Real Estate Blog - Why Write a Short Sale Offer if You're Not Willing to Wait for the Bank's Response?

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Why Write a Short Sale Offer if You're Not Willing to Wait for the Bank's Response?

I closed 4 escrows last week, so I thought it was a nice gesture to offer to take my husband out to dinner on Halloween. Sort of a celebration. All right, it was also a way that I could cancel Halloween without being obvious about it. But, no, my husband had already carved a pumpkin and bought several bags of candy. OK, then, but I'm not answering the door.

When I was younger, Halloween used to be my favorite holiday, second only to my birthday. I adored the spooky decorations, dressing up like a hooker and partying until somebody passes out in the bathtub. I even once got married on Halloween, but that marriage turned out to be a disaster. As it stands now, I don't seem to possess the enthusiasm for the holiday anymore.

Instead of celebrating Halloween yesterday, I managed to score the keys from a tenant for my East Sacramento listing. At long last, I was able to put a lockbox on that house. If you're looking for a home in East Sacramento, check out 763 53rd Street. It's a darling 2-bedroom cottage listed at $329,000, and it's now vacant. It's not a short sale, either. This could close by November 30th.

Saturdays are also lockbox day for me, meaning I map out my travels and collect lockboxes from the homes that closed escrow that week. While I'm driving, I answer buyer and buyer's agent calls. One agent sent me an email, saying her buyer wanted to withdraw a short sale offer she submitted the day before because her buyer was uncomfortable with the fact that we expected the buyer to commit to the transaction.

This was a buyer, the agent had earlier confided, who had made dozens of offers on other homes and kept getting beat out. Well, she could buy one of my short sale listings as it just fell out of escrow. I told her exactly what her buyer needed to do to get the seller's signature on the offer. But did she do it? No, she didn't. She was missing that crucial element: the motivation to be dedicated and wait for short sale approval.

There were enough witches, goblins, skeletons and Richard Nixons running around last night; I have no desire to add another to my escrows.

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Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout Sacramento. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. DRE License # 00697006.

The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available through bookstores everywhere and at Amazon.com.

Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.

Posted by Elizabeth Weintraub, Sacramento Short Sale Agent, 916.233.6759, Lyon RE on 11/01/2009 08:14 AM

Comments (13)

East Sacramento Agent in the Regional (Localism) Channel

cancel halloween, east sacramento agent, short sale approval, lockbox sacramento, 763 53rd street, short sale, elizabeth weintraub

Originally posted at: Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park: Why Write a Short Sale Offer if You're Not Willing to Wait for the Bank's Response?

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13 Comments on Why Write a Short Sale Offer if You're Not Willing to Wait for the Bank's Response?

NOV

Hi Elizabeth,

So many Buyers in our area are having the same challenges. They write offer, after offer for homes in their price point. In Prince William County VA, that is happening in the under $300,000 price range. So the buyer thinks the only way they are going to get a house is to write on a short sale. When in reality, their heart isn't in it. ( at least the Buyer withdrew quickly, but gosh that poor Realtor. What a waist of time for all involved.)

I'm with you. Why write on a Short Sale if you do not have the patience it will take. Short Sales do close. Maybe not at the initial terms agreed to between buyer and seller, however if a buyer is flexible, chances are they will get the house!

Ah..the good old days when Halloween was fun :-) Elizabeth, it sounds like you lucked out finding out the buyer was flaky right away...instead of finding out month's after. Why would the agent even waste her time writing up offers for someone who is not dedicated to the process, unless she just feels like she needs the practice?

Liz, I love the Halloween fun most because there are no presents to buy, no guilt feelings, no family discomforts. Hold it! I deed feel guilty last night, I deed, I deed.....I went to a Halloween party and the costumes were so fantastic I felt guilty because I didn't have a wonderful one. I'm going to blog a little about it if the Rain ever gets well.

Elizabeth

Halloween used to be a great holiday for me as well; it seems lately all they have to do is put some bolts in my neck and point me down the street; that would be frightening. One time I went to a party as an acetate molecule (C2H3O2)- and no one got it. They thought I was a bunch of M and M s.

Elizabeth,

It is still supposed to be fun, just do not marry in Halloween (LOL). We all need a break from the routine, even you with your terrific short sales

This is a two way street. The seller needs to get back to us and let us know we are the buyer! I have set on these things for months as the top offer and had others come in a scoop them up at the last minute.

Elizabeth: Why buyer's agents drag their clients to short sales and go through the motions of writing offers when they know their clients won't have the patience for approval is beyond me.

That whomps. I have a buyer who just wont buy and I know how that can be. Had me negotiate for a seller's concession and I got that plus approximately 53K in equity sitting on the table. Buyer casually texted wanted to see another house after I busted my a$$ to make the deal happen they claimed they wanted. Binders and contracts mean nothing to lookie-lous... I feel bad for both of you because sometimes it doesn't matter what we do as agents. Some people are self defeating because they are chasing the ghost deal, the so called I think I can get 15 cents on the dollar home that doesn't exist... Elderly relatives about to go into nursing homes that sell to another relative for a sweet song does not equate short sale, REO or foreclosure. People need to wake up because the prices are starting to bottom and stabilize over by me.

Elizabeth - It sounds like halloween is more than just another day for you. Even though I keep telling myself that some day I'm going to stop, I keep buying candy and sitting on the porch talking to the neighbors.

Elizabeth - My family was always really into Halloween. My uncle was a mechanical engineer and would turn his basement into a haunted mansion with animated characters plus my cousins who were dressed up. You didn't know which characters were real or not. Of course my cousins made an extra effort to scare me and that wasn't hard!

Elizabeth, we had an agent do that to us twice in the last 60 days. Our properties do not sell as fast as yours, so we didn't have back up offers on either, but I am very wary of this agent now. We just closed on one of our REO properties with him, and it was one of the most unpleasant experiences I have had in real estate! My partner handled his unprofessionalism wonderfully!

I have systems in place upfront that identify and eliminate the buyers and their agents who won't commit to the short sale process. Because it is a commitment. If the buyer wants to shop around to see if he / she can find something better, that's a flakey buyer in my book. You either dedicate yourself to buying the home or you don't buy my short sale listings. And my sellers agree with that premise.

Agents who don't understand short sales worry that short sales won't close, but that's because they don't run the comps or have little experience buying a short sale. I'd say that I'm 99% confident that I'll get short sale approval on my listings. There are never any guarantees, of course, because it's hard to say what the lender will demand from the sellers upon approval, but it's unusual for a lender to reject offers that I submit.

Well Halloween is my oldest puppy's birthday, so a celebration is a must. Of course, so many times I go ... hey me too, when I'm reading your post. Like that disaster marriage. Mine was today... November 2nd. It is already after midnight on the east coast. Makes me wonder what year yours was?

And why would someone who "can't wait" for short sale approval be looking at homes listed as "short sales"- oh I know.... they forgot to hire you.

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