Los Angeles

[woopwoop]

If home is short sale, what is the procedure?  In other words, does the bank just take the highest bid or is there bidding and negotiations in between.  Also, if we offer the full price is the house ours or will the bank still possibly wait for a higher bidder that goes over the asking price.

[Frenchie]

It all depends on whether or not it's an "approved" short sale. Approved short sales are prices the bank has said "yes we will accept this price". If it's not an approved short sale the listing agent may have just put a super low list price on it to get buyers' interest. So you may have the highest bid but who knows if your highest bid is enough to satisfy the bank. The whole process makes very little sense to me since I offered 145k on a short sale 2 weeks ago in an area where all the other places were priced around 155k and in the 2 weeks since my offer was submitted most of the other properties in that neighborhood have dropped their list prices into the 130k or even 120k range. Not a clue why the bank isn't JUMPING on my offer since it's 90+ days on the market and every day it doesn't sell the bank is still losing money. It's a crap shoot honestly so don't expect rational or sensical actions from the banks on REO or short sale properties

[TrabucoDom]

Just to clarify about an approved short-sale, it means the lender has approved for the owner to pursue  a short sale and they will consider the offers. It does not necessarily mean any specific short-sale price was approved unless listing agents specifies that the short-sale price also has been approved. A lender may approve a short-sale because the homeowner meets some specific criteria. An owner may also pursue a short-sale before the lender approves it, but the lender may ultimately decline for instance if they determine the owner has the means to make the payments on the mortgage.

[palmsshortsales]

No matter how good we are, there seem to always be some chaotic components to short sales. Some ways to bring structure to the short sale strategy is to compartmentalize the short sale process and delegate certain components to certain players. E.g., lawyers may draw up the contracts and even negotiate with the lenders. However, one key component regards the issue of paying for services. Who is willing to take the risk in the form of delayed compensation or in some cases, no compensation where the short sale was not completed. There are a few programs that purport to spread the risk around. No up front fees from some players to others, no one gets paid unless the sale is fully consummated. A established real estate program announced this week (3-18) that they have come up with a program that spreads the risk around and is designed principally for agents to be supported by professional negotiators/investors. I did listen to the program and it does put forth the sharing of risk. I am not an agent or professional negotiator but there is a place for me to work in short sales if there is more order. I am willing to share the risk and defer the reward until all parties are paid. The program is the "PALMS" at-                   Here's to more order

http://www.weprovidethecash.com/?id=jeromesville

[Geotpf]

Short sales are like nuclear war.  The only winning move is to not to get involved in one.  I'm sticking to the REOs.

[TiggerKat]

We were in a short sale that had an approved price.. although it was approved, we were told at the 2 month mark of waiting that yes, it was approved, but they are making sure everything is correct and should be done in 30 days.. making a total of 3 months. We said no thanks. The only reason we offered on that was due to the "Approved short sale price...." Its a bunch of bunk.

[renter4life]

I came across a short sale listing that had a open house this past Saturday, but I was wondering if that's common??

Message Edited by iNDO on 03-22-2009 11:57 AM

[TrabucoDom]

I've been to plenty of open houses for short-sales so I would say it is common.

[JAMESINOC]

Trabuco Dom,

I see a lot of posts from you...are you a realtor?

[TrabucoDom]

no, I'm not a realtor...just have been looking for a long time now...actually we started looking at homes near the peak of the bubble and glad we didn't buy then...we would only consider something that we could afford with 20% down on a 30yr fixed and refused to do any of the fancy loans that are now exploding.....then got excited and started looking seriously again at the end of '07 after seeing some major price reductions....we put in numerous offer between then and mid '08 without any being accepted...now I'm tired of playing the games with shortsales and reos...so I am still watching everything on redfin and might buy if the right thing comes along...but realistically probably won't buy now until dec.09-feb.2010 range.