National real estate numbers almost mean nothing to your local real estate market, and even local real estate may have more than one market. Dont read to much into numbers they dont always tell the whole story. And what is up with Fannie Mae not allowing more time to work on short sales? This does not cost them money, it cost US money. Either allow time for the deal to be worked on or work on it a lot quicker.
Short sales are hard, short sales when the seller and the listing agent don’t have great open communications is even harder. A recent Tempe short sale experience showed that. The home owner did not communicate about some financial circumstances and the agent negotiating (me) was hit from no where by banks negotiator.
This Bank of America short sale problem was resolved because when they said no, we heard KNOW. Many people hate short sales because they say no to often and many people hate Bank of America because they are slow to respond. When you get the two issues together it could create a problem.
Many times when banks say no the agent negotiating should be hearing KNOW not NO. When you have that mindset it becomes a problem to solve. What do they not KNOW that will make them change their mind.
People love to rip Bank of America short sale department as being the worst. I myself have done some videos on the subject saying the same. But the truth is they are now probably the most improved. I recently talked to a lady looking to short sale her Tempe house and she was shocked when I said I was looking forward to Bank of America deals.
Now every deal is different, but their times have been greatly improving. Just this last week I got approval on a deal in only 22 days. Bank of America deserves praise for what they have done to improve things and let’s hope they keep it up.
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.
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%.
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.
So you are a patient buyer who waits around and puts your life on hold for 3-4-5 months while your short sale is being negotiated. Then after finally getting approval you do your home inspection and find out this house has way to many issues. Now what? Back to shopping
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.
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.
