Bank of America's Short Sales Programs are Expanding and Improving

Bank of America attended a webinar today with Bob Hora and the CDPE Distressed Property Institute revealing all about new processes in place: The Bank of America will be sending out a package, The Home Transition Guide, to the homeowner explaining owner's options, including a short sale.

2010--90,000 short sales completed by the Bank.
2011--over 100,000 short sales so far.

Their goal is to have a leaner short sale process in the future where the entire process is shorter by several weeks.
More people are hired to do short sales at the Bank, today there are over 3,000 staff members, including those at their call centers. A single point of contact at the Short Sale Department throughout the short sale will be established after the homeowner's initial contact with the Bank of America. Homeowners who go into customer assistance
SLAs (service level agreements) will agree to responses with certain periods of time, and Bank has established a Closing Center in Arizona to handle short sale closings.

The bank has over 500 investors and many MI (mortgage insurance) companies to work with, and get approval from.  Depending on their relationship with these investors, the timeline may be faster or shorter, and it's important that the homeowner understand these relationship.  The short sale specialist can explain who is delegated investor or non-delegated.

If a borrower is having a hard time getting a loan modification, they should turn to an Realtor quickly:  A short sale file needs to be opened with an accepted offer from a buyer at the bank at least 45 days prior to the foreclosure sale date. So if you the borrower has a Notice of Default on your property now, your time is even more limited to market and find a buyer in time.

The Bank also is reviewing every transaction for arms length transactions--the short sale market place is not the venue for questionable "flips" or "deals" during the short sale process, and the Bank ( as well as other legal entities) are on the lookout for practices that do not conform to regular procedures.

The Bank prefers a short sale over a deed-in-lieu, and the bank doesn't consider the DIL the best transaction for the Bank or the investor.
For assistance with a home valuation if you're considering a short sale transaction, either call me or contact me through my website, where I have much information at "Help for Homeowners" at http://www.juliahuntsman.com/.