The easy answer is that you could expect to wait for an answer 2-3 months. Often the lender will not answer at all. The lender may be waiting for the highest and best offer- or just choose to foreclose. The lender has no obligation to counter-offer.

It is suggested that as a buyer, the best offer be presented first.

Chances are the paperwork the seller received was the short sale package. the bank still has to approve the seller financially to do a short sale, then the bank will hire an appraiser to appraise the property. the listing agent will fill out their portion of the paperwork which includes a net sheet. teh net sheet outlines all the costs of the sale to the bank. from this the bank will determine if teh loss they will take in the short sale is less than the cost of foreclosure. if it is they will approve the short sale, if not they may counter offer you asking price. the whole short sale process can take 3 months. goo dluck on your purchase Kimberly and make sur ethe broker contacts the bank daily fo updates and see if there is anything they need.

Kim
Hopefully you are working with a Realtor on this and they are making sure you close on the property and will get a Clear Title. If the home is in PreForeclosure they have already been submitted Short Sale paperwork. Since the bank has responded to the seller with more paperwork. This means that they are getting ready to approve the sale with reservations and/or conditions. It all depends on if the seller wants to meet these new conditions or not. Then the bank will send out for an appraisal then you should hear probaby within two weeks or 30 days at the most.
I am surprised to hear that the seller excepted the offer, since anything less than what they owe can only be accepted by the lender. Unless the seller is ready to come to close with the balance in cash.
In todays hectic marketplace Short Sales have been moving pretty quickly with the exception of Countrywide who now is controled by Bank of America and is no longer doing Short Sales for investment property. The banks want these gone and they see the savings in a Short Sale from Forclosure sale. You probably have a good shot, just keep fighting the good fight.
See Ya
PAUL

Hello Kimberly. It sounds like the bank just provided the seller with the short sale paperwork to fill out which means that the short sale package that's sent to the lender has probably not been submitted yet. Once the lender receives the complete short sale package (that includes all the paperwork that the bank requires and your offer), then the lender will open a file and start the process. How long it will be before they will make a decision will really depend on how overwhelmed this lender is with short sale requests. Many lenders will give the listing agent at least an estimate as to how long it will take. I would expect somewhere around 6 weeks, give or take. There's really not a lot that the listing agent or your agent can do to expedite the process once the bank has received everything that is needed from the seller. If the lender should request any additional information, it should be provided to them promptly. When it comes to short sales, it's hurry up and wait and then hurry up again once the bank has approved the short sale.

Be prepared to close quickly once the bank has approved the short sale. The lenders do not reward you for waiting by giving you a lot of time to close. Your loan should be ready to go, which means that your loan agent should have everything ready to submit and the appraiser lined up to do the appraisal so that there are no unnecessary delays on your part. Expect to close in no more than 30 days from the date the lender approves the short sale.

Good luck to you.

Hi Kimberly,

Take a look at the web reference below for a guideline of everything that happens once you put an offer in on a preforeclosure.

Hope it's helpful!

Thanks,

-Josh

The sellers Realtor will have a better idea.......this is considered a short sale and it can take 5-6 months to approve.... If you get lucky, you'll have an answer in 30-45 days. There is no way the broker and the agent can rush this through......it all depends on the sellers lender. Keep in mind that nationally only 35% of short sales are approved. More FAQs below.