Kisa in CA Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 We are putting in a bid on a house that is a short sale. A friend told me that 90% of the time the bank backs out at the last minute and leaves the buyers hanging. Evidently the bank ends up thinking it is better to foreclose. Anyone else familiar with this? I am in California, as my user name indicates. THANKS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T'smom Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 No personal experience buy by bil/sil just got a great deal on a house that was a short sale. It did take a long time to close, but besides that, everything went smoothly! They are in MI- not sure if that makes a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariannNOVA Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 (edited) No personal experience here either, but I agree with what the previous poster said. In fact, there is one other family 'living' here at the extended stay hotel as well as our family. They arrived the beginning of November. They sold their house and have a bid in on a short sale -- they have been told that they can expect a 7 month wait until they get an answer from the bank. Edited January 21, 2010 by MariannNOVA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbie Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 We were going to buy a short sale, but it was going to take 90 days or more to close. So we bypassed it. It wasnt a great deal, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forty-two Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 No pesonal experience here either, but I agree with what the previous poster said. In fact, there is one other family 'living' here at the extended stay hotel as well as our family. They arrived the beginning of November. They sold their house and have a bid in on a short sale -- they have been told that they can expect a 7 month wait until they get an answer from the bank. 7 months! AHHH! :scared: :eek: :ack2: (We are on the other side of a short sale - I want it to sell so very, very badly - and we are only ~6wks into it! The bank has our tax returns and pay stubs, but hasn't asked for our bank statements yet. Please, please, PLEASE let it happen much sooner than 7 months!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryCatherine Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 The way Dave Ramsey explains it is that the banks have so many short sales on the books and not enough employees to work them. It isn't that the bank WANTS the house to foreclose, they just don't have the manpower to avoid it. He recommends lots and lots and lots of persistence, like daily phone calls. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 We just bought a house and our realtor said not to bother with short sales unless we were willing to wait between 4-6 months to see whether or not it would get approved. She told us what often happens is that the first mortgage holder will approve but then the 2nd mortgage holder or the HOA won't and the whole deal will fall through. It's not that the bank wants to foreclose but it can't happen unless all the creditors sign off on the deal... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 If you are looking to get in by the tax credit, I wouldn't do it. Banks, who slice of their noses to spite their faces, can take up to 5 months to even respond to your offer. Go with a straight foreclosure if you're looking for a deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caraway Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 (edited) `Dealing with Wells Fargo, once it is at the bank you will have an answer within 30 to 45 BUSINESS days. It is trickier with multiple lenders involved. It is usually the buyers that back out! Foreclosures are easier and move faster, but often involve multiple bids, more cash, etc... depending on your market. The "problem" with a SS is that you give up a lot of the control that you have as a buyer. Edited January 21, 2010 by Caraway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erica in PA Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 We are putting in a bid on a house that is a short sale. A friend told me that 90% of the time the bank backs out at the last minute and leaves the buyers hanging. Evidently the bank ends up thinking it is better to foreclose. Anyone else familiar with this? I am in California, as my user name indicates.THANKS! Hmm, I hope this isn't always true! The house that we're buying is a short sale, and we're due to close next Friday, after just three weeks under contract. I do know that in our case, the house was already approved as a short sale before we made an offer on it. I wonder if that speeds things up? The IRS also cleared the liens against the house as soon as our offer was accepted. So I'm hoping that in our case, the short sale turns out to be a good thing. The house is selling for $50,000 less than the seller paid for it two years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i.love.lucy Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 I hope all this is not the case too. My house is on the market right now listed as a Short Sale. It's been on the market since last Thursday and we already got an offer, but it was quite low. They were fishing for a deal, which I understand completely, but we had no choice but to counter and haven't heard back yet. I won't be surprised if we don't. Our realtor is helping us walk that fine line of making sure we get enough to satisfy the bank. I think there is also a lot of misinformation out there about short sales too. You would be SHOCKED at how many inexperienced realtors there are out there - ones that don't know how to list a short sale and make sure the transaction goes through, or ones that don't know how to assist their buyers in buying one. Both my lender and my realtor (a certified expert in SSs) have assured me that the bank does NOT want to foreclose and will do what they can to make sure a sale goes forward. Meanwhile I will keep bathing it all in prayer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairie rose Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Sometimes realtors and sellers list the house as a short sale but they are either still in the process of getting the bank to pre-approve the short sale status or they wait until they get an offer to start asking the bank for a short sale. Like others have said, if you want to close in time for the tax credit, a short sale may not be in your best interest. Even if the sellers approve your offer, their bank (or banks if they have more than one mortgage) have to approve the offer. You often have to take the house in as-is condition, any inspections are for your information only, no repairs will be made, which can sometimes adversely affect your mortgage lender's decision to lend you the money for the house. We've considered several short sale properties in our area but since we'd like to get the tax credit and there is no shortage of homes on the market that are good deals and not short sales, we've decided to rule out short sale properties from our search. It's a shame too because there are a couple of properties that I'd love to put an offer in on but I don't really want to take the chance that we might have to wait too long for the bank(s) to approve the short sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidsHappen Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 We sold a house as a short sell about 6-7 years ago. It was on the market forever and we couoldn't afford to keep making the payments on it and pay our rent here. However, once we got an offer it was only about one month until we closed. We were so thankful. I have no idea how that relates to things now with the market being so different. I do know that banks would rather SS than foreclose. If they SS they only lose some money whereas if they foreclose they lose most of it. Our SS was a lose to the bank of only about $5K not huge in the overall sum of things and definitely worth their while. It didn't hurt us either as we were able to buy a house here just a few years later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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