Short Sales: Be Prepared for Anything and Assume Nothing!

     The number one rule about Short Sales is that there really are no rules. Each investor who owns the loan has their own requirements, each servicing company has theirs, each negotiator has his or her own personality and method of handling the file and probably most importantly of all, each homeowner has their own individual hardship and financial situation. Your colleague's neighbor may have sold his home via Short Sale with Bank of America and closed in 90 days. Your aunt's hair stylist has been waiting on her Short Sale approval from Bank of America for 5 months. So what's the deal? Doesn't the real estate agent know what to do? Why is it taking so long?
     There are many reasons why Short Sale transactions take longer than we want them to. Here are the top reasons why the Short Sale Process varies so much even with the same lender:

• Different Investors Own the Loan. There is an investor who actually owns the loan and the lender (Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc...) is servicing the loan for that investor. What that really means is that the final decision is made by the investor--NOT the servicing company. 
• Each Homeowner's Financial Situation is Unique. Every homeowner who is approved for a short sale must have a hardship but each homeowner's financial situation is different. The lender and the investor who owns the loan take a good hard look at this to determine the criteria for the short sale approval.
• We are Still Dealing With a Person/Personality. The human factor is actually a really huge determining factor in the length of the short sale process . It is a person, not a computer software program, who determines the pace that the file moves through the process. All servicing companies now have short sale departments staffed with negotiators who are responsible for "working" the files and communicating with the investors and getting an approval letter.

     So at the end of the day it is like so many other things in life: be prepared for anything and assume nothing! An experienced Short Sale Agent is vital to a timely and successful Short Sale Transaction.