Real Estate - Can we talk short-sales?

[colimo]

We bought our house 2 years ago as a short sale,

Biggest issue was time and the back and forth....contract was accepted dec 8, did not close until march 31, day before foreclosure sale which had already been postponed a couple of times, lenders take forever to work through these. and ours was quick by comparison to some others.

expect the unexpected, as in additional $$ for something or other, once we had the deal done with the seller and 1st mortgage lender, the title company discovered a second mortgage on the property, who even though they would have been foreclosed out, refused to release unless they got something...ended up doing a 3 way split (us and both realtors) of a nominal amount just to get the deal done.

Do not let the sellers agent or yours talk you or force you into using a "3rd party short sale negotiator" such as an outfit called "BGS3" they dont know what they are doing, are a rip off (you pay part of their fee in closing costs) and actually end up raising the price.

All that said, it can be a good deal.,,good luck

[Ratters]

Originally Posted by colimo

expect the unexpected, as in additional $$ for something or other, once we had the deal done with the seller and 1st mortgage lender, the title company discovered a second mortgage on the property, who even though they would have been foreclosed out, refused to release unless they got something...ended up doing a 3 way split (us and both realtors) of a nominal amount just to get the deal done.

Had the exact same thing with mine, though the bank (BofA) actually approved it in a month, but it was the third go around with people dropping out with the wait. Day before closing found out there was a second, even though I asked, and they wanted $3k to approve. Ended up splitting it with the realtor and seller. But other than that mine went really smooth and I love the hell out of the house. One nice thing about short sales is the houses are still lived in and cared for. I looked at a lot of forclosures but they were all beat to hell or ransacked. Good luck on finding something you like.

[althekillr]

Any recommendations on the best resource(s) to find short or foreclosed residential real estate in any specific location?

most are location specific. the national companies don't do a good job. if you are in a state where foreclosureradar.com covers, they are very good and reasonably priced. realtytrac is junk.