I have been in a number of situations where a buyer has made an offer on one or more short sale properties and when the approval finally came from the bank, the buyer was gone.  They bought something else or simply got tired of waiting.

The sellers as well as the listing agents get frustrated after making it known that the property already has an offer into to the bank for approval and the property ends up being classified one way or another as pending or short sale pending or active contingent short sale.  Enough to keep most additional potential buyers away.  And when the buyer walks and the approval arrives, banks will not allow another buyer to honor the approval and close, you start all over.  What a joke.  How do we as listing agents combat that?

I have decided to treat my short sale listngs like REO listings.  REO properties want "as is" contracts with 10% or more down and no contingencies or as is with right to inspect within 7 to 10 days. You dont close you lose the deposit if you back out. You will have plenty of time to do an inspection in that short window as the bank will certainly not have done anything with your offer in 10 days. 

In Florida, you have the ability to either have the time periods start with seller approval (Effective Date) or bank approval.  Seller approval gets the Earnest Money Deposit now, bank approval later, which basically means you can have several worthless offers in your files at any particular time.

So, my short sale listings have a clause that states the earnest money deposit is forfieted if the buyer backs out for any reason except substantial destruction to the property, the bank counters the accepted terms or conditions that would effect the buyer's offer.  If the buyer walks, I split the forfieted deposit with the seller and we go back to work.

You may meet resistance to this verbiage by some investors that want to make multiple offers and simply close the one that is approved by a bank first, but that is only if we as agents allow it to happen.  So if the buyer really wants the property at these huge discounts being offered, they have to wait along with the seller and the agents for an answer otherwise, dont make the offer.

I welcome your thoughts.

Kevin Cloutier
Keller Williams World Class Realty
Fort Myers, Florida
www.kevincloutier.com

I have been working with short sales for a couple years now from both sides of the fence and the outcome is always following the same pattern. 

If I represent the seller, the buyer waits so long for an answer from the bank, they walk before we get an answer. Then we get a new offer and the 3 to 4 month process starts all over.

If I am working with a buyer, they get tired of waiting and we move on to anothe property.

Now once upon a time you could wait until the bank finally called and substitute the offer with the new one and cut to the chase, now they (BOA) ask for the buyers name to make sure we are not jumping the line sort to speak.

The largets short sale holder of property now tells us we can expect in the months to hear a response and it besg the question, aren't the banks always using the motto, "time is money"?  They are their own worst enemy at moving out the inventory.  4 to 6 months is too long for an answer and it will ruin the efforts of all the hard working agents to make a living and get these properties off the books.

Ideas anybody?  Comments?

After 50 years of living in Maine and vacationing in the Sunshine State for Spring Training with the Red Sox, we have decided to make the move to relocate in sunny Southwest Florida in the greater Fort Myers area.

We will leave the day after Christmas and arrive before the celebration of New's Years! It will be quite a culture shock fr5om celebrating New Years on a 20 degree night to welcoming in the new year on a 65 degree night!

We will make the frequent trips back and forth, summer in Maine, winter in Florida and will maintain a real estate office in each.

I look forward to helping any of you in either state and will gladly offer a referral to anyone's clients heading in the other direction!

Looking forward to the new adventure and the warm sunny days!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!