I am freaking out and need advice from experienced buyers. I am buying a house that happens to be a short sale. (For those not familiar with short sales - basically the sellers are in financial strife & want to avoid foreclosure so they make a deal with their bank to sell the property for short of what they owe - thus the name short sale. All offers are subject to bank approval after seller's approve it). The sellers accepted my offer back in February and submitted it to their bank, who approved it Apr 8, with an initial closing date of Apr 24. For some unknown reason, the sellers did not inform me of this approval till Apr 16, thus making an 8 day close impossible. We requested and were granted an extension from their bank with a new closing date of on or before May 15.
That is fine. I went ahead with my lender for loan processing and all my paperwork is clear. Appraisal has been done. We are at the point of getting the title from the seller's attorney and they are not coming up with it. These sellers have stalled in many ways other than holding off on the approval letter (my realtor & I have a theory they don't want this deal to go through because they're trying to save their house). They even made it difficult for me to get their earnest money to them. We are not getting a straight answer on why this title is taking so long to procure.
I have no idea how title agencies work and how long this process should take. Am I freaking out over nothing? I'm afraid there might be other liens on the house or some other reason they are stalling. If they hadn't tried to stall before I would be okay with this delay but something does not feel right with these people. What is a reasonable amount of time to wait? The title was requested in writing by my attorney one week ago. The seller's attorney said yesterday that it is not ready yet and we didn't hear anything today. May 15 is around the corner and I'm starting to freak out because if I can't close by then I doubt the bank will give another extension - they are the most disorganized loss mitigation dept. I've ever encountered. My attorney is on top of things but I wanted your advice is you have any experience. This stress is killing me! TIA ladies!
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How frusturating! My first thought was additional liens on the property; but I've heard that dealing with short sales can be like this, long a drawn out. I know that makes you feel no better. sounds like you attorney is on top of it. You just have to believe everyone involed wants the property to sell. Good luck!
Liens could be it, but if they were facing foreclosure, it could also be unpaid property taxes.
Your realtor should be able to run a "title search" to see if there's any issues showing up. There is a small fee for this. I don't know how different a short sale is from a standard transaction, but title insurance should be a standard requirement from your mortgage lender to protect against shenanigans.
No advice to add, I agree with seeing about doing a title search. And also about the fact that maybe they are stalling cause they want to buy time to save the house. I really just wanted to tell you good luck! And I believe that if it doesn't go thru, then it probably wasn't meant to be and you'll find something even better. Have you had an inspection done?
btw, my husband is in RE and he don't deal with short sales cause they are a big headache all around.
But try not to stress. I would start looking again just in case this one dosen't work out. Who know, you might fall in love with something else. Keep your head up, try not to stress. This is happening for a reason. Wether you get it or not....
thanks ladies. Just got a quick email from the loan officer saying she got the title. Hopefully everything will work out!
FP - I did have an inspection last week and it went much better than I expected. The house needs some updates, a good scrubbing and painting but is otherwise quite sound.
Tati - I have been looking and continued to look up until last week. I have some contenders for second choices but one of the biggest reasons I want this house is its location which is hard to beat.
Please keep your fingers crossed for me ladies!! Thanks again :)
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http://v247.tumblr.com One cannot perceive beauty, but with a serene mind -Thoreau