Bank of America Short Sale Escalation Web Tool
Posted on Dec 7, 2011 by Trent Chapman
As you probably are aware… Bank of America is one of the largest servicers/banks in the United States and if you have done more than 10 short sales, you undoubtedly have done at least one if not a few Bank of America short sales. Bank of America adopted a short sale processing platform a couple years ago called Equator (originally REOTrans). While Equator is a good platform for file processing, we still are often more successful by escalating files outside of Equator via email or phone directly to decision makers.Well, Bank of America has grown tired of the constant side stepping of Equator for dispute resolution (that is my assumption) and created a new Web Tool that has been released to certain agents (I am assuming the most annoying of us that escalate often) to either 1) try to make it easier to get files approved and closed or 2) keep us from being so annoying. I tend to believe it is the latter… but time will tell.
In this video, I’ll share with you how this simple Web Tool works. If you have used it and have any feedback, please comment below as I have not yet made my final opinion on the service and it’s usefulness.
**You cannot use this tool unless BofA has “tapped you on the shoulder”, per se, and sent you an email telling you that they have set you up to login to the Short Sale Escalation Web Tool. I don’t know if you can ask them directly for access or if this will be released to all agents eventually.**
Here are their instructions on when it is appropriate to escalate: CLICK HERE
What is the URL for Escalation Guide Line document?
Read the section below the video and click on the link at the bottom.
-Trent
How do I get invited to the Short Sale Escalation Tool? I do alot of Short Sales with BOA.
I am not sure how you would solicit them to add you as a user for that tool. I know it’s been around for several weeks, but my team didn’t get invited until mid November. Maybe make mention of it when you do your next escalation. I just assume that it was because of how often we escalate vs the number of listings. I am sure others have just as many listings with BofA, but don’t push on the bank as hard as we do for the right terms, so they may not be looked at by the bank as ‘annoying’ like they may perceive us to be : )
-Trent
Hey Trent. I received an invite to the escalation tool back in November myself and like you I was very skeptical. I figured that it was just a way to keep agents that will do real escalations when necessary from bugging the executives. I had a file that I wanted to give it a try on and got a good result really fast so I must say that I am surprised. The situation was an approval that we received recently had the verbiage that BofA retained the right to seek a deficiency. I have been getting deficiency waivers on everything for the last year or so with no fight at all but on this one they said it was because the seller had assets and was current on all of their other obligations except for the mortgage. They said with a 5k contribution at closing they could give us a non-deficiency letter, without the contribution they said we were stuck with the deficiency letter. After fighting it out with the closer and negotiator for a few days and getting no where I was just getting ready to fire off some emails to some escalation contacts when I decided to give the tool a try. I filled out the information in the tool and gave a brief explanation of what I needed this past Saturday afternoon. This morning (Monday) at 5:30 am there was a message in Equator stating that they put a new approval letter in the property library. I looked it over and it is the non-deficiency letter that we were seeking with no cash contribution and no prom note. So I may have to eat my words, I guess we will see how smooth it goes in future. Hopefully everyone else gets similar results!
Eric
Nice Eric. I noticed that one of the ‘reasons for escalation’ was about deficiency verbiage. Keep us informed on any other escalations and the results, good or bad.
-Trent
Im a buyer, how do i get access to use this escalation tool?
Sorry David, but as a buyer, you won’t have access to this tool. This is for listing agents who are representing the seller to communicate with the bank VPs or their assistants when negotiators aren’t following protocol or when outside parties under the banks control are not following the proper timelines for completing tasks.
-Trent
why , is it that still taken 60 Days ?
I believe it is still taking a long time… because it is just a tool to slow down our escalations. We came to the conclusion that those of us who escalate often are the ones being pushed to use this ‘tool’.
We don’t expect much from using it, but if we follow their protocol, use this and then escalate like we always have, they can’t get upset because we tried to use their tool, but it didn’t work.
-Trent
what about when you scalate a file but yes after 60 days you receive approval letter and is good only for 5 days . what is the best way to ask for extension ? and to who closing agent or the short sale specialist? or shoul i scalate the file again for an extension if the specialist is taken too long to provide the extension, ?
Original approval letter is expired.
specialist is saying every time you call I’m working on getting extension, FC has been postpone but is about to be FC again and specialist nor closing agent ,have provide you new approval letter: ? by the way i have completed all the 9 steps , and all the task .
I work at Bank of America do SS short status and escalaton. People are so frustrated with how things are done. 16 offers on 1 property, the negotions take to long. Buyers walk. It would be great to have one tool that can escalate. I have 12 programs open do do escalations and status.Kathy
I am not clear, you work at Bank of America in the short sale department? I agree, most banks are taking way too long still to respond with an approval or decline.
-Trent
I started this process on April 14, 2011 with an offer on a short sale property. I have been patient through 60+ days of thinking that my offer had been presented to BOA and finding out that the listing agent had not yet been invited to upload the offer into Equator, having the listing pulled from the MLS and relisted at a price reduction of $39K, surviving the ensuing 8+ person bidding war to finally having my offer uploaded into Equator on July 3, 2011. After the inspection identified the need for a HVAC unit replacement, we negotiated the offer down by $5k (cost for replacement) in early August, with a requested closing date of August 31, 2011. On that day, (8/31) BOA communicated through the listing agent a refusal to pay closing costs due to my down payment being >10% of the sales price. I countered my initial offer and on September 4th, received an e-mail from my agent that my offer had been accepted pending approval from upper management. I was green lighted to convey this new info to my finance company, with the caveat of planning to close prior to November 3, 2011. I am now playing the waiting game again. My question is whether everything resets to 0 each time there is a wrinkle in the process? Should I clock time from September 4, 2011 or from July 3, 2011? Why would anyone convey an approval prior to getting upper management’s blessing, does this sound at all legitimate? At this point what would be a reasonable time frame within which to expect to close?
That’s frustrating Lisa. Sorry to hear about that. I assume you meant 2012. Anyhow, this not too surprising knowing that the banks makes mistake ALL the time. However, that being said, the good news is that based on where you are, it’s very likely that you will be able to close soon. The one thing that needs to be done is constant pushing on behalf of the agent (and no, not just through Equator).
-Trent
Hello, I have been working with my client with BoA short sale since Sept 2012. We were in the CO OOP process. My client signed the CO OOP program on 10/25/2012 and I was told we were approved on 11/12 and was just waiting for the approved list price. When talkign to BoA they was never a trustee sale on the property. It was on HOLD to allow the short sale. We received a email form the specialist on 11/26 that we were in the final approval stage and on 11/27 the home was sold with no notice of trustee sale given to my clients or even anything given to me.
That doesn’t sound possible Sandra. If they had previously filed a NOTS within the last 12 months (assuming you are in CA) then they can schedule the sale without re-filing the NOTS.
A good practice if you do short sales is to call the lender every week regardless of what is happening and in each conversation ask, “is there a sale date scheduled for this property”.
Out of thousands of liens we’ve negotiated I don’t ever recall a surprise foreclosure, because we are asking, even after a short sale is approved.
I would suggest escalating the matter and find out why you were told on 11/12 that it was approved for the Coop, but then it foreclosed 2 weeks later.
-Trent
I am the buyer for a BofA short sale property. Aug submitted offer to seller, and she signed right away (reportedly bank set price, we offered full price). But because it is ‘as is’ we requested $5K credit toward closing. Appraisal came in at $430K, our price was $427K.
All terms of original contract were never changed, now we get escrow instructions that have buyer paying more escrow fees, and no $5k credit toward closing. But this was never negotiated, we never ever even got a letter/note from BofA changing the terms of the contract, only noticed it in the escrow instructions.
Why didn’t BofA ever submit in writing to us the change in terms for our approval prior to going to escrow. I am confused. Now the selling agent says if we want it fine, or he will find another buyer.
Lee,
I can understand your frustration. Unfortunately, the contract you and the seller signed is “unenforceable” until it is approved by the lender. Likewise, if the lender makes any changes to the terms, it is an “unenforceable” agreement unless all parties agree to the changes. The agent is right, you can accept the changes or not, but no one has to formally counter the price and terms as the price and terms you and the seller agreed to are unenforceable. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Short sales can be frustrating for some buyers and if your agent has enough experience, they should have educated you on this reality that a contract only becomes an executable contract when all THREE parties agree (bank, seller and you, the buyer). Traditional real estate is different and as soon as you and the seller signed the agreement, it is executable and no one can unilaterally change those terms. Good luck!
-Trent
Trent, thanks for the prompt reply.
One of my major concerns, is that I know Equator a little bit, and under the section for Offer Analysis, the selling agent receives the banks counter to our written offer, and in this counter the bank would stipulate, and then the selling agent would indicate by checking a box (YES) that the buyers agree. I think the selling agent simply checked this box agreeing for us without ever bothering to ask or present the changes to us. In essence the selling agent negotiated for us with the bank without telling us.
As you can imagine this is probably not only unethical but professionally a problem.
You are correct. They had to accept it via Equator and they “should” have informed you before you found out from the escrow instructions. The point I am making is, 1) the listing agent probably isn’t going to go back and fight it at this point and unless their seller tells them to, they have no obligation to do so and 2) you can accept it or walk away without any financial loss.
So you have to accept their lack of proper communication and close or stand up for what you feel is right and possibly lose the deal. I wouldn’t like your options there either, but that’s what you have to choose between.
-Trent
Trent, can you give me a heads up as to why the FHA short sales are taking so long. When you escalate, BofA doesn’t respond after week 1. No managers or supervisors answer the phone. I have a file that has been in negotiations since July of 2012.
All 15 files that a group of us are working on are Bank of America FHA that are over 90 days.
How do I get a response for our FHA short sale files?
We are trying to obtain an extension on the short sale but got a reply in email to decline. What can we do to escalate the case to the management level.
Thank you,