Horton Hatches a Short Sale Egg: I meant what I said 100%

Ever read Horton Hatches an Egg?  He sits on an egg for 51 weeks because the bird was tired of waiting.

I just read this story to my 2 year old and could not help but correlate the story to the short sale process.  Not to say that with the right combination of lenders, loan types, # of liens, investors backing the loans, etc…. that you cannot get a short sale approval very quickly…..BUT, we all know that most come with an expected time-line.  That time-line is at the mercy of the lender – and sometimes, no matter how good you are at negotiating and putting together a great package, you cannot change the lender’s time-line.

The story rang a bell because one of the biggest complaints we get from buyers and their agents is that the process takes too long….. We have had many of our colleagues who negotiate short sales say that one of the number one reasons buyers bail is the lengthy timeline.  I even had a fellow agents make comments on my posts that they don’t show short sale listings because “no buyer wants to wait forever.”

See – buyers in this market are like the bird in the story.  They believe that it is boring and tedious to sit and wait for lender approval.  So……..where do we find a Horton to hatch the egg?

Often times the best solution for deal specific situations is to build a list of property investors.  If the property meets their investment criteria – they may want to place an offer on the property.  If the seller accepts – you can send it to the lender and get the proverbial short sale ball rolling. The investor is usually more willing to wait however long it takes to see to snatch a great investment deal.  They know that waiting can be lucrative.  They will also be not as likely to pester you during the process.  A lot like Horton – they will just sit and sit and sit no matter what because they ‘offered what they meant, meant what the offered, because they mean it 100%.’

If the lender does not approve the offer, then the investor doesn’t get the property.  BUT the deal is not dead —The BONUS is that you will likely have the approved net that the lender or investor behind the loan wants as a result of the egg sitting process.

Your next step is to effectively market the property for a buyer that meets the minimum net criteria.  If you are in verbal negotiations with the loss mitigator – talk with them about leaving the file as “open.”  If the negotiator has to close the file – you will still be able to get the next offer in a little faster since the BPO will still likely be valid and whomever you talk to should see the previous negotiation notes.  [Be sure you mark the file repeatedly as meeting the terms of the approval]

Find some Hortons in your area—- and build a buyer’s list.