When banks play hardball on a short sale, should we play hardball back?
This was an interesting post from Mark Organek, a REALTOR in Tempe, AZ concerning a short sale and the obvious frustrations that everybody is going through with a bank.
I always find it amazing how Banks handle Short Sales - In my opinion one of the most important things that needs to be improved in helping the real estate market get back on track.
If Banks were more receptive to helping Las Vegas home owners do a short sale, we could be avoiding a lot of the foreclosures in the first place -- and saving Banks a lot of money.
We know how stoooopid loss mitigation departments can get. They take forever to make black and white decisions, they answer the phone when they want to, they put us on hold while they play Freecell or Solitaire on their computers pretending to be looking up our file, etc.
Last week, we get an approval on an offer written months ago. The listing agent is excited, I'm excited, client is excited, etc. is excited...
Problem is, they approved it for $11,000 less than we needed and they didn't bother to tell anyone.
Although the contract had included concessions to my buyer, the loss mitigator decided to cut my clients closing cost concessions out of the picture. If he doesn't get the concessions, he can't buy! Not so smart on the banks part to play hardball like this! If they don't give us the concessions that we asked for and my buyer walks away, this home will go into foreclosure.
What to do? What to do? Well, certain items were found on the home inspection, lack of proper insulation, fire code violations, unpermitted work, etc. My client is fine with these items and knows how to correct them. The bank played hardball, so now can't we? Once this home goes on the market, we plan on informing the listing agent, immediately of all of the found deficiencies on the home, forcing the agent to either disclose these items to potential buyers or run the risk of losing their license. These items will affect the value of the home and as such will become known material facts.
We knew we were buying, "as-is", "where-is". We knew the seller couldn't affford to make repairs. Now, if the bank won't deal, they better be prepared for dealing with the public and having to disclose the defects we found.
It may be cheaper for them to just take our offer. In times like these, how hard should we play?
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