Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Is this normal? Before I part ways I want to make sure about the real reason. We are first time buyers and this is our first realtor EVER.
Some of her explanations are those are diffucult, nobody knows the real price, takes long-time, since you are looking at saler's concession for closing cost, it make them difficult, most importantly while in the process they may go to foreclosure and soon.. I just couldn't take that explanation. I can understand if short sale will be a problem with FHA loan (that's where it looks like we are going). But given the fact that our county is flooded with short sales why shouldn't we be able to try? We certainly have the time in our hands. We are not in hurry to buy at all just trying to take advantage of the excellent choices we have right now.
It's more work on the Realtor's part. Check the ads to see which Realtors are listing short sales and interview a couple of them, then switch Realtors. If you make an offer on a short sale, you'll want to make sure that your Realtor knows the drill.
There are hundreds of thousands of homes listed as potential short sales, in the U.S. I suspect only a small percentage of them actually close as short sales.
As a buyer, you do not know if the seller is destitute and can convince the lender of a hardship.
As a buyer, you may not know how many entities are involved in the decision making process. The bank that services the loan may or may not be the owner of the loan.
There may be more than one loan/lender on the property.
There may be a private mortgage insurer who may or may not agree.
In other words, a short sale is far from being a certain thing. Many agents will not work them because the time/effort required may not be worth the risk/reward. Depending on the local market and the number of shorts/forclosed homes, a traditional home sale may be as good a buy, with increased certainty.
You can find an agent who is willing to work shorts or educate yourself and as poster sirron says, pay an attorney to handle the documents for you. That attorney will expect to be paid for his/her time, regardless of the outcome.
Read my post there about the offer we submitted this week. A SS is not for the faint of heart and like a foreclosure you really need to know what your getting into. Most of the time it's a Crappy home and you're buying it "As Is"
The AS IS part is where I recommend a 1st time buyer consider buying a nicer home that's been well maintained.
I agree with someone else here who said that your realtor does not want the added paperwork . I would find myself another realtor ? I have family in florida and am moving back there in a couple of weeks if I can be of help please let me know , I know several realtors in tampa and east tampa . Just let me know . good luck to you .
If you understand, and are willing to be perhaps dissappointed, then find an agent that is willing and knows about short sales. You will need a good home inspector, and the sale often depends on how agressive the list agent will work, and often times, many offers are presented at same time, and all lenders are usually different, about the timing and acceptance. We have done several offers, and only closed a few, due to reasons I mentioned. Good luck, and keep us posted.
I don't know if I would call it normal, but I have heard other agents not want to deal with short sales.
As for her explanations of why you shouldn't do one...
1) Yes they are more difficult and buyers tend to panic, get upset with waiting, and back out of deals.
2) The real price is whatever the buyer and seller agree is the real price. The rest is irrelevant to the sale of that home.
3) They can take months. Patience is required in short sale purchases.
4) Yes if you need seller paid closing costs it makes it much more difficult to get a short sale acceptance.
5) As long as you don't love the house you make an offer on, then you are fine. If you get obsessed about having to have that one home, then you might watch the home go into foreclosure and not to you.
So here's the deal...you guys have never purchased a home before and so if you have a good agent on your hands they are giving you a lot of education about homes and the process of home buying. So...if you make an offer on a short sale for $70,000, that is $2,100 or so that would go to that buyer agent for services rendered. Being a buyer agent is a lot of work and that doesn't pay the bills.
So imagine an agent going for a $2,000 commission, but writing 3-4 offers to get that $2,000 or so because many short sales fail. As a buyer agent, short sales aren't additional paperwork. I mean it's a two page addendum here in Oregon...maybe it's more there. I as a buyer agent have to rely on the listing agent to negotiate the short and some agents know what to do and some don't.
The ones that don't know how to screen sellers for hardship, get the packet complete, or aren't organized wreak havoc on buyers agents. Many buyers agents are tired of playing "short sale roulette" because it affects their ability to run their business.
You need to decide if you are the right temperament to tackle a short sale.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
