Short Sale Home » Seller, Short Sale Buyers » How to Get an Offer Accepted on a Short Sale

Short sales are becoming more and more common in this real estate market.  It’s not uncommon to find up to 70% of listings to be short sales or foreclosures/REO homes.

In a perfect world, a successful short sale offer would go like this:

• The listing agent is experienced with short sales and the home seller has been informed of all of their options.  The seller is communicating with the bank and has ensured that the bank will not foreclose on the property during the process.  The listing agent has prepared the seller’s short sale package and feels confident that the seller is a good position to ask for a short pay from the bank or lender.
• Your real estate agent has researched the comparable sales and recommended a fair offer price that the bank may accept.  Typically you should offer between 10 to 15% below current market value to accommodate further reduction in values over the next 3 months (a lot of short sales take awhile to close).
• Once the offer has been accepted by the seller, open title and escrow and order an appraisal.  The bank will order an appraisal or BPO before considering your offer.  Submitting an appraisal with the purchase offer and financing pre-approval will help make the negotiating easier.
• Your real estate agent and the listing agent communicate well and work together making it a win-win for everyone.

Be willing to cough up $350 to order an appraisal as it can help with the offer of the home.  It helps to get an independent third party to report on the actual market value of the property and help you gauge if the offer it too low or high.

The bank or lender usually prefers not to foreclose on the property as it can be costly.

Tags: comparable sales, current market value, foreclosures, pre approval, real estate agent, real estate market