Short Sale Story From the Buyer’s Side
I’ve written about my Chicago short sale experience on one of my listings. It was a valuable experience having been on the listing end as I learned all about how short sales work. However, trying to share that experience with buyers isn’t as easy as it sounds.
I was working with one couple that finally settled on a beautiful home in Orland Park for sale that was a short sale listing. I wasn’t completely sure if it was a short sale as it wasn’t explained that way on the MLS print-out. However, it did mention that lender approval was necessary so I figured it was a short sale and the listing agent confirmed it with one phone call.
I was told there were 2 other offers in already so our’s would be the third. We were around $40,000 under asking price at that point in time. Then the wait began. As much as I told my buyers we would have to wait I could tell they were getting impatient. Of course, whenever they requested I would contact the listing agent, knowing that if he had any news he would contact me.
He promised he would contact me on a weekly basis but that never happened. I don’t even know why he mentioned it as I didn’t expect him to do so, but he should not have committed himself. Anyway, during the waiting game we noticed the price on the property had been reduced. Still no word.
Going into the 3rd month or so my buyers once again asked me to contact the listing agent, which I had planned to do anyway. As soon as I called him he said he was going to call me. Sure… He finally got an answer.
And the answer was - the mortgage holder would only accept asking price, which was $5,000 off the original list price when we started looking at it (it had been reduced by a lot before we viewed it the first time). My buyers weren’t going to pay list price.
In my opinion the home was worth it. But today’s buyers simply don’t want to pay full price, even though in this situation the price had been reduced by more than $50,000.
I checked the listing on the MLS to see if it ever sold and was surprised that even though it still showed as an active listing there were private agent remarks stating that an offer had been approved. I’m not sure that is acceptable but since my buyers were not interested I didn’t pursue it.
Unfortunately, after working a long time with these buyers they seem to have either given up or maybe started working with someone else. I tried to get them to start looking again but they gave me an excuse that they were tired of going through all of the listings. They are still on my Automated E-Mail Home Search but have not set up any further appointments, at least not with me.
This makes me wonder if the short sale situation left them bitter and maybe they learned of a friend or relative in the real estate business that they started working with, or maybe they walked into an open house and worked with that agent. So short sales can definitely cause negative feelings and I’m hoping this is not the issue with these buyers. But emotions can take hold and someone has to take the blame. I’m afraid in this case it might have been me.
