Bank of America Lays Down the Law on Short Sale Commissions

Everyone always wants to know about short sale agent commissions. When the recession hit in late 2007 or early 2008, short sale agent commissions were hacked by the short sale lenders. Shortly thereafter, Fannie Mae announced that it would pay 6% in agent commission on all of their short sales. Then, over time, other lenders and investors began to follow suit.

Just recently, Bank of America formalized their agent commission policy. As you can see from the chart below, most agents listing short sales will earn a standard commission.

According to an announcement from Bank of America:

“flexibility is allowed in the commission structure when the short sale does not reflect positive mitigation or if the minimum acceptable net proceed is not met. In these circumstances, the real estate agent may choose to reduce his/her commission to meet minimum mitigation requirements.”

Here are two commission exceptions to the chart above: 1) Dual agents unrelated to either party will receive a 4% commission; 2) In some situations, commission is limited per investor guidelines/investor approval and may vary.

While it may seem that there is always a catch, at Short Sale Expeditor® we have seen most of our Bank of America short sales get approved with a 6% commission. We’ve even had numerous clients receive large relocation assistance packages—up to $30,000! With those two benefits, the Bank of America short sale is very appealing for both agents and sellers.

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