Adventures in home buying... short sales suck!

This long vent started out as a post on ethics for realtors/loan officers for a home buying forum. I realized how long it was getting and opted to save it for blogging.


We put in an offer last Friday (2/19) on a house (“approved” short sale) that had popped back onto the market after following out of escrow on the second-to-last day before closing (there were issues with the appraisal & the loan amount for the buyer, so the buyer backed out). Previous to viewing the house our agent & the listing agent spoke since this house met almost all of our criteria and the listing agent said everything sounded perfect with our loan & that if we offered list price that evening, we’d have an answer that night. I drove down (30 miles) to view the home before anyone else could get to it, took pictures for my other half, and then we submitted our offer before close of business per what the listing agent said would fly (list price + $5,000 to closing).

No answer Friday-Sunday. We were told we’d have an answer first thing Monday morning as our offer was a 72 hour and would expire at 5pm. At 3:30pm, their listing agent contacted us and said the negotiation team was asking for us to do a full paper cross-qualification/approval before they could accept our offer since they are not used to dealing with USDA loans (they did a verbal with our loan officer Friday before putting in our offer). We were told if we did this, the house was ours. I balk, my FI & our agent talked me down, and I fill out all ten pages of their application & get all of the documentation to them within 45 minutes. No response.

Our agent follows up first thing Tuesday morning. The listing agent & negotiation team tell her they’ll call back that afternoon. The loan officer with the cross-qualification contacts my FI, tells him everything is perfect and we should be under contract by 3pm. At 5pm, the loan officer’s boss calls us and tells us that they have to resubmit everything to both banks because the approval doesn’t stand. WHAT? Fine. He’ll have an answer for us tomorrow (Wednesday) morning… but in the mean time, how attached are we to our loan officer? We love our loan officer. We have no interest in switching. Please stop asking.

Wednesday morning – here comes the kicker. We get a call from the negotiation team that there’s another offer coming in on the property (in addition to a potential cash offer) & we need to figure out what we’re doing (we’re waiting for guys!). The loan officer’s manager calls again, this time telling us that the house is foreclosing on March 6th (not mid-April which the listing agent told our agent), so they have decided the only way they will accept our offer is if we switch loan officers, so they can file for an extension and personally handle it. I’m moderately certain this is where I begin to do the f--- chant. Our realtor calls back, tells us while this is a sweetheart deal on the property, she is on the fence about it as she knows we do not want to screw over our loan officer (who got us our USDA loan, plus two grants towards closing costs/down payments). R & I go back and forth – I am adamant that I am not going to financially reward these people for their behavior, that I am not attached to this house (no matter how much I want to under contract & on my way to moving). He’s not so much… but eventually sides with me. We call back our realtor and tell her we’re not comfortable with the deal, we want out.

So we walked. That was Wednesday. These two mythical offers that were coming in behind us have yet to pull it off of MLS. I’ll be interested to see if it forecloses on March 6th.

And so now we have offers in on two more houses – one is our dream house, where we will more than likely get married in the backyard (.36 acres) & stay until we retire. The other is our backup house of sorts… it has mold issues in the kitchen that would have to be taken care of and due to the short sale, I am figuring it won’t happen.

We’ll know on Monday, hopefully, if the bank accepts on our REO of our dreams. :)