Another successful short sale purchase - 4 months, 2 weeks

[Anonymous]

We finally closed on Nov. 19th after waiting for what seemed like forever, starting with trouble finding a loan (husband is self employed dentist, they didn't like that very much) and ending with a hostile seller.

Actual short sale process wasn't that bad, considering. Once we found a good loan (30 yr fixed, 4.875%), and a good LO, the loan wasn't bad either. 

Our situation was the following  - our realtor is friends with the seller, who is also a realtor. It was helpful that she was a dual agent as far as contacting the bank, it was TERRIBLE otherwise. 

Something I wasn't prepared for was how much emotions in a short sale can factor into things. The seller, although a licensed realtor whom one would think would still have a shred of dignity, ripped things out of the house that shouldn't...and forced us to pay for them. In a short sale, you have ZERO leverage, other than backing out. It is a terrible feeling to know that even with a person you would expect to be responsible, you can't count on them to be responsible and even at times really nasty. 

We also found out after closing that the seller spent all day the day of closing trying to stop the short sale via a RE attorney. I cannot tell you the lengths I would have gone to to ruin this guy's life if that had happened. 

He wouldn't get out in time, in fact, 72 hours after closing, he has barely moved his ginormous fridge out of the kitchen (movers couldn't get it out), and he still has our 4 car garage FULL of his junk....literally, trash and empty boxes. He is a complete jerk. My realtor does what she can to reason with him, but he is so depressed he is beyond reason and instead is still entering our house as if it were his own. Which it is definitely not, anymore. We finally got the locks rekeyed and garage door codes changed. The only reason he is out as much as he is is that our realtor paid $900 to have two moving crews pack him up. He was too busy trying to stop the short sale to pack. Keep in mind he already had a foreclosure date, and would have been EVICTED in September if we hadn't bought the house. 

When coming to get his junk, he continues to make snotty remarks like, "you are getting SUCH a great deal at my loss" and "this is WAY too nice a house for first time homebuyers". He also was mean to our realtor (again, who paid the $900 to move him and who is his friend) and said things like "at least you're making money out of this" while she was packing up his nasty junk. 

Don't get me wrong. It's a BEAUTIFUL house. We really did get an amazing deal. But - definitely be prepared for things like this. You can't anticipate what people will do when they are losing everything. It has been much more difficult than I anticipated, and I can't say for sure he won't "drop by" sometimes when really I hate the guy, think he's a complete jerk for making us PAY him for parts of the house, and never want to see him again. To be honest, I worry about him coming the burning the house down, although I think maybe I'm paranoid. (But he really is crazy!)

Not to discourage anyone. If you can stick it out, it's a great deal to get a S.S. Just be aware of the situation you are walking into!

[HelpAppreciated]

Icinva,

Looks like my experience will be close to yours.  There seems to be a few issues that have us concerned.  We plan on hanging in there because we have the approval from the bank.  Our agent seems to be passive on a LOT of issues.  We are dealing with a dual agent and he is a close friend with the seller.

[ArmyStrong]

Congratulations! Glad you were able to overcome those "obstacles" and achieve your dream. It's hard to sympathize with people like that, even when you want to. While it's certainly terrible what some folks are going through, the harsh reality is, that this is reality. There will always be winners and losers. How you react in each situation---I'm sorry, I digress! Enjoy your new home!!

[Anonymous]

Hi Icinva

Wow, what a story. I am sure the seller of the home was expressing his "strong" feelings towards you and your husband because he had to give up the home that I am sure he has spent several years in. I am glad the worse didn't happen in your situation.

Wow!! 4 months and 2 weeks!!! I am at the same time frame or a little beyond that point and all I was told was that I was in the final phase of the short sale. Do you know how long it took from being at the final phase to hearing back from the bank?

[Anonymous]

JesusSaves -

depends on what you mean by "final phase". all banks are different. when we got to phase II, BofA ordered the appraisal. It took a week to do the appraisal, and then they kept saying they hadn't gotten it back for about 4 weeks. At the fifth week, they not only acknowledged the appraisal but sent the approval letter and wanted to close in 3 weeks. 

It happened VERY fast after all paperwork was in. Prior to the appraisal being ordered, we were in phase I for about 3 months. I don't know if our experience was unique in that they kept saying "no new updates", "no new updates" every time my realtor called, and then all of a sudden we had approval - but I think that happens more often than not. 

Now that the guy is out, we love our house. It was definitely worth it, although I didn't think it at the time bc I hadn't even been inside it for 4 months!

[fishbjc]

You should be proud, never mind the seller.  It's his problem.  Enjoy your new home and sleep well knowing you got a wonderful deal. 

[Homebuyer24]

Wow--that is quite a story.  You would think the realtor would handle the sale better as he is probably going to be handling short sales for other people (or not).  

We almost bought a short sale for a home where another buyer dropped out and we rushed in.  Found out the homeowners owed 5K in PMI penalty due to a refi they did--in 3 years they did 3 refis, had stopped making payments for a year--and they were refusing to pay, so either we payed or there would be no short.  We asked for them to split it w/ us but they said no.  I know the short sale had to be emotional for them, and if they had been laid off or didn't have the money, that's one thing--I would have felt much better about paying the additional penalty, but they had the money--both of them still had their jobs, both in the silicon valley at a very famous company, and were trying to buy another home since only the wife's name was on the mortgage.  They bid on some of the same houses we had bid on.  The husband made in his one income what me and my husband made in both of ours combined (I'm assuming because we were pre-approved for pretty much the same mortgage amount).  It wasn't the only reason we walked, but it was part of it.

Another short sale we saw the owner was a realtor and had submitted the phantom short (no buyer--never put the house on the market) in an attempt to stall while he tried to get a loan mod.  He was unsuccessful and had another agent list the house.  I have no problem with that but I think there are some who just try to use a short sale as a stall tactic vs actually really going through a short.