How my short sale is going, chapter whatever, or BofA is the bitchenest bank of all time!

We've been in escrow for three months now on 2012 W. Verdugo in Burbank and our stalwart buyer is hanging in there.  BofA and Chase, the lenders, verbally approved the deal about a month ago. But we still need their approval letter.  What's the hold-up? Our outside negotiator learned this week that his cohort at BofA had been fired, and now there's a new person to deal with there.  O BofA, I love you so.  The latest is that the file is with the investor for approval, and once that happens, we'll get our approval letter.  Short sales are being streamlined? Not in my world.

My Toluca Lake short sale closed!

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you may have been following my "how my short sale is going" posts for 10862 Bloomfield #103 in Toluca Lake.  IT CLOSED! 

Last Monday, Chase, the lender, finally sent the approval letter to me.  It had been a little over 4 and 1/2 months since the short sale package plus offer was submitted to Chase.  While we had verbal approval at the end of May, it just took forever to get Chase's letter -- and you can't close a short sale transaction without having an okay from the lender in writing.  Since the buyer was paying cash, we -- meaning, mostly, the escrow officer -- was able to slam this shut on Friday. (Paying cash is a much faster transaction than getting a loan.)  We had worked in advance with both buyer and seller and had all disclosures and other contractual items reviewed and signed off in June.

A couple of details.  Yes, there were two loans.  Both, however, were with Chase, so Chase just wrote the 2nd off.  The seller/borrower was still current on her HOA payments and mostly current on her taxes, and there were no other outstanding liens against the property.  The seller could definitely prove her hardship, as she was denied a loan modification in 2009 and was laid off this year.  Since I represented both the buyer and seller, the commission was cut in half.  Bah.  But it's closed now and everybody is happy.