Help! Buying a Short Sale and it feels like my agent is not on my side!

[James Yang]

I've been in the process of purchasing a shortsale home for the last 6 months. Since we did not have a purchasing agent going in, we took the advice from the short sale listing agent that we could use their firm as well to make things go "more smoothly".

To make a long story short, it's been 6 months and the purchase price has been bumped twice from 415K to 420K and now 430K and they are trying to bump us up again. I have asked to see any counteroffers or any communication from the bank and our agent insists that none are available from Chase Bank (formerly WAMU). Below is a direct quote from our agent's latest email when I asked to see bank communication:

"The lender will not provide us with anything in writing. They have recommended that we resubmit an offer on the property. Can we offer them a little more than $430,000? If we resubmit than they will have to review the offer and approve or counter like they did on our original offer. I have not placed the property back on the market. Let me know what you would like to do. "

HELP!! Is it true no documentations are offered by the bank when they turn down a Short Sale Offer? Any suggestions??

[Jonathan Rexford]

Well we know who the listing agent represents. The communication from the bank could be in form of a Marked Up HUD 1 to do the counter offer or it could be a very inexperience agent that doesn't know how to ask the right questions.

I would ask the agent these questions:

1. Has a BPO been ordered? If so how old is it and what was the value.

2. Did you submit a preliminary HUD for the property? If so what are the terms and did you get a copy back to show the numbers you have provided?

3. What type of negotiations have you done with this lender besides faxing the contract paperwork and short sale information?

These are going to be the basics of the information that you can ask.