Short Sale Homes for Sale – Are they worth it?

Short Sale Problems

I was going to write about short sale success stories but I was talking with another real estate broker in Parker, Colorado and decided to vent some of the current frustrations about selling or buying a short sale home. I believe that over the past two years some brokers have had such a hard time paying the bills that they have resorted to dirty deals and crooked tactics to get a pay check. Below I will list a few thoughts, frustrations, suggestions and plain old law breaking  you need to know. I would highly recommend asking these questions to your buyer’s agent or sellers agent before listing or buying your Parker Colorado Home for Sale.

• My biggest problem with short sales; Many brokers are not marking the homes as under contract when they have an offer. Real estate brokers and sellers are soliciting multiple offers to submit to  the bank since many buyers bailout before the bank accepts or rejects their offer. Real estate brokers want many offers to submit to the bank for this reason. However,  you have no idea what the other offers are and quite often the bank will come back and ask for a highest and best offer from all the buyers. This is another opportunity to be knocked out of contention. It’s hard for a buyer to wait months for the deal to close. Have your real estate broker call before seeing the home to see if offers are already present and if the broker is accepting multiple offers.

• Also Read: How to prepare for a short sale

I think in most situations the broker should only accept one offer and work that to the end. This allows the buyer to relax and stay the course if they know they are most likely going to get the house if they don’t back out. I know some Realtors will comment that this is crazy but I believe in being fair.

• Know when and how much the seller paid for the house.
• Know how much they owe on the house if possible. This will help you learn how far upside down the sellers really are. If they are seriously upside down meaning they owe $50,000 or more than the house is worth you may be fighting an uphill battle.
• Search for FHA short sales. They are usually easier to get closed.
• Sellers -just because the you are selling in a short sale situation don’t think that you don’t need to keep the house clean.
• Brokers: Just because the house is a short sale we would appreciate at lest one photo in the MLS. Don’t get lazy just because your commission will be lower,
• Also Read: Sellers and Short Sale real estate.
• Buyers, sellers and real estate brokers all need to understand that shorts sales are very long transactions that will most likely take months to get closed. Buyers please do not write an offer on a short sale unless you are ready and willing to wait it out. Banks move slow. You will only be creating a lot of work for a lot of people and it makes us all angry when you pull the plug deep into a real estate transaction.
• Also Read: What real estate brokers think about short sales.
• Make sure the Realtor working for the seller need to have a professional team or assistant that works exclusively on follow-up with the bank to negotiate the deal. It takes experience to get these deals closed.
• Don’t hire a broker that has no experience in short sales.
• Make sure all the required documents hve been turned into the bank prior to writing yiur offer, If they hven’t already submitted  a full short sale packge to the bank you will be in for at least a two week ordeal trying get the offer looked at and the BPO ordered. [BPO or broker price opinion – like a market analysis or mini appraisal]

Steven Beam is a CRS Realtor serving the Paker and Metro Denver areas.