First time home-buyer Q & A
I am working with a lot of first time buyers who have many questions when searching the internet for homes. I hope that this helps answer some of those questions!
What is an "Active" listing?
That is a listing that is either a bank owned home (Foreclosed, REO) or a seller that has equity and is not selling short.
What is the difference between "Active Short Sale" and "Active Short Sale Contingent" listings?
An "active short sale" is a home that is on the market waiting for an offer. Once the seller has accepted an offer and that offer has been submitted to the bank it becomes "Active Short Sale Contingent". It stays as a contingent status until the bank approves the short sale and then it goes to a "Pending" status. Please note: Not all agents are reporting the statuses correctly. It is important that your agent is in contact with the listing agent for status information clarification.
Should I make an offer on a short sale contingent listing?
I tell all my buyers, "Yes." You should put offers on them because you never know if the person who has put in the offer and is waiting on short sale approval will be there when the bank finally approves the sale. Many times I have had listing agents call and ask if my buyers had found something or if they were still interested because their original buyer had moved on.
What does an "Expired" listing mean?
An "Expired" listing is one where the written agreement between the listing agent and the seller, to sell the home, has expired. "Expired Pending" means that the listing agreement expired when the property was in "Pending" status.
Why are short sales taking so long?
That is a question with a variety of different explanations. Short sales can take some time for a number of reasons: the agent listing the home may not have short sale experience, a complete short sale package may not have been submitted to the bank, the banks negotiator may have too many files on their desk, the greater the amount of monetary loss for the bank the more levels of approval it must go through. The list goes on and on. In my experience, the time frames really depend on the negotiator that gets assigned to the file, some are great some not so great! It is also imperative that the agent calls the bank frequently, at least once a week for updates. It's the squeaky wheel that gets greased!
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If you have any other questions that need answering please contact me. I may not have all the answers but I can sure try to find them! If you would like to have more of your questions answered you can sign up for our first time home-buyer seminar.
If you have short sale questions you can visit a website that I have prepared for people who owe more on their home than it's worth and don't know what to do!
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