Making multiple short sale offers

[Bienes Raices]

If you're only looking to buy one house, is there an issue with making several offers on different short sales and then when one is accepted by the bank backing out on the others (after the seller(s) accept, but before the bank(s) approve). Will this alienate real estate agents or is it commonly done? There seem to be so many short sales than REOs these days I was thinking of employing this strategy.

[Will Barnard]

I would have to disagree with a lot of the posts given, and agree with a few others.
Every market is different, and with that being the case, my comments stem from my experience in CA, NV, and TX.

As an investor making short sale offers from the MLS, I am able to make many. When I do, my offer does not have an expiration date, includes my articles of incorporation, my POF, my corporate resolution, and a COPY of my EMD check. On deals that are not yet approved by the lender, I could be in for a long wait, as such, I would never offer up EMD and have it sit there for 90 days or more, not even 30! As to having multiple offers out at once, it would be rare to get too many approved all at the same time, but if that did happen, I could simply offer it to another investor buyer OR, it could be offered to any number of offers that came in after the seller agreed to my offer. As someone already stated, once a price is apporved by the one who actually makes the decision (the bank), the deal is a lot closer to being able to close and is now readly available to any number of back-up offers. This is one of many ways to "protect" the seller - homeowner in short sale.

Now, I can also see the seller's side of wanting something a bit more concrete from a buyer and not wanting to waste their time or that of their client's. With that, I say my track record, level of experience, and number of deals I have done (all of which can be proven to the list agent) will "prove" my commitment. I have yet to have any list agent require an actual EMD into escrow. In fact, until the deal is approved by the lender, escrow is not even opened. Look at it from the escrow company's point of view - why would they want to spend time and money having an escrow account open knowing their is a strong chance that the deal may not ever close, through no fault of the buyer!!! Having so many escrows open and so many EMD's out would not make any sense to any buyer or any escrow company.

The list agent must also understand, that in most cases, it is they who are responsible for the short pay negotiation (regardless if they do it themselves or hire a third party) and so the success or failure of that short sale mostly rides on ethir shoulders, not the buyers.

In summary, as an investor buyer, I see nothing wrong with making offers on as many short sale deals as you want. I do however suggest that you have all your ducks in a row so that IF it is approved in a timely manner, you do perform (unless market conditions or property conditions have changed giving you a legitimate reason to re-negotiate or back out). Not finding another buyer is NOT a legitimate reason for backing out!