The research had been impeccable. The conclusions had been slightly off.
“We understand there’s a lot more paperwork involved with purchasing a short sale and how important it is to have an expert in buying short sales …”
Yes, there’s a lot more paperwork involved with processing a short sale – if you are the seller and the listing agent.
As a buyers’ agent, the only piece of paperwork that gets added to the normal set (unless you’re foolish enough to blindly submit a Multiple Counter Offer form and allow others to submit offers on top of yours) is the Short Sale Addendum which, among other things, has a fairly wide-ranging free pass to cancel.
We’ll take up the topic of the Multiple Counter Offer form at another date.
Over and over again buyers have asked how they find an expert on the buyers’ side of the short sale process. This species of agent exists only in as much as an agent may have written offers on multiple short sales, may have closed multiple short sales or may have run away from these like they’re a swine flu-infected Rangers pitcher. (Sorry, Vicente.)
There is nothing – NOTHING – a buyers’ agent can do to speed the short sale process or otherwise improve a buyers’ odds on what amounts to a five- to six-figure crapshoot. All a buyers’ agent can do is be diligent in the follow-up with the listing agents and the buyers; beyond that, everything rests in the abilities of the listing agent and the flexibility of the bank in question, whichever lender (or lenders) that may be.
That hasn’t stopped some agents from positioning themselves as short sale buyers’ side experts, though such “expertise” is much like being a grand champion in roullette – just because you put the chips in the right spot didn’t make it that much more likely that the ball was going to hit your number.
Speaking of short sales, Ardell DellaLoggia wrote a solid post summing up the position buyers are in when trying to purchase such a property.
[tags]Phoenix real estate, short sales[/tags]
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