Clueless!! Buying a house

My aunt is my realtor and I trust her but she doesn't give me a lot of info so I don't feel I know what the steps are ahead of time....

We put an offer on a short sale 19,000 less than what they are asking but still a fair price ( I did a lot of research) I have a mortgage banker, have my pre qual letter, hired a real estate attorney and signed papers to put in the offer... So now what??

What usually happens with a short sale? (house has been vacant for almost a year)

Thank you for any and all information!!!

Re: Clueless!! Buying a house

I can say that first of all you search that the price will be the fair or not. I think for short sale you might have to increase the price as well.

Re: Clueless!! Buying a house

Rigjht now you just have to sit and wait. With a short sale the owner and the owner's bank have to approve the sale price.

All you can do is sit and wait. I also suggest to continue to look at homes. With short sales they can take a long time and then come back and reject the offer.

Re: Clueless!! Buying a house

I agree with the PP. A friend of ours is selling a short sale and it took 8 long months for the bank to counter the offer.
The bank actually wanted 5k more than the offer so the buyer walked away.
They now have another offer for exactly what the bank wanted and have been waiting 2 months.

Re: Clueless!! Buying a house

Did your agent do some due diligence on this short sale before she submitted your offer?

Do you know the bank or banks that are holding the seller's mortgage? Do you know whether the seller has been cooperative and has provided all financial info that the bank needs to approve a short sale? Do you know if the bank was aware the home was on the market and aware of the asking price? Do you know who is handling negotiations with the bank (is it the listing agent? an attorney? a short sale specialist/processor??

All of this info factors into how long you may have to wait to get a response to your offer. Because with a short sale, you have nothing until the bank approves the short sale. There's just a lot of uncertainty involved, and as a buyer, there's not much you can do about how long it will take. But you should definitely know who is communicating with the bank and make sure your agent is proactive about the process (and keeps you in the loop).

Re: Clueless!! Buying a house

are you in contract?

I always ask the following questions when I sell a short sale that is not my listing- yet 99% of agents have NEVER asked these questions of me

1- how many banks?

2- what are the banks?

3- who is dealing with the bank?

4. Is the paperwork already in?

5. has there been any commincation

what is the hardship?

if I don't like the answers- I advise my clients against an offer

but if you don't do many short sales- you wouldn't know what the wrong answers are

I would also want to know if your lawyer understands the short sale process

the banks are moving a bit faster- I got 5 approved in the last few week- I have my own team of people who handle the bank for me- it's a full time job to get them done fast and right

Re: Clueless!! Buying a house

Not in contract yet, but when the selling agent was called today just to follow up she asked my realtor "is this all they can do? We were appraised 7 months ago at 369,000"

but the house hasn't been lived in now since before that, nothing in the area has sold for over 325,000 in turn key condition, they are only asking 319,000....

There is quite some work that needs to be done...

I am going to ask my aunt all the questions you ladies have suggested! Thank you again!

Re: Clueless!! Buying a house