Today I received the following email from an loan officer at Bank of America aka Countrywide.

“UPDATED SHORT SALE TIME LINES AND ESCALATION PROCESS”

In a continuous effort to improve our short sale time lines, please be advised of our current time lines.

Remember that Bank Of America is a servicing company.  We don’t own the note on most of the properties we service.   An investor holds this note.   The investor has to agree to your short sale.

There are three different types of servicing agreements Bank of America has with these investors when a short sale arises.  The different types will affect your turnaround times for an answer.

1)  A “Fully Delegated File” is one where Bank of America has the ability to make a decision is made on the investors behalf without sending them all the paperwork for review.

2)  A “Limited Delegated File” is one where we have the ability to make a decision but with certain conditions.

3) A “Non-Delegated File” is one where a decision cannot be made alone.  All documents received must be forwarded to the investor, plus our research/findings and the investor makes the decision.  This is the most common.

There are three phases in the short sale process:
•        Phase 1: Active – documents and verification should be completed as well as Broker’s Price Opinion or appraisal.
•        Phase 2: Other Follow Up – negotiation and approval letter.
•        Phase 3: Qualified – closing.

THE FOLLOWING WILL OCCUR IN THE FIRST 25 CALENDAR DAYS REGARDLESS OF DELEGATION
All requested docs must be received
Loan is referred by Collections        
File is opened
Offer received (Executed contract and HUD)
Value ordered through bulk order process
Assigned to Phase 1 negotiator

THE FOLLOWING WILL OCCUR IN THE FIRST 40 CALENDAR DAYS REGARDLESS OF DELEGATION        
Documents received,  File assigned to Phase 2 negotiator who will complete negotiations and analysis

IF THE FILE IS DELEGATED, IT WILL ROUTED FOR APPROVAL OR DECLINE IN THE FIRST 45 CALENDAR DAYS AND AN APPROVAL OR DECLINE WILL BE COMMUNICATED

IF THE FILE IS NON-DELEGATED, AND HAS TO GO TO THE INVESTOR, PLEASE ALLOW UP TO 30 MORE CALENDAR DAYS FOR APPROVAL OR DECLINE

UP TO 75 CALENDAR DAYS IS THE TARGET DATE FOR APPROVAL OR DECLINE ON NON-DELEGATED FILES

If renegotiations or additional investor recommendations are made, this can add up to another 15 days.  

So, on the most common files, the non-delegated files, please allow 75 to 90 days for final decisions that include approval or decline communication.

If your short sale goes past 90 days on a non-delegated file, or 45 days on a delegated file, from the date the seller sent in his complete short sale package, you will want to escalate.

Although this letter is fairly technical in nature I think you can get a pretty good idea of the time frame you are in if you make an offer on a “Short Sale” or if you are going to list your property as a “Short Sale.”

See other articles about Short Sales:

Las Vegas homes for sale asking price games!

Short Selling and Foreclosure may put you in trouble in Las Vegas!