SHORT SALES TAKE TIME!
Even the fastest short sale deals take some time because of the process banks have to go through to approve one. If you’re a Georgia real estate agent and your client wants to offer on a short sale, educate them on the process and tell them it’s going to take some time for the banks to approve it.
For the sake of all of the homeowners losing their homes, make sure your client is ready and willing to ride out the short sale process to get the best deal. If not, they will get anxious and they’ll start asking you, “Did you hear anything?”, “What’s taking so long?”, “What’s wrong? It’s a yes or no…”
While in theory, it sounds simple, offer on a short sale, the bank says yes or no, and you close or walk
away. But, banks have to establish your hardship, they have to establish the value of your house, next they assign the short sale to a negotiator who has to look at it, and then and only then will they give you an answer. This process can take a month or sometimes 2-5 months.
Remember, 1 in 8 homeowners are behind in payments and 1 in 5 are upside down. They have TONS of foreclosures they are dealing with. I was looking at Fulton County’s foreclosures tonight and there are THOUSANDS… yes thousands.
Short sales take time. If you intend on buying a short sale property, make sure your ready to hang in there. If not, don’t waste the owners time. If you bail, they have to start over marketing the house for another buyer. By that time they might be losing the house. Think about it.
