Short Sale Question (for sale, real estate, foreclosures)

[LRAM]

I made an offer for a Short sale property few hours ago, my agent initially told me it might take a month for the bank to make a decision, but within a few hours sellers agent sent us a fax rejecting my offer stating that it was too low.
My questions :
1) Can a seller’s agent make a decision on behalf of a bank/Seller?
2) Is there a way to know which bank owns this property and deal directly with them?

Thanks in advance for your answers

[rcrdoeva]

this website will help you some. all idid was type on google search: short sale question , it came back with tons of site including this one:

10 Frequently Asked Short Sale Questions

question 4 would lead me to believe that no, he has no say. but i could be totally wrong. try google.

[muttmommie]

Is the bank the listed Seller of the property? I understand a short sale to be a situation where the purchase price is lower than the debt owed by the Seller. The agent represents the seller. Unless the bank has foreclosed on the debt and taken possession of the property, then the Seller is the property owner that listed the property for sale....not the bank. The Seller needs the banks permission to sell the property for less than is owed.....but it is still up to the Seller's discretion whether to accept or reject your offer.

[nsumner]

An agent can only reject an offer if they have written instructions from the seller not to bring them any offers below a certain amount. Otherwise, no matter how low the written offer is, the agent MUST present ALL offers.

You can find the bank but they will not deal with you directly. None of them will sorry. Your agent cannot contact them directly either because it would be considered interfering in the relationship with the listing agent.

Yes short sales take sometimes months to negotiate, but once in a while, you get an answer pretty quickly if that agent has an established relationship with the asset manager of the bank.

Naima

[j1jean]

I wonder how long the house has been on the market? We made an offer on a short sale as well and it took at least a month to hear back. At that point, all offers were rejected and the agent said the bank had to have an offer of at least a certain price they stated to us. So maybe they had already reached that point and knew exactly what the bank needed to see in order to work with it. Otherwise, they are supposed to submit all offers. Our agent did say that some smaller banks are very quick in responding (within a day), and some bigger ones take forever. Could also just depend on the bank you are dealing with.

[andiamodfw]

We are in the proces of a selling our house via short sale. our bank has taken (so far) 2 months to either accept or reject the offer. they won't disclose the amount they are willing to accept, and they will only consider one offer at a time. It has been a long drawn out process and I would never want to go through this ever again. Our buyers are growing impatient (as are we) and will back out if a decision is not reached soon. We cannot get a hold of the person in charge of our case and it is extremely frustrating.

back to your question:
It sounds like that particular bank you are dealng with has a very good idea of what homes are going for in that area and they are going by that number. Find out from your realtor what the homes are going for and start your bidding price a little under. The seller (unless they know the magic number the bank is willing to accept) does not accept or reject an offer. It is really up to the bank!

GOOD LUCK.

[LRAM]

Thanks for all your replies. I agree that during "good times" banks cared less about short sales and foreclosures. Now that there are plenty of short sales and forclosures, I would assume banks have more asset manages to get thisngs moving fast instead of sitting on the property for ever and losing buysers.

I've one more question...Once the bank agrees to do a short sale, is the seller obligated to make the monhly payments still the sale is complete?

[nsumner]

Originally Posted by LRAM

Thanks for all your replies. I agree that during "good times" banks cared less about short sales and foreclosures. Now that there are plenty of short sales and forclosures, I would assume banks have more asset manages to get thisngs moving fast instead of sitting on the property for ever and losing buysers.

I've one more question...Once the bank agrees to do a short sale, is the seller obligated to make the monhly payments still the sale is complete?

The whole purpose of a short sale is that the owner is not able to make payments and the bank would not even consider it if the seller is not already behind a few months in payments and the seller has to show hardship.

So since the owner isn't able to make the payments, no, he doesn't have to make any payments.

Naima

[loves2read]

buying on short sale seems like that is guaranteed good buy but you should know that many short-sale homes will not allow for inspections and there is no recourse if there are physical problems with the home/foundation/construction system---you are buying any problems that house has once the bank agrees to your offer--
so it is a good idea to KNOW what you are buying before you make the offer
some people in these situations are not able to make necessary repairs like roofs or HVAC units iwth problems--they are losing the home and often just don't care to deal with any more problems than they have on their plates
buying a short-sale home can wind up COSTING you money you did not anticipate and you often cannot get one of those homeowner-liability policies that real estate agents provide for homes they are selling...