Jeff - Ginny Mitchell

You did not mention whether your agent is the listing agent for the short sale property. The only people who are allowed to contact the bank are the owners of the property and the listing agent provided that the owners have signed a letter giving the agent permission to discuss the offer with the bank. The bank requires a long list of information from the seller before they will consider a short sale offer. Do you know if that package of information (including tax returns, pay stubs, etc) has been gathered and presented to the bank. If your agent is not the listing agent, she can ask the listing agent if the bank requirements have been sent. The next step is for the bank to assign a negotiator for the file. Your agent should be able to find out if that has happened. If so, another step forward. Then the file is reviewed and appraisals ordered. Has this occurred?

Do you know if your offer is the first or only offer? Or are there multiple offers and yours was not the first or maybe not even the second. Did the seller sign your offer?

All of the above are progress reports that your Realtor can probably provide, but there are typically weeks and even months between each step.

Some short sale offers are declined by the bank because the property is appraised by too much more than the offer to be considered. Did you present an offer that is supported by recent comparable sales?

All of this waiting is frustrating, but try to remember that the bank has hundreds of such short sales for each negotiator and they are overwhelmed. - Sun Sep 27 2009, 20:14