Short Sale Mahem from Another Aspect

You know, Banks have gotten a really bad rap lately. Yes, they did do some pretty risky and unconscionable loans over the past 6-7 years but you know I have been dealing with a really nice “negotiator” at the bank of America and yesterday, after 6 months, the short sale that I was working on crashed and burned, and it wasn’t the bank’s fault. The property in question has been under contract twice in the past 6 months. The first one involved a loan and for reasons that I don’t want to go into right now (would take too much time). It did not succeed even though it had bank (the seller’s bank) approval. The good thing about this failed attempt is that I was able to ascertain just exactly what the bank wanted. Armed with this piece of information, I was able to find an agent who had a cash buyer and was willing to pay the closing costs that the bank would not accept. 15 day escrow . . . . . well you guessed it, the buyer decided after 15 days to pull out of the contract. Bummer for everybody!

After 20 years of working in this industry, you would have thought I would recognize all of the warning signs of something too good to be true. Well, maybe I did but was just thinking that just this once, things would work out.

When the press reports about the difficulties we are having getting these about to be foreclosed upon homes sold, they don’t mention that the banks aren’t always the ones that stymie the deals. Yes, they are difficult to work with, unless you follow the rules. On this particular transaction, I felt that the bank was totally up front about what they would accept and considering that the loan amount was $640K and the sale price that they agreed to was $379K, I am sure you would agree that this constitutes the bank working with the seller, the buyer and the real estate professionals.

Yes, this time it was the consumer who messed up the deal.

Oh well, enough of this feeling sorry for myself — back to the drawing board. Back on the Market!