Advice...Has anyone ever bid on and had a short sale go through on a house/condo?

[kcoursolle]

Hi everyone,
My husband and I have been saving and would like to buy a home. We are going to be relocating back to the midwest when I finish graduate school and we are looking at properties that are good deals for now since we still have quite a bit of time before we need to relocate. We currently found a property that we fell in love with. We want to live downtown in a loft and we found one that we love in the city we are going to move to. For the area it is a very good value and has quite a bit of square footage and good bones. It''s a shortsale and from the advice suggested from our realitor and our parents who know the market well, we are putting in a strong offer later today. There are already two offers on the property.

I''d just like to hear other peoples'' experiences with short sale properties. My parents recently downsized and attempted to buy a shortsale property, but after 4 months they still never heard back from the bank. They ended up purchasing something else instead and still never heard back about the other short sale property. From other people''s experiences I''ve heard shortsales (long sales LOL) can take a very long time and can go off the market at any time since both the bank and the seller have to agree on the sale. The one advantage that we have is that we can wait out other buyers since we are not in a hurry to purchase.



Has anyone actually put an offer on a shortsale and had it go through? How long did the whole process take? Any advice? Thanks in advance!

 

[kcoursolle]

My apologies, this was supposed to go in hangout.

 

[kcoursolle]

Woohoo, it''s now in the correct spot! Thanks Ali!

 

[cara]

There was at least one recent thread on this... here is neatfreak's. I believe ZoeBarlett also asked a shortsale question, maybe from the seller's end? Doing a search would help.

Long story short, it really is not in your control if the short sale goes through or not. For your part, you put in a good offer and then regularly hassle the seller's agent, who hassles the bank regularly, and hopefully someone at the bank is empowered to make a decision in a timely fashion.

Good luck! (but don't stop looking. short sales are too risky to count on it.)

 

[kcoursolle]

Thanks for this Cara!

Neatfreak's thread was really helpful, I just read through the whole thing. It sounds like I need our agent to keep in touch with the seller's agent and hope for the best...but not get too excited about anything. These seem to be a little messy and unpredictable.

That thread also made us feel better about our strong offer.


ETA: If it helps, we have also been pre-approved through our lender for well over the amount we bid for and we are "priority buyers". Hopefully this may help the bank know that we are serious buyers.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

We have. I wrote some detail''s in Zoe''s thread.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 5/20/2009 7:29:34 PM
Author: kcoursolle

ETA: If it helps, we have also been pre-approved through our lender for well over the amount we bid for and we are 'priority buyers'. Hopefully this may help the bank know that we are serious buyers.

No this does diddly squat unfortunately. We also are in the same situation-bidding on short sales. Most of the time it takes AT LEAST 4-6 weeks. And often you never hear back from the bank. So if you can deal with that-why not right?

The banks often won't even look at the offers because they'd be better off foreclosing on them esp. depending on the type of loan the previous owners had (like if it had PMI or was an FHA they will almost never accept a short sale).

If you can get the bank to look at your offer then it can be as quick as a regular closing.

Our agent says she has made about 40 offers on short sales in the last year for clients and has closed 2. This is for the Bay Area but it gives a little perspective...

You are better off looking at flat out bank owned if you can. We bid on one yesterday and already heard back today. We were #2 sadly but we're the back up if it doesn't work out.

Good luck!

 

[D&T]

Here is another thread on maybe that will help answer some questions as well.

 

[kcoursolle]

Thanks everyone for your help!

We officially made our offer and got the paperwork in today. We made a strong offer and also put in 2,000 in ernest money to let them know where are here to stick it out. Luckily we have plenty of time, so cross your fingers the bank actually looks at it. We don''t mind if it takes a while, but we would love to get the place.

Should I post some pictures???

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 5/21/2009 3:09:37 PM
Author: kcoursolle
Thanks everyone for your help!

We officially made our offer and got the paperwork in today. We made a strong offer and also put in 2,000 in ernest money to let them know where are here to stick it out. Luckily we have plenty of time, so cross your fingers the bank actually looks at it. We don''t mind if it takes a while, but we would love to get the place.

Should I post some pictures???

Of course, I love house photos!!

 

[kcoursolle]

Okay then, I'll post some!!!

It is a loft downtown and it has a square floor plan with a modular screen separating the bedroom. There are also two tiny bedrooms upstairs in the hanging loft. The place doesn't have an oven yet and the bathrooms need updating, but it has great square footage.

Here is the living room: I love the brick and the big wood support beams. The fireplace is woodburning which I love!

 

[kcoursolle]

Here is the view from the living room into the kitchen. You can see the stairs leading to the loft. The oven and stove will have to be put in, but the fume hood is already there.

 

[kcoursolle]

Here is the view of the hanging loft. There are two small bedrooms up there, but I think we would probably take the small walls down and create a large office/guest bedroom if we get the place.

 

[kcoursolle]

Here is the large bedroom. There are built in shelving and closets all over the place and there is a hanging ladder that swings around the whole structure, but I didn''t get a picture of it.

 

[kcoursolle]

Here is the view, we don''t have a fantastic view, but we do have a downtown view looking to the corner. Can anyone tell what city we are moving to from the skyscape???

 

[Selkie]

Wow, what a cool place! I especially love all the built-in shelving, I could use that in our place. You''re probably in the ideal situation for a short sale, since you are not in a rush. Good luck!

 

[Miscka]

I LOOOOOVE it! Seriously glad I never got pics of my old loft...this one puts it to shame.

Am obsessed with the hanging loft, the fireplace AND all the shelving. AND the sliding doors. Oh man...did I mention I love it??

This is exactly the kind of place DH and I want, eventually.

Can I ask 2 sort of personal q''s...one, do you mind telling the city? And 2, are you guys planning on having kids during the time you would live there?

Sorry if that is too nosey, don''t answer if you don''t want to!


I know nothing about short sales, but good luck! It''s gorgeous!!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I don''t know what city it is, but i know it''s not Boston

Love the place!

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Date: 5/21/2009 3:27:05 PM
Author: kcoursolle
Here is the view, we don''t have a fantastic view, but we do have a downtown view looking to the corner. Can anyone tell what city we are moving to from the skyscape???

That''s not Dallas, is it?????

 

[kcoursolle]

Date: 5/21/2009 3:55:45 PM
Author: Miscka

I LOOOOOVE it! Seriously glad I never got pics of my old loft...this one puts it to shame.

Am obsessed with the hanging loft, the fireplace AND all the shelving. AND the sliding doors. Oh man...did I mention I love it??

This is exactly the kind of place DH and I want, eventually.

Can I ask 2 sort of personal q''s...one, do you mind telling the city? And 2, are you guys planning on having kids during the time you would live there?

Sorry if that is too nosey, don''t answer if you don''t want to!


I know nothing about short sales, but good luck! It''s gorgeous!!

Thanks Miscka, and I would still love to see pics of your place!!! Definitely don''t worry about comparisons because the only reason we can afford a loft this big is because it''s a short sale. This place has 2200 square feet and most of the other places we would like in our budget would get us about 1250-1500.

You are definitely not being nosy and I''ve thought about those issues as well. We aren''t planning on having kids for a few more years, but yes we will probably have very small children in this place before moving to the suburbs before they need to go to school. We have thought about this issue and we will need to do some serious babyproofing the stairs area and the fireplace. We were thinking of subdividing the bedroom (it''s bigger and than it looks in pictures) and we will probably turn that area into the baby''s room someday. They definitely aren''t going in the loft area unsupervised! The nice part about the area is that there is a small school about two blocks away with a playground and there are other parks within walking distance. Luckily we won''t have to worry about these issues for about 4 more years, so we''ll have plenty of time to brainstorm how to make it more kid friendly. For now we would enjoy it as a young couple''s urban play pad LOL.

The city is in the midwest...and I''m sure someone will guess it sooner or later

 

[kcoursolle]

Good guess on Dallas, but nope it''s not Dallas or Boston...it''s in the Midwest hint hint...

 

[TravelingGal]

It looks very cool!

I was going to guess something like Cleveland or Columbus. I''ve only been to the latter once and don''t remember/know anything about the skylines of either.

 

[kcoursolle]

Date: 5/21/2009 5:19:19 PM
Author: TravelingGal

It looks very cool!

I was going to guess something like Cleveland or Columbus. I''ve only been to the latter once and don''t remember/know anything about the skylines of either.

Nope...getting warmer though

 

[Selkie]

St. Louis?