Purchasing A Short Sale Home

[CloneSolo]

Hey Fanatics,
My wife and I just moved back to the Eastern Iowa area and are looking to purchase a home. We found a one that she really likes, but it happens to be a short sale. I have heard lots of horror stories about these, and wanted to get some thoughts on them.

Thanks in Advance:yes:

 

[SvrWxCy]

My wife and I just purchased a house... We looked at a couple of short-sale homes, one thing that the realtor stressed to us is that if we went ahead with purchasing a short-sale home be prepared to wait.

Depending upon the bank and the current loan holder, etc. it could be months before everything is cleared; or you could be lucky and have it only take a few weeks. All depends upon the situation with the bank and previous owner, etc...

Maybe you can ask your realtor if they know anything about the bank that owns the loan, if they are local they might be easier to deal with.

 

[jsb]

I'll second the waiting thing. I know someone who made an offer in March 2009 and it wasn't accepted until November 2009.

 

[CylentButDeadly]

Coming from someone who worked at Wells Fargo and dealt with customers trying to buy short sale homes, you're going to get a lot of head aches and it's going to be an arduous, drawn out process. I don't know if Wells Fargo is the lender you're dealing with, but if they are, you're going to be frustrated.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Yeah, my wife is an office manager for a real estate agency, and she has mentioned that those things take forever to sort out, and there are invariably tons of hoops to jump through. I guess if you go in with that in mind, and are prepared for the process to take some time, it could be worth it.

 

[CylentButDeadly]

Don't let me deter you. I have two separate friend couples that are/were newly-weds and purchased short sale homes and after the initial head aches, they wound up with great homes that otherwise, might have been out of their price range.

 

[Three4Cy]

If you plan to offer, make sure you find out if there are any other offers on the property. Your real estate agent won't be able to tell you the dollar amounts of those offers, but you will know if you are competing against someone else.

You will most likely only have one shot at the property, so you need to put in your best offer up front. When I worked mortgage and dealt with short sale offers, most of them were rejected for just flat out low ball prices, or lots of lender concessions, especially lots of money in closing costs.