Many short sales get declined because a BPO comes in bad. But that did not have to be the case. You can do things to effect the BPO. Watch this and see how I try to get the BPO to come in, not what I want, but what it should be.
Is the bank to be blamed when a short sale is declined?
That short sale should have been approved, both agents know it, the buyer the seller, they all know it. Yet it wasn’t. Who’s fault is it? The banks right? Not always, often it is the listing agents fault.
I recently had a buyer interested in a house that was a short sale on the market for $146,000. The listing agent submitted a full price offer to the bank and started negotiations. It wasn’t long before the bank declined the offer and the deal went to foreclosure.
After the foreclosure costs, and the carrying costs for over a month and listing it with an asset manager, the house was finally listed on the market for $136,000. So why did this happen? Most likely the agent heard “no” when they should have heard “know.” The bank obviously did not know enough information to make an informed decision.
There are many things that could effect this, but in 9 out of 10 cases the agent should be able to fight this and get this house sold. I will discuss more about setting the tone with the BPO in my next video.
East Valley Housing Market: Real Estate stats lie
When you are watching the news and see those nightly national real estate stats, remember they are not relevant to you and your real estate market at all. When you hear only 31% of homes sold last month were distressed short sale or foreclosures, that doesn’t mean anything to you in Tempe and the East Valley where that number is closer to 62%.
Should I buy a short sale?
Short sales seem to be changing for buyers, for the worse. Their are more agents doing short sales now and it seems the agents there are, the harder it is to find one who knows what they are doing and how to get the deal closed. We are seeing only 1-in-3 short sales right now probably closing on the buyers side. On the selling side we see higher, but those we can control.
End of tax credit: Home sale numbers are deceiving
Lowball offers on short sales do not help anyone
You may think you are pulling one over on the bank by putting in a lowball offer on a short sale, but all you are really doing is wasting your time. A bank is not going to give the house away. If the house is worth 135k, the bank is not going to sell it to you for $84k. Any lowball offers are a waste of time for the banks, negotiators, agents involved and the home buyer and seller.
You need a good loan officer at a good company
I talk a lot about having a good lender. Someone who has in house underwriting and in house docs so they can get deals done quick. But when one of my lenders recently left a company like that for another company like that I realized that a good company is not all you need.
We had a deal in the works and that deal stayed there after he left for his new office. I was used to getting deals done in two weeks with this company, but now dealing with a new loan officer it is taking longer. Not only is it taking longer but I cannot get him to return emails or phone calls unless i keep sending them.
So lesson learned, not only do you need a good company, you need a good loan officer at that company.
Banks seem to be countering all short sale offers
More and more banks are countering short sale offers. You cannot blame them, but at the same time just because they are countering does not mean they will not accept the offer you submitted. You need to know what the house is worth and make sure the offer you submitted is solid. You also need to have good supporting documentation.
















