Did you get a bad counter? It is not always Bank of America’s fault

East Valley Team member Dean Ouellette talks about how a bad counter offer from a bank asking for way to much money is not always the banks fault.

As an agent doing short sales in the East Valley, sometimes we see counter offers that make us scratch our head and say what was the bank thinking. This is one of those deals.

Bank of America had approved a short sale for us in late August at $131k, but in early September we lost the buyer. So back on the market the house went. The problem was in this area of the East Valley prices were dropping quick.

After about a month we get an offer at $125k and submit it to the Bank of America short sale department through Equator. In just three weeks they order the new BPO to determine current value, assign it to a negotiator and send us a counter offer. The counter offer was for $157k. What? 157k??

I pulled up comparable properties in the subdivision and I cannot find anything in the last three months that has sold for more than the $125k we had the offer in for. Then I found it, this one house that sold for $254k!

Now why did this house sell for so much? Maybe it was because it was 1200 square feet bigger than our listing? Maybe it was because of all the upgrades throughout the house that our listing did not have? Maybe it was because this house was a show house for the developer, a model home that had never been lived in. Most likely it was because of all the above.

As you can see this house is not comparable to our house at all. Does Bank of America know this? No, they only see the BPO that the agent submitted. They can only make decisions based on the information they have and now that I have provided them with all the information maybe we can get this approved quickly.