Mortgage Forum

Joel Fraser

Hi,Does anyone have experience in working with Bank of America in a Short Sale transaction? Can anyone provide me with a referral to an attorney who has?The problem is that BofA agreed to a shortsale in the amount listed on the HUD-1. However, they are requiring that I agree to repay the remaining amount (amount owed less what they are scheduled to receive) in the form of an unsecured note. The specific language is "... the bank will release the lien and charge off the remaining debit as a collectable balance. Our recovery department will be in contact with you to make arrangements on this balance."Several contacts to BofA resulted in learning that if I was expecting the "normal" short sale transaction, I needed to request a "settlement" in the hardship letter. I did this and received a letter stating that they agreed to accept an amount lower than what I owed, but significantly higher than the amount available to them from the HUD-1 according to the submitted purchase offer.Repeated calls have only yieled the additional information that the manager of the short sale department approved the settlement amount and that it is "non-negotiable".The problem is that the difference between the short amount and the amount owed is signficantly more that I could ever affort to repay (which is why I am selling in the first place - I won't go into the details here.) So I don't think I should sign a note that I know I'll never be able to repay.I would be willing to hire an attorney who has experience with this issue with BofA.Any advice would be greatly appreciated, because I am literally between a rock and a hard place, with seemingly very little options.Thanks,-ShortinPA