Back in April I stumbled up a nice townhouse that was listed as a short sale. Now, my buyer and I had been looking for over a year, had two traditional deals fall apart and had essentially put the search on hold until either a "good deal" came to market or the prices started to settle down to a reasonable range.
The "good deal" in question happened to be a short sale townhome that had everything the buyer was looking for; great community, great town, location, finished basement, etc. It was even priced right compared to the other listings in the community that were not short sales. The asking price was $360K and we submitted an offer of $335K with no contingencies.
It took nearly 6 weeks to hear whether our offer had even been looked at. Mind you, the listing agent was someone I knew well and had a good rapport with and come to find out this was the third attempt to sell the property under his watch as two previous accepted offers had fallen through.
Now, what is unclear is who exactly is to "blame" for the huge delays? According to the listing agent, the lawyer that represents the bank hadn't even looked at our offer for weeks and weeks. The last two buyers backed out because they were tired of waiting and waiting and getting little or no information/feedback about their offer. I, on the otherhand, would call/text the listing agent on a weekly basis looking for feedback and would then relay it to my buyer who was perfectly content on waiting things out.
After a total of 9 weeks we had received word that the seller's attorney had agreed to our offer and the seller signed the contract. BUT, we still have yet to hear from the bank as to whether or not they will accept our offer. The initial offer was submitted on April 17th and as of this writing we still do not know if the bank will accept, counter or reject our offer.
Meanwhile, the seller is at thier wit's end and has made overatures about throwing in the towel altogther due to the seemingly lack of responsiveness from the attorney and bank. Now, I do not know the circumstances as to why this seller fell into this situation; it had heard it was due to an employment (or lack thereof) issue. Its really not relevent to her plight but given that the situation is now being aggravated by the institutions that helped her purchase her home is saddening.
Now, flash forward to June and a different set of buyers are looking for a mulit-family and, after an unsuccessful year of rejected offers from foreclosures we finally submit an offer on a great property and are the winning bid. We outbid 15 other offers and still feel we got a great deal.
The offer was received by the listing agent/company acting on behalf of the bank and an answer was given within 14 days with instructions to submit a final and best offer, which we did. Two days later I received a phone call that we were the winning offer. Now came the rush of logistical work to finalize the closing.
Since the bank will only sell the property "as-is" with zero contingencies and no guarantees (they won't even obtain a CH, turn on utilities or accept a mortgate contingency) things need to be done fast as the bank dictates when the closing will be. In this case, 30 days.
So, in the end which situation is more palatable? The long slog of a short sale with still no end in sight and little or no communication..... Or the fast and furious foreclosure with ironbound procedures?
Which do you prefer>
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