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This is the Way of the Short Sale, Grasshopper

Reblogger
Real Estate Agent with Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. Assc Broker MD DC VA

Short Sales are on everyone's mind right now.   Will they get done?   Will they stall?   So many aspects of the sale are out of the control of the buyer that it can simply be a roll of the dice.   If you are a buyer or a buyer's agent just be patient and hope that you are lucky!

Elizabeth explains the reality below....

Original content by Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker DRE #00697006

Because of my work as a Sacramento short sale agent, I am so close to the process and focused that I sometimes forget others are not. Although short sales make up about one in every four housing sales in the Sacramento area, many real estate agents have little experience in a short sale. Just because an agent might represent a buyer in a short sale doesn't mean that agent has any idea how the short sale is handled.

Buyer's agents do almost nothing in a short sale. The listing agent runs the show. This is very frustrating for buyer's agents. They are used to having a bit more control in a transaction. It's not only frustrating, it's annoying as heck. They want to protect their buyers, do the best job they can for their buyers, yet, their hands are pretty much tied.

If they are in an escrow with a short sale agent who doesn't know how to negotiate with the bank or handle the myriad of problems that crop up, that short sale might never close. Or, a buyer's agent can be in an escrow in which certain problems are handled in a particular manner, and they might take away from that experience the thought that this is how all short sales are handled, when they are not.

An agent told me yesterday that she had a discussion with her office about SMUD liens. Her real estate office decided that a bank would pay a SMUD lien because the bank wouldn't want the cloud on title. How nice for her and her office to come to that conclusion. The problem is they are dead wrong. A SMUD lien is a UCC filing and it follows the seller wherever the seller goes. If a seller has questionable credit and can't get a HELOC, a seller can almost always get a loan from SMUD. There is a price for that. Short sale banks in California rarely pay a SMUD lien. They'll let a bank-owned home rot in inventory before they will pay off that SMUD loan.

I let another buyer's agent know that we are getting short sale approval on a Bank of America cooperative short sale. She asked me all kinds of questions such as how did I know we were getting approval. Good question. I know because they told me. The kicker is the bank needs to close by a certain date in December. The buyer's agent had asked for 45 days in the contract. It doesn't matter what the buyer requests in the contract concerning closing. When the bank says you must close by XYZ, then you must close by XYZ.

The biggest problem I see with buyer's agents' interpretation of how short sales work is the fact the agents expect the short sale to make sense. They expect banks to be reasonable and logical. Like traditional sellers. I understand why they have this expectation because agents are used to working within boundaries and with common-sense people. Even REO banks will negotiate on certain things, but a short sale bank has little, if any incentive, to negotiate.

A short sale is not a normal transaction. Do not expect rationale behavior from the bank. Get rid of those expectations -- kick them out the window. If something doesn't make sense to you, accept it. Seek enlightenment. Go with the Zen of the short sale. This is the way of the short sale, grasshopper.

(Short sale agents who are reading this right now are laughing. Buyer's agents are saying: WTF?)

sacramento short sale agentcerfified hafa specialist

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Certified HAFA Specialist

 

Elizabeth Weintraub reviews My Sacramento Real Estate Listings

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. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.

The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.

Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.

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

The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.

Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice. It could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.

 

Posted by

Yvette Chisholm, Associate Broker, MD, DC, VAAlan Bruzee & Yvette Chisholm Alan Bruzee, Associate Broker, MD, DC, VA
Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc.
 Rockville/King Farm Office 301-548-9700
402 King Farm Blvd #150 Rockville, MD  20850

Telephone: 301-758-9500
 
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www.BruzeeChisholm.com

 

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