Caught by Surprise

This article from the National Association of Realtors® appeared several days ago in my email inbox and I was a bit surprised this hadn’t been “shopped around” or maybe it has and I just missed it.

It does make sense for Bank of America (and other lenders for that matter) to offer this incentive but this seems to be a scattered approach to solve a problem.  I’ve yet to see a business plan or some plan of attack to correct this situation.

If a homeowner is having trouble making payments and approaches the lender about a short sale, it would seem logical if the lender approves a short sale that the first step would be for the lender to order several appraisals and take the average as the acceptable price.  Then put that price in the online listing so buyers know what’s acceptable.  What happens now is the seller sets the listing price without lender approval (not required) only to find three months or later after the seller accepts an offer that the lender doesn’t like the price and the potential sale fails.  What a waste of time because time is a primary factor for the sale price.  The longer a house is listed, the lower the price because additional time causes the seller to lose leverage.  And by this time the buyer is fed up with the games and being “strung along” with no end in sight.