Facilitation Process

Short Sale Process

Obtain The Listing – When obtaining a short sale listing you must explain to everyone the process of the short sale. Since no one can predict with certainty what any bank will do in any situation, do not tell sellers that they will be able to walk completely away free and clear from all their debt. Is this a possibility? Very much so. However, it is always better to under promise and over deliver throughout the entire process. Otherwise, everyone gets frustrated.

Find a Buyer – Once you have a buyer in place with either a contract or offer to purchase, we must manage the expectations of both the buyer and the buyer’s agent. If the purchaser is buying a home to live in, this means they probably love the house and are already thinking of things that they can do to the house to make it their own. On the other hand, the buyer’s agent is motivated by getting the sale closed so that they get a paycheck. Because agents and their buyers are nervous, you will need to manage their expectations. We have made this easier by allowing all of you to track the short sale online.

Submit the Offer – Upon receipt of a complete short sale package, (you can download the file here), we will fax the complete Short Sale Package to the lender and confirm receipt in 3 – 7 days. Why 3 – 7 days? This is the amount of time it takes for the bank to upload the packages onto their system. Once they confirm receipt, we ask the lender with the first mortgage to order an appraisal or a Broker Price Opinion (BPO), and request that a negotiator be assigned. It is important that you meet the appraiser to tell him or her why your short sale is a good offer for the bank.

Once a negotiator is assigned they have 30 business days to review the offer. During this time we continue to check back regularly to get a status so that we can keep everyone informed. Once they deem the offer as Bona Fide, they submit the offer to the investor (the actual owner of the mortgage) for final approval. This can take up to 30 business days.

Get the Approval – Once the approval is received, the lender's approval will give the parties a maximum of 30 days to get the deal closed (it is occasionally shorter). Sometimes, if you are getting an FHA loan you will get additional time with no penalty towards commission. If you need an extension banks usually charge the agents 1% of your commission. For this reason, it is very important to close on time. We will give you an indication that an approval is forthcoming so that everything can close in the time allotted.

Closing the Deal – Neither the lender nor the title company can close overnight. The title company must get the HUD-1 to us for approval 72 hours before the closing. This allows us time to submit the file to the lender so that there are no surprises at the closing table.