Sequim short sales are a black hole, or perhaps I should say can be a black hole. The last three Sequim short sales that I wrote up all were great transactions, except they were short sales and the banks refused to make a decision. All three died a natural death because the banks simply would not respond to the price.
Imagine this: you write an offer on a home that is a short sale in which the fair market value is less than the current mortgage balance, so the bank must accept less than what is owed to them. The bank's other option, which is very unattractive, is to foreclose on the home. Foreclosure takes a bank about ten months and a lot of money. The statutory non-judicial foreclosure can be done in about six months, but banks cannot move that quickly. In this example the seller and you sign a Purchase and Sale Agreement, which your agent submits to the seller's bank for approval as a short sale. For example, the mortgage balance is $256,000, but you agree to buy it at $225,000.
Now imagine that you and the seller and your agent and the seller's agent are all waiting for the bank to approve the sale. And waiting. For days. For weeks. For months. Welcome to the world of short sales. By the way, this example is a true Sequim short sale that died simply because the bank never made a decision.
This is why I am suggesting that trying to buy a house as a short sale can be a black hole. You simply never hear from the bank. Meanwhile your Purchase and Sale Agreement deadlines all expire, and your agreement dies a natural death. And everyone is still waiting and wondering what happened, but there are no answers.
There are no answers because there is no human being to talk to at the short sale department of the bank which is on the east coast or somewhere. There is no phone number for you or your buyer's agent to call the short sale department of the bank, and when your agent talks to the seller's agent about this, the seller's agent says, "We don't have any way of getting the bank to move on this. They have the paperwork, but they don't respond. Sorry."
And so you wait. And wait. But nothing happens, and your Sequim short sale dies a natural death.
May I suggest you don't waste your time on Sequim short sales, and go with the hundreds of incredible homes for sale by owners in our MLS. It will save you time, stress, and probably money too. You can start here with SearchSequimMLS.com
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