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September 27, 2008 12:08 PM

I am more than happy to share the benefit of my experience with anyone out there who needs it whether they be potential sellers or real estate agents. It is my mission to educate the profession and the public about the option of short sales and to eliminate any fears or objections surrounding it. Realtors seem to find them distasteful as a rule because of the longer amount of time it takes to get to closing. On the other hand, for buyers, they can be a fantastic opportunity to buy a home at a discounted price because of the as-is nature of the sale. At a time when so many of these homes are fairly new, many less than 2 years old, they are not distressed in any way other than needing a good cleaning! Oftentimes, they don’t even need that due to the fact that the sellers are good people and are just trying to do the right thing and have every intention of delivering their property in good shape to the buyers to whom they are eternally grateful for buying their home.

Keller Williams Greater Omaha — Omaha, NE

KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY — Plano, TX

GREAT QUESTION! HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET THE APPROVAL FROM THE LENDER?

The short answer is that there are no guarantees. It all depends on who the lender is. Some take as little as 30 days, some take up to 90 days. Certainly, it can take more than the usual 30 days since the seller’s lender must approve the discounted payoff before a closing can occur. The best we can do is give you an educated guess based on the circumstances of that particular offer. The lender can be the reason for delays up to 90 days. The LARGEST SERVICERS whose initials are CW and WG, will probably take the longest. Their process is extremely inefficient so patience will definitely need to be a virtue the buyers possess.

Another mitigating factor which may delay the process is the amount of the offer. If it is too low, the lender may not even consider the short sale offer at all since many of them now have in house appraisals. That concept is interesting to me since all markets are subjective based on location and the people who are doing these in house appraisals are not appraisers or realtors. I believe it is a concept they will abandon in short order once they see how much time they end up spending fighting with REAL appraisers and realtors over differing opinions as to value.

Most importantly, just remember, as a buyer, seller or agent, everyone has to be IN IT TO WIN IT in order to get the GREAT DEAL!!