I'm the buyer on a Short property in Kirkland WA. Long story short, the property had been listed for over 3 months with no activity, my agent was drafting our offer when the property went pending SS in our MLS. We talked to the LA and he said that he felt the offer was low and had yet to submit it to the 3rd party negotiator (even though he already updated the MLS?) and told us to draft an offer and gave us a net value to meet, which we thought was fair. We did so, although our offer had a back-up addendum. I was able to track down the negotiator and he confirmed he was only working with OUR offer with the lenders/investors. Some time between days 30 and 60, the original offer was also forwarded to the negotiator and he was instructed to upload that into Equator. Every discussion on this forum answers that question with 'only work with one offer at a time'. Since the LA and seller have decided to do that anyway, I have no idea what to expect. I am told by the negotiator that the offers are nearly identical - the other party is a single guy and ours for a married couple.
This gets really messy because the language in our back-up addendum states it (the addendum, not the offer) expires after 60 days, which has come to pass. According to this forum, isn't it impossible to upload multiple offers into Equator? My agent is trying to verify.
Any thoughts would be welcome here!
Replies
Why do you have a 'back-up addendum' if you are not even a back-up offer .. you are THE offer. There is an Offer task which is the main method to submit an offer to the lender, but that task has to be initiated by the lender. Otherwise they can upload any/all offers to the 'Library'. If your addendum expired .. just fill out an extension. I don't really see any issues here.
I have had only one offer of mine (I had the Buyer) be submitted with another offer at the same time. I thought the List Agent was crazy and still do. Nobody called me, but I found out 2 weeks later that my offer had been accepted "over the other one" and we "have an approval letter!" All is going well, but no idea what went on with Agent and Chase.
Bryant is correct: Stay away from inexperienced List Agents in Short Sales. I tried that one a couple weeks ago, and it was a disaster. The List Agent actually told me he had increased the List Price "due to the negotiator telling him to"..I don't even know if he ever even contacted the bank! Very frustrating..home still sits..
Again...it would be great if I had all of this information about the LA, investor, all of that on the front end...but I don't see how not having that information would be a reason to not pursue the house. I cannot control any of that information, so it does not change how much the house is worth in my mind and is not relevant at this point - these are historical issues.
I'm not sure of the difference between investor or servicer - I do know that BECU is on record in our MLS are originating the first, and whatever their stake is today, the decision currently is in the hands of GMAC. Chase is also on record in the MLS as the originator of the second - they have probably portfoliod this mortgage to my understanding.
This seems to be a matter of opinion but I personally don't think the competency of the listing agent should be a factor in searching for a primary residence. It can make things easier or more difficult and that will show up in the process, but the facts of the situation are that we have a seller accepted offer in front of the lenders/investors for their approval.
My goal in this discussion was to figure out the legality behind what has transpired for tort implications, as well as how the banks will treat this scenario and I appreciate the opinions I have received on those issues, but the rest of it is simply not relevant as nothing can be done about it at this point.
OK Michael I give, you win, you came here for advice when you already had the answer that you wanted. Continue on the way you were. One short sale certainly made you an expert even though you obviously don't really understand what is going on and the information that you think you know should be very sufficient.
You are correct, the listing agent really doesn't have any bearing on a short sale, it is ALL about the bank and the investor and nothing more. The seller's situation and knowing who the real investor(s) are is irrelevant. The 3rd party negotiator is very competent because it is very common practice for an effective 3rd party negotiator to submit more than one offer as it is very common also for a seller to agree to sell their home to more than one party. You are also correct, GMAC is the decision maker and Chase has the second and it is a portfolio loan.
You are so correct, everything else is irrelevant.
There you go, exactly the answer that you wanted to hear.
While I should not ethically be able to confirm this, the LA has led me to believe that my offer nets more than the previous. We were told we needed to have a net offer that hit 15k below list price to come over the top of the first offer and we did that. I have no reason to doubt any of this info. He very well have been bidding the price up, but our offer is consistent with our value number so I'm OK with it.
You can not initiate more than one offer in equator on the property. Most likely the listing agent uploaded the other offer in the library on equator for the negotiator to see.
The part that gets confusing is this. Which offer was accepted by the seller? Did the seller accept both offers? Which offer was accepted first by the seller?
Both offers are contractually accepted by the seller. The other offer is supposedly dated earlier than mine, however, all indications are that my offer was the first to be forwarded to the negotiator and attached to the property in Equator, I would have to assume. We think the LA received both signed offer agreements at roughly the same time, but only forwarded my offer to the negotiator initially as he felt it was stronger. The other buyer's agent probably pressured him to forward their original offer after several weeks had gone by having thought their offer was going to the negotiator when in fact it did not. It looks like the LA has created a huge mess by advancing two legitimate contracts.
How can a seller sell their home to two buyers? Where is your agent and what is your agent doing about it? Did your agent pre qualify this listing and this listing agent before you saw the property? I can only assume that the negotiator is not the listing agent, it is a 3rd party negotiator? Why would a 3rd party negotiator send in more than one offer to the bank? Was there anything in your contract that said all other offers would be placed in a back up position?
Who is the lender?
How can a seller sell their home to two buyers? Good question. Where is your agent and what is your agent doing about it? She's talking to Equator, the negotiator (who has been professional) and the LA (who has been extremely unprofessional), Did your agent pre qualify this listing and this listing agent before you saw the property? No, the listing itself is qualified in my mind, just the agent seems unqualified and misinformed. I can only assume that the negotiator is not the listing agent, it is a 3rd party negotiator? Correct - 2/3 of his fee are from myself and my agent, the remaining third from the LA) Why would a 3rd party negotiator send in more than one offer to the bank? Because he was instructed to do so by the LA who is paying 1/3 of his fee. For what it is worth, the negotiator is not pleased about that. Was there anything in your contract that said all other offers would be placed in a back up position? My contract has a 38A back-up addendum, but that addendum was due to expire after 60 days, which it has. Furthermore, my contract was the first contract submitted to the lenders; the other offer didn't get to the negotiator until a few weeks thereafter.
Who is the lender?
BECU first who sold to GMAC, and Chase 2nd
Ok how is your agent talking to Equator? Equator is a system that is used to process short sales and without having the listing agents username and password and authorization from the seller, you agent can not talk to "equator".
Qualifying a listing is something that an experienced short sale buyer agent does to make a determination if the listing has a chance to get approved. The listing agents qualifications is a MAJOR part of this and should never be overlooked.
You say the 3rd party negotiator is a professional and yet they still sent in two offers to the lender?
Sorry to be harsh but trying to figure this out to be able to help