to walk back toward my car. Myrl stopped at the bar, adjacent to The China Buffet. She stuck her head in the open door and announced that the owner of a motorcycle was blocking a vehicle in the parking lot. She demanded they remove it. At first, I wondered why Myrl cared about somebody else’s car. It seemed like she was about to provoke a biker who was drinking at noon inside a bar. Myrl is a lot smarter than that. I looked again at the vehicle. It was a Mercedes. I used to drive a Mercedes but I bought a new car last year; although German, it is not a Mercedes.
Oh, wait.
Well, I pondered the situation and decided I did not know Myrl. Nope, I believe this woman is a complete stranger to me, and I would keep right on walking. Yes, I believe I will walk across the street and stand on the sidewalk to see how this plays out. You know, she watched me park in front of The Golden1. She watched me walk back to my car and move it to a spot that made the security guard very happy. And now she was yelling at a biker in a bar. Perhaps she should talk like a pirate about Sacramento short sales and that will get her out of that bar alive.
This is one of the reasons I really enjoy hanging out with Myrl Jeffcoat. There is never a dull moment. Unlike this other short sale with Bank of America. It’s an FHA short sale, so it’s not in Equator and is a whole other animal. We’ve been working on it since February. Let’s just say the HUD procedures at B of A are a tad flawed but they can’t be the king of all short sales. I’m grateful for the traditional and the Cooperative Short Sales. The FHA short sales are the price to pay for those. It’s a tradeoff.
Our negotiator at Bank of America promised after all of these months she would approve the short sale on Wednesday. Said as soon as we got her the extension from Citimortgage (there is a second loan who approved months ago), she would issue the approval. We were so excited. We emailed her to remind her of her promise to send the approval letter. In exchange, we received this email (I kid you not):
I will be out of the office starting 09/19/12 for an undetermined amount of time. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact New Negotiator assigned to the file. Customer Service phone # 866.880.1232.
I can see that it’s time to Tweet the Bank of America Social Media Team. Arrr, me mateys and drunken sailors. Yes, let’s talk like a pirate about Sacramento short sales.
Tweet the Bank of America Social Media Team
The Bank of America social media team gets 2 thumbs up — and 10 toes, too. Is your short sale stuck in a big black hole? These guys are lifesavers. It was a brilliant move by Bank of America to put a social team out there to help short sale agents because God knows we need the help. If you ask employees at Bank of America, they will tell you in more ways than one. It depends on who you’re talking to and on which side of the fence you stand.
Just yesterday I was talking with a Bank of America third-party vendor at Service Link about a Cooperative Short Sale. She asked me why the seller did not want to do a HAFA short sale. I could hear she was writing down the answer because she repeated back to herself each word I spoke very slowly: Rather Poke Out Eyes.
The Twitter team for Bank of America is my ace in the hole. I hate to wear out my welcome mat but it seems that I end up sending a Tweet to them at least once a week or so. I imagine they have a super tough job, so I try to be especially nice. After all, by the time a short sale agent sends a Tweet to Bank of America, that agent is probably pretty frustrated. I suspect the social media team is specifically trained to listen to rants, screams, tantrums, and that’s just at hello. I bet they get beat up a lot. Resilient bunch. Bank of America, you should give those guys a raise.
There is only so much the social media team can do. What they can’t do is get a short sale approved. They can’t fix a mistake made by a negotiator, and there are plenty of those to go around. What they can do is get the negotiator to call this Sacramento short sale agent.
A few days ago I needed the BPO for a Cooperative Short Sale. I knew the BPO had been completed the first week of August, but this is where Bank of America falls down on the job for these Cooperatives. That BPO needs to be communicated to the listing agent so we can put the home on the market at the preapproved price. But Bank of America vendors tend to withhold that information until they get darned good and ready, if ever, to send out the valuation letter. Trying to get it out of them is difficult at best. That’s the last piece of data I need to put a Cooperative Short Sale up for sale.
After I sent a Tweet to the social media team and spoke to them, the negotiator called but I was on the other line. She left me a voice mail with her phone number. I immediately called her back and waited a few hours. No response. See, I know how this goes. The negotiator won’t respond for another 48 hours, if she responds at all. But the Bank of America social media team follows up. My guy called back to see if I had connected. Now, if I had told him that the negotiator called and left a message, he would have checked off the box on his list and said his job was finished. Instead, I said I had not spoken to the negotiator. That was the truth.
My social media guy looked up the records. It says right here that she called you and left you a voice mail, says he. Yes, that is true, but the negotiator did not tell me the amount of the BPO, which is the question I asked. I needed to know the BPO amount. I asked: Can you please get me that BPO amount? Because I have been waiting more than 30 days to get this information and I cannot proceed with this short sale until I obtain it.
Ten minutes later the negotiator from DTS called with the BPO amount. Eureka! I love these guys! Got a problem with your Bank of America short sale? Send a Tweet to BofA_Help through Twitter.com.
