Short Sale Week 8

This is Part 8 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

Short Sale - Week 6

Short Sale - Week 7

December 31, 2010

• I am surprised to receive a phone call from the Negotiator. He tells me he made a minor error on the counter offer, so he has resubmitted the counter for the buyer's approval. He asks me to accept the counter ASAP. While we're on the phone, he thanks me for being so responsive. I am surprised to hear that, more often than not, he has to coax agents into cooperating.
• I get the buyer's approval for the change and submit the accept counter.

January 3, 2011

• B of A accepts the buyer's offer! They send an acceptance letter and a settlement form that I am to fill out. I need updated settlement number, so I call my escrow officer to get the updates. I complete and submit the form to the Closing Officer to whom the file has been assigned. For those of you keeping score, this is the third person at B of A who has worked on the file, and that does not include the "investor".

January 4, 2011

• The Settlement Officer has rejected the settlement statement. There are closing fees that B of A refuses to pay. I call my escrow officer and we rework the numbers to eliminate those fees from the seller's costs.
• But there is a larger issue. When B of A asked for a final settlement statement, this triggered the escrow company to contact the HOA to find out exactly what is still owed against this property. They are told that there is special assessment of about $10,000 that must be paid at closing. Once again, I rework the settlement statement to reflect this debt and resubmit it to the Settlement Officer.

January 5, 2011

• The Settlement Officer accepts the revised settlement statement but asks me for documentation explaining the assessment. I download this information into Equator and she resubmits the revised offer to the investor.

Analysis - Days 50 - 56:

The process is becoming an emotional roller coaster. One minute you have an accepted offer, the next there's a call saying the offer has an error. I revise the offer per B of A's requirements only to have them toss it back with a refusal to pay certain fees. I revise the offer AGAIN removing those fees, only to have to resubmit for a special assessment. And, underlying it all, is the small print that accompanies ever correspondence from B of A that warns me that the bank can cancel the deal at any moment for any reason. In other words, it ain't over 'til it's over.

Hint:

Make sure your agent responds quickly to any requests from Equator. It is unacceptable for the Negotiator to have to plead with an agent for documentation. Yes, short sales are time consuming, but if your agent is not 100% dedicated to getting your short sale approved, then you need a new agent!