Ah! The joy of the short sale! Particularly when representing a buyer!!
I was very happy that the listing agent was a very nice lady who impressed me the first time I called. It was a Monday evening around 650pm and she picked up the phone!! Was it possible to see her listing at the late, and unintended hour? I was able to work around my son's basketball camp and stay out longer than I had anticipated.
It was a sign of good things to come. The house was immaculate, had great features, backed up to a park and had two Jack Russels, the same as my client! I urged her to make an offer the next day. The price was obviously too high and the out of area agent was not aware of this until I discussed this with her. Someone could get a great deal here, why not let it be us???
Of course my buyer dragged her feet and by Friday the house was listed $50K less. The agent was doing an open house and by Friday evening had an offer. Of course I felt I already had a repoire with the agent and looked forward to presenting the offer to her and her sellers today.
I was told that Countrywide was the lender. UH-oh. Good thing my client does not have a specific time frame she needs to get into a house. I'm working on a deal where CW is the second being offered $3K to walk and they are still dragging their feet four months later. I think my second buyer is about to walk.
Anyway, come to find out Aurora is the first deed of trust. Interesting. I believe they are more on the subprime end of lending, but not sure. Anyway, the way the offer was written, we were asking for an immediate response, for the deposit check to be deposited, and for all other offers to be put in back up position. Guess what? Apparently Aurora's work out package requires two offers to be presented. WHAT? Why? That totally blows our whole strategy.
Here's a couple of the questions that are really on my mind and of course, my buyer's mind:
- If there are two buyers, how long does Aurora take to tell us who the "winner" is?
- Why would two buyers hold on for months on end to find out if they get the deal while all these other great properties are available? Isn't that like a crap shoot that the bank could ultimately screw themselves out of both buyers committment?
- What gives the bank the power to dictate the terms of the residential purchase agreement? Isn't the seller still the owner of record? Aren't they the rightful person to decide who they want to come to an agreement with a.k.a. be under contract with?
So apparently the listing agent has been told that Aurora will move quickly. I don't have any personal experience with the company and so I will be searching the AR blogs to read up on them. The listing agent was told that Aurora has a special arrangement with CW in order to expedite the short sale process. That's great, but I want to know what is going to happen not what someone tells you.
I know that I will find some way to benefit from this experience and so I wanted to share it with all of you. Take care, and stay cool!!
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