I had a question about the process and hope someone can help...
I made an offer on a B of A shortsale-approved property at the end of May. The seller's agent indicated that this will be a short process, perhaps 6 weeks weeks for re-approval. It's now been 3 months. I have absolutely no idea what phase we're in. Two weeks ago, the seller's agent indicated that the negotiator told her we're next, and not to contact him anymore. Then a few days later, the negotiator asked for a new pre-approval letter as the old one has now expired. The last time I inquired about the status, I was told that we're "still waiting." We've already opened an escrow account in May and my earnest money is just sitting there. I don't even understand why we had to open escrow at that point in time. I'm now beginning to think perhaps it would be wiser for me to start looking for another house. It's just very frustrating to not know what is going on. I'm suspicious as to whether the seller's agent is actually working on the case, as her response does not entail any description of what she has attempted to do. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
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SSbuyer and Jeff,
I'm not out of the woods yet. The BPO was expected back on Wednesday of last week. I'm sure they may be doing some negotiating still but, I've seen nothing in the mail nor heard anything from the agents. The only thing I've heard is through friends. However, my agent called me last night. He's a little on the p!ssed side now that he hasn't heard anything from the listing/seller's agent.
SSbuyer.......I knew what I was getting into but, I seriously thought all agents would be more responsive to the clients. That hasn't been the case. I would never treat my clients this way in my profession. I would have been fired very quickly. Maybe.......you don't tell them what they want to know, you just tell them what they need to know. Just be honest, is that too much too ask?
Richard -- congrats! I hope you get your written confirmation soon. We knew going in that the agent didn't want to deal with the short sale and was letting the seller's attorney handle the negotiations with the bank. I just don't think we realized how much of a problem this would be when it came to explaining what was happenening ... this board and folks like you and Jeff have been so helpful in helping us keep sane as we wait and wonder if we'll ever get the house.
Jeff, your comment sent me back to our contract. The home we're buying is in northern NJ, where it's standard practice to use lawyers to represent buyers and sellers in real estate deals. I know many people think it's a waste of money to "lawyer up" but in this case, it was to our benefit. We get return of all EMD, no agreement from the seller required, if we pull out of the deal at the end of the original 60 day period for lender approval of the short sale (not past), or at the end of any 30 day extension or if the approval changes the contract (e.g., requires us to pay more). At least we won't have an escrow fight on our hands if things don't work out.
Get it in writing, there will be an official approval letter with your name on it.
Richard, you might want to think about getting your real estate license, seriously ! You have caught on quickly to say the least.
Richard said:
Jeff, SSbuyer and Annie,
You make very good points!! I've been just as fustrated and re-enforcing this for some time now in my short sale. I do understand the fustration of the short sale agents and I have a great respect for what they do. There are many good agents out there. I have come into this site very often and seen pride at it's best! I see agents that want to educate themselves with the latest trends, news of the short sale world and lending institutions. Additionally, from what I read and hear, the lending institutions can bare much of the blame outside of people taking out risky loans to start with (that's another story).
And then, there are some agents out there, (not here) that don't have a clue, or do not take enough pride in their work or don't take it seriously enough. I have personally witnessed a Dumb and Dumber operation and thanked my lucky stars these guys weren't surgeons. I have also found a few agents that actually avoid short sales altogether because they think they're too much trouble or they can not make the easy money they would normally get in the traditional sales. My own brother is one of them. But as I told him, "get over it, times have changed. Furthermore, with at least 1/3 of the sales out being short sales, you'd better think long and hard before turning away business."
I don't mean this in a derrogatory sense toward all agents, but unfortunately for me my agent (my own brother) is just as spaced out about my short sale as the listing agent/buyer's agents ( a WWF wrestling tag team effort). And, sometimes I don't know who's leading who. I think all three would have problems finding their way out of a brown paper bag. They seem to have turned the short sale home process into a non-profit business venture. Coming up to the end of my 6 month, I was told by the buyer's agent 2 weeks ago that the file had been escalated to a manager, negotiator assigned, and BPO was ordered and would be returned in 10 business days. In the first 5 months, it was like pulling teeth just to get any type of update from the agent, or to get my agent to follow up.
To make a very long story short, 2 days ago I received a phone call from a very creditble acquaintences through news from a close friend who live in the community and know the listing agent's broker that told me that we got the home. Bottom line, I'm not getting excited until I see something in writing. Maybe the listing/buyer agents are not sure. Maybe they are waiting for an approval letter. Could it be they didn't actually get approval and this is just a rumor? Or worse, a scam? However, to this date, I haven't received a phone call as such, nor an approval letter from the lender or listing agent. There are a lot of things that go through your head when you don't receive creditble updates and, especially when you're working with shaky sources to start with.
There's one thing for sure, If I don't get the home..........all agents are fired!! Even my brother.........I think he already knows it.
Jeff said:
SSBuyer, it looks like you are very much is the same situation as Annie, you both have agents that really do not understand short sales. Did your agent really think that raising your EMD would help? EMD really means nothing in this case to the bank. We get approvals all the time with NO escrow being deposited until lender acceptance. Not sure how California works but to release EMD in Florida, it takes both parties to agree to release EMD. If the seller says no, you have an escrow dispute on your hands.
I think the moral to this story is that we need to start making sure the buyers agents actually understand the short sale process and make sure that they can somehow explain that to their buyers.
SSBuyer, it looks like you are very much is the same situation as Annie, you both have agents that really do not understand short sales. Did your agent really think that raising your EMD would help? EMD really means nothing in this case to the bank. We get approvals all the time with NO escrow being deposited until lender acceptance. Not sure how California works but to release EMD in Florida, it takes both parties to agree to release EMD. If the seller says no, you have an escrow dispute on your hands.
I think the moral to this story is that we need to start making sure the buyers agents actually understand the short sale process and make sure that they can somehow explain that to their buyers.
BEWARE of ANY "preapproved" short sale no matter how hard the listing agent tries to sell it to you
SSbuyer said:
Annie --
We're in a similar situation; can't give you any professional advice, but maybe it helps to know you're not alone!
Don't know how this works in CA, but when we signed our contract, we had a contingency providing an initial 60 days to get the short sale approval, after which we can opt every 30 days to continue. The agent advised that there was a previous offer on the house that fell through when the bank approved it, but only at a much higher price than the offer. Because a "deal" had been approved by the investor previously, the agent thought that we would hear something faster. Maybe there's a similar story with your house.
The agent suggested we put up the standard 10% earnest money because it would help demonstrate our seriousness about buying the house to the negotiator/investor. We told her we weren't going to tie that much up indefinitely, but we've had 5% of the purchase price sitting in our attorney's escrow account earning not even the 0.001% interest we would get if it was on deposit at a bank. It's VERY frustrating, but at least our contract is clear that we get that back if the deal falls through for any reason, including us deciding to not extend the offer at the end of a 30-day extension.
As it turns out, we're now about 80 days into this, and all we know is that the paperwork has been turned in, that the seller has applied for the HAFA program (adding more time to the process) and that we're waiting for the BPO to be done sometime. She keeps telling us to be patient. What I've finally realized is that it's not a matter of patience with how long the process is taking; if we knew for sure we were getting the house, the time it takes to roll through the process wouldn't matter. The problem is the uncertainty.
We've been looking at other places, and so far, we haven't found anything that compares in terms of price/quality to the house we're waiting to hear about. The looking helps us pass the time and gives us confidence that we're not passing up something as good or better waiting for something that might not happen. We know what our "out" clause is, and how the process works (we're not first-time buyers), so we know about when we could put an offer in on another place without running the risk that we have to buy both.
If you're going to look at other properties, I'd suggest you make sure you know how and when you can cancel your offer to make sure you get all of your earnest money back and also don't end up with two houses!
Good luck!
Annie, I understand your frustration. Here are the red flags that I see.
Be patient, it will happen. It sould like you and your agent need to get on the same page and get with the listing agent to get a REAL update and not a still waiting update. Make the agent print a screenshot and send it to you. I deleted some info but you can see that there is an actual status