The bank ordering the owners financial information is pretty much the very very very beginning stages of a Short Sale. In fact if the agent had done a short sale before, the financial information should have been gathered the day they listed the property and submitted to the bank with the offer. A BPO is ordered 1-2 weeks after the offer is received and a typical short sale today takes 3-4 months.

So I would say no, you are not at all close.

The fact that the bank has requested the seller's financial statement and ordered a BPO does not mean that they are closer to accepting the offer. However, it DOES mean that they are working on getting closer to making a decision on the offer (their decision could be to approve the offer, reject the offer, or approve the offer based on certain terms, such as the seller agreeing to sign an unsecured promissory note for the deficiency amount).

What concerns me here is why are the sellers only now, after they have an offer, completing their financial statement? A listing agent experienced with short sales would have had all seller financial information completed at the time of listing the home, as it all should have been submitted with your offer. Submitting paperwork later only results in additional delays.

Should the sellers not provide this information to their lender, the sale will be denied. This happened to one of my buyers, and we were not amused that the listing agent never completed the full short sale package, including the seller's financial paperwork.

I would recommend that your mother's agent should be requesting information on what paperwork is needed from the seller, and should be following up with the listing agent to make sure this is done in a timely manner.

As for the BPO, the information below is correct - the seller's lender will hire a third party to perform the BPO, and that third party will hire an appraiser or a real estate agent to complete the BPO. Several days, or a week or two, can easily transpire from the time the lender orders it until the order is assigned to an agent. The agent then typically has 2-3 days to perform the BPO, but this can vary based on when they are able to gain access to the home. Then the completed BPO is returned to the third party, who runs quality control checks, and they then return it to the seller's lender. Once the lender receives it back, it can take days or weeks for them to update their short sale file with the BPO, then to re-check the file to make sure they have all the paperwork they need. Once the file is complete - and only when the file is complete - will the lender submit it to their investors for a decision.

Also consider that they may be ordering more than one BPO, as well as possibly a full appraisal.

You mother will need to be very, very patient. I've seen the process take anywhere from two weeks to over six months.

This all depends on when the bank orders the Valuation. Some banks are slower than others. Normally, they hire a third party Valuation Company for the BPO. The whole process can take 10-30 Days. Reason why I give a huge range is because normally the BPO is due 3-7 days. Most likely, they will order a Interior BPO since its a short sale situation. By the time the order passes quality control from the BPO company or BPO department of the bank, gets passes back up to management on the bank front, and depending on how quickly the bank reviews it, it can add up to this time.

Hope this helps. I do this on a daily basis since I am REO/Short Sale agent & also provide BPO's to many lenders & valuation companies...so this is based on my experience.

Good Luck!

Generally it takes me about 2 days. Most of the BPOs have 2 parts. Fist part is similar to a CMA and takes about 2 hours to do correctly. Then Pictures have to be taken, 3-5 for Drive-bys and as many as 15 for Interior BPOs.

I hope that helps.

I commend your mother for working the short sale transaction on her own!

I would answer yes to this question. When I sell short sales I submit all information, and then some, to the lender. They will take a look at the offer and what the ballance is on the note. They will then order a BPO (Broker Price Oppinion) It takes me a few hours to complete one and send it to the lender.

I would keep close tabs on the lender to make sure they received the BPO back and have progressed to the next stage of the process. You should know after this step if your offer is accepted, but be patient. It can take 2 - 3 weeks for this part.

This is my experience here in NC and the short sale process is pretty much the same all over the country, but I bet there are a lot of other agents in NY that are more familiar with timeframes in your market and can provide you with additional information.

Good luck!

Daniele Summerfield,
Wilkinson & Associates