Short Sales Buyers Can Simultaneously Bid on Multiple Properties -- Not!

Since short sales comprise approximately seventy-five percent of the $100,000 to $200,000 condos I sell, I've had an opportunity to counsel many a buyer, both first-time and seasoned, in the intricacies of writing and submitting an offer to purchase. http://goo.gl/T7O2i, http://goo.gl/NQAw0

Until recently, lenders routinely took three to six months to respond to a short sales offer. Even then, the bank could accept, counter-offer, or reject a buyer's offer. This excruciatingly-slow pace caused buyers to question the legitimacy of remaining in limbo when they could be placing written offers on multiple properties. 

Lake Zurich Real Estate attorney Randy Heidenfelder specializes in short sales. "In any contract, each party is presumed to be acting in good faith. You're expected not to be cheating, fraudelent, or double dealing. If your first offer is accepted and you back out of the second one, you could be in breach of contract, with whatever default provisions apply because you were not acting in good faith." heidenlaw@me.com

Recently, some banks including Wells Fargo http://goo.gl/Z4x9m and Chase http://goo.gl/PrBCq have increased their response time to an estimated thirty-five days, provided the seller has submitted updated financial information to the loss mitigation department, and pre-foreclosure sale counseling is completed.