Good vs. Evil Smackdown: A Quick Short Sale Tale

One of my very favorite books is The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. It is a fantasy/horror about Jack, a young boy who goes on a quest to retrieve a magical talisman that will save his dying mother, and at the same time he will save his mother's "twinner" who is also the dying queen in a parallel universe.

[Brief pause while you wrap your mind around this pretext....]

Anyway, it is a classic good vs. evil, truth and power shall set you free, "stand up to the test" kind of novel (except for the parts about werewolves, flipping between universes, and men who can fly). Jack has to stand up to evil men, bad werewolves (there are good ones and bad ones), and phantoms in medieval armor.

No dragons, but I think you get my drift.

Last week, I felt like I came up against one of those bad actors as I was helping a buyer with a short sale. The agent had a "process" that he followed before he would submit an offer to the lender for short sale approval:

1. The buyer had to accept the seller's disclosure alternatives, which divulged NO information about the property....even though state statute requires the seller to disclose material facts. The seller had lived in the home several years, and then had rented it for the last two years. Really, Mr. Listing Agent? In all that time, nothing of material importance EVER happened at this home that a buyer would want to know about?
   
2. The buyer had to pay for and perform the inspection, and sign off on the inspection contingency, before the listing agent would deign to even submit the offer to the lender for short sale approval. Most buyers in the starter home category don't have hundreds of dollars to throw around on a property they don't even know if they can buy.

I do well over 80% of my business listing and selling short sale properties. I can tell you that it is a crap shoot nearly every time. You don't always know if you will get to the finish line, but you cover your bets as best you can, and press ahead anyway.

Usually we get there, but it can be a bumpy road along the way.

In this case, something just didn't smell right. They were too anxious to get us to take the house "as-is," have the buyer sign-off on the condition immediately, and accept their non-disclosure. So I advised my buyer to step back and not cave in.

We are still looking. but we'd rather find the right house, under the right circumstances, than get bullied into accepting a deal that just doesn't feel right.