Short Sales - Are they worth the wait?

Hi Everyone!

It's Sunday night and I should be sleeping, but there is so much happening in the Real Estate world right now it's hard to go to sleep. As most of you have seen, Short Sales have now become very popular. Currently about 25% of all our listings are Short Sales.

First, let's spend a minute and explain exactly what is a Short Sale? Let's say you bought your home in 2005 for $300k. Three years later the market has crashed and the home you went out on the limb to buy is now worth $200k. To make matters worse, you may have bought your home with zero money down and an adjustable rate mortgage to boot. Your rate has gone up and that hope of your home going up in value $100k like your friends did only a couple of years ago is gone. You now qualify as so many do these days, to ask the bank to let you sell the home for the current market value of $200k. Once approved by the bank, you can now list your property to sell. So, a short sale is selling a home for less than what you owe on it. The seller has to prove to the bank they are a hardship case.

The benefit as a seller is they have the opportunity to get themselves out of their bad investment. It will still hurt their credit, but not quite as much as a foreclosure. In many cases the bank will not let you out of the home unless you sign a note saying you will pay the difference back to the bank. Most of the people put in this situation will choose to foreclose because they don't have the money to pay the bank. However, most banks are not asking for a note and they realize, in hind sight of course, that they should have been a little more conservative when deciding who they should or shouldn't give loans.

The benefit to the buyer, or at least the perceived benefit, is they will get a great deal on a property. Granted, there are some great deals to be had through Short Sales. However, most of the banks are not going to take much of a hit below current market values. Many times the bank will receive offers, then do an appraisal on the property to determine if they will accept any offers.

The Problem

It all sounds so simple doesn't it? Well it isn't! Short Sales have proven to cause a lot of heart break and distress. Let me tell you about a couple that we have dealt with recently.

The first couple put an offer of the home of their dreams. They fell in love with this home from the moment they walked through the front door. Their offer was full price based on the advertised listing price. They were very excited. The offer was submitted to the bank the following day. At this point we hadn't done many Short Sales and when we had, they were handled within a few days at most. So we waited for the banks answer....and waitied....and waited. Six months later we finally heard that the bank would not accept the offer. Yes, you read correctly, six months later. After some quick thinking from my Agent, she was able to convince the bank to take the offer. Our customers were full of emotions going from depressed to very excited again. Everything from there until closing went great. Our customers had their home inspection ($300), Termite Inspection ($75), appraisal ($300) and survey ($350). The got to closing and the seller found out she was going to have to sign a note for the difference in the short sale...around $57k. She refused and walked out of the closing room leaving our customers with their mouths hanging down and the tears flowing. They were devastated. To make things even a little worse, the next day the seller said she would sign. Our customers emotions were doing what you would expect by now. The got to closing and the seller again refused to sign. They were destroyed. Don't worry, there was a very happy ending to the story. We found them another house they loved even more and they closed in 10 days through our mortgage company. Everyone was happy in the end.

The second story won't be as long. It's basically the same as the first story in the beginning. They fell in love with the home and put an offer $3k above the asking price. We thought for sure they would get this home. After waiting for about three weeks, the bank came back and said they wanted $265k. This is $8,000 higher than our customers offer and $11,000 that the other Realtor had it listed in the MLS. Our customer was extremely upset and thought it was a bait and switch by the listing Realtor. The reality is the banks will not give us the dollar figure that they will take until we bring them an offer. Realtors can only do their best at guessing what the bank will take and list it around that price. It's really a mess.

The point I"m trying to make here is that Short Sales sound good on the outside but you have to be prepared to wait a very long time and possibly not get the home or pay more than you had offered. The banks are understaffed trying to handle an ever growing number of homes coming to them for Short Sales.

Now let's go back to the beginning of the conversation when we talked about the situation inwhich one can try to sell as a Short Sale. The reality is that the bank is not going to take less than market value in most cases. You are going to pay the same price for this home as you might with a regular resale with no issues.

My Advice

So what happens if you fall for a Short Sale home? Keep looking is what I've told most of our customers. You can put an offer on the Short Sale home, but you should keep looking for your perfect home while waiting for the answer from the bank. Chances are, with the amount of homes on the market, you will find another home with not so much baggage as the Short Sale home. In the end you will pay approximately the same amount of money for either home.

I know that everyone wants to get the best deal they can get. That is human nature and the American way! However, there are better ways to get good deals then doing a Short Sale. For instance, there are so many builders who have homes for sales less expensively than most resale homes. Also, look at homes where the owner has bought their home before 2002. Chances are they didn't pay much for their home and even wtih the market crash, they still have plenty of equity. The more equity they have, the better chance you have of buying the home at a better price. Of course if they don't have to move, they won't be going down to much either. But if the do have to sell, they have the flexibility to lower than price.

Hopefully that will clear up any thoughts and or questions that you may have had on Short Sales. I know it can get quite confusing out there. Believe me, when this first started happening we were all confused and we sell houses for a living. Now that we have done so many of them, we can help you though with ease. However that doesn't make the bank go any faster. We can just prepare you better for the possible heartache you might feel. So take my advice...Make your Short Sale offer if you want, but keep looking for your ferfect home. I know we have one available for you right now.

As always, feel free to call the office at 321-259-9115 or email me to answer any questions you might still have on Short Sales or anything else that I can do for you.

Have a great night!

Mitch