San Jose Real Estate * REALTOR ® * Richard Gonzalez

Bank of America Short Sale Approval Process May Improve.

Today I had a conversation with a short sale negotiator from Bank of America and was informed that Bank of America is implementing changes to there approval process for short sales waiting to be approved.

This new fast track process (as I refer to it ) applies to loans that do not have to be approved by an outside investor.  For example if you have a loan that does not require an outside investor approval the negotiator simply runs the numbers in the computer and approves it if the computer shows a favorable calculation.

Hopefully this will shorted the horrid time lines we are experiencing when  working with Bank of America short sales.

Countrywide now Bank of America is now asking sellers to sign a 10% promissory note relative to the approved sales price and it appears to be getting worse before it gets better. For example if you are selling your property for $300,000 in a short sale you would have to sign a promissory note for $30,000 payable over 25 years at 0% interest.

Maybe I was wrong in thinking that those homeowners with countrywide short sales would benefit when it was announced that Countrywide would cease to exist and would officially become Bank of America.

It must have been the past 90 days of improved negotiations with banks and loan servicers in general that gave me that warm fuzzy feeling, but alas it was not meant to be.

I originally thought it may have been a glitch in the system, after all it’s not uncommon for investors to ask the seller to make some sort of a contribution but for whatever reason either some big wig or investor came up with the great idea of kicking sellers in the teeth while they are down (metaphorically speaking).

So far the last four short sales we have been negotiating with Bank of America have dropped the promissory note bomb on us. Take a guess at what our seller’s response has been. How would you respond? Some banks and servicers are making things worse rather than better, over the past year or two the common sense approach for the decision makers of these short sales have dwindled down to the absurd.