Lei, your desperation is the common song of those who choose to acquire a home via the short sale process. After submitting your offer to purchase you wait in absolute silence without any resource to get information or to expedite the process. When the bank responds, their offer may be significantly more than the listed price. If you made your offer because the home was listed with an incredibly low price, you should prepare for this response. If a second mortage or lien is on record the bank may request you to come to the table with cash to settle those debts also. Every bank, as mentioned before, operates differently. And lastly, if the property you are purchasing is held in a trust, you are walking blindly into a potential disaster.

It sounds as though you are less than 45 days from receiving a response from the bank. Your patience and diligence will hopefully be rewarded with an acceptance of your offer and a quick closing date.

As you know by now the "short" in "short sale" has nothing to do with time frames...anything but. Every bank is different, many will not order a BPO until they have an bonafide offer. It is a positive step in moving forward. Many short sale addendums have a 45 day response time for the Seller's Lender(s), from the time the Seller and Buyer's offer is ratified. In some cases the Seller will not sign an offer until it is approved by their lender, in which case you really have nothing more than a verbal acceptance. If you have the time you need to be patient, there are so many variables that every situation is different. If you don"t have time restraints, hang in there. If you need to be moved by a certain deadline, you might want to ask your agent not to include short sales in your search.

Pam Cohn
Broker Associate
Prudential Tropical Realty
pcohn@prutropical.com

That's right, short sales are anything but 'short', as I'm sure you're already aware, Lei!
Having the BPO(s) ordered is an important stage in the process, however, and signals that the bank has reviewed all of the paperwork and is now moving to valuation of the property and it's market value. They will then review the offer and if the offer falls within their pre-determined percentage, the sale will move forward.

From this point, a negotiator will be assigned, if that has not already happened, and the file will either sent for investor approval, or the negotiator may choose to counter the offer. There are many factors which come in to play at this point, and each short sale is different, depending on a number of mitigating circumstances concerning on the loan itself.

On the bright side, short sales were taking six months for approval the first two quarters of this year, but now they seem to be moving forward more quickly, as loss mitigation departments become better trained and staffed, and the dust settles from bank reorganization.

Good luck, Lei, and be patient!

Lei,
Short Sales are anything but short. They take a long time. If you have a time frame for buying, you might want to eliminate short sales. You have to wait as long as you possibly can. Sometimes the wait keeps getting extended.
I think it is coming to a time where any first time home buyer will have to look at anything other than a short sale if they want to make it in time for the First Time Home Buyers Credit.
Good Luck Lei. I hope you find the home you've been waiting for.
Have a great Weekend.
Genevieve Ramachandran
pgrealty@hotmail.com http://www.puntagordarealty.com
800-819-2788
941-639-2788