Help for Sellers with Expectations of Short Sales!

Marketing your home:

Your home will be shown to both investors and traditional buyers. During this process, your property may be shown several times a day in the beginning and taper off from there.

The goal is to get the highest and best offer in the shortest time possible. Those viewing or calling to view your home have been instructed not to bother you with questions regarding the short sale so as to not put any additional stress on you.

The First Offer:

Once an offer is received on your property, I will schedule an appointment for you to come in and sign the Purchase Agreement (this should only take 5 minutes).

Although you do need to sign one offer, your property can attract multiple offers. All offers will be submitted to the lender(s) for their review, per their request. Sometimes only one offer is submitted to the lender. You will not need to sign each and every offer that we receive, in the case where we submitted all. Towards the end of the process, when the lender accepts an offer, you will need to sign that offer in order for us to open escrow.

The Process:

Once we have sent the offer(s) to the lender(s), the actual Short Sale process can take anywhere from 4 weeks to 4 months. This time line varies with each lender. Some lenders will ask you to continue to show the property.

To keep you informed, I have developed a system which will enable you to get updates from me on a regular basis without actually having to call me. First, you will be able to call any time day or night. The second way to get an update is to go to my web site and click on your property address or send me an email.

You will be updated every Friday by 5pm. Due to the high volume of calls from prospects, clients, agents, escrow offices and lenders, it is almost impossible for me to respond to any calls on the same day. I'm spending most of my time negotiating a successful transaction with your lender(s) but I promise to respond with in 48 hours by phone or email.

After the lender reviews the Short Sale package, a BPO (Broker Price Opinion) will be ordered by the lender. This is similar to an appraisal and once the lender receives their report, they will usually make a final decision shortly thereafter.

The lender orders the BPO/Home Valuation so they can figure out what their net proceeds will be (how much of a loss they will be writing off). Your property will remain ‘Active' on the MLS until the lender accepts the offer.

Please be patient throughout this process. At times you may feel things are going too slow, but remember this is not a regular transaction and can take longer to complete.

The Accepted Offer:

Once an offer has been approved by the lender, I will notify you that we are going to proceed to close the transaction.

The lender may demand to close escrow anywhere from 10-30 days, so be prepared. If the buyer does not close by the lender's deadline, the next highest bidder in line may be accepted.

** If the buyer(s) can not perform and close on time, the lender may decide to proceed with foreclosure thus severing the opportunity for all parties involved to complete a successful transaction. **

The Close of Escrow:

You, as the seller, will be instructed to sign seller documents at the escrow office. Please bring with you your I.D., all keys, garage door openers, and a good attitude. We will celebrate your new freedom from this financial burden and stress.