We have bought two REO's in the last year. The first one accepted in a matter of days and the second one took nearly two weeks. The listing agent for the second one was flakey and would ignore our agent for days at a time, but I think it had more to do with the asset manager.

i stay away from all verbal offers, i at least get it the form of an email which is considered in writing. I can get an emailed response from most of my banks the same day but always within 24 hours unless it is a friday afternoon then i hear monday morning, my banks sign offers and get the docs emailed back to me or loaded into their systems within 3 to 5 days. Alot of times it only goes as good as teh relationship between the assett manager and the listing agent, it is imparative for the listing agent to know the asett manager, how they work, what they expect, what they like and dont like and how they want things presented and/or completed to make things work smoother. i try and go above and beyond to make them happy as my deals go quicker, when i need sometihng they will do it as i never complain and my buyers are happy the assett manager is happy and in the end it makes everyones life easier throughout the buying and selling process. i alos think it important to communicate to the buyer what to expect and what not to expect up front so they are not thrown into a meltdown over anything. good luck with your daughter

It is a learning experience for us all - since we are constantly in a changing market it seems. You are right in going after REO's as opposed to short sales. The bank owneds are usually handled more quickly. Short sales can drag out for months and there are no guarantees! (It could still go to foreclosure). I'm wondering if you just received some misinformation, because the banks are usually pretty quick to accept an offer...although they continue to receive additional offers, those are all held in a back-up position. If anything happens to the first accepted offer, the bank has the buyers in back-up to fall back on. At least this has been my experience.

Unfortunately not all Realtors are created equal. For myself, I can tell you that I work around the clock. Most banks are saying they have a counter offer or an acceptance with in 48 hours. That is if the property is bank owned. Now, the other side to that is that most bank owned homes can have multiple offers on one proprerty and the realtors continue to market the property with out properly disclosing that there are indeed in some instances MANY offers for the one property. Short sales are a totally different animal. They can take 6 months sometimes before you may get an approval for the short sale and then the approval to sell at the offered price. I personally sold my own home through a short sale and the buyers contract was written in February and we didn't close until September!!