Last week I had a new buyer ask me, “Please tell me the truth about putting an offer on a short sale”. This question seems like it should be pretty straightforward to answer, but in reality it is not. Writing an offer on a short sale is not even close to being a straightforward process. It should be, but it isn’t.
There are several issues a buyer needs to consider when making an offer on a short sale property. First and foremost, no two short sales are alike. I like to say, short sales are like snowflakes, no two are alike. Those who know me well understand this is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek statement. However, it really is the truth. Every short sale is different. Some sellers have one loan, some have two. Some have three loans, a tax lien and HOA lien, etc. It all depends on the individual situation of the home owner. Some have two loans with one bank; some have two loans with two different banks. When you start to consider all the possibilities of various combinations of the above listed conditions, you begin to see what I’m talking about. Every different lender has a different process for a short sale. Consider Bank of America for instance. Your short sale process will be different if your loan is serviced by Bank of America Home Loans vs. Bank of America, N.A. They are the same company, right? Wrong. They are different corporate entities and treat short sales differently.

I’m only two paragraphs in, and this is already getting confusing. I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of how complicated this gets. Ready to give up and wait for a regular sale or foreclosure yet? Don’t give up. There is hope for the short sale buyer. What hope, you ask? Me! An agent who understands the short sale process, and can guide a buyer to a successful purchase without wasting a year or more of their lives. A good agent understands short sales and can help a buyer identify which ones to look at and which ones to avoid. The only catch is, you must trust me (your agent).

The reason you must trust me when looking at short sales is because so many agents out there who have short sale listings are not following the rules. They may not be malicious in their disregard for the rules, just ignorant in most cases. The rules I’m referring to are the rules of the multiple listing service (MLS). Realtor boards who govern MLS activity have rules set up for how short sales should be handled with regard the MLS and how properties appear or don’t appear on the internet.

Many agents let their short sale listings stay active on the MLS long after they are no longer available for the buyer to purchase. Why does this happen? Because in a short sale, once the seller accepts your offer, you are only halfway home (at best). Once the seller accepts your offer, it is forwarded to the bank for acceptance. The bank acceptance process can take anywhere from one week to one year or more, depending on the complexity of the situation. The myriad of reasons why it can take so long is a subject for another article. If you follow my blog articles and videos, you have some idea why it can take so long. Mainly, it is not just your offer being considered, but also the seller’s financial situation and whether there truly is no other option for them.

Many times the public comments on the MLS are also misleading. Statements like “short sale approved” are common place, but rarely true. The short sale may have been approved, but unless the bank has seen your offer specifically and issued an approval letter with your name on it as the buyer, the short sale is far from “approved”. In fact, statement like this are actually not supposed to be anywhere in the public remarks. All short sale information is supposed to be limited to agent confidential remarks only. So statements in internet advertising like “short sale approved” should be a red flag for buyers.

If you are serious about buying a property in this market, you need an agent who understands short sales. Short sales make up a huge and ever growing portion of the active inventory. If you aren’t working with an agent who understands the process, you are doomed to waste a lot of time and effort on a property that never stood a chance in the first place. An agent like myself, with the Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) designation, is a good place to start. However, not all CDPE’s have the same level of experience. We’ve all had the same classroom training, but may not have the level of experience needed to survive in the real world.

Short sales can represent great bargains for buyers who are well informed and have the right agent. If you want to be able to cut through all the hype and really understand what is going on out there, give me a call and I will explain everything you need to know about buying short sales.