Hello Again Everyone,
I recently asked a question here about a short sale home that my wife and I put an offer on. The home is financed through Bank of America and we have been waiting to hear something for about a month now. Not much has happened, but yesterday we were contacted by the attorney handling the short sale and asked to sign some papers for BofA. The paperwork was something that was confirming our offer to FHA, as apparently the loan currently on the house was an FHA loan.
Does anyone know if this is a sign of progression? If BofA was going to reject our offer would we even be going through this step? This is our first time dealing with a short sale and I do realize that it can take months and months for an answer. Like everyone else who has gone through this it does get quite frustrating due to the lack of information from the bank. I realize that they are swamped, but curiosity has got the best of me. Of course this might not mean anything, but with any luck the ball is rolling.
My fiancé just finished a short sell. The (2nd hand) way it happed seemed to be “wait…wait…wait…act”
I’m just guessing this is a good thing and the paperwork will come soon. The only problems I can see are if the bank agreed to a deal and now you want to start bickering about who pays what fees. The banks are very slow and irresponsive about last minute negotiations.
My fiancés short sell seemed to take about 7 months; the people offering were interested in a rental property so the wait wasn’t too bad. I couldn’t imagine trying to buy a family house with those wait times.
Couldn’t agree more. We have a home at the moment, so we aren’t really in a hurry. In fact, we haven’t listed our current home for sale yet because we are afraid it will sell and we won’t have anywhere to go! Our Realtor said that our current home is in demand in this area being a 4 bedroom with a pool, but more importantly it isn’t a short sale. Apparently she told us that many of her clients refuse to even look at short sales because of the time it takes to get a decision.
Your agent is really the best person to ask, but I know several people who had short sales that took very long times to complete. One had three interested buyers over a period of a year and and a half. Two buyers gave up when the sale process exceeded three months, and another was insistent on a price lower than what the bank would approve.
So waiting for a month is probably just step 1. Also, be prepared to repeat this step multiple times in the future as things change.
I agree that it is going to be a long process. I was told by another Realtor that her last 2 short sales through BofA were completed within 45 days, perhaps signaling a change in SOP for the bank. I know we shouldn’t be impatient, but it is such a major thing in our lives we can’t help but over analyze everything. Plus we really like the house and the town. We have asked the agent, but she seems to be very limited in the information that she has. Of course she wants the sale to go through as well, as she gets commission. I am really confused however at the delay in getting an answer from the banks on short sales. I am not really sure why it takes so long. I figured if the banks are overloaded with properties that they would want to move as fast as they can to limit their exposure.