Mike Ford

bob, i've been doing short sales for 15 years and have learned that the letters mean little. they just want one for the file. certainly if you are a war hero that got maimed saving the president you'd want to say that but most folks don't have a story as compelling. the lenders are NOT going to tell you that your hardship isn't legit. my last one, last week, said "we are getting a divorce and need to sell the home". one sentence.

you are correct that the accounting is what they look at...they have metrics that they reach for and all the rest of the file is fluff. whats the property worth, what's the offer, show us the HUD -1. the days of them doing any investigation or digging into the truth of the file are long gone as they are buried in files.

as for leaving them on the books for months and years... I too suspect that they are playing accounting games but at the NAR convention in san diego last month the BofA rep told me they had almost 3000 people handling short sales. that's up from several hundred just 24 months prior. it's just as likely that the growing pains are the reason for the delays in processing the files.

Lisa, you don't say why you need to sell but you should be sure to get an agent that is experienced in short sales. the process is time consuming and i think it requires a dedicated short sale processor on the sales team. they can be contracted, as i do, or be in house but having them on the file instead of the agent will help keep the thing moving along. the processor i use works full time and has a full staff. if you'd like a referral i'd be glad to provide it. - Yesterday, 08:11