Hi LS,

It is hard to say how long it will take because the lenders all have their own guidelines to follow in order to approve or disapprove a sale. I had a few offers, last year, that took 6 months and wasn't approved, but I had closed 4 this year that took 3 months to get approved and 1 in 2 months. I believe the banks are now more willing to cooperate with the sale instead of taking the property back through the foreclosure process.

Somewhere in between 1 month and never. I know that seems like a very vague answer but it could happen very fast, not likely, or the banks will foreclosure on it. Usually it's somewhere in between. Here in San Diego our average that we see, at my office, is 6 to 8 months. It depends on many factors including the banks involved, the negotiators at the banks involved HOA delinquencies and so on.... My advice is to be patient and know the worst that can happen is the bank will counter higher or will foreclose on the home and you can then buy another or try to buy this home as an REO.

Dawn Lewis - San Diego Realtor Since 1989

http://www.dawnsellssandiego.com/

Most banks and listing agents are working faster now in getting short sale approvals. From over 6 months of waiting - sometimes with a complete rejection at that point - to now when 30 days is more likely. Buyers are becoming more accepting of the process too - which means more competition on the abhorrent short sale. I just put a buyer into a short sale home in Foster City - we have short sale approval in less than a week because the listing agent did a lot of prep work with both lenders prior to marketing the home. It always helps to have a few offers in a once if you are going the short sale route because some will happen and others will drag too long.

Nicole es correct. How many days so far?

Please look at the Handout from Realtor.org

Patience!

Benito.

There are no definite time lines when it comes to acceptance of short sale offers. Some have taken as little as 2 weeks for approval and some have taken over 6 months for approval. Submitting a complete short sale package will cut a lot of the wait time for a response in half. Having an experienced short sale agent more then likely will decrease the time it will take for an approval as they are familiar with the process and know what documentation is needed to get a timely response. However each lender is different and as we all do more, we start to find out which lenders have a faster turn around then others. I hope this answer helped!