May Be Moving to Temecula (short sale, mortgage broker, broker)

[pll]

How easy or difficult is it to purchase a home at short sale prices? Has it gotten easier in the last couple years? Or worse?

[vahnessuh]

I can only say about our experience and from what I hear, we are one of those rare cases. Most people I know or have read about have tons of short sale horror stories.

We just moved to Temecula after buying our home through short sale. We first saw the place late October, made an offer the next day, got accepted the day after. A week before Christmas, our realtor called to let us know that the bank had verbally approved the short sale with pretty much no counters on our offer.

Mid February we finally got the approval papers. We were set to close in 2 weeks but the owners of the house asked for us to close in 30 days so they can find a place to move to. We finally closed in mid March. Moved in end of March.

Everything went well for us and in hindsight it was pretty painless. Yes, the wait was torturous but I guess it was due to not knowing exactly where in the process we were and not knowing what the outcome was.

We had a great realtor who was working hard for us. She was available anytime we had questions and kept us updated on the process weekly. Even when there is nothing to report, she still emailed us to let us know. She was also very prompt in her response. If you want her name, private message me. I totally would recommend her.

The sellers were great. They kept the house in awesome shape for being a 5 year old home. It was move in ready. Sure, we painted the walls (just coz we wanted different colors), changed out the carpets (there was no need coz the carpets were great but figured to just change it out now while there's no furniture in it and keep it for 10 years) and did some yard cleaning (uprooted 50 rose bushes because we have a toddler).... but they were pretty minor stuff that we could have passed up. They were also very prompt and whenever the bank needed paperwork from them, they respond within 24 hours.

Seller's agent was also great. They replied to our realtor whenever she needed them and kept us updated. They checked on the bank's progress often and kept us updated.

Mortgage broker was very proactive in getting our stuff done. Throughout the process, he kept updating our files so whenever we get that approval, everything is ready to go. We could have closed within 2 weeks and it was all because he had everything lined up for us. He was our realtor's contact and he definitely was really good. He wasn't the cheapest out there but he more than makes up for it by his hard work. You can't cheap out on your mortgage guy because you can lose everything if he can't close within the bank's time frame.

All in all, everything was such a blessing for us. I wish you all the best in your process!

[Spencers]

We bid in July and got the house at the end of December. I'm happy we waited because we got a pretty good deal. It was stressful at the time, but in the end it was all worth it for us. Good luck!

[bhcompy]

In 09 we bid on homes with approved shortsales and without. The approved shortsales had responses within a week usually. The non-approved took 3-6months for response(long after we stopped our search we would get calls from realtors about those houses). The house we ultimately picked was an approved shortsale and it took two weeks to get a modification to the approval for closing costs to be covered. It was on the market for a while, which probably helped. Unfortunately, lost my job after opening escrow, so I can't tell you how it turned out with closing and everything.

[Bakeneko]

We started looking in Late 2008 and early 2009, closed in April 2009. I think we put in competitive offers on about 15 places, most of our search was houses around the 2000sq ft mark, mostly in Harveston. Finally had one stick.

We recently purchased down here in SD County - much easier this time around, offer accepted within hours and closed in 21 days