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Has anyone ever attempted to contact the seller's agent or the seller themselves during a short sale to get status information and if so - did it hurt or help at all?
It's been 11 months so far and our agent continues to try to get a response from the listing agent on where we are in the process and he usually ignores her except for a quick update every 4-6 weeks which usually doesn't answer any questions. The seller's attorney has never responded to any communication attempt since the beginning. I'm not going to go into the whole story except to say it's a difficult SS with title issues that have just been cleared up as of our last update about 1 month ago and he is now waiting for the attorney to get the judgement signed so he can re-submit to the bank.
We did speak directly with the seller on two occasions when we visited the property for inspections but otherwise have been respectful of the 'process'. My goal is to either get the listing agent to be more proactive instead of leaving things up to the attorney or have the seller push his agent/attorney to move things forward. Or worst case - let us know that it's just not going to happen.
Before anyone asks, walking away is not an option - not too much to choose from where I'm looking and this property is worth the wait.
What you have to realize is that you are, at the moment, the least important part of the process.
A short sale is not about making you happy or getting you into the house. The short sale is about the lender's bottom line, about the lender making the best of whatever deficiency comes about. It's just as easy for the bank for foreclose. In fact they usually do better financially that way. They don't care if you buy it or not.
The bank you are dealing with is the first lien holder. There may be other lien holders behind them and most certainly investors who will have the final say.
They're not giving you any information because they're not ready to deal with you yet. Title issues have nothing to do with you, other judgements against the seller have nothing to do with you. No attorney is ever going to give you status updates about the private matters of his client.
The bank has to get the title straightened out. Then they have to work on the whatever variety of loans might be out there. Then have to figure out the final deficiency they have to deal with. Then they have to talk to investors.
When they get that all squared away, then they'll work on your offer and see how it fits into their plan for their bottom line. No one is trying to be difficult with you. This is simply not a house sale in the manner of the typical house sale. This is a very different animal.
Short sales take a long time and there is nothing you can do to hustle it along. The seller has no control over the situation. It's a process and the process has to play itself out. You're part of the tail end of the process. They're not there yet. If and when the lender is ready to sell the house, then they will put you into the loop. In the meantime, have patience , lots of it..
Thanks Willow Wind - unfortunately we're dealing with the sellers and not that bank at this point since the offer hasn't been re-submitted to the bank yet. The lien against the title belonged to the wife, it was paid off but not recorded properly. The court passed a judgement that the lien is paid in full - she just needs to sign it but we can't get an answer on why it hasn't been signed or when it will be. We can only guess that the seller's divorce is causing the hold-up but it would be nice to at least get confirmation that they plan to move forward.
You are an unbelievably patient person. After 11 months I would have found another house. The problem is after 11 months you are still in limbo and at the mercy of a situation that you cannot control. I hope it is worth the wait and aggravation.
Though I am pretty patient normally - in this case there hasn't been another option because only a few properties have become available since we found this one and they're all either in bad areas or double the price of this one (we're only looking for multi-families, that part of of the market is slim pickings).
Last we heard, the title issue is connected to the sellers ex-wife from 20yrs ago as opposed to the sellers current wife who he is divorcing and there maybe a detective looking to find her so she can sign the judgement. If that happens - then they can re-submit to the bank where we would wait to see their decision. In the meanwhile all we can do is save more money since it would be our luck for the bank to ask for more.
I asked my agent if I could speak with the seller agent. She refused. One day, when I was about to give up, I drove to the seller agent office. Knocked on the door, and went it. It was the most helpful conversation I ever had. I now understood everything. I hate hearing the information through my agent. It is scraps of information and I never get my questions answered adequately. I wish I could cut my agent out of the equation and just deal with the seller agent. This process sucks. I really want the house, but I want to know why I am waiting.
Now that you're in some sort of contract on a property, your agent wants their commission and they're worried if they're transparent with you about the holdups, the information will cause you to walk. Sucks because they're supposed to be looking out for your best interests but really no one is. Your only leverage is to threaten to walk over their failure to disclose. I keep getting nothing from my agent, a lot of "I'm sure its fine, short sales take a long time, why bother" yes but they take time for REASONS, its not just people sitting around doing nothing, you need to keep on top of it so they don't take even longer than they already do! At least when I do get updates, she basically forwards me what the seller agent says and it sounds to me like the seller agent is a lot more on top of things. They seem more in tune with my concerns whereas my agent is like meh, once its been 4 months then I'll look into it.
At least when I do get updates, she basically forwards me what the seller agent says and it sounds to me like the seller agent is a lot more on top of things. They seem more in tune with my concerns whereas my agent is like meh, once its been 4 months then I'll look into it.
What you aren't realizing is that there is absolutely NOTHING a buyer's agent can do in a short sale. The seller is represented by an agent. The agent is either dealing with the bank themselves, or has brokered out to a third party attorney to work with the bank. The seller is the bank's client. No where in any equation does a buyer's agent get any say in any part of the process. Banks talk through asset managers and the asset managers talk to the attorney or the seller's agent.
What do you think your buyer's agent can do with all the other parties have privacy issues and can ONLY answer to the seller?
I do realize that. But my agent can still talk to the seller agent for updates, find out if something has hit a roadblock that is or isn't being resolved. Whenever my agent says "I've had short sales take 2 years before" as though that's a reason not to talk to the seller agent, I feel I'm not having my interests looked out for. I want to know if my time is being wasted or not. It can cause me economic harm if this ends up going nowhere and I could have known that 3 months sooner or something. I'm still looking to my agent for guidance. When she ignores the details of the situation, I'm not getting useful guidance. I'm sure that 2 year short sale was a mess full of problems that really don't apply to my transaction.
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