Special offer

How A Short Sale Offer Should Be Written

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Nashville Short Sale Specialist - Jim McCormack - Edge Advantage Realty, LLC - 615-796-6898 TN RE License# 320030

How A Short Sale Offer Should Be Written
Why A Short Sale Buyer Must Commit To Buying A Short Sale Property

I specialize in Nashville area short sales. With short sale listings (and any listing) there is significantly more to the offer than just the purchase price. I always recommend that my Nashville Tennessee short sale clients accept the most qualified offer, which is not necessarily the highest offer. Many times a potentially great offer will be rejected because it contains terms in the contract that will make a successful short sale closing highly unlikely. For example, one contract term that is an absolute deal killer on a short sale is the buyer requiring the right to back out at any time, or that the contract is non-binding until written short sale approval is obtained. Sorry buyers. One-sided "option type contracts" that allow the buyer to bail out at any time are very risky to short sale sellers who may have no other chance to re-sell the property due to a pending foreclosure sale, or a foreclosure sale that is likely to be scheduled soon. Another major (and common) short sale offer problem is with buyers who don't want to do their property inspection until after the bank or mortgage company approves the short sale. That is a recipe for failure. From the seller's standpoint, spending 30-120 days (on average) negotiating a short sale only to find out that the buyer doesn't want the home, or doesn't want the home at the contract price due to problems found with the home, as a result of the inspection, is an exercise in futility. Even if the buyers still want the property with a repair credit (assuming their lender will even allow it), or the buyer wants the home at a lower price, there is a good chance that the revised offer will be rejected by the short sale lender, particularly if there is not enough time to complete a property re-valuation, or to convince the short sale lender that the property condition warrants a lower price or net. We could have sent a list of the property problems to the short sale bank and the BPO agent (or short sale appraiser). Those problems could have factored into the original price negotiations with the short sale bank. Waiting until after the offer is approved by the short sale lender and then battling the short sale lender on the price could cause the seller to run out of time and be foreclosed. From the buyer's standpoint, why would you want to waste your time waiting for short sale approval on a home that you potentially don't even want at the offer price, or maybe don't want at all? To save $350.00+/- on a home inspection? That seems to be very shortsighted to me. To avoid problems like this I have very detailed short sale offer instructions that cooperating buyer agents must follow when writing up their offer on my Nashville short sale listings. To make these offer instructions more enforceable, in my listing documents with the seller I am granted the authority to reject any and all offers that do not comply with these offer instructions. A buyer thinking about purchasing a short sale listing absolutely must commit to the property in its AS IS condition. If a buyer is not willing to make that commitment they need to move on and buy another property. I am not trying to be rude, but a short sale offer must be written in a way that clearly indicates that the buyer is committed to closing on the purchase of the short sale property.

Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, Nolensville, Spring Hill, Thompson’s Station, Murfreesboro, Smyrna, LaVergne (La Vergne), Antioch, Columbia, Mt. Juliet (Mount Juliet), Springfield, Gallatin, Hermitage, Hendersonville and Middle Tennessee Short Sales. Free* Short Sale and Foreclosure Help and Assistance for Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, Nolensville, Spring Hill, Thompson's Station, Murfreesboro, Smyrna, LaVergne, Antioch, Columbia, Mt. Juliet, Springfield, Gallatin, Hermitage, Hendersonville and Middle Tennessee Financially Distressed Homeowners and Property Owners. Stop the Bank from Foreclosing with a Quick Cash Offer or Short Sale. If you are a Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, Nolensville, Spring Hill, Thompson's Station, Murfreesboro, Smyrna, LaVergne, Antioch, Columbia, Mt. Juliet, Springfield, Gallatin, Hermitage, Hendersonville and Middle Tennessee homeowner, property owner, condo owner, real estate investor, home builder or real estate developer who cannot pay your mortgage payments (due to losing your job, having your income reduced, illness, health problems, adverse business conditions, slow sales, loss of investment property tenants, vacancy issues, lack of funds to complete the project, feuding business partners, etc.), know that you will not be able to pay your mortgage, have defaulted on your mortgage, are already in foreclosure, or owe more than your home is worth, please contact Jim to discuss a short sale (when the real estate sale proceeds are not sufficient to pay off the mortgages and liens on the property). Jim helps sellers (homeowners, property owners, condo owners, owners of high end homes and properties (estate homes, luxury homes and executive homes), real estate investors, home builders and real estate developers) of distressed real estate, short sales, pre-foreclosures, foreclosures, investment properties, failed new construction projects and struggling commercial real estate developments located in any Middle TN County (Rutherford, Williamson, Davidson, Maury, Sumner, Wilson and Robertson). If you need to short sell your house or property, or you need a quick sale to stop a foreclosure sale, you can Nashville Short Sales. Brentwood Short Sales. Franklin Short Sales. Nolensville Short Sales. Smyrna Short Sales. LaVergne Short Sales. Antioch Short Sales. Spring Hill Short Sales. Thompson’s Station Short Sales. Murfreesboro Short Sales. Smyrna Short Sales. LaVergne (La Vergne) Short Sales. Antioch Short Sales. Columbia Short Sales. Mt. Juliet (Mount Juliet) Short Sales. Springfield Short Sales. Gallatin Short Sales. Hermitage Short Sales. Hendersonville Short Sales. Middle Tennessee Short Sales. Free* Short Sale Help and Foreclosure Help and Assistance for Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, Nolensville, Spring Hill, Thompson's Station, Murfreesboro, Smyrna, LaVergne, Antioch, Columbia, Mt. Juliet, Springfield, Gallatin, Hermitage, Hendersonville and Middle Tennessee Financially Distressed Homeowners and Property Owners. Stop the Bank from Foreclosing with a Quick Cash Offer or Short Sale. (*Free: In a real estate short sale, the bank or mortgage company usually approves and pays all of Jim's commissions and fees.)

Posted by

Jim McCormack
Broker, REALTOR, e-PRO
Short Sale Specialist

Accelerate Realty Group, LLC
725 Cool Springs Blvd
Ste 600
Franklin, TN 37067

TN Real Estate Broker
License# 320030


Direct (615) 796-6898 - PREFERRED
Office (615) 567-5212

Web www.JimTheRealEstateExpert.com
Web www.JamesMcCormack.com
Blog www.EndingForeclosures.com
Blog www.HaltingForeclosures.com
ActiveRain Jim McCormack on ActiveRain
Zillow Jim McCormack on Zillow
Trulia Jim McCormack on Trulia
LinkedIn Jim McCormack on LinkedIn
Google Jim McCormack on Google
Twitter Jim McCormack on Twitter
Facebook Brentwood Short Sales on Facebook

Short Sale, Foreclosure, Distressed Real Estate and Investment Property Real Estate Service Areas in Middle Tennessee:
    • Rutherford County Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Williamson County Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Davidson County Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Maury County Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Wilson County Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Antioch Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Bell Buckle Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Brentwood Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Christiana Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Franklin Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Gallatin Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Hendersonville Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Hermitage Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • La Vergne (LaVergne TN) Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Madison TN Foreclosures and Short Sales
    • Mount Juliet (Mt. Juliet) Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Murfreesboro Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Nashville Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Nolensville Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Smyrna Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Spring Hill Short Sales & Foreclosures
    • Thompsons Station Short Sales & Foreclosures

Jim McCormack is a Nashville Real Estate Broker who Stops Foreclosure and Saves Homeowners' Credit via Short Sales in Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, Nolensville, Spring Hill, Murfreesboro, Smyrna, LaVergne (La Vergne), Antioch, Mt. Juliet (Mount Juliet), Gallatin, Hermitage, Hendersonville and Middle Tennessee (Davidson, Maury, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson and Wilson Counties). Jim Specializes in Short Sales and Foreclosures and Providing Sellers Short Sale Help and Foreclosure Help. Jim's Help is Free to Nashville TN Short Sale Sellers. Jim Helps Sellers Stop Bank and Mortgage Foreclosure with a Short Sale, or a Fast Cash Offer. Avoid Foreclosure by Working Directly with a Nashville Tennessee Real Estate Specialist and Investor who is Uniquely Skilled, Honest, Compassionate, Caring and Exceptionally responsive to the needs of his clients. Jim Encourages You to See What His Clients Say About Him. Jim is also a Murfreesboro and Nashville Cash House Buyer who solves real estate problems by buying houses, townhouses, townhomes, condos and multifamily properties AS IS for cash and closing quickly.

Karen Crowson
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage - Rancho Bernardo, CA
Your Agent for Change

Completely agree with your first point - buyers need to be willing to commit to a minimum time (I use 45 days), and my mind, they need to love THIS property.  I make it clear that during that time, we won't be looking at any other homes, and I won't write any other offers for them, unless they can indeed purchase two homes.  I also insist that they put money in escrow on the seller's approval, not the banks. I have not asked them to do inspections, but we do have the conversation about as-is up front.  So far, I've only had two buyers back out of a short sale offer. One, when we found out that there were two other liens (the short sale agent didn't know about), and the other when there was clearly some fishiness occuring with the short sale negotiator.

Sep 13, 2011 04:04 AM
Jim McCormack
Nashville Short Sale Specialist - Jim McCormack - Edge Advantage Realty, LLC - 615-796-6898 - Murfreesboro, TN
Nashville Short Sale REALTOR - Stop Foreclosure

Part of qualifying a short sale before committing is making sure that the short sale listing agent is qualified to handle the short sale.  If a listing agent is using a third party negotiators that negotiator would be the party to speak to.

Sep 13, 2011 04:09 AM
Not a real person
San Diego, CA

Hey, Jim - I think you lose a lot of SEO optimization points by inserting all those links in there like that.

Happy Monday!

Sep 25, 2011 11:54 PM
Marge Piwowarski
Phoenix AZ Horse Property - Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix AZ Horse Property, LLC

Jim,

I am in agreement with opening escrow and requiring that money to be committed for 45-60 days but not requiring an inspection.  Yes, buyers have a problem with paying 300-700 for an inspection on a home the bank may never agree to sell them.  I appreciate your concern for your sellers, but the buyers are people also.  Once the buyer has made a good faith offer, the ball in in your court to "get  'er done".  He has to be wiling to wait for months to see if his offer will be accepted... he doesn't need more grief. 

Nov 06, 2011 12:16 PM
Jim McCormack
Nashville Short Sale Specialist - Jim McCormack - Edge Advantage Realty, LLC - 615-796-6898 - Murfreesboro, TN
Nashville Short Sale REALTOR - Stop Foreclosure
Understand your disagreement with the inspection, but I am sticking to that requirement. I close short sales at well better than 90%. I am not interested in negotiating a short sale when we don't even know of the buyer wants the property.
Nov 06, 2011 02:55 PM