My husband and I put an offer in on a short sale at the end of Feb. this year.  It only took three weeks to get a counter offer by the bank (not sure who bank was, as it was never disclosed to me by our agent).  We signed  purchase agreement papers at realtor's office two days later for the counter purchase amount for the home and an extra 5,500 to cover closing costs (which we are paying ourselves). We also fronted earnest money at this time as well.  I specifically stated to our agent, at that time, that I hoped that no other lien holders would pop up, like a second mortgage etc., that would slow things down.

The agent stated that the bank already knew who the sellers owed and that we would not have to worry about that happening and also that they could not imagine there being a second mortgage on the house. It took about another week and a half for everyone at the bank to review the paperwork and sign off on it...including the sellers. The file was then sent to our lender (we are preapproved for a VA home loan).  Our lender had been working on the file for about a week and then we get a call from our agent saying there are three liens against the property and that they do not know if or when those will get cleared up.

My husband and I were more than a little upset that we were misinformed by our agent, that there should not be any liens against the house, that were not already disclosed to the primary mortgage holder...but yet, we hit the brick wall anyway after the purchase agreement was already made and we thought we were on our way to closing sometime next month (May). Another thing is that one of the liens...is of all things, a second mortgage..which again, the agent said they could not see there being.

We decided to get the advice of a real estate attorney since we feel we have been misinformed....not only about this (which is the major problem)...but we have been misinformed by our agent on other matters as well (although not as pertinent).  I asked the attorney, who should have been responsible to uncover these liens prior to any offers being accepted and purchase agreements being made..he said that my husband and I should have been the ones to do a preliminary title search.  Of course, this was not something told to us by our agent either....again, they said the bank already knew who the sellers owed.  The attorney asked me who held the liens and how much they were for...I told him that it had not been disclosed to us, nor was any mention made of disclosing that information to us, by the agent.  He stated that was BS (yes he said the whole word) and told me to call the agent and tell them we want to know those things.  He said we had every right to know.

When I spoke to our agent yesterday about that issue, they got somewhat upset that I sought advice from a real estate attorney.  I stated again to them..which I have stated several times in the past during this process..that I am a first time home buyer..my husband has purchased homes over the years before we were married..but never a short sale.  I explained that I don't like flying blind and was simply trying to gain knowledge.

Since the liens came up...I have called our agent a couple times asking various questions that I'm curious of...apologizing to them for all the questions...and also stating that hopefully we may find another home that we fall in love with, that is not a short sale. To which their reply was in a somewhat sarcastic tone, "yeah, me too".   My question is....even though we have not backed out of the deal on the short sale (yet)...is it appropriate to request another realtor, since I feel that we are not receiving the proper information from our current agent and they seem to be getting somewhat irritated with us?  We are currently looking at other homes....but I'm not sure if we should request to work with another realtor for any other homes we may want to view or even possibly make an offer on while we wait to see what happens with these liens. I understand that if we find another home, that we want to make an offer on, we will need to withdraw our contract from the short sale home first...I'm just not sure if we need to have our current agent do that..or if a new agent can do so.    Sorry for the long story....and thanks for any input.