The Only Thing Short About a Short Sale is a Buyers Attention Span
Not everyone that has to sell a home short was an over extended investor with a liar loan. Real life happens in spite of housing values or the economy and some folk have to or need to sell.
My heart just breaks for some of the home owners that are trying to sell their home short. It’s bad enough that they’re in a financial pickle but they then have to get on a roller coaster ride of emotions dealing with their lender, a volatile real estate market and the potential buyers who make offers to purchase their home.
Most buyers that call to begin a real estate search immediately say they want a great deal and they’ll even look at foreclosures and short sales. It’s a great idea if they’re really able to wrap their mind around the concept and fully commit to being patient. Unfortunately, the idea of patience for a good portion of the buyers that get involved with short sales is more like the patience it takes to sit in the dentist’s waiting room instead of the patience it takes to carry a child through pregnancy.
Ask any agent that is involved in a short sale and they’ll tell you about the revolving buyers that make it a few months into the process only to wake up on a random Wednesday morning and ask to get out of the deal. No matter how patient that buyer declared he could be the glow of waiting wore off.
Intrigued by a buyer that bailed on a short sale a while back I decided to do some social network snooping just to see what was said or not said online about the offer to purchase. The buyer was a dramatic person to begin with so it wasn’t totally shocking to all involved when he called a few weeks into the wait with some cockamamie story to get out of the transaction.
I scrolled back months through chit chat online to the date the offer was written. To my surprise this buyer between the date that he shared with the world, “Yeah! We have a house!” and then whined “Why does it take so long to buy a house!!??” was eight excruciating, agonizingly long days. Oh the humanity!
Everyone wants the goose that lays golden eggs and they want it right now. I am just a little surprised that someone expected their goose to lay eggs on microwave speed and could only make it eight days before they felt they had waited long enough. I wonder if he got the hives from the emotional distress of the ordeal, too.
Other than negotiating with the lender, this is probably one of the biggest unseen obstacles a seller of a short sale will probably have to deal with; American buyers living with the 2.0 mentality that expect immediate results with the least amount of discomfort or work and a glittery bow on top.
Who wouldn’t want the condensed version of the short sale? One that has eight months of struggle boiled down to eight episodes broadcast over eight weeks just like the Real World series on MTV. Yeah, we all know that’s exactly how real life is so why wouldn’t short sales be that way, too?
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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area. Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor. If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.
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Tags: Bonita Springs, buyer, florida, foreclosure, patience, real estate, short sale
