we have put in an offer for a short sale

Buying a short sale is a test of patience, perseverance and good communications.

Make sure you talk to everyone involved in the transaction and keep everybody informed about the progress.  Get your loan officer involved so that you are ready to fund and close on time.  Get the Escrow and title companies ready.  Get your agent to talk to the seller's agent to make sure every t is crossed and every i is dotted.

Once the bank approves the sale, you may not have much time to close.  So it is imperative that everyone is in the same wavelength.

Banks take a long time to make a decision but once it is made they want action quickly.

Good luck.

Are you using a short sale specialist?  If not, you most likely should be.  There are a few million homeowners at some stage of foreclosure which translates into time delays.  This is a very time consuming process that requires countless phone calls to be made and letters written.  Even using a realtor, it took us nearly six months to complete our short sale and that was nearly a year ago.  Recommended reading:  www.myshortsalesuccess.com

Good luck on your sale,

My Short Sale Success

Until the banks get their act together, there are much better deals out there with out the hassle of waiting for no response.

With B/A and Chase nothing will speed them up.  They are 30-45 days out right now to assigning a Mitigator to the file PERIOD.  Have the person doing the short sale call 2-3 times a week, they document when you call.  This will help a little later down they road.  Make sure the bank has the complete file and not waiting on anything.

Chrismac80:

I am intimately familiar with the process of buyng a short sale that has a Chase loan. Actually the one we bought had a first and a second with Chase. Writing letters will not encourage a quicker response. We offered on Nov 8, 2008. Seller signed our offer on Nov 9, 2008 and we were notified by Chase on March 17 2009 that they it was approved  but we had 10 days to close or no deal.

Hopefully your offer has a written contingency that allows you to walk away from the offer without loss of deposit for any reason prior to receiving writtn approval from Chase. This was you can continue to look and may find something better rather than wait or risk your deposit on an unknown answer.

Now it is up to other people in the process. The seller has to prove financial hardship to Chase. This can take a lot of time and effort. The listing agent must follow up regularly understanding that it is their job to get it sold for the seller. Many will just sit back and let the lender take it's time. Chase will analyze the value of the property by using multiple appraisals and BPO's (Broker Price Opinions). They will analyze the seller's finances to see if they can squeeze any money from them and consider the current market trends looking for what it might be worth in 6-12 months. Allof this will be evaluated to determine wheter foreclosing on the home and re-listing later will likely save them more money.

What you can do is ensure all realtors involved are on top of it and keeping you advised of any progress or setbacks at least twice a week. Don't settle for 3 weeks of "no news" answers as often realtors are simply not following up because it might appear that they are being "pushy" and figure you won't know anyway.

Finally and this is really important... If and when you are given the green light you may have as few as seven (7) days to close or the deal is off. If financing is required on your part, be absolutely certain it is ready to go immediately after you get written approval. Many banks cannot do this. Bank of America, my bank for 30 years needed 30 days minimum to fund a loan. Wells Fargo told us 30-45 days. I ended up using a local mortgage broker with an in house underwriter and stayed on top of them the full ten days I was given to close. Your lender should treat you current contract as if it is closingin 7 days, even if you have not receive approval from Chase. Appraisal by your lender needs to happen not more than 3 days after Chase says yes and ALL documents should be prepared by the lender, title work done and ready to go fast.

Good luck and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask.