A homeowner came to me 5 weeks before the foreclosure date of the home. Not much time but possible. I started, at what I thought was a low price, but no offers. I kept dropping the price and we were lucky to get a lowball offer. In short sales, any offer is desired as it gets the cogs turning at the bank. No offer, no touchy of the file.
So that offer came in 3 days before the auction date and the bank postponed it. Luckily just days later we received a higher offer. But as is often the case, the buyer wasn’t willing to wait even though we should have a response from the bank within 2 weeks. The buyer walks and we hope for another offer.
We had a lot of showings but no offers. A couple of close calls but no one would pull the trigger which is understandable with the bad news all around us. We did get a final response from the bank and I dropped the price to what they said they would take. More showings but no offers.
Finally as a last ditch effort, I dropped the price below what they bank said they would take. I hoped that I could prove to them that all of the showings with no offers proved that their price wasn’t what it would take. I started getting more showings and agents telling me they might write an offer. I told them that they bank gave us until the 21st and I didn’t know if we could do anything beyond that date. The offers didn’t come in.
On the 22nd, I received an early morning email from an agent saying that my listing was taken over by the bank and that he represented the bank. Wow, that was quicker than I expected/hoped. He contacted me but not my client which left me to give the bad news. The news was taken well. I guess in part because they had gotten an extra two plus months in the home to figure out where to go and what to do.
Of course, this weekend I had no less than 3 people who wanted to write offers. This is the weird timing that can happen in real estate. I had one house that didn’t have a single offer all summer and then 5 offers within 48 hours. I often have offers or problems pop up the day I leave for a trip or vacation.
Short sales are tough and you can’t time when you get the offer. I wish I had more than 5 weeks to get it started. There is a systematic process that needs to be done. The more time to go through it the better. The more the agent understands about the process the better.
If you or someone you know are looking at a possible short sale, get an agent that understands the process and give yourself the time to get it done.
– Mike Rohrig
