Anyone ever successfully buy a house on Short Sale?

[El Jefe]

Recently I meant to say. We have a house we want, but is in short sale and the owners have been very difficult to work with as of far. Our agent is awesome, she has done the most short sales in our area in the last five years total. She said this year short sales have become much more difficult, as some banks will not accept or decline your offer, they will just pass it on to someone else and it will never be accepted or rejected. She said the majority of the time the house ends up going into foreclosure. The reasoning is the home owners owe more than the short sale will bring and the banks have gotten fed up with taking the lower offers so they just let the offer float out in space, and then the house shows up on foreclosure sale anywhere from 6months to 1 year + in some circumstances.

Has anyone here had the pleausure of submitting an offer on a short sale and landed it? Currently no one in my family has landed a short sale house. My cousin has missed on two, my brother on one, my wifes aunt and uncle missed, and two of her cousins have missed. I hope we land it! It does need a lot of work though.

*On a side note, anybody know much about pond management? This house has a beautiful (should say had) pond on the property. Pictures from 5 years ago show the pond double the size it is currently. Cat tails have turned the majority of the bank into dry ground, at least 15 feet inward has been turned into dry ground. I think the best thing to do (if we land the property) would be to rent a back hoe and dig out the banks 10-15 feet and widen the pond to where it was. Cat tails are rascals if you don't get the root structures. Can anyone lend some advice on this?

[El Jefe]

Forgive any spelling or grammar issues, I feel terrible today, antibiotics haven't gotten hold of anything yet.

[Bewbies]

If the house gets foreclosed upon offer way less than you did before to the same bank. Profit.

[Dayze]

i'm probably wrong, but I thought on a foreclosure you couldn't even tour the house?

or maybe it was as-is; so if it didn't pass inspection etc, it would be on the buyer to fix.


something like that.

[doomy3]

If anything, I would say it has been easier to close on short sales than in years past.

[doomy3]

Originally Posted by Bewbies

If the house gets foreclosed upon offer way less than you did before to the same bank. Profit.

Lol, many foreclosures actually go above list price.

[doomy3]

Originally Posted by Dayze

i'm probably wrong, but I thought on a foreclosure you couldn't even tour the house?

or maybe it was as-is; so if it didn't pass inspection etc, it would be on the buyer to fix.


something like that.

The second part is true. They are as-is, so the buyer's only real recourse during the inspection period is just to cancel the contract. The bank won't fix anything.

[ChiefsCountry]

Originally Posted by doomy3

Lol, many foreclosures actually go above list price.

This. Foreclosures aren't really that great of deals IMO.
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[Spott]

You can tour foreclosed properties as well as short sales. The majority of homes for sale here in Florida are either short sales or foreclosures and unless there is a ton of damage, most are going for list price or more. Many of the homes are being bought by investors since the house prices are so low. I am about to close on a foreclosure tomorrow(hopefully) but the banks and sellers agents are a pain in the ass, as well as the banks providing loans for the buyers.

[El Jefe]

Originally Posted by doomy3

If anything, I would say it has been easier to close on short sales than in years past.

See that's what I thought. My realtor said that the last 3-6 months have been twice as hard to close short sales. She said she has dealt with hundreds over the lst 5 years, but recently she was only able to get a deal finalized on one of the 15 she has been working. She said lenders are being very difficult to deal with.

[doomy3]

Originally Posted by El Jefe

See that's what I thought. My realtor said that the last 3-6 months have been twice as hard to close short sales. She said she has dealt with hundreds over the lst 5 years, but recently she was only able to get a deal finalized on one of the 15 she has been working. She said lenders are being very difficult to deal with.

That's not my experience, but who knows. Most banks have made it considerably easier to get these negotiated and closed.

[El Jefe]

Originally Posted by doomy3

That's not my experience, but who knows. Most banks have made it considerably easier to get these negotiated and closed.

She told me that was has been happening to her, is that she submits her clients offers, and the bank looks at it for a couple weeks, and then passes it to someone else, and it keeps being passed around until nothing ever happens. She said its very common on short sales where there is a property with more than one mortgage. What is your experience?

[scho63]

With the real estate market turning around quickly in most areas, short sales are far less appealing and are moving slower than shit because sellers are suddenly getting the upper hand.

[ChiefRocka]

If the sellers are not actively returning calls from your realtor than the offer is insufficient and the realtor knows the banks will not agree on the price.

I recently sold a short and the banks are the WORST. It takes a very proactive realtor constantly pinging them on a daily basis to make it happen. Good Luck!

[jaa1025]

I had an offer agreed upon with the seller on a short sale for 4 months. This was during the 8k tax credit for 1st time home buyers. Unfortunately, the deadline was approaching and my Realtor kept checking with the bank to approve it but after 4 months, they hadn't even looked at it.

We moved on and I found a house and closed on it within 3 weeks or so.