Buying A Short Sale

Many short sale deals fall through because the bank or lender rejected the transaction. Some may even take months to close.

Make sure to keep these notes in mind when you’re ready to enter a short sale search and agreement.

*Depending on the listing agent, he or she may choose to leave the home on the market for additional offers, even after the offer has been accepted by the seller and it even hasn’t been approved by the lender or bank. An offer can come last moment and beat out your last offer.

*The approval rates on short sales can be fairly high when there is only 1 mortgage on the property. If there are 2 mortgages on the property, then there may be a high risk that the 2nd mortgage holder doesn’t approve the transaction since they stand to usually lose the most money with short sales or foreclosures. It could be a longer prolong process due to this.

*Quite often people in foreclosure may have other financial problems. It isn’t common to find additional liens on the homes for child support, back taxes, unpaid labor or judgements. These fees have to be paid off to close on the home and need to be negotiated by the first lien holder or you’ll have to end up paying for these fees.

It’s not uncommon for short sales to take 3 to 6 months to close and then find out, that they won’t approve the short sale.