From dsnews.com:
Bank of America is making changes to its short sale procedures and introducing an improved task flow within the short sale technology module from Equator, BofA’s short sale management platform of choice. The goal: to reduce the timeframe for a short sale decision to less than three weeks.
Starting Saturday, April 14, real estate professionals working with BofA will be required to submit five documents for short sales initiated with an offer:
- Purchase Contract including Buyer’s Acknowledgment and Disclosure
- HUD-1
- IRS Form 4506-T
- Bank of America Short Sale Addendum, which includes the Agent Certification form
- Bank of America Third-Party Authorization Form
The acknowledgement and disclosure form, short sale addendum, and the form for third-party authorization are available through the company’s online Agent Resource Center.
The third-party authorization form is a new standardized document developed specifically for BofA. Previously, the lender accepted third-party authorization forms in differing formats and from a variety of sources when transacting a short sale.
Bank of America says it recognized a need for greater compliance and consistency with this important document and has now created its own form to standardize the third-party authorization process. The two-page document requires signed acknowledgments from all borrowers and designated representatives in a short sale. Beginning April 14, BofA will accept only the official Bank of America Third-Party Authorization Form for short sales.
The bank’s new short sale process will enable real estate agents, brokers, attorneys, and other short sale specialists involved in pre-foreclosure transactions to complete tasks such as document collection, valuations, and underwriting simultaneously.
With these steps running concurrently, the timeline from initiation to closing is reduced. In fact, Bank of America says it will now be able to provide a decision on a short sale offer in 20 days. Typically, BofA’s short sale process has taken anywhere from 45 days upwards.
In continuing to streamline the decision process, should the buyer walk away from the sale, Bank of America is giving agents five days to submit a backup offer. Previously, the backup offer window was 14 days. Interested buyers are limited to two counteroffers and will receive a response from the lender within three days.
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The additional forms look like short-sale-fraud prevention devices. This attorney thinks that realtors will balk at signing them, because they will be assuming all liability for misrepresentions or omissions (hat tip to Stormin for sending this in):
http://www.californiashortsalelawyer.com/2012/04/high-risk-bank-america-tpa/
This is good in that it will keep unrealistic short sales from lingering on the market for ages and buyers from thinking that they can get a house at those prices.
Just say NA to BANA!
Thanks for the link to the California Short Sale Lawyer. I work for the Wine Country Group of Better Homes and Gardens and sent it up the chain of command after sending it to a friend who specializes in Short Sales. BofA impresses me once again, with their idiocy.
Never been involved with a short sale, but 3 weeks still seems like an eternity for a simple yes or no answer. You would think that BofA would have established a short sale price range that is acceptable, and not have to manually review each offer. But it doesn’t sound like it.
Further evidence why nobody calls large banks “smart money.”
Thank you very little, B of Turd.
Our offer on a B of A short sale sat on someone’s desk for 40+ days before someone finally got around to reviewing our contract. Two weeks from that point (60+ days from the time the seller accepted our offer), the sellers backed out of the contract and took the listing off the market while B of A was still stuck in appraisal mode. The sellers decided stay in the house.
Speaking of Bof A – Calculated Risk’s entry “BofA sues BofA in Foreclosure Filing” was a pretty choice read yesterday.
I wonder why they don’t just stop doing short sales and go directly to foreclosure auction, where fraud is less likely.