Short Sales Are Neither Short Nor Sales
I hate short sales. I hate them as individuals, and I hate them as a group. Were short sales a people, genocide would be a virtue.
Maybe this is the wrong opinion for a Realtor® to have under these market conditions. Maybe some of the eighty-four subscribers to this blog are anxious short sale sellers on the verge of hiring Elite Properties, who will now think me a thoughtless slob. Maybe my family will be out on the street because I’m such a poor businessman, saying what I think about short sales out loud on the Internets and all.
It’s not that I don’t care about all that bad stuff happening. But I still hate short sales.
A Short Sale Tale
This is a true short sale story.
A buyer finds us through our web site, works with an agent of mine, and writes up an offer on a short sale home. The seller accepts the offer, but we don’t have short sale approval from the bank yet. This is back in November or so. The house is a great buy compared to everything else on the market.
For the next several months, my agent plays a phone game with the listing agent, a game familiar to any agent who’s ever worked a short sale.
Stripped of the pleasantries and extra details, the game goes like this:
Agent 1: “Has the bank accepted our offer yet?” Agent 2: “No.”
Agent 1: “Has the bank accepted our offer yet?” Agent 2: “No.”
Agent 1: “Has the bank accepted our offer yet?” Agent 2: “No.”
Agent 1: “Has the bank accepted our offer yet?” Agent 2: “No.”
This goes on for three or four months, until one day, miracle of miracles, Agent 2 says “Yes”, the bank has accepted our offer. Only now, guess what? The house isn’t a great buy any more because the bank waited so long. Yesterday’s bargain is today’s overpriced turkey, so now the buyer wants to cancel the transaction and go look at other houses! (Which the buyer is within her rights to do, by the way, since the bank has a “short sale contingency” period that expired months ago).
Circle The Winner, a Multiple Choice Question
The winner on the above scenario was:
A) The seller.
B) The seller’s real estate agent.
C) The buyer.
D) The buyer’s real estate agent.
E) The bank.
The Answer Revealed:
Did you guess “F) None of the above?”
Right you are!
