How to buy a short sale

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How to buy a short sale.  Advice from a lawyer works with Realtors and sellers all over California and Florida A short sale is an opportunity to find a win win win - if you and the seller know what to do.  Do not get your emotions to tied up in the purchase Do not work with an inexperienced Realtor - Either on the buyers side or the sellers side Do make sure you know what you could sell it for and then offer less Do make sure you can convince the lender of the true value of the home. You must put together a compelling CMA/BPO detailing for the lender why it should accept your offer. ---- You may want to make multiple offers on multiple houses at the same time - Make sure you consult with a lawyer othewise you might wind up having to close on multiple houses. You may want to make an offer which scales down the longer the lender takes to ok the deal. You may only want to make serious offers on homes where the only has a real financial or medical hardship.  You do not want to work with certain banks right now.  If you are only going to make one offer, make sure your buyers Realtor knows which bank respond quickly.  You most definitely want to include language in you offer which allows you outs You do not want to make the deal as clean as possible.   (your realtor  should be able to explain why.) You do want to be able to close within two weeks of acceptance by the lender. You do need to include vital clauses in your purchase contract.  You do need to make sure the sellers Realtor knows how to create a nice short sale package.  (I have seen very few nice ones)  If you want to make the deal work - you may want to get involved in the packaging.  You do not want to make any comments about the law to the buyer. If the buyer is well advised he will be confident he will not have to worry about a deficiency so he or she should not mind if you get a great deal.  (In my opinion too many sellers Realtors are making counter offers for more money.  There are times when that makes sense but, I think you should just send the packages in to get the negotiations started.  Some banks give the sellers agent the number they need to hit and that becomes very important information)  Some of the buyers agents I work with have asked me if they should warn the sellers that if they sign the deal they will owe the lender for the deficiency.  I advised the Realtors that if they are working as buyers agents, I do not think they should be warning the sellers.  That is the sellers agents job and the seller agent will get sued for mis advising their client.  I know one buyers agent who is going to send the seller a note after the deal closes this month.  Buying a short sale is not magice.  What it takes is at least one professional who can put together a compelling package.  I suggest to all serious buyers to put out muliple offers.

 

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