Fort Collins Real Estate- Short Sales

After months of patience on the part of my buyer and absolutely no word from the bank we were told
that we’d been assigned a negotiator. Yipeee! I got the feeling that our offer was worth looking at and
hadn’t been tossed in the bin. And then we waited.

A week or two went by when the negotiator asked for a refreshed lender letter. I read that as a good
sign. My buyer supplied the letter within a couple of days as required by the negotiator. And then we
waited.

More time goes by…I have a very patient buyer…when suddenly we were presented with a counter-
proposal. OK…I could deal with that. So I opened the email attachment and was shocked to see that the
counter was tens of thousands more than the list price!!! We’re talking about a home that’s priced in
the $200’s, not a super high end home.

Yeah, my buyer had offered low…he’s an investor who had to factor in the cost of repairs, holding
expenses and the cost of marketing along with a little bit of profit.

Obviously this wasn’t a pre-approved short-sale. If it had been, the negotiator would have had a say in
the pricing and a negotiator would have been in communication with the listing agent from day one.
In addition the property had two loans against it. Apparently, the two lenders were at odds with each
other with the second wanting more. That’s why the counter came back so high.

So, if you decide to go after a short sale you might want to ask the listing agent if the short-sale has
been pre-approved and if s/he has been assigned a negotiator and if there is more than one loan on the
property. The best and easiest short sales are the ones that have only one loan, have been pre-approved
and have a negotiator assigned at the time the property is placed on the market.

Good luck and be patient if you intend to buy a short-sale.