When I started in the real estate business, I could not understand why an agent would not answer her phone. Today, I know the answer to that question. My phone rings constantly. If you want to get through to me, it's better to send an email. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I field not only calls from other agents but also from prospective short sale sellers and from those buyers driving by or looking online.
Often, the calls I receive from agents are the same. The basically want to know one thing. How solid is that offer? They can see that my listing is either active short contingent or in pending status. Well, some of them can't read those words, but most of them can. Some of them block out the "contingent" or "pending" status in their minds and just see the word "short sale," so they go for it like a thirsty man who just crawled across the desert to an oasis.
The thing is I am not privy to the inner workings of a buyer's mind. I honestly do not know how committed any particular buyer is to any of my short sale listings. That's because it is impossible to know these things unless I am that person, and I am not. I'm just a Sacramento short sale agent, not Uri Geller.
A buyer can swear up and down to me that she will wait for short sale approval. That buyer can write a big, fat, earnest money deposit and put that money into escrow. She can sign a short sale addendum promising to wait 180 days for approval. She can promise to paint my house if she cancels, throwing herself to the ground in my front yard, clutching a sprinkler-head and swearing on all that is holy; it doesn't matter. I still have no idea. Things change. People change.
If a short sale is canceling, I will immediately put it back on the market. I put it back as an active short sale, with a notation it is pending rescission. Beyond that, I do not know. If a buyer wants to submit a back-up offer, it's a good idea to find out how many I have. If you want to submit a 3rd or 4th back up offer, knock yourself out. But don't ask me to predict the likelihood of a buyer closing escrow. I don't have a crystal ball and, despite growing up in the '60s, I never learned how to read Tarot cards.
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