The article linked below tells you a little about the patience and risk tolerance required from a buyer in a short sale situation. My opinion of short sales for buyers? High Risk, Low Reward.

Web Reference
http://www.brokeragentnews.com/news/residential/2008_2/2_4_2…

To sum up the article. 1. Buyer waits a long time for the bank to anything. 2. Buyer has to sign banks counteroffer that is full of anti-consumer clauses. 3. Buyer has to pay nearly full market value. (discount, if any is much tinier than you think it will be) 4. Bank can cancel the sale at any time up until close of escrow, with no consequence to the bank and no compensation to the buyer


In my not so humble opinion ( imnsho,) ) The reasons why the failure is above 80% are:

1. Many sellers don't qualify, they think that being upside down and hating it is enough.
You must also be undergoing hardship not of your own making. such as illness, unemployment or natural disaster. Stovall gives a few other reasons.

2. Prospective buyers think that these are bargains, so very few buyers offer close to full market value. The banks will not approve sales at huge discounts, tiny discounts: yes.

3. The wait, 4. the paperwork, the wait 5. the anti-buyer addenda, the long wait 6. the uncertainty of the sale, still waiting 7. the perception, if not a reality, of bad faith dealing by the bank loss mitigation managers.

-It is extremely unlikely for a listing agent to lie about the existence of multiple offers. The agent has nothing to gain from that. If they say there are multiple offers, there almost certainly are.
On the other hand, you don't know if they are also low, or if they are higher. and he probably won't be able to tell you if they are low because of his ethical duty to the seller.
.I linked below to an article in Broker Agent News by Steve Stovall. He gives a pretty good description of the short sale process, seller, property, paperwork, and buyer requirements

FORECLOSURE REALITY CHECK.... Seasoned investors who buy foreclosures know the REO manager at the bank and get "off market" deals. They never have to bid or find a place to learn what's available.

FOR ALL OTHERS: The only "sellers market" in america is the foreclosure market. Don't expect any deals from a foreclosure as the bidding process brings 20-30 people to bid on almost every deal. A deal that was already priced at market. For government foreclosed homes, by law, they have to be priced "at market".

The REO manager has a short list of "cash/close in 2 day buyers", they always get the first right to bid. Then they have to wait for the "public auction" Which drives up those prices. After a 30-60 day period. Then the REO picks the best bid. Sometimes, only sometimes does a REO manager take a property directly to a buyer he knows peronsally. Why should he, he has a bunch of people bidding and driving up the prices.

My REO manager friend likes to joke about all the "first timers" who continue to drive up the bid when they don't hear anything from the bank. Every time I see the "how come I haven't heard from the bank about accepting my foreclosure bid after 30+ days" on trulia, I have to let out a chuckle because he's so right. For those newbies, this is real. They know that when you don't hear from them that a large percentage of people drop a second or third offer higher than the previous one. **WARNING, YOU ARE BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF HERE**

You want a deal on a property right, everyone wants that.... So the moral of this story is:
1. the 60 days you have to wait to hear from a REO, you could have made 2 or 3 better deals with a property that has been on the market for a long period of time. Any realtor can help you drop a crazy offer.
2. You are attempting to make a deal in a house covered in a cloud of bad energy, don't be surprised when it rubs off. Personally I stay away from these for this reason entirely.
3. One way to get a deal is dropping a hand written note on ANY house in a neighborhood you want to buy that says "my girlfriend and I want to buy a house in this neighborhood and yours looks cute from the outside. Do you know anyone that is looking to sell?" I always get responses, better prices and positive energy into the home.

Gina,

I just had this question yesterday. I agree with my other associates. It can take a long time. Depending on the bank, when the process was started, if there is more than one lender, etc....the timeline is very unstable.

While no one can give you the miracle cure to the frustrating waiting game, the best things is to communicate with your agent. Most of them are very diligent in their pursuit of driving files to completion; however, there is a third party that often does not play well with others muddying the waters.

The other thing to remember is that not all banks are in this state or even time zone. That can limit hours of processing. And of course there is the world us agents affectionately refer to as "the Matrix" Countless hours of being on hold, getting transferred, calls dropped, only to be told, that they never received the paperwork, or that "someone else is handling it", and at the end of three hours sometimes finding ourselves at the same place we started. In short, we feel your pain! lol...

As far as listing agents saying they have an offer to make you submit an offer, I'd like to say it doesn't happen but no one really knows for sure. The industry as a whole is very ethical so I imagine that behavior is very limited.

If you cannot wait and do not have to have this house that you offered on, meet with your agent. Discuss your options and work together on what will move you towards your goal of homeownership. Remember, he or she is there to help and advise you. Keeping communication open and having a plan will virtually guarantee that the frustration will be limited, and you will find your dream home.

Gina,

Unfortunately it can take months. You would think that the lenders would be happy to get it off their books but they typically prioritize short sales lower than other projects. I am sure they are currently swamped with short sales so it could take longer than normal. I have had a short sale take 2 months to get approval, but most recently they put it through in 2 weeks. Keep communicating with them so you are a priority.

Hi Gina, it's not unheard of for them to take quite awhile to respond. Anywhere from a week to several weeks can be normal. Have you tried to contact them again? Remember, they probably have hundreds of other files on their desks, especially in the last few months!