Biggest Issue for Short Sale Sellers: Keeping a Buyer in the Contract
Ask any Short Sale Agent from Northern Virginia to Sacramento, CA what the biggest problem they face in Short Sales and you are likely to hear that it is buyers with unreasonable expectations. Short Sale Listing Agents love it when an unreasonable buyer announces themselves with a lowball offer that there is no way in hell the bank would ever approve. At least they tell you up front they are unreasonable. They are looking for the deal that existed years ago, but were too intimidated to snatch back then. Now that the market is recovering, they want those days back. Too bad, so sad. Banks want market value like any other seller.
The thing that stinks is when you get what looks like a reasonable buyer on the surface. Reasonable offer and willing to wait as long as it takes. They want that house and no other, at least that's what they say. Then one day, so close to Short Sale Approval you can smell it, those buyers bust out of the contract telling you they just couldn't wait any longer. Nope. Not one more day.
Delivering that news to your sellers is awful. Yep. We've done all we can, but the buyers are walking. I know, we got the approval of one lender and were sending updates weekly, but they wigged out. What can I tell you? They were flimsy buyers. So you sell the house again. And again if you 
need to. You just keep on going until it is done---approved and closed.
We expect that sudden bail out from buyers as Short Sale Agents. That's why the good Short Sale Agents do their absolute best to make sure everyone is on the same page about the process and communicate at least weekly with the Buyer's Agent. Problem is, you can tell the Buyer's Agent all day long everything that is happening, but you can't make them understand what you are telling them and you can't make them share it with their clients.
I'll tell you who you don't expect to bail on a Short Sale--tenants in a rental property that is being sold in a Short Sale. Why? They already live in the home. No moving. And if the Sellers are current on the mortgage payments, there is zero risk of foreclosure. It is wait with no risk...unless you add a Buyer's Agent who hasn't a clue what is happening in the world of Short Sale these days. That makes even the most rock solid scenarios shaky.
Some agents just shouldn't be representing buyers in Short Sales because they haven't a clue and can fan the flames of panic . Why bother trying to learn something from the experienced voice of Short Sale wisdom? It might make their head hurt, or their pride. If a Buyer's Agent feels it is far better to go on assumptions when they don't understand something, then I feel bad for their clients. I don't feel bad for mine. They have someone that actually understands the Short Sale process from top to bottom and all the wiggly things in between.
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