Facing foreclosure in Saint Louis and having to deal with Bank of America as your lender.
Because STL short sale expert specializes in short sales in Saint Louis, we actually deal with Bank of America quite a bit. Bank of America hit the news twice last week both good and bad press.
For those of you that don’t know, Bank of America is the largest lender for single family homes in the US. While one would hope that the largest company is also one of if not the most efficient companies around, our experience of negotiating Saint Louis short sales with them has lead us to the opposite conclusion. Bank of America and efficiency do not belong in the same sentence; especially, when we are talking about negotiating Saint Louis short sales with them. This has proven to be especially challenging when we are working with people in need of a foreclosure rescue in Saint Louis.
Last week’s news stories involved Bank of America and their inclusion as the first company to join the HAMP program for second lien holders. This was supposed to be the good press from last week. However, this really just shows how much Bank of America is trying to cooperate with the government because they are a company in desperate need of help. (Full article on Bank of America joining Hamp program)
Bank of America acquired Countrywide back in early 2008 in a move that solidified themselves as the largest lender in the United States. Remember the whole subprime mess? You know…That little thing that was a catalyst to the recession that we are currently in. Countrywide actually had the honor of being one of the industry leaders in subprime loans. So, when Bank of America bought Countrywide, it also bought all of the subprime loans and the foreclosures that came along with them.
Not surprisingly, Bank of America is the lender who forecloses on the most houses across the United States. As you can imagine, being a real estate agent that specializes in short sales in Saint Louis, Missouri, I have the wonderful luck of getting to negotiate short sales with them on a very consistent basis.
This brings us to the second news story about Bank of America that happened recently. Bank of America actually foreclosed on a property by mistake (click on the link for the whole story by ABC news). Many of my clients contact me for a foreclosure rescue in St. Louis. They contact me, and I am able to negotiate a Saint Louis short sale. Fortunately, I have never had to consult anyone that had their house foreclosed on by mistake!
I often will receive calls from people that aren’t necessarily my clients, but are just looking for expert short sale advice. These people will ask me questions about each lender. It is important to know how the institution that holds your loan operates.
Bank of America is arguably the worst lender to deal with when facing a short sale situation. This has been true for the last four years. Hopefully with their new system and more organization they will become better at handling short sales over time. It’s hard for me to believe they could get worse at handling short sales.
Know that you are not alone if you are in need of a foreclosure rescue, or a short sale in Saint Louis, and are having problems with Bank of America. Even someone such as myself, who negotiates short sales with banks for a living, and specializes in short sales in Saint Louis, has trouble dealing with Bank of America. It is not impossible to deal with them, just very time consuming. So don’t expect your problems to be dealt with quickly.
Our last blog was on the topic: holding on to your house, or pursuing a short sale. If you are reading this via an RSS feed, and would like to see the original link: Saint Louis short sale expert’s take on Bank of America.
Tags: bank of america, foreclosure rescue, foreclosure rescue in saint louis, real estate agent that specializes in short sales, saint louis short sale expert, Short sale, short sale expert, short sale expert in Saint Louis