Overland Park Short Sale is Taking Over 9 Months. Why? Overland Park, Kansas Real Estate

Question: My husband and I put a offer on a "Short Sale" home in Overland Park, Kansas 9 months ago and we have heard very little from the seller's lender. With all of the changes in short sales and supposedly banks are to respond within 60 days, how is that possible? Why is taking that long? Sometimes I think our Realtor is not really helping us. What should we do? Walk away and try to find another house in Overland Park or Olathe or stick it out? How much longer do you think it will take?
Janet S. from Overland Park, Kansas


Answer: Sorry to hear about your frustration about buying a short sale in Overland Park, Kansas. First, the REALTORS are communicating probably with the mortgage servicer, not the mortgage lender. Why does this matter? It takes 30-90 days for the mortgage servicer to complete a short sale package and send it to the mortgage lender. If the seller takes longer to provide docs, the BPO (Broker Price Opinion by a Broker) and the appraisal take longer the package takes longer to prepare for the mortgage lender.


Next, once the mortgage lender receives the short sale package, the negotiator does their research. The negotiator will start communicating with the insurance companies, lien holders and additional mortgage companies involved. The more entities involved the longer the process will take. I had a short sale that had 3 mortgage companies, 2 insurance companies and 4 lien holders involved. This file took nearly 2 years to close because of the many entities involved and the constant need to update documents from the seller. The buyer stayed in contract because we provided communication and the buyer was getting an awesome deal.


The negotiator will also look at the homes value, amount being written off and the sellers hardship. If any of these don't make sense, the short sale will probably not be granted. That means if the seller has $50,000 in the bank and the home appraised $100,000 above the contract price, the negotiator will probably not grant the short sale.


Not all short sales are the same. There are simple pre-approved portfolio short sales that take less than 1 month to close to complicated short sales as mentioned above. It is best to find out how many entities are involved, how much is being written off and what is the sellers hardship for requesting the short sale.


Since less than 25% of the short sales close that take longer than 6 months, I would say that if you don't get the answers needed, I would move on.


Hope this helps, Janet. 




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