Seattle Bubble Forum Archive

Anyone have statistics on short sales?

In particular, I'm wondering what the distribution is on the outcome of attempted short sale purchases.

How many short sale listings end up going to foreclosure?

What percentage of signed agreements between buyer and seller contingent on lender approval short sale listings actually close?

When the agreements do close, what is the distribution of time delay from initial buyer/seller agreement to closing?

I'm trying to purchase a short sale now. The bank seems completely uninterested in completing the sale. Almost 2.5 months now since the signed purchase agreement with the seller.

I've seen a lot of short sale listings come on and off the market, and talking to agents, the reason is often that the buyer gets fed up with waiting, and finds a better deal while waiting for approval in a declining market. I've heard from multiple sources that banks often don't even complete these sales no matter how long the buyer waits.

It's the flip side of the loan debacle. First the banks give out tons of bad loans, and don't seem to care. Then they mismanage getting the properties off their books, and don't seem to care. How is it that no one at the banks ever seem accountable?

Who knows. I have seen short sales go 3-4 months before closing. My neighbor was in it for 4 months.

It is always hard to guess what the banks real motivation is as they deal with it also from the perspective well we have 60 REOs if a portfolio buyer comes in and buys 20 of the best deals from us and we still hold the note is it better? Or let this one go to the retail buyer and not have the note but have it off our quarterly statement as non performing and a loss?
Never a straight answer, and banks always "seem" uninterested. They are trying to contain there loss on the house to a minimum.

Hi buybuydandavis,

There is no one repository for the statistics you seek. At best you can hope for is some subjective data from your real estate agent.

I can offer some insight.

I'm assuming that you're working with real estate agents.

First of all, you should be receiving regular updates from the LISTING agent, through your agent at the very least once a week.

Your agent should be able to find out: How many short sales has the seller's agent successfully completed and then if the agent is experienced you can then query as to how long it usually takes that agent.

If the seller's agent has never done a short sale and has no idea what he/she is doing, you may be in for a long ride.

The bank must have proof that the seller is in financial distress and further, that the seller does not have the money to make up the shortfall. Short sales are reserved for people with.....no assets. This MUST be proven. Further, the bank then must receive approval from the investor(s) before saying yes to the short sale.

I recommend asking your agent to ask the sellers agent if the bank has "approved" the seller yet. You see, a competent agent can work very hard at helping the seller get all the documentation ready to go, so that the bank's loss mitigation department has already approved this seller's "short sale package."

Once again, if the agent for the seller has no idea what you're talking about, your transaction is going to take a long time.

If your offer was incredibly low, then the bank may be waiting to see if other, better offers are going to come in.

Further complicating matters is the new Distressed Property Law that went into effect in Washington State in June. If you're located in Washington state, you should have received an update about this change in the law. If you're not located in WA state, you should still query your agent as to if there are any new laws that you should be made aware of that might be slowing down your transaction.

Is the seller close to foreclosure? Said another way, is there a trustee sale date set?