Our offer was accepted and submitted to BOA on 07/26. It's now over a month later and NO approval or counter in sight. On 08/05 a BPO was done (supposedly), but we were told last week that they were ordering ANOTHER BPO just barely a month later. What could they possibly be doing? That IS a rhetorical question as I have read everything possible in regards to short sales and frankly I don't like it. LOL.
Also, I was hoping SOMEONE could clear up something for me. The asking price for the house was 255K, but our offer was only for 220K and the sellers agent said it was a really good offer. Does that mean she knows they are asking too much? Also...the house has been listed since 07/12. It looks like they had 3 deals gone bad in that year. Not sure why as we're not privy to that info. Does anyone have any advice, words, something?
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If you are going to be frustrated after only 47 days, then purchasing a short sale is probably not your best option. Purchasing a home via short sale is not at all an easy process. A lot will depend on how experienced the Listing Agent is and how prepared the seller is. You can expect for most short sales to take at least 3-6 months from when the seller first contacts their mortgage lender(s). If they have a 1st and 2nd mortgage, they must get approval from both companies. This of course, will lengthen the process.
Short sales have so many ways in which they can go wrong. Many short sales simply never close after several weeks or months of work. This is a fact that every buyer needs to completely understand. If you are purchasing a property and must close by a certain time, then a short sale is probably not your best option.
A lot of the reasons for the fallout depend on the seller. To qualify for a short sale, the seller must submit all of their financial documentation AND prove that that currently have a financial hardship. Many sellers don’t submit the proper paperwork resulting in delays. Some sellers cannot demonstrate the required financial hardship that is required for a short sale approval. If a seller files Bankruptcy during the process, that will cause a delay. There could be unpaid property taxes of HOA dues to deal with. There are countless other things that can and often will go wrong. Some can be overcome, some cannot. No Listing Agent, no matter how good they are, can control every action of a seller.
It is critical to keep in mind that the seller’s lender(s) is taking a loss on every short sale. They must to their due diligence to ensure that the short sale is justified and that it minimizes risk to the lender. There is also a lot of fraud with short sales so that must be invested as well. The buyer are seller re not able to have prior relationship with each other.
A short sale is VERY time consuming for all parties involved. A Buyer’s Agent has absolutely no control in the short sale process. They are solely dependent on the Listing Agent and the Seller.
Frustrated..here's the problem. You are the buyer's agent and you are at the mercy of the knowledge and processing of the listing agent. This is a perfect example of why some agents should not try to negotiate their own short sales Basic questions you should have asked the seller's agent: Who is the investor? How many loans on the property? Does seller have a valid hardship? Is this a HAFA, Co-Op or traditional short sale? Is the file being handled by B of A negotiator or outsourced to a vender? Will listing agent provide you, with seller's authorization, the status updates from equator? It appears the listing agent does not know how to negotiate the short sale
Let me know if I can help
Tony Morales
TM Short Sales Consulting
The sellers are going through a divorce (or may already be divorced by now). So I believe they have a valid hardship. Unfortunately, I am not privy to what type of short sale it may be. My husband and I are the buyers....my father in law is our agent. He speaks to the sellers agent so he's dealing with most of the stuff. The sellers agent does communicate regularly with my agent, but there's just little to no updates most of t he time. I do know that there is a broker involved as well and he's gotten an attorney involved to help get answers from BOA. I've asked my father in law if they are using equator and he didn't know....
I understand 47 (now 52 days) isn't THAT long of a time period in the world of short sales, but what is the average? At what point do we get something back from the bank?
They are going to wait until the last minute to give you a reply. And if its a counter you will already invested so much time into it that all you want to do is see this one close, so you and the buyer have to move forward. Believe me I have been there many times. 47 days is not unusual for them. Remember they are holding the cards all the cards
When, and if, you get to the counter offer stage, responses come back generally in a few days. They won't need to start over for anything.
Do you know (you should)?
Are there any additional mortgages, HOA debts, liens, judgments, large amount of back taxes, etc. These will muddy up the process, and many times some cash from the buyer will be needed to work them out.
Also to answer your question about the complete package being sent. I have to assume so. Like I said the sellers and agents have been fighting this battle for over a year now. And the house was taken off the market 3-4 times in the last year.
Frustrated; 40 days is Not a long time. Do you know that a Complete package was actually submitted then? Unfortunately, the listing price is irrelevant in many cases, as it may not be truly based on comparable sales, and as Brian said, if it's Fannie they often want a stupid number anyway. I always try to find out why prior contracts fell through, even though you may not get the true answer.
It's actually a Bank of America deal. I would love to know what happened to the prior deals I believe my agent said the listing agent was fuzzy on the details when he asked before. I was curious about the asking price and how our offer was "really good" so I asked my agent what the fair market value was...he gave me a range between 238-255. Not really the answer I was looking for. LOL.
I realize from reading so much about short sales that the time frame so far isn't "that" bad, but at the same time I'm curious as to why the second bpo? And can we expect an answer soon now that the second bpo was done???? I guess I just don't know exactly where I'm at in this process.
What happens if they counter with something we still feel is too high? Do we counter back? Does that mean we have wait another 60 days or whatever for another answer? How does that typically work?