Short sale denied

[judono]

I recently put in an offer for a condo that was accepted by the seller but unfortunately was denied by the lender. My agent is going to fax me a denial letter from the seller stating the lender denied my offer. Isn't the letter supposed to be from the lender? I am curious if the sellers agent even sent in my offer to the bank. Is there any way for me to check if they did? I have also asked for the brokers price opinion when they started the short sale but was denied. I also asked for authorization from the seller to speak to the bank but again was denied. Are they trying to get me to send in a counter offer? Any thoughts and help would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

[jessiesc]

I'm at a loss here, perhaps you are in an area that does it differently...

Here: The buyers agent submits the contract to the selling agent who presents it to the seller for acceptance or rebuttal etc.

You the buyer contact a lender for approval with your agent sending the signed accepted contract to the lender.

Any denials would come from a lender, not an agent.

Have you contacted your lender about this?

Am I missing something obvious?

[judono]

Since this is a short sale both the seller and their lender must approve the offer. The seller accepted, however their lender supposedly did not.

[AaronSOLD]

The lender may or may not give an official rejection letter. If you look at the seller as the bank, would you ever expect to communicate directly with them?

I'm not surprised that you are not being given additional information as a BPO is private and was paid for by the bank and lends to their motivation, which is meant to be private. BPO's in my perspective are largely worthless anyways.

Also, if you circumvent the agent and the seller and go straight to the bank, it is possible you will try to circumvent the agent's commission as well. I as an agent wouldn't want to allow you that option.

[Bob Crain]

I recently put in an offer for a condo that was accepted by the seller but unfortunately was denied by the lender. My agent is going to fax me a denial letter from the seller stating the lender denied my offer. Isn't the letter supposed to be from the lender? I am curious if the sellers agent even sent in my offer to the bank. Is there any way for me to check if they did? I have also asked for the brokers price opinion when they started the short sale but was denied. I also asked for authorization from the seller to speak to the bank but again was denied. Are they trying to get me to send in a counter offer? Any thoughts and help would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

Welcome to the world of Short Sales!

The reason the bank won't talk to you is because of the financial disclosure laws in the U.S. YOU are not a party to the loan that the Seller is Short Selling. The only way that the Bank will talk to anyone other then the seller is with written authorization from the Seller. That includes the sellers Agent.

Aaron is correct that the bank will NOT Ever release the BPO results. These are NOT appraisals. Even if there was an appraisal by the bank they would probably not release it because they paid for it not you.

Based on your origional question I am assuming that YOU have no representation in this transaction? If that is the case, I would suggest that you Hire an Agent to represent YOUR interests. If you are interested in making offers on Short Sales and Pre-foreclosure properties I would also suggest finding an agent who has some knowledge of these types of properties. This usually means an agent who has been in the business for more then 5 years (because there have not been many foreclosures or short sales in the last few years).

BTW the only way you can purchase this home is to submit another offer.

The bank will NOT typically accept your offer if it is NOT submitted with a Loan Pre-Approval letter. In addition, most banks will NOT accept an offer with an asignment clause. So if you are an investor and you are submitting your offer as Jimmy Buffet or Assigns... Don't waste your time.

[Memphis]

Buyers can track down the bank and who ever handles the default services, ask for the loss-mit department. They are correct, however - in that the only real answer you will get is "did they receive my offer". Other than that, nothing.

We had an agent here get taken to the board because she called the bank on her buyers behalf to find out if the offer had been presented. Of course it had not because the listing agent wanted to wait for a double sided deal. The buyers agent was reprimanded, though because she bypassed the listing agent (even with good reasons). They did determine, though - that there was nothing preventing the buyer from making those phone calls themselves.

[Mike Colpitts]

Judono: You're in an area here that posters have already mentioned is one that is covered by a whole list of federal laws ie. lending, privacy etc. When it comes to short sales many people are turned down on several offers to buy a property at first, and some times it takes several just to get the lender to respond in earnest. Believe me I know. I've handled a ton of them in the past unfortunately. Make sure you're represented by a veteran agent who has lots of experience in this area.

[Jnazareno]

Since this is a short sale both the seller and their lender must approve the offer. The seller accepted, however their lender supposedly did not.

ask the listing agent to get a proof that lender rejected it ..

[AaronSOLD]

In a world where many banks take 1-2 weeks to send back an approval in writing, how do you expect to get a rejection in writing?

[Ryan Ward]

I don't think that they have to send anything about a rejection. An acceptance of another offer is the same thing as your offer being rejected. Could you imagine if all sellers had to explain to all rejected buyers how and why they rejected the offer?