Los Angeles

[Chack]

I am currently interested in a short-sale. The home is at $315K. Do you think would be wise to offer at a lower price $305K? It is not an approved short-sale. I am worried about the delay and the rejection. 

[karalen]

Here's my advice, for what it's worth:

Offer what you'd be willing to pay.  If someone gets it for $315, will you be mad that you didn't offer more?  That's what I had to think about.  It comes down to, what's the house worth, to you?  The house I finally got went for the asking price.  Many other houses I tried to buy sold for 100K more than the asking price.  Sometimes you can wait months or even up to a year, sometimes not.

Just make sure there is a time limit on your offer.  Usually that's thirty days.  You never know what's going to happen with short sales, but put your offer in, then forget about it and keep looking.  Even after the time limit has passed, they'll review your offer and contact you to see if you're still interested.  My Realtor had me putting in several offers at the same time.  (You won't get stuck buying two houses--you can always weasel out of a deal you don't want, but the chances are very slim that two offers will be accepted at the same time.)  Unless this is your dream house, the best house you've ever seen and no other house will do, don't count on getting it, but put the offer in and keep looking.

That's my advice.

Kara

[lovemonkey]

I agree with that approach... in this market, the home is only worth what you are willing to pay!  With that said, does anyone know if you can directly offer the bank (lien holder) of a short sale an offer?  I've recently placed an offer on a home in Phx that I feel was over the comparable sales in the area... but felt that strongly about this home.  Supposedly the seller (who is an agent), had an equal and the buyer was willing to lease this place during the short sale process???  I suppose this is possible but the lease option was 4k monthly!  The seller was offering furniture in the sale as well.... which I don't think was going to be part of the actual sale of the home, but side sale.... if you will.  My suspicion is this seller (who has connections in the company managing the short sale) has found a seller with a lower offer on the home, but a buyer who is willing to pay for leasing and furniture all of which goes to the seller, not the bank.

I don't trust this seller or the company he is working with.... is it possible to go directly to his lenders?

Dave 

[bayareaguy]

I have a related quesiton. How can one make an offer on a short-sale and yet not be locked out of other regular listings. i.e. If I make an offer today on a short sale listing, but then I come across a really nice property in 2 weeks (while no decision was made on my offer acceptance), how can I get out of the first offer? thanks.

[Bruin99]

When you put in your offer, there is usually a deadline for them to accept the offer otherwise it is null & void.  I'm not sure what standard contract language is.

So you could say, I'm offering $500k on the house but you only have 3 days to decide.

Unfortunately whatever deadline you chose, you are stuck to it since it is a legal and binding contract.  Also, if you do decide to have the deadline set out at like 3 days, also realize that the likelyhood of the bank accepting the offer within that timeframe is pretty much zero.

[Rebeccah]

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lovemonkey wrote:

I don't trust this seller or the company he is working with.... is it possible to go directly to his lenders?

Dave 

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No, it's not possible to go directly to the lenders with the offer - the lenders do'nt own the house (yet), the sellers do.  All the lender can do is approve or deny the sale, and set the terms (if any) on which they will approve a sale.

I suppose, theoretically, if you could get the lenders to listen, and especially if you have strong evidence that some kind of short sale fraud is going on, you could alert them in the hope that they will deny approval to this buyer.  Good luck with that.  They've got their hands full evaluating actual sales contracts; failing some really strong evidence, I doubt they'll pay much attention to a disappointed would-be buyer.  And even if they do, all it gets you is a dead competitor deal.  It still doesn't get your offer accepted by the seller, who is the one who has to accept it.

Rebeccah

[Rebeccah]

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bayareaguy wrote:
I have a related quesiton. How can one make an offer on a short-sale and yet not be locked out of other regular listings. i.e. If I make an offer today on a short sale listing, but then I come across a really nice property in 2 weeks (while no decision was made on my offer acceptance), how can I get out of the first offer? thanks.

---

The California Association of Realtors has a standard boilerplate short-sale addendum to add to the residential sales contract boilerplate, in which you can specify (among other things) when escrow starts and when your contingency period starts, relative to when (if) your accepted contract is approved by the seller's lender(s).  Check the boxes that say these two things don't start until after lender approval of the sale. 

Then if you find a nice property 2 weeks later while still waiting to hear from the bank, you simply make that offer, and if it's accepted, you cancel the other.  Or, if the other property is also a short sale, you don't cancel either one until one of them gets approved or you you get an offer accepted on a non-short sale.  You're not out any earnest money, because you don't put any down (or get an appraisal or do inspections) until the bank approves the sale.

Rebeccah

[stealsndeals]

In a short sail technically the bank does not own the house "yet".  The homeowner has given back the house to the bank and since they can only do one at a time it takes a lot longer than a regular purchase.  Granted the Bank has to approve the purchase but the do not technically own the home therefore must go through short sales slower (because of the horrible mistakes made in the past).  Most banks have a policy of only going over one house at a time because they can in fact get a better deal due to the bid being valid for a certain period of time.  Some houses near me have been in short sale for over a year.

If you wait for a foreclosure then you will pay more for the house since that is when the deed goes back to the bank.  In a foreclosure the whole and sole goal is to get the money that is owed on the home.  That is why you see a lot more bank owned properties for sale by the banks.  They are not interested in bending.  Stick it out you may never know if it is taking this long it usually looks better for you since the computer with literally spit out a letter of rejection for a price deemed below acceptable value.

JMHO

HTH

[morris]

what does listing term : "cash to existing loan" mean?

[Kiks]

You are so right!  REOs are the only way to go in this messed-up market.

The only one who comes out ahead of a short-sale, are the deadbeat current owners who are being allowed to live in the home rent-free as long as possible. The banks need to expeditite their paperwork processing, foreclosure, and throw those bums out. Enough of this nonsense!  Don't waste your time or energy on short-sales.