I'll take it with a grain of salt that Elizabeth Weintraub referred to many of us as "turkey agents" when it comes to being a buyer's agent on short sales. After all, it is still close to Thanksgiving!
However, I do have to disagree with her post (or most of it), Short Sales Are Not the Ugly Poster Child of Real Estate. Sometimes they are! Take for example, one short sale that I've got right now. The mortgage company has begun foreclosure proceedings after an offer was accepted and sent to the case manager for approval, several months ago. And last week, the case manager who I finally was able to talk to, was removed and we received a new case manager who hasn't even looked at the file yet. The buyer is exasperated, their Real Estate agent is expasperated and I'm exasperated too. I have no answers and know the nice folks at the call center by name now. Yeah, tell me that's not an ugly poster child reality right there!
More often than not, I find foreclosures to be the real ugly poster child. The agents are rude. Their service is despicable. And they always demand that the buyer be willing to pay a hefty per diem if the closing doesn't happen on time. But if the closing is delayed by the seller side, will they pay a per diem? Not only do they say NO. But usually H**L NO! And usually they won't even offer an explanation. You just wait until they figure out whatever their issue is. I closed a deal Monday that went three weeks past closing. Early occupancy? Uh, no. Per diem? LOL. Anybody care? Only me!
Elizabeth wrote, "I've got turkey agents asking me if they can offer 30 cents on the dollar. Other turkey agents acting as though I should be grateful that their buyer even wants to shoot an offer in my direction, although that buyer has little intention of committing to the transaction. The buyer won't put an earnest money deposit into escrow nor will the buyer promise not to write offers on any other homes."
I'm not sure how things work in your part of the world, but I am bound by the Real Estate Code of Ethics to offer whatever my buyer says. It isn't my call. I'm not the buyer. They are. I do what they direct me to do, even when it goes against my advice and market research. And yes you should be grateful they want to shoot you an offer. I know way too many other houses where we won't have to jump through the stupid and nonsensical short sale or foreclosure hoops. Trust me. I'd rather work with a real seller any day than a short sale and/or foreclosure! And in regards to a buyer putting an earnest money deposit into escrow, I've never had a buyer not be willing to do so. And if they wouldn't, I wouldn't bring you the offer. And neither would I bring the offer if I didn't have assurances from the buyer and the loan officer that we're in this deal to buy this house. Maybe others play those games, but that is not the game we play in our part of the real estate world. I will say this. I can't help you in regards to not writing offers on other houses. That does happen. And it happens because we know that the world of short sales and foreclosures takes common sense and replaces it with everything you can do upside down and inside out and backwards when it comes to selling houses. If a short sale or foreclosure begins to look and feel like a normal short sale or foreclosure, the pain just isn't worth it many times.
You may like the odds in your favor and in your seller's favor, but I like the odds in my favor and especially in the favor of my buyers. After all, they're the ones who are going to experience all the trauma and grief in this transaction. And they're the ones who are going to spend the money. And they're also the ones who are going to have to sign your addendum's that some lawyer wrote that say's if the house falls down an hour after closing that the buyer's can never sue the seller. You want the advantage? Forget it!
I know it may be a pain when the buyer whines about the keys, but quite frankly, I don't care if you like it or not. Any buyer ought to have the keys to the property they just bought! Ever buy a car and ask for the keys only to be smirked at? Yeah, that's how this makes my buyer feel, thank you very much. In regards to getting in early to begin repairs, I'm with you on that one. They shouldn't be allowed to modify the property in any way until they own it and I tell my buyers that. So we agree on at least one thing.
It sounds like to me Elizabeth (and all of us???) are as frustrated in short sales (and foreclosures) as I am. Perhaps we have that in common too. Maybe one day the market will even out again and short sales and foreclosures will no longer be the dominant players that they are today. When that happens we'll all not be nearly as cranky as real estate seems to make us these days.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling we'll be a whole lot older!
No offense is intended Elizabeth. This is written mostly tongue in cheek from the other side of the closing table!
Bob...
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