Has anyone here been through the process of purchasing a home through a short sale? Looking through the current housing listings, almost 50% are short sales.

How much of a pain in the ass is it? How long did it take?

_________________

Several people at work have bid on these homes. The entire process is controlled by the lender (bank), and they are very slow to react. You can expect the process to take a long time, and be frustrating because they often come back with a "no" answer to your bid after waiting 3 weeks. The home owners/sellers will often agree to your offer, but the bank has to approve it. If the owner has a second mortgage, which is common, then it is even worse because the second lender usually loses their entire loan balance.

If you have no specific timetable, then it is probably the way to go to get a cheap home.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

Yes, this is a great question Killer V. I've noticed that a place I had interest in was going for 40k.

_________________

It all depends on the person who is doing the negoiation and the short sale lender.

Honestly, it takes 5 times longer than a traditional sale. You as the buyer are in a position of waiting and waiting.

Remember a cash offer, even if its less than your offer will be approved before a deal continget on financing.

Some believe the deal is worth the wait...some get sick of waiting.

My advice is if you find a short sale and put in an offer....keep looking. Chances of your first offer being accepted are slim.

I have yet to hear ANY pleasant short sale purchase stories.

House-shopping right now is frustrating as hell...

(1st world problems)

_________________

I bought my townhome on a short sale. Got 30,000 knocked off the original price. It was frustrating as hell as far as every single t needed to be crossed and i dotted as far as being credit worthy and background checks and whatnot. Bank owned is a pain in the ass. Every time we thought we were ready to get moving there'd be a snag of some sort and the closing got postponed twice. It made scheduling moving, etc.. a pain, but ultimately in the long run, it was worth it.

_________________
-"God is great. Beer is good. And People are crazy!"

My main question about short sales is what are the provisions for withdrawing an offer? If I put an offer in on a short property and then find a different property, can I withdraw without penalty (ie losing earnest money)?

_________________