Short sales are often referred to as long sales. Many sellers, buyers, and real estate agents find that short sales may take much longer than initially expected.
1.) The seller does not submit the paperwork their mortgage lender requires to evaluate the short sale.
2.) The mortgage lender’s staff is inundated or disorganized.
3.) The mortgage lender closes the file and it must be started again from scratch.
4.) The listing agent and the seller price the property way too high, so no one makes an offer.
5.) The buyer backs out of the transaction.
6.) The property loses value from vandalism, theft, frozen pipes, or deferred maintenance, which causes the buyer to walk away or demand a lower price than the lender will not approve.
7.) The person or company negotiating the short sale for the seller is disorganized, inexperienced, inundated, or otherwise slow with the processing of the file.
8.) The mortgage lender issues a counter-offer that forces the buyer and seller to take time to negotiate.
9.) Another lienholder or creditor negotiates as well.
10.) The mortgage lender loses the file.
11.) The seller is unable or unwilling to pay certain closing costs, which forces the other parties to negotiate how to pay those costs.
12.) The appraiser or agent sent by the lender to the property is unable to access the property on the inside.
13.) The mortgage lender restructures or institutes new software that the staff takes time to learn.
14.) The mortgage lender changes the locks on the property, and the seller or buyer demands access before moving toward settlement.
15.) Emotional outbursts among some of the parties force others in the transaction to engage in time-consuming activities to defuse the rash decisions fueled by those emotions.
16.) A private mortgage insurer is involved and therefore must also approve the short sale.
17.) A government agency or other organization, like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), or the Veterans Administration (VA) is involved and therefore must also approve the short sale.
18.) A seller or tenant refuses to move out in a timely manner, so the buyer delays the purchase until the house is vacant.
19.) A title agent prepares an inaccurate HUD-1 Settlement Statement, which must be revised.
20.) The mortgage lender’s system has a sole decision-maker or an influencer, and that person is away from the office at a critical moment.
