Sellers of short sales in Sacramento are not required to do a short sale if they don't want to. Even if they have signed a listing agreement and a purchase contract. That's because short sales are subject to the seller's approval of the terms and conditions set forth by the bank's approval letter. But even if the short sale approval letter is clean, without deficiency verbiage, and there is nothing in that letter to cause the seller any concern, if the seller wants to cancel the transaction, I'll let the seller do it.
Some agents don't want to let sellers cancel the short sale, and I say why not? What point is there? Why drag out the inevitable, plus, make the seller miserable and yourself look bad on top of it? Besides, what court of law would make a seller do a short sale?
Other agents might say but what about the commission? You brought together a willing seller and a willing and able buyer, right? Actually, no, I didn't. If you want to know the truth, I brought together a seller in distress and a buyer eager to capitalize on a distressed sales price.
The question then becomes what to do with the listing when a seller wants to cancel. Sellers may want to cancel for all kinds of reasons. They might decide to try to do a loan modification, for example. I'm certainly not going to deny them that opportunity. Generally, a loan modification is discussed upfront, before I ever take the listing, but sometimes circumstances change and a seller might elect to try to save the house. That's the seller's prerogative.
In situations where there are two loans on a short sale and the seller wants to do a loan modification mid-stream, I'll stop the short sale process and put that home into TOM status, which means "temporarily off the market." This removes the listing from MLS feeds to public websites. I take the sign out of the yard. Because I know that 9 times out of 10, that second lender will not agree to a loan modification and the first lender is unlikely to significantly reduce the principal balance, which means the seller will be back asking for a short sale.
Then, when the seller is ready to start the short sale process again, I simply flip the switch in MLS and the listing is live again. I don't have to start over from scratch. The seller is happy because it means less paperwork and that listing is immediately back on the market.
But under no circumstances would I ever hold a gun to a seller's head and make them stick with me and my brokerage if they asked to be released. Sellers have enough stress; I'm certainly not going to add to it.
Oh, crap, now I've got a Tom Jones tune running through my head.
Photo: Big Stock Photo
Comments(13)