I knew that Short Sales were frustrating but just had a recent scenario to share….

A client and I put in an offer on a short sale property recently. The listing agent does ALOT of short sales and as usual, forwarned us that it would probably be at least 30-60 days until we got a final accepted offer. Just this week – about 30 days in he tells me that the offer is dead because the bank will no longer take anything less than the full amount owed by the seller. This amount is approximately $50,000 more than our offer so, NO, we were not going to resubmit a new offer.

To make a long story short, the bank conveniently waited for the sherrif sale to go through so that now they no longer have to accept the short sale.
Essentially, they are forcing the seller into foreclosure which means 7-8 years of not being able to buy a new home versus being able to try for a new loan in a couple of years. PLUS, my client lost the option to buy this home for the nice low price that he wanted to buy it for.

In the end, no big deal for us because we can go find another house but I feel bad for the seller who is now in a bigger mess and will have a foreclosure on his record.
Gotta love the banks. Bottom line, stay away from short sales or make sure the listing agent has full information on what the bank is planning to do. I do believe that the agent I was working with had everyone’s best interest in mind but the bank did not communicate correctly with him.

Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
612.384.1073
jen[at]mnrealestateteam[dot]com