Thanks guys, you all have been a big help. I did hear from the listing agent and my agent that my paperwork is being processed. They were told to check back in 7 days (fingers crossed). I appreciate the time you took to answer my question.

Joy

Hello Joy:

Within the short sale arena, the transaction may be in one of several stages prior to receiving an offer. Depending on what stage the transaction is in, the turnaround with the lender can take more or less time.

If the seller is just starting the short sale process and is trying to sell the home without the lender's preview or preapproval of a price, then it can take between 4-8 weeks for the lender to respond with an approval for the short sale. The longer period is necessary because the seller's situation has not yet been approved for a short sale, and the price has not been cleared by the bank. The additional work usually requires additional time.

If the seller has been working with the lender for a while, has submitted their "hardship" package, and received the lender's preapproval for a short sale, then the process can be slightly shorter by about 2 weeks.

If the seller has already submitted offers to the lender and they have reviewed the price, completed a BPO and approved a price, but the buyer walked off due to lack of response from the bank, then the "approved price" if submitted again by another buyer, might be approved in as little as week to two weeks.

Unfortunately, I'd like to say that this is the "best case" scenarios for short sales. I've seen some of them stretch out as long as 6-9 months from start to finish, so everything depends on the listing agent's expertise in handling the short sale and working with the negotiator or mitigator from the bank and your buyer's agent in maintaining a regular--but not annoying insistent--contact with the listing agent for updates.

Since it's only been two weeks, my suggestion is to check back with your agent periodically to see if anything has happened on the lender's side of things. The longer the time period stretches, however, as Lynn noted below, the less likely your offer has been accepted by the bank. Your agent should be able to tell you, by completing a property profile and reviewing the mortgages on the home, whether your offer is comparable to other home sales prices in the area and whether the loss to the banks would not be so great as to make foreclosure of the home more attractive by the bank.

Good luck and hang in there!!

Sincerely,
Grace Morioka, SRES, e-Pro
Area Pro Realty

If you not heard anything standard rule is your sales offer most likely not accepted by lender. I recommend to any of our clients, keep looking till we have executed contract for the pre-approval letter is valid for 60 days.

Your buyers agent should be assisting you.

I most instances you have a response within 24 - 72 hours.

National Featured Realtor and Consultant, Mortgage Loan Officer, Credit Repair Lecturer
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Lynn911

I think the average is about 3 or 4 months. You might hear something as soon as one month if the house has already been appraised and a agreement has already been made on how much to sell it for.