Thread: Short Sales, Good or Bad?

short sales are great if you want to wait 45 to 90 days
before hearing anything from the bank. Also you might wait
that long just to find out you have to write a higher offer and
wait another 45 to 90 days. Go with bank owned

Originally Posted by TheMan

We are first time buyers and our agent is telling us to stay away from "Short Sales", she is avoiding them all together. There are more and more short sales in the listings. Should we find another agent?

Yes.
And add: "In the event buyers shall find another property during the waiting period, buyers shall cancel this purchase contract in writing and make this contract null and void. Sellers and buyers agree and understand that buyers shall not be stuck for a ridiculous 45 to 90 days for the sellers to respond. In the event buyers shall no cancel this purchase contract, sellers and buyers agree and understand that this contract remain in full force"

Are the short sales selling? If not then they go to foreclosure and are better deals. Why be jerked around by the bank in a short sale when the house will be a foreclosure soon. Foreclosures are the way to go.

If short sales are selling in your area then go with the short sale.

Short Sales can very often be good buys, and can often be the best deal you could get. In a Short Sale situation the seller wants to solve a problem - generaly avoiding foreclosure. So the they will almost always take better care of the home, and be cooperative, so the home will be in better condition than a REO property that was neglected by the prior owner at least to some degree, and is definately being neglected by the bank when they own it.

The problem with short sales is that sooo many agents are clueless. When you here about a short sale taking 90 days, it's not the bank that is making it take that long, it is the agents involved who don't know what they are doing.

If you are interested in looking at short sale properties - you should definately get a different agent to work with. Look for an agent that likes short sales, one who thinks they are not hard. Many agents may have done a Short Sale or even a few, but they may still not have a clue.

From the buying side of the transaction it is still tricky though, because you are not in control of the deal. If the agent on the selling side is clueless, it can still be a pain.

If I were your agent, and we were going to make an offer on a Short Sale property, we would first prequalify the listing agent to make sure we want to work with them. If not we would either:

Walk on to the next property
Make the offer contingent on our side handling the Short Sale
Require that the seller use a third party company to handle the Short Sale

As to the comment about having to wait to find out if the lender will accept the offer, that should rarely be the case.

If you are working with someone competent with Short Sales, who knows your market, knows who the lender involved is, and the loan type, they will pretty much know what the lender will accept.

The challenge is of course finding that right person to work with.

But if you can, Short Sales will very often be the best buy you will find.

Chris

I would see about finding another agent IF you are willing to wait and wait when dealing with short sales. But it can be worth the wait. Or if you have an agent that is on top of the new listings, they can find the already foreclosed homes that are also a great deal and there will be less waiting.

Some of the best deals I am finding are short sales. Realtors will do everything they can to stay away though because they don't close as quickly as other listings, therefore their paycheck doesn't come for a while. Sounds to me you have a very lazy realtor. There are great deals out there and unfortunatly great deals require a lot of work. Welcome back to old school real estate. Agents need to be educated on short sales and how to handle. Get an attorney with experience.

I am a realtor and can't stand when others in the business deny that short sales are the way to go.

I think we are all in agreement that short sales can be great deals, but your REALTOR needs to be upfront and warn you about the slow pace of short sales and the very good possibility that you may not get an answer before the bank forcloses anyway.

Sometimes, the right hand of the bank does not know what the left hand of the bank is doing. Right hand is trying to work out the short sale, while the left hand is working on the foreclosure. Nothing banks do regarding short sale or foreclosures seems to make sense at times.

MOST REALTORS do not avoid short sales, they just make absolutely sure their clients understand the risks and rewards of dealing with a short sale. It has nothing to do with some REALTORS being lazy, it has to do with actually doing your job and advising your clients of the potential pitfalls of short sales. It is kinda hard to avoid short sales if you are listing them!

I would say the talk in Minnesota has been that most buyer agents try to avoid short sales. I have had an offer in on a short sale since 9/5/08 and have had no answer back from the bank. My buyer is still willing to wait but here we are at 5 months and no correspondence from the bank. The current owner has attempted a loan modification with no success and in turn it has put the short sale negotiations on hold.

Originally Posted by stallan54

I am a realtor and can't stand when others in the business deny that short sales are the way to go.

Real estate is local and in some areas short sales are the way to go. Here on the Outer Banks most of the short sales end up selling as foreclosures at much lower prices. It all depends on the market.