I recomend that your agent involves their broker; their broker could contact the listing agent's broker who might be able to generate some sort of response. Realize that, even if the seller accepted your offer they might retain the right to consider and submit additional offers to the lein holder. One of the characteristics of a short sale is uncertainty. If the seller "skipped out", the time frame for foreclosure will depend on how many months the seller hasn't made the housepayments and how efficient the processors of the lein holder are.

Vmarie,

The listing agent USUALLY can not submit the full package without the seller's signing your offer. The lender is just the contingency to the offer. Now, when you submitted the offer did you get some sort of confirmation that there are multiple offers on the property? Are you the highest offer? The reason I'm asking is that your chances are slim until you get an actual approval from the lender with your offer.

At this point your Realtor should be contacting the Listing Agent on a consistant basis to get an update. Your offer should be your highest and best. If it's not than you should ask your Realtor to change your offer to do so. Reason being, you will usually not get a chance to counter an offer because the Listing Agent will only submit the highest and best--the bottom line best--to the lender. If your highest and best is beat at least you know that it's the best you can do. You'll hate yourself for losing a bid on a property for only a few thousand when you could've bid higher.

Short Sales do take time but it depends on the experience of the Listing Agent and who the lender is... I've gotten approvals from a lenders as fast as two weeks and as long as 6 months. It also depends on the current owners situation and scenario. If the owners cannot provide a proof of hardship than you don't have a deal.

Your concern of getting out bidded is totally valid and normal. The timeline in California is when the Trustor (current owner) receives an NOD (Notice of Default). They have 90 days from the date the notice was printed to until they receive a NOTS (Notice of Trustee Sale). From the NOTS they have an additional 90 days until the actual Trustee Sale/Foreclosure Procedings. This is based on California Law. Washington law might be totally different, but your Realtor should be very knowledgable with the process, you should re-confirm with him/her. If and when the property does go into foreclosure, your offer will become null and void. It's in your best interest to have your Realtor chase the lender down to it's Asset Manager and resubmit your offer immediately. If your Realtor can get the Asset Manager you can ask to submit your offer and you will be in a fantastic position. I've done this many times so I know it can be done.

I wish you the best of luck and hope my answer helps.

Kindest Regards,

Marc Yu

Waiting! That's going to be the name of the game for the next few months. If your agent is unable to contact their agent and get an answer, it would be OK for him/her to call the owners and just ask them if their agent has called them because they need to talk. It is not OK to discuss the offer or anything, but perhaps your agent isn't being aggressive enough in following through. If the seller has skipped and the home forecloses, they will lose all rights to the property and the bank/lender in essence will become the seller, and then it will be an REO...with new rules, prices, and procedures. It could be that the other agent is just trying to get tons of offers or is just submitting them all to the bank. Many agents don't realize that they need to handle the offers with skill and integrity -- and their responsibility is to their clients, NOT the banks. I wish you luck. In the meantime, don't miss another possibility by being so focused on one stalled offer that you can't find something else that might even be better. That would be my advice to my clients. The market is a feeding frenzy right now, especially in the lower priced categories. Many people with cash are paying much higher than the asking prices. Hang in there and keep looking. Eventually, the right combination will come along. I have two offers (one as listing agent and one as selling agent) from March that still are in limbo somewhat -- we're making s...l...o...w progress. Good luck.
Bonnie Scribner
Century 21 Discovery (No. OC's #1 broker for 11 years)
Award-winning agent, serving all of So. Cal