Miami Condo Short Sale Contract Tip #8

Short sales of Miami condos and homes are often a great way for a buyer to get an excellent deal on a property and a seller to get out from under an upside down mortgage with hopefully less damage to credit and his or her pocketbook.  This is the eighth of several blog entries, in no particular order, each with a tip for the buyer or seller or both, to help make sure the deal goes smoothly while giving protection to one or both parties.

Miami Condo Short Sale Tip #8:

Short Sale Lender Approval–You are not special.  Sellers MUST work their approval or it may never happen. The short sale department of any given lender has  been hired to process and approve short sales.  They will tell you what they will approve and what they feel the value is of the short sale property.  That being said, a short sale seller and his or her agent must submit all the proper paperwork and MUST follow the short sale lender’s directions!  The short sale lender will have an abundance of applications, and will not treat your application as a priority or otherwise special.  One negotiator stated that he had 300 files other than one one in question, thus, none of those files will get special attention.  Nor will the processor go out of their way to make sure they receive the required documents.  In fact, the seller’s only notice of a missing document or document in need of an update, may be a letter mailed via USPS.  To get a short sale approved in a timely manner, it is important that the seller or agent calls on a regular basis to make sure the person currently in charge of the file has everything they need.  A good suggestion is to call at least twice a week and always helpfully ask “do you have all the documents needed?”  and “are there any documents which need to be updated?”  Often the answer to the first will be “yes” but to the second, “well actually we did send out a request to update the ‘whichever’ form.”  At that point you can say “what is your fax–I will send it now!”

The “it is in the lender’s hands now” approach will often result in a painfully long short sale process, and often a sale that fails to close, as the buyer decides to cancel and buy a REO property.   If your Realtor is acting as your short sale agent, make sure you get a guarantee that they will call on the file twice a week and keep you updated.  As a seller be sure to promptly provide any needed documentation.  If your agent cannot commit that time, find a new agent to process your approval.

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