Short Sale - Week 6

This is Part 6 of an on-going series documenting my most recent experience attempting to use Bank of America's Equator system to complete a short sale. You can find earlier posts in this series at:

Short Sale - Week 1

Short Sale - Week 2

Short Sale - Week 3

Short Sale - Week 4

Short Sale - Week 5

December 17, 2010

• The seller and I spend the morning scrambling to collect all the new and updated documents required by HAFA. By early afternoon I submit all the required documents. I call HAFA to verify they have received everything. HAFA tells me that the file will be sent to the underwriting department where the documents will be reviewed to see if the file qualifies for HAFA. This will take a minimum of two weeks.


• Late afternoon I receive an email from Equator confirming that the file is at HAFA's underwriting department.

Analysis - Days 36 - 42:

It was very upsetting for the seller to be suddenly confronted with demands for more paperwork, especially when the documents required were already submitted. It does no good to point out to the lender that the reason the documents are out of date is because they required them a month earlier and just filed them without doing the required analysis at the time they were received. It is also disconcerting to be thrust into the HAFA program. When the seller first contacted B of A to set up the short-sale, B of A should have explain that, once the paperwork is complete, the file will automatically be submitted to HAFA. This way, both buyer and seller understand what will occur, and understand that it will delay the process a minimum of two weeks.

Hint:

Recognize when things are out of your control, and have patience as the file grinds its way through the system.