Most often we hear of difficulty in gaining a Short Sale approval from a Seller's Lender. That isn't the case for me as I've been very fortunate in getting my Short Sales approved; all of them. In fact, I'm working on one that has had the same One Buyer and has been approved two times and now I'm working on getting it approved for a third time. Yep, you heard correctly! How could that be or better yet why?

We call it the Kiss of death appraisal.

Here's the story:

My Seller's home was listed for sale and we received a nice offer from a Buyer.  I negotiated the Short Sale with the Lender and it was approved! Yes, we're all happy! That was until the Buyer's Lender had their appraisal completed and it came in $20,000 below purchase price. So back I went to the Seller's Lender to fight for a new approval.  All went well with negotiations and they approved the reduction in their payout. Yes, closing here we come.

My Seller moved out, found a new  place to live and closing is a week and a half away or we thought it was. Now what? Well, the Buyer's Lender couldn't get the Buyers approved. So thank goodness to a dedicated Agent representing the Buyer and her knowledge of a Mortgage Broker capable of getting a loan for qualified Buyers, the Buyers switched Lenders with a week and a half to go to closing. Apparently, the original Mortgage Broker hadn't completed the loan package correctly and the Buyer's should have been easily approved. Are you ahead of me now, knowing what I'm going to tell you next?

If you're following me, the Mortgage Broker that saved the day to get the Buyer a quick approval had to do an appraisal as he couldn't use the other Lenders appraisal. Oh don't cover your eyes...it's coming around again....the new appraisal now came in another $9000 below the last and 2nd time approved price.  Geeze!

So, now I'm working on negotiating a 3rd approval with my Seller's Lender and we're supposed to close this Friday!

Whether it's a Short Sale that you're working on or a regular transaction, it seems that appraisals are starting to have a big impact on closings.  I'm seeing that Lenders are really putting pressure on appraisers to keep the values on the low side. I'm just hoping that the Appraisers are standing up and doing what's right  - price it right!