Lately, my phone has been ringing off the hook. As a Santa Maria short sale agent, I am used to receiving urgent calls from homeowners in distress. Some are weeks away from foreclosure auction, others are at the precipice of missing their first mortgage payment. These are tough times for many California homeowners.
And what have you told me as the seller when you make a low offer so quickly? You’ve told me that you really do want this house and you recognize that someone else would want it too so you are trying to move quickly. So, then even if I’m not insulted by your low offer, I think I can probably get you to pay a lot more than what you’ve offered -- basically I may think your actions speak louder than that low price.
Many homeowners who are severely underwater ask this question. Generally, the reason a bank accepts a short sale is due to the hardship of the seller. It is not because the short sale offer is close to or far from the loan balance. Once hardship is established, the issue becomes the market value of the asset. If market value is half -- market value is half -- there is no way around that.