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Redfin Real Estate Forums :
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Re: short sales
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Re: short sales
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Steeplechase2k
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: 06-18-2008
Message 2 of 16
Viewed 5,871 times
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My wife and I just closed on a short sale in Pittsburg (Oak Hills neighborhood) yesterday, so maybe our experiences can help you a bit. I think most importantly, don't come in expecting to get your first choice. Or your second. Or even your third. We made offers on four houses and were preparing to make an offer on a fifth when the third one finally came though. It's kinda hit or miss with the banks, which are inundated with foreclosures and short sales and some realtors can be jerks about dealing with buyers too. Other people really don't want their homes to sell, they just want to live in the house as long as they can before it gets foreclosed on, because hey, they're not paying anymore. Also, the home was not in "sellable" condition. We've had a maid service come in already and have a carpet cleaning service tomorrow to get it ready to live in. Again, if people aren't really interested in selling, they probably don't care about keeping the place looking nice so the bank can make more money off of it. That said, we got a great deal on a house. It wasn't easy, (our realtor said that this was the most trouble she's ever had with buying a house), but we think it is worth it. Talking to the neighbor who lives across the street today, it looks like it will be a great fit for us. So our take on this would be that if you have the time and don't worry about the stress of buying a short sale, there are some great deals to be had.
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06-18-2008 08:13 PM
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Re: short sales
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xynny
Regular Contributor
Posts: 108
Registered: 03-29-2008
Message 3 of 16
Viewed 5,847 times
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I'm curious, how long did it take for this whole process to be done? One of my coworkers offered on a shortsale I posted on my blog and he gave up after three months and the bank didn't do anything. The house is still for sale, but it doesn't seem like the banks are very motivated?
- Writer of San Mateo Home Sellers in Trouble
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06-18-2008 11:52 PM
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Re: short sales
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Steeplechase2k
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: 06-18-2008
Message 4 of 16
Viewed 5,826 times
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Our experience with the house that we bought was that it was almost exactly 2 months between when we first saw it and when we closed on it. The first month was really just waiting for the bank to accept the offer. We made an offer (at the asking price), the bank then had the property "appraised" and counter offered, then we increased our offer $10k, and that was accepted after a few weeks. That was on the good side of things. On the other houses we offered on, one realtor (not Redfin) was flat out rude to us because they had another offer, and the other one we just never heard anything from again. I believe that different lenders are getting slammed with these short sales at different rates, and some banks are better equipped to deal with short sales than others. I had to change my mindset away from finding "the perfect house" to finding "a house we could live in" and then making offers on several houses before we finally got one. If you spend all your time on one house, you'll probaby drive yourself crazy waiting for something that may never come.
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06-19-2008 06:50 AM
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Re: short sales
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xynny
Regular Contributor
Posts: 108
Registered: 03-29-2008
Message 7 of 16
Viewed 5,729 times
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Very good info Steeplechase. Thanks for posting! It seems that my parents' friends bought a shortsale in Richmond and it also took about two months. There is definitely a bit of luck involved.
- Writer of San Mateo Home Sellers in Trouble
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06-19-2008 05:46 PM
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Re: short sales
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SpencerB
Visitor
Posts: 3
Registered: 06-23-2008
Message 8 of 16
Viewed 5,461 times
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The biggest issue with short sales is that the listing agents don't understand how to properly negotiate with the bank. The process is quite complex, from submitting proper offers, to the BPO value, discount rates based upon who actually owns the loan in the secondary market, dealing with loss mitigators, submitting *complete and full* short sale packets, etc, etc.
The banks have a set way of doing these, and are VERY overloaded with cases. If you don't play by their rules, your file goes to the bottom of the stack, and most likely won't be looked at again until it goes to trustee sale and becomes an REO.
Only about 10-15% of short sale packets that are submitted to banks actually get to the closing table. This came out of the mouth of a senior loss mitigation manager for one of the larger lenders.
My suggestion is to employ a specialized short sale negotiator who knows how to get these files through the bank system. I've hired one that has an 85% success rate, and because of that, I will not let a realtor touch any of our short sale offers. They get their commission, and we have to pay the negotiator but he extracts lower prices, and saves a ton in the end.
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06-23-2008 05:06 PM
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