As the hot-to-trot little Sacramento short sale agent that I am, I listed a couple more short sales yesterday. One of those is a Cooperative Short Sale with Bank of America. The thing about this short sale home is it is owned by a lawyer. A lawyer who is sharp enough to hire the best short sale agent she could find and not the agent who Bank of America recommended. She likes my 30-plus years of experience, and she appreciates the fact that I am the #1 Agent at Lyon Real Estate for last month.
I'm not saying that Bank of America is paying extra money to other brokerages with whom they are in cahoots affiliated, but let's just say that Bank of America doesn't do anything that is not beneficial to Bank of America. That's because Bank of America is a corporation. Corporations exist to turn a profit. Sole reason. Clear disclosure: I hold stock in Bank of America.
But Bank of America is not a short sale seller's friend. Those days of bankers being your friend and helping you are over. It's YOU vs. Bank of America. Bank of America is working with DTS, Digital Transfer Solutions, to do Cooperative Short Sales in Sacramento, and in other cities. A Cooperative Short Sale means no real qualification on the part of the seller. You don't have to write a hardship letter. And the bank gives you $2,500 at closing. How sweet is that?
The lawyer homeowner I met with had Googled the ReMAX agent whom Bank of America had referred to her. She said the guy had only 2 years in real estate. She had a conversation with the ReMAX agent. He could not answer her questions about a short sale. On top of that, he pressured her about her obligation to Bank of America. She said he acted as though he was a collection agent for Bank of America -- and maybe that's how DTS trains them, if they train them at all, hard to say. But that's not what a short sale agent does.
A short sale agent is supposed to have a fiduciary relationship with the seller. The short sale agent represents the seller, not the bank. If you want your Cooperative Short Sale to close smoothly and without complications, you better hire an experienced Sacramento short sale agent to do it. Especially a short sale agent who has closed other Cooperative Short Sales.
Don't sell yourself short. The bank has already done that scenario for you.
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.
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The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.
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