Short Sale- Cash Offer (short sales, real estate, foreclosure)

[emir_lisic]

So i am trying to buy a house and its listed at 124,900. Its a short sale and it needs a little work to it like paint, flooring, new roof, etc. I offered 125k all cash. Is there a big advantage to it being all cash?Does the bank or seller care if it needs work to it (which can maybe help me get it at this price)? Does the seller care or the bank even care if its cash or not? what are my chances? Will it speed up the process if my offer gets accepted by seller? First time buying house, any advice would be amazing! Anyone been through a short sale process before? how long does this take? anything important you learn in the process that can maybe help me out? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you all!

[red92s]

The seller cares. MANY real estate transactions fall through because of financing contingencies. Sometimes a house won't appraise high enough, and the buyers walk away rather than make up the difference. Sometimes even if a buyer is pre-approved, financing falls through because someone looses a job, or something turns up on a credit report. Cash offers remove a lot of the reasons that contracts fall apart during the contract period, and are more likely to make it to the closing table.

[jsvh]

Be sure to get it inspected! You are not "required" to have it inspected since you won't have a mortgage. But it is a really good idea. There are so many potential hidden problems. Make sure you know them. But yes, all cash will make your offer very appealing.

[LovelySummer]

A short sale process is nothing nice and an all-cash offer does not help (or hurt). It is the short sale process in and of itself that is a bear. I would buy a foreclosure anyday before a short sale. Here are the issues.
No matter what the seller says, there are no pre-approved short sales. Even if the ban previously approved the price, they could change their minds and not accept your price. Since prices are going up, banks are getting more picky and lots of time will not take less than 90% of what they think they can get on the market without the short sale aspect to the deal. Second, it will take the bank (typically, that is) a really long time before they decide if they will accept your offer. Sometimes, it could be one month, two months before you hear back...if not longer. The fastest short sales close in 3 months. Most close after much more hassle and much longer time. It has nothing to do with the financing. It is the bank's rigamorole. Third, you could wait so long for the bank that you cross into the period of time during which the property starts to go into foreclosure. Then the whole thing could be out the window bc the seller could come back in and redeem themselves and purchase the property. Then after all that is said and done, the bank could decide not to honor their contract and not sell the property to you after all. YOU have a duty to close but the bank does not. Bank could change it's mind altogether about selling to you at any point.

Get an agent who is an expert on short sales. They'll tell you. It's a mess.

Just buy a foreclosure. It's much less hassle.

Originally Posted by emir_lisic

So i am trying to buy a house and its listed a
t 124,900. Its a short sale and it needs a little work to it like paint, flooring, new roof, etc. I offered 125k all cash. Is there a big advantage to it being all cash?Does the bank or seller care if it needs work to it (which can maybe help me get it at this price)? Does the seller care or the bank even care if its cash or not? what are my chances? Will it speed up the process if my offer gets accepted by seller? First time buying house, any advice would be amazing! Anyone been through a short sale process before? how long does this take? anything important you learn in the process that can maybe help me out? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you all!

[jsvh]

^Yea, I actually glossed over the short sale part when I originally read your post. Cash probably does not help that much there.

[Big L]

As others have already said, offering cash probably won't do much when it is a short sale. In addition, you still should have been able to make an offer for less than the asking price. The additional cash in your pocket could have gone towards the repairs and other items.