Bank of America is noted for not cooperating and refusing to work with anyone for any reason. I would suggest you get a lawyer specializing in RE. and go to the top. They may not even have the loan/papers. They may have sold it and not notified you. Find out where the deed is, etc. The local branches won't work with you, but do document everything you do, call, talk to including names, time, and if they are located in the US. Go back and try to remember as much as you can and put that down. You might contact an investigative reporter for the media. Yes I sound mean, but just google Bof A and see what you find out.

Thanks. I don't think you sound mean. They are the mean ones.

My experience has been that hiring a "short sale" attorney is a waste of time. Seems like they are much more detatched from a transaction than a RE agernt. Get a more agreesive RE agent, who has a lot of short sale experience. But most banks will not do much for you until you receive a contract on the property. Sounds like you are missing this vital part in order for the deal to go forward. Being on the market for two years tells me you need another SS agent.

The lender often has a lot of things in play.

A short sale may not allow them to make a PMI claim, while a full up default and foreclosure may.

ncrealestateguy -- she says she has a willing, able and ready and buyer and that BoA won't allow the contract.

The way I read the original post, there wasn't a contract to sell;
the rental contract fell through, & OP applied to BOA for approval to participate in the short sale process.

ncreguy is right;
attorneys are too detached from the immediacy of the problem;
you need a contract on that house, no matter how high or low.

I've had exactly one short sale listing on a house that was financed through BOA, & it was a nightmare;
the homeowner had no money, her husband was out of work, the house needed work, communications with BOA were tortuous as well as totally ineffective, the bank claimed to have an appraisal that showed the property to be worth far more than any other house in town other than country club properties (& this home was around the corner from a bait shop).

At some point, after homeowner moved to an apartment, they re-keyed the lock & my $96 keybox disappeared.

Not only did I not get it back, but none of my emails was answered, & one fine afternoon I talked to about half a dozen actual human beings, all of whom either transferred me to a voicemail which I already knew was not answered or gave me another phone number to try.
One memorable # was for a BOA loan officer who didn't know what I was talking about but said he'd be very happy to help any buyers I might have...

After homeowner moved out, about another year went by before BOA foreclosed & put the house on the market *for less than one of the offers I had presented*.

a nightmare.

My best knowledge, insight, advice to OP:

Lenders have negotiators whose only job is to get the most money they can for the lender.

As long as a borrower has assets, they're likely to take the stance that you'll find a way, & if you don't, they'd rather foreclose than agree to a short sale, because with a foreclosure they can seek a deficiency judgment against the borrower.

The only person I know who successfully negotiated a BOA short sale stuck with it for over 2 years;
house was a wreck, homeowner was a wreck (no money, no help, disabling health problems, outside air conditioner units stolen, no idea what disaster would befall her next), &, just as you've said, BOA wouldn't give her a clue how to price the house & wouldn't even approve her for participation in the short sale process.

The listing agent & homeowner finally reduced the price to a very low figure, got an offer,submitted it with the hardship letter & so forth, & it looks like it may actually close.

If I had a client who was in your shoes, I'd encourage her to either lower the price, accept any contract & submit it to BOA or rent the house out & hope to ride out the storm, anything to avoid draining all her assets.

I wish you the best.

If you tried to do everything the right way and if they will foreclose on you anyway, then you might as well send BofA a "jingle mail" ... you walk away and send them the keys.

See the link below. The whole RE and mortgage industry have lost their minds. At this point just do what is best for your family.

Here is a link that might be useful: BofA paying people to move ...

It does sound like she has a firm offer from someone. The original post said:

"We have a ready, willing and able buyer and the bank won't accept their offer knowing the house is vacant and knowing we haven't been paying it"

If it was me and they wouldn't approve a short sale then I wouldn't keep throwing good money after bad and would just give up the house (recognizing that depending on your state they may foreclose and sue for a deficiency)

Kat... the OP has never said that they sent BofA a CONTRACT. An offer is not a contract. Maybe the OP is just using incorrect terminology.
IMO, BofA has really become much more streamlined over the last 12 - 16 months. There is actually some rhyme and reason to the process now.
I wonder if the agent realizes that she needs to use the EQUATOR system that BofA and a lot of other lenders require us to use. If the agent is not submitting the contracts and all correspondences through Equator, then no wonder she is not getting anywhere.

Kat... the OP has never said that they sent BofA a CONTRACT. An offer is not a contract. Maybe the OP is just using incorrect terminology.

I get that. A contract exists when both parties -- seller and buyer -- have signed it. Until then it is an offer. I would assume the Seller wouldn't want to sign the contract until the Seller was sure that the Seller could comply with the contract and actually sell the property.

"I would assume the Seller wouldn't want to sign the contract until the Seller was sure that the Seller could comply with the contract and actually sell the property."

No, the seller signs and then you try to convince the note holder to release the lien for less than the balance (a short sale).

You can add notice in the contract that the buyer can withdraw with notice if the process drags on.

Yes, we did have a purchase contract that we submitted to BOA. The buyers were willing to wait 2 months for an answer. They asked for nothing. It was a clean deal.

This statement is correct" "No, the seller signs and then you try to convince the note holder to release the lien for less than the balance (a short sale)." There was NO way to know if BOA would accept it or not. They wanted nothing to do with the process until we had a buyer. We had a contract signed by both us, the sellers, and the buyers.

We spoke to the negotiator. Get this, she said we have good credit and we are not behind on the payments. We told her we haven't made payments since January. She said she doesn't have access to that information. What the heck? So she made a decision based on old information and because one department doesn't talk to another, they think we are still making payments.

I called corporate headquarters and filed a complaint. Now we have someone helping us along. They cannot make the SS go through but they are our point of contact. She can delay foreclosure, supposedly. We decided to do a deed in lieu, but they want us to go through the entire process again (all new paperwork, statements, tax returns, etc.). AND, the house has to be for sale. OK, so it's been for sale, we got an offer, they rejected it. Why in the world would a realtor put anymore time and effort into this house and keep it on the mls when they know no contract will be accepted?

Also I wanted to add that our realtor did use the Equator system and so did the attorney.

I wanted to thank you all for your support without being snarky. There is another site that people post these types of questions and people just rip into them calling them deadbeats and immoral.

As far as renting, we tried to work that out and it just doesn't work. The rent won't cover the mortgage and that shortfall wouldn't be too bad, but the costs of the insurance and fee for a mandated property manager would be too much.

Can your husband explain to his supervisor what kind of a lose/lose scenario that the relocation is causing? I would be inclined to be negotiating with them as much as the lender. After all, it is not much of a benefit of relocating if it is going to cause you to have terrible credit.

"We spoke to the negotiator. Get this, she said we have good credit and we are not behind on the payments. We told her we haven't made payments since January."

This is probably the one thing that might get BofA to move.

As long as they have not taken notice of the missed payments the loan remains 'performing' and is an asset to the bank for reserves.

Once it becomes non-performing (especially if foreclosure starts) if is no longer an asset, and the bank must find some other asset to make reserve limits.

Make sure you have a good attorney advising you.

You must put conditions on BofA that they are NOT allowed to report the short sale to the credit bureaus as a loss.
A few dings are not nearly as bad as a foreclosure with loss, or a short sale with loss.

You sound like the scads of folks in trouble for no cause of their own, but hammered by economic and job shifts.

The folks who used the house as a piggy bank are still out there, doing everything they can to game the system.

Interesting. My husband got a letter from BOA saying they are cancelling his credit card because either there is a late payment history on it (it has $0 balance so it's not the CC), or he is late in paying another account associated with them. The only account not being paid is the BOA mortgage. This letter was dated May 17. He also got a letter dated May 21 from BOA mortgage saying the SS was denied because he is current on payments. There just has to be a way to prove they are negligent in their decision-making process. The people who wanted to buy our house are heartbroken (I know, this is just business and no one cares about that).

How much less than what is owed on the loan did the "buyers" want to pay? I have heard that BOA can be a pain to deal with but if you were suggesting that they take a huge loss you should understand that is just not a smart business decision for them. I suspect that taking a loss on a full foreclosure is easier on the "write it off" paperwork at the end of the year.

Treesh,
Is it imperative that your husband's employer put you in this position? You keep harping on BoA, but what about the employer who is initiating the first step here that is putting you in this bad situation? Maybe they can make up the difference of the shortfall.

Honestly, then I don't know what they are waiting for. How long does it take to foreclose?

NCrealestateguy, it's already a done deal. This has been going on for almost 2 years. We've hung on for as long as we could. I'm harping on BOA because they won't work with us and have given us the run around this whole time. We have jumped through their hoops and really were willing to do anything we could to keep paying for the home or do a short sale and pay off the difference. My friend, who has a different bank did that exact thing.

They told us we didn't qualify for HAFA, then they said we did, but we would have to go through the short sale process first. Now they say we qualify for nothing. We have submitted and resubmitted the same paperwork several times. No one there knows anything and no one cares. We keep getting letters to call them to see what we "may" qualify for. We call and they say we qualify for nothing.

I'm not harping on my husband's employer because that's who puts food on my kids' table.

"How long does it take to foreclose?"

this varies very widely by state.

Some are actually pretty fast (a month or two, sometimes less) while others are drawn out to a year (or more).

Non-judicial tends to go faster, but even some of those get dragged out.

Judicial foreclosures can take multiple years.

Delaying actions by the defaulting owner can slow things down also 9though rarely stop them).

Once the note holder starts foreclosure proceedings the value of the mortgage is no longer an asset on the banks books.

If it was used as part of required reserves, another asset must be found to maintain reserve requirements.

If a bank just does nothing despite no payments the note is in limbo.

It is still an asset on paper (though possibly 'nonperforming') with a smaller impact on bank operations.