Short Sale Help - Short Sale Time Line
The Devastating Effect on Buyers and Sellers.
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The problem with a short sale is the devastating and emotional effect that this lengthy process can have on both Buyers that are trying to buy a house and Sellers that are trying to sell a house that is going through the Short Sale process. |
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Time is critical when dealing with mortgage default and a potential home foreclosure. Every day, the balance of your loan increases with penalties, interest, attorney's fees, etc. As time goes on, your options become limited. So don't wait to resolve your mortgage default. Talk to someone today about a short sale in Utah or other preforeclosure options available to you.As a Realtor, I have always tried to do the best job I can for my clients. This is becoming more and more difficult as the number of Short Sales in our Salt Lake City Real Estate market continue to rise.
I used to try and encourage my clients to avoid homes that are going through the Short Sale process. But today there are 16,379 homes for sale and 17% of those (2,796) are Short Sales.
It usually takes 4-7 months after a Real Estate agent first requests Short Sale information from the Mortgage Company until the day the transaction actually closes. I warn my buyers about this lengthy process and how frustrating and emotionally draining it is. But no one can prepare them for how truly aggravating it is until they personal experience the process themselves.
Here is an example of how the time line for a Short Sale may look.
Week 1: A Seller requests Short Sale Help. A Real Estate Agent meets with the Seller to discuss their options and to determine if a short sale is in their best interests.
Week 2: The Listing Real Estate agent requests a short sale packet from the lender. Most of the time, the lender will not provide a Short Sale Packet until they have an offer on the property. In that case the Realtor gives the Seller a list from a standard Short Sale Packet.
Week 3: The Seller begins to gather the information that will be requested from the mortgage company in preparation for receiving an offer.
Week 4: The Listing Agent and the Seller discuss the best pricing in order to receive a quick offer on the property. The asking price may be lowered at this time.
Week 5: The price is lowered again.
Week 6: A real estate purchase contract is received from a buyer to purchase the property. The Seller accepts it “contingent on the 3rd party approval”.
Week 7: The short sale package is prepared along with the offer and submitted to the lender.
Week 8: The lender says it takes 7-10 working days for them to tell the listing agent if they received the FAX (I know. A FAX is received instantly, but somehow it takes 7-10 days for the Mortgage company to find out if they received the FAX and start a file.)
Week 9: Waiting to have a Negotiator assigned. No word.
Week 10: Still no word.
Week 11: Yippee! A Negotiator is assigned. The lender begins to request all of the documentation they require in order to complete the application for a short sale.
Week 12: The lender says they can’t find the package and asks the Listing Agent to resubmit the whole Short Sale package. (This is not a joke.) Even though they have been reviewing the package and may have even asked for clarification of items contained in the Short Sale package, they are now saying they have never received the package. The listing agent re-submits the all of the documentation again to the lender.
Week 13: The lender orders a BPO (broker’s price opinion) to determine the market value and analyze what amount they are willing to accept as a sales price on the property.
The buyers are getting anxious and want to know why we haven’t heard anything.
Week 14: The BPO is completed and submitted to the lender
In the meantime, other offers are submitted by numerous other buyers as back up offers.
Week 15: The lender gathers all the documents and BPO's appraisals, worksheets etc. to evaluate their loss.
Week 16: The lender says they can’t find certain pages required in the short sale package and documents are submitted again.
Week 17: The package is submitted for review.
Week 18: No word
It’s been 3 months for the buyers. The wife is crying. It’s too nerve wracking. They have requested extensions at their apartment complex again. They want to know "Why can’t you tell us what’s going on? Give them an ultimatum. We are going to walk away from this deal."
Week 19: No word.
Week 20: The Mortgage company counters the offer at a price higher than the listing price.
The Buyer is FURIOUS. "How can they do that? They can't ask more that what the lsiting price is." Oh, yes, they can because remember the lender has a right to say how much they will take as a loss on the loan balance.
At this point, some buyer walk away and if the Seller's have any back up offers, the Realtor asks for a final and best price. A new offer is submitted to the bank. SOME BANKS REQUIRE YOU TO START THE WHOLE PROCESS OVER AGAIN. Yes. I know. I can't believe it either. If this happens you can go back to Week 7 because they will have to assign a new Negotiator, do new BPO's - the whole works all over again.
If you can continue with the same Negotiator, then the new offer is submitted along with information on the new buyer and the Negotiator begins to put the file together to be submitted for review with the new buyer.
. . . but let's continue with our original buyer.
Week 21: The buyer accepts the bank's counter offer for a higher price. If the buyer counters the banks new proposal, you can a few extra weeks to this process for negotiations. (normally 7-10 days for response time for each counter offer)
Week 22: The bank send their written approval and puts the buyer under the gun to now perform within 30 days. Aaaah, finally. Written approval. It’s been 5 months. The buyers are excited about finally being able to close on the house. They have gone from an emotional low to an emotional high.
Week 23: The buyers begin their due diligence and the buyer’s mortgage company orders the appraisal.
Week 24: The appraisal comes back with Repair issues.
Week 25: Negotiations begin with the Mortgage Company to have them pay for the FHA required repairs. The Mortgage Company refuses.
Week 26: Negotiations begin between buyer and Seller to see who will pay for the FHA required appraisal repairs.
Week 27: The buyers loan package is submitted to underwriting.
Week 28: An updated title report is run on the property and new liens appear on the Title Report. (IRS tax lien, mechanics liens:
Week 29: The Real Estate agent and the Sellers try to negotiate payoffs on the liens to clear the Title
The Buyers want to know "Why can’t we close? We have performed. Why can’t you make the Mortgage Company pay for the new liens?" The buyers have gone back to an emotional low.
Week 30: Negotiations are not successful and everyone is pointing fingers at the Title Company, at the Real Estate Agents, at the mortgage company at anyone remotely involved in the transaction to assign blame to someone for the frustrating experience in buying a home.
Week 31: If all goes well, the contract goes to closing. Almost 8 months after the process began.
The buyers tell everyone what a terrible experience they had buying a house.
Now can you see why I try to discourage my buyers from putting themselves through this?
What’s the answer? Short Sale Help. We can cut weeks even months off the Short Sale process.
Whether you are a Buyer or a Seller you need to make sure you are working with Real Estate agent that has the experience and knowledge to keep you safe through and shorten the length of time it takes to complete this process.
If you are a Seller, you can get Short Sale Help here. If you are a buyer, contact one of our Experienced Buyer’s Agents to help you through this process.