I get hundreds of emails and blog posts on Bank of America Short Sales. It possibly could be from the millions of loans that were written by Countrywide Home Loans…but most certainly from the tens of thousands of frustrated sellers, realtors and buyers looking for answers on a Bank of America short sale.
Our team handles at least a dozen Bank of America at any given moment and we learn lots of tricks and loop holes to try and streamline and optimize the long and painful process. One mystery we could not solve is why do some short sales move right through the system when you switch buyers and other times you have to start all over?
The day before Thanksgiving we were scrambling trying to close out two Bank of America short sales. We got in touch with a wonderful and competent Bank of America negotiator…yes I said wonderful and competent. She handled our two issues with one phone call and we received closing documents on a short sale that had been lost in the system. We decided to push our luck and ask her for a special Thanksgiving favor.
We wanted the negotiator to review a file that had switched to a new buyer and we received closing docs and then the buyer walked. We then had a new offer in 3 days and the file was sent back to start over in the system.
This amazing and competent negotiator enlightened us on the “missing link” to adding a new buyer to a short sale.
The missing link to the mystery of why it works on one and not the other is pretty simple…Expired Documents.
As we all know, BPOs, financial statements and any documents in a short sale package have a limited shelf life in the Bank of America system. Typically it is 60 days. If the short sale is close to being approved they will extend the expiration date of the documents and continue processing. However, if you switch buyers with expired documents then the file becomes expired. Bank of America negotiators can not approve a short sale with expired documents.
So the loop hole is to update all of the files in the system to get a fresh “expiration date” on the file and then switch to the new buyer. This way the file is current and will not be closed by a Bank of America representative.
So simple it is almost frustrating.
If you are a troubled homeowner, or have a family member or friend facing foreclosure, please give us a call for a confidential consultation about the possibility of a short sale. Call Craig Baranowski at 850.259.1788 or email us @ info@teambaranowski.com. Team Baranowski has a 100% success rate for all of our short sales for 2009!
This site, Craig Baranowski or Keller Williams Realty is not providing legal or tax advice. The information provided is for educational and informational purposes only. It is recommended that sellers considering a short sale should consult an independent legal and tax adviser for more information.
