Freddie
The Short Sale process is complicated, one of the keys to help move the process along is to obtain all of the key contacts involved in the process. The banks are usually where the process bogs down with them giving very slow responses. It may not be your agent that you should be unhappy with but rather the bank. In your search of another Realtor you should be asking how many short sales have they been involved with over the past couple of years because experience helps in understanding how they work and what can go wrong.
Larry Ulfig
RE/MAX Professionals
630-215-4718

Freddie3541
Michelle did a great job in answering your question and she is correct with all points. The one thing you did mention in your question is you have no contract with this friend of a friend agent, but you have a contract on a house. Do you mean you have an offer in on a house and you are waiting to hear back from the bank?
The first thing you really need to know is how you are being represented by this agent. I have to assume the agent explained agency relationship to you? You need to be working with a "Buyers Agent", at this point it seems your agent is representing the seller and if you agree to that, ok. Have a talk with this agent about this, you need to have someone in your corner working for you and staying in contact with the listing agent as Michelle mentioned below.

Good luck
Pam Bava, e-Pro Realtor http://www.rddrealty.com

Hi Freddie,

Short sales require a lot of time and a WHOLE lot of patience. But, maybe what's needed here is an understanding of how a short sale works.

A short sale occurs any time a seller comes to the closing table owing more money than was produced from the sale. In essence, he/she comes up "short". On rare occasions sellers can make up the difference - bringing money with them to close. But, the vast majority of the time, the difference is in the tens of thousands and generally people just don't have that money sitting around. Because of this huge difference, the bank that holds the mortgage(s) on the home needs to approve the sale.

Sounds like a simple process, right? But, actually is a very long and difficult process to get approval. Especially if the sellers haven't provided everything needed in the "short sale package" to the bank. That package is quite large and I'm not joking when I say it's 2-3 inches thick. When the seller accepts an offer on his house, his agent must submit to the bank that accepted contract along with all the financial statements, hardship letter, HUD statement, BPO (market analysis).

Assuming everything required is in the package (and more often not everything is), the bank needs to assign a case manager, an attorney, and a negotiator. And everyone one of those folks has piles of short sales or foreclosures (Florida is one of the highest rated states for foreclosures) sitting on their desks so they get to your file when they can.

If there's more than one bank holding a mortgage or equity line, the process is even longer because each institution wants as much as possible. So, they will often have to negotiate how much each will lose. Sometimes the PMI company won't approve the loan because often they are the low man on the totem pole and get nothing.

Then the seller will have to negotiate with the bank how they will pay back the money they are short. A small percentage of the time, the lender will "forgive" the amount but, again, the majority of the time the bank wants to put the seller on some sort of payment plan to pay back the tens of thousands the bank lost and a lot of sellers just don't want to do that.

I'm sure you can see how many pitfalls you could actually encounter here and how long this process can usually take (3-6 months maybe even longer). One thing your agent should be doing is contacting the listing agent every week. I'm currently in a short sale situation with a buyer and the listing agent emails me once a week with an update which goes a LONG way to settling some of the concerns of the buyer. If your agent seems to squirm and resist a little, just tell her that she works for you and this will go a long way to to ease your concerns and keep you from walking away from the deal and from her.

Good luck, Freddie!

Freddie,

What your agent is trying to tell you is that the world of "short sales" is long, unpredictable, and too often disappointing.

Agents have learned the hard way while involved with these transactions, that to tell a customer what is commonly understood and accepted a solid common sense often "comes back to bite you!"

Thus, you may find that the person that appears to have all the answers may just be blowing smoke or in the event they are accurate.......gifted in ways that are far beyond you and I.

The decision is yours.

Freddie

You can work with another agent on a "different" home. If you aren't getting answers to your questions regarding the home you have a contract on, then speak to the managing broker of the office.

Dennis Toomey
RE/MAX TERRITORY
Cell (847) 338-0180
Fax (847) 956-2844
E-mail: dtoomey@remax.net